The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1906-11-01


Those sixty letters can be written in
one minute. Even suppose that five
minutes could be gained in the time
of writing one thousand words, that,
surely, would not pay us for the time
lost in learning the new spelling, to
say nothing of the trouble and confus-
ion which have been occasioned.
In reply to the contentious so far
advanced, the advocates of phonetic
spelling may say that they never in
tended to 60 near so far in the matter,
as is outlined in this article. This we
readily concede. In fact, the presi-
dent, in his letter of instruction to the
chiefs of departments, said expressly
that the new mode of spelling was an
experiment, which could be "dropt" it
it did not work satisfactorily. In this
the president is mistaken, as the matter
has passed beyond his control, as soon
as but part of the people has taken
hold of it. Spelling reformers will
then find themselves in the position of
the magician's apprentice who could
cOnjure spirits, but was unable to
Danish them. Any speaker of English
has exactly the same right of selecting
the words HE wants to spell phonetic
ally, as has any board; or Andrew Car
negie; or Theodore Roosevelt. please
observe that neither the surnames nor
the family names of these two persons
are pronounced as they are spelled.)
The president, or the federal govern
ment, has no power to dictate to the
schools of the country what method of
teaching should be employed. Such
power is vested in the municipality of
each town; or in school boards, the
members of which are elected by the
voters of the respective town or dis
trict, and every municipality, or
school board, can prescribe the mode
of spelling they want to have used in
the schools under their jurisdiction.
When the business man, or the pro-
fessional, infected with spelling re-
form. engages in writing, he will
discover that he can leave out an "e'
or an ga" here, and can substitute a
"u' for Jew" or for 600" there, without
affecting the pronunciation of the
word Nobody can retain the thousand
or even the three hundred words on
; the lists of the spelling board in his
memory; nor will he take the trouble
to study the list each time he finds a
|, word that can be abbreviated. Conse-
. quently, he will follow his own judg.
ment in the matter, and the most
, abnormal and irregular way of spell
ing would soon be noticeable in all
{ kinds of writing. Most people would
r stick to the old way of spelling; few
, very few-would spell phonetically
! and, worst of all, many would spell
, some words according to the old way
' and others according to the new way
;, a mere attempt at phonetic spelling
. would open wide the door to utte
i! III WIlI1uSs GVCu AOV
f we have had some unpleasant exper
0 ience in such matters. Some fou
! years ago, good but very small publ
b cation commenced to spell though
t "tho" and through "thru." AS th'
i; "gh," though almost imperceptibly, i
8 sounded in both words, the arbitrar.
0 elimination is shockingly bad form
b wholly inexcusable from any stand
! point of rhetoric. There would be n
: established rule to 60 by, and nobod
Q would know where he was at. And a
f every large town has its share of Bath
house Johns and Hinkey Dinks, nc
n body who knows how our towns, ayt
4 even many of our schoo1boards ar
K managed, would have much confidenc
!. that anything like uniformity in tn
!. matter of the spelling methods in tn
n schools of the country could be OF
3 tanned, If the long established, almos
\ in our very selves embodied old mod
4 of spelling were set aside.
(, Those few people who are alread
l. clamoring for the "making" of pht
- motto dictionarv can hA nnicklv hi,