Evening journal., 1911-03-22
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
Noah Webster as a Pioneer
Simplified Spelling
Champion
By ~HoIIand.s

Many persons, probably naturally,
have the mistaken opinion that the
first maker Of American dictionaries,
Noah Webster, and Daniel Webster
we're Of kin. They we're not Of kin,
however, unless the relationship was
very remote Noah Webster had colo
NAL forebears and Daniel Webster had
not. Noah Webster was a descendant
on the maternal side of the second
governor of Plymouth Colony, Cover
nor Bradford.
Noah Webster's home was at New
Haven, Connecticut, for many years,
and one of the traditions associated
with his career is that he wrote Web
sters Spelling Book" while living in
a little frame house of colonial archi-
lecture near New Haven green. That
classic, however, was written a full if
teen years before Webster removed to
New Haven and while he was a school
teacher in New York State. although 1t
was published at Hartford, Conn.
A few years prior to the Civil War
there still lived in New Haven several
citizens of venerable years who we'll
remembered Noah Webster.
"He was a very tall man, somewhat
slender, but very erect" said one of
those old citizens. Il remember that
he had a very kindly face, and / know
that with us in New Haven he had, in
my earlier days higher reputation as
the maker of 'Webster's Spelling Book
than as the compiler of 'Webster's Die
tionary, and that was so because we
were all taught spelling from Web
sters speller, and there we're told won
derful stories about the way that book
was selling.
Il have always heard that Noah
Webster was a sort of subscription
agent for his own speller soon after II
was published. He was accustomed to
travel about the country, stopping,
whenever convenient, at towns where
there was a printing office. He would
enter the printing office and pass a
few pleasant words with the proprietor
or the general printer, or even the
printers devil; he was a familiar fig
ure in the printing Offices of New
Haven and Hartford. Then, having by
his kindly ways ingratiated himself
into the others good favor, Mr.. Web
ster would say:
My friend, observe that you are
accustomed to spell the word "honor
with a "u," and that 1t is also your
habit to spell the word labor" with a
"u." Now, / want TO say to you that
that, in my opinion, is not the Ameri-
can way to spell these words. That is
the English way. The ''u" is not need
ed
so Noah Webster would go from
town to town visiting the printing Of
fees, to persuade the printers Of that
time to adopt his form of spelling. And
! have sometimes thought that he did
more by this method TO secure accept
ance of his ideas of spelling than at
first he did with his spelling hook"
Noah Webster must, then, have been
the first American advocate of the now
so-called modified or simplified form OF
spelling. It used to be said by some Of
his descendants in New Haven that In
all about fifty million copies of his
spelling book we're sold, and it is a
we'll known fact that. although the
royalty which he received upon each
copy was a little less than one cent
nevertheless this income was sufficient
to support him and his family during
the twenty years when he was engaged
in the compiling Of his great diction-
airy.
Copyright, 1911, by f. j. Edwards. All
Rights Reseryed.)