The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-24
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DESERVEDLf HONORED.
 On Friday october Is. the people, of Hartford and New Haven. and of New England generally celebrated the 1soth birthday anniversary of man whose name and works mean much less to the school children of the present day than to their parents and grandpar- ents of past generations. We refer to Noah Webster. scholar. teacher, author and philologist who was born in Hart ford. October Is. 175s but spent much of his time in other portions of New England and of New York. The lat ter years of his life, for almost half a century. were spent in New Haven. where he died tn 1s43. at ripe old age. honored among men for his char acter and attachments. and for the good he did for the educational interests of the people.
 Mir. Webster was the. author of many papers, magazine articles and books. but he is msinly remembered for two or three works: grammar, spelling book and his dictionary of the English language. the two latter publications being most viyidly remembered by the older generations of. the American peo- pie The spelling book, so generally remembered as "webster's Blue-hack spelIer" was first published in 17ss. though changes and Improvements were made in later years. To those of us who are passing into "the sere and yellow leaf" of old age-and to some who have not yet reached that period-that old spelling book brings back a host of memories. some pleas ant and some the reverse. They are pleasant because they bring back mem ories of youthful studies. competitions and triumphs, and they are unpleasant because a failure to spell the words sometimes brought to the unfortunate pupil discipline of the old kind so fa- miliar long ago. But there was one good thing about it: the child who finished the blue-back speller and then was not able to spell almost any word in the English language was either duilard or lageard. It Is different now--in several ways.
 But it was his Dictionary of the English Language that brought more and more lasting fame to MT. Web ster. for he was the compiler and au- thor of the first American dictionary. The first publication in this line was a century ago, but it was. during the succeeding years of his life, enlarged. improved and corrected until 1t be- came the complete work which was to be the standard authority in Amer lea for many years. Other works on the same line have followed in later days. innovations. changes. additions. and improvements have been made in many respects in order to keep up with changing conditions, but to Noah Web ster is due the credit of originating a truly American dictionary The New Englanders do well to remember and honor him. for he deserves 1t. But 1t is not only New England but the en- tire English speaking world that should be proud of him. The New Bed ford Standard closes a long editorial review of him and his works in this way:
 His exact and critical knowledge en- abled him to cast aside the encum- rances with which all previous lexi- cons of our language had been burd- ened. He established the great prin- cipies by means of which etymology has now been made a science, and in the earliest edition of his invaluable work he added mere than 12,000 words and 40, 900 definitions which could then be fouad in no similar work. It was indeed a HeFculean task. Its accom- was a. supreme success and was 50 regarded on both sides of the Atlantic Webster might well be grat-. fled to learn in his old age, that a gentleman who asked at one of the great bookstores of London for the best dictionary of the English len- guage, had the American edition by Noah Webster handed to him with the confident assertion: That, sir, Is the only real dictionary which we have of our language though 1t was prepared by an American"
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