Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1906-09-20
TWAIN'S PLEA
T or Sjmp|ifed Spelling for
Good Of Humanity.
He Tells OF His Awful Struggles
with the Magazines
And Gives a Few Reasons for Backing
the Carnegie Method.

| tiilSliI lil'- IIitlllbtfS VINO lntllit
| publishers editors and other repre-
| sentative. ! Of paI ers taking The Assoc
| ciatri Press service met with several
| guests AT dinner at the Waldorf-As-
| toria
Melville r. Stone general manager Of
| TIL, Associated Press. presided and
| with him at the guests table was Sam
uel J.. Clemens. who discussed Re
| fora Sprlling": Gen. Horace Porter.
| former ambassador to France, who re-
| spondcd t. the toast "Our Guests.
| Henry A. Shute, the author, who
| talked of "Critics" and Prof. George
! f.. Vincent Of Chicago University, who
| spoke on the subject purely Academ-
| ic"
| General Porter paid high and
| graceful tribute to the work Of The AS
| Socated Press and of newspaper Mon
| in general. He spoke of the imprGve-
| merits in the handling of news and the
| expedition in transmission from foreign
countries brought about by the enter
prise and energy Of the officers Of The
Associated Press in recent years. In
concluding he said:
eve all criticiSe the paper. we all
abuse il. and we all take it. We can't
eat our breakfast without it. We have
no anDetite for our dinner until we
have seen it's contents. If you want to
know the value of the freedom of the
press we have just two examples that
teach it all. This country, the most
prosperous in all the annals of history
with a free press; that great empire IN
the East where the red hand of an
archy is seen throughout its borders
has a press muzZled by a censor"
Mr.. Stone next introduced Mark
Twin, who was greeted with enthu-
siaatic and prolonged applause MI.
Clemens said in part:
81 am here to make an appeal to the
nations in behalf of the smpllfled
smelling. | have come here because they
cannot all be reached except through
YOU. There are only two forces that can
carry light to all the corners of the
cIobe-onIv two-the sun in the heav-
ems and The Associated Press down
here-I may seem to be tiattering the
sun, but / do not mean it so, | am
meaning only to be just and fair all
around. You speak with a million
voices; no one IAN reach so many races
50 many hearts and intcllects as you.
except tuuSdfd \lpililS, anu ~ N-
not do it without your help. If The AS
sociatcd Press will adopt and use our
simplfied spelling forms and thus
spread them to the ends OF the eartn
covering the whole spacious planet
with them as with a garden OF mowers
our difficulties are at an END. Ever! ia!
of the 365 the only pages OF the Worlo
countless newspapers that are READ py
all the human beings and angels ana
devils that can read. are those pages
that are built out of Associated Press
dispatches.
And so | beg you. l beseech you
oh. | implore you-to spell them In Our
simplited forms. Do this daily. con-
stantly. persiStently for three months
only three monthS-it is all ask. Inc
infallablc reSut-victory- al
down the line. For by that time al
leyS here and above and below Will
have become adjusted to the change
and in love with it. and the present
clumsy and ragged forms Will ne
cro:esuuc to the eye and revolving 10
the soul And we shall be relieved OF
phtsyis and phthsyic and pneumonia
and pneumatic and diphtheria ana
pteradactyl and all those insane words
which no man addicted to the simple
Christian life can try to spell and not
lose some of the boom of his piety in
the demoraliZing attempt.
.Do not doubt it, We arc Chameleons.
ana our partialitles and preiudices change
place with an easy and blessed facility,
and We are soon wonted to be changed
and happy in it.
DO seem to be seeking the good or
the world? That is. l mean the idea 1t
is my public attitude; privately | am
merely seeking my own profit. we all
do it. but it is sound and it is -'irtuons.
for no public interest is anyth. other
or r.obler than Il massed accumulation
of private interests
Mr. Clemens then explained that in lSs3.
when smplifcd spelling was first serious
" preached he scoffed at it. What he
needed. he said. was ar object lesson, ana
he got it. At that time he was scran'
bling along. earning the familys bread
on magazine work at seven cents word'
compound words ut single rates And he
was the property of magazine, a
seven-ccnt slave under boiler-lron con-
tract"
One day there came note from the
editor requiring him to write 10 pages on
the text:
Considerations concerning the alleged
subterranean holopyotal extemporaneous-
ness of the conchyliaceous superimbrica-
ton of the ornithorhyneus. as foreshad-
owed by the unintelligibility of its pleslo-
saurian ansodactylous aspects.
He saw starvation staring the FAMILY
in the face and went to the editor Tor an
interview about the rates. Mr.. Clemens
contendcd. he said. for pay on sirnpiiied
spelling basis. but his proposition was
calmly refused, whereupon, to use MS
own words:
~ seldom say harsh word to anyone,
but I was not master of myself then ana
| spoke right out and called MN an any
sodactylous plesicsaUrial conchyilaceous
ornithorhynicus. and rotten to the hear'
with holnpyatal subterranean extempora-
neolisness. God forgive me for tnat "ah-
ton crime. He lived only two hours.
eFrom that day to this 1 have peen
devoted and hard-working mempHr 81 the
Heaven born institution, the Internation-
al Association for the Prevention OF Cru-
eIty to Authors. and now / am laborlng