The Hartford republican., 1914-10-09
The Old BIue-Back SpelIer.

stored TO the public schools OF thai
state and that this old book OF
blessed memory was again coming
into its own. | felt a thrill of Joy as
] have seldom felt during my whole
existence.
This item of news caused me in my
mind to go back to my childhood
days and then to days later in life
when there were moments that
caused me to be glad that | was liv-
ing. well remember with what
pride l wore my first red-top boots,
then my school days when after |
had been under the instruction of
my teacher a short time that | went
home at eventide and reported that
/ knew all my letters"
And still later l had progressed
until could spell all the words up
to bark" and in time had gotten to
"incomprehensibil and finally
to the word "whortleberry, which
was the last word in the book. And
how my heart swelled with pride
when / had been able to spell down
all the boys and girls in my class
and was declared the champion
speller of the school.
When / arrived at young manhood
and school days were over l sought
the girl of my choice. to me the
brightest and prettiest and sweetest
of the whole country and made court
to her. Then when she was asked
to go through life with me she con-
sented and our troth was plighted,
there was happiness that was beyond
that of mortal lips to express.
And when the first born came to
bless the humble home there was
joy in the household, such JOY as
comes to thousands of others who
are similarly situated, And then
again a little over two years ago
when the news came from Baltimore
where the democrats were holding a
convention to nominate a candidate
for the presidency of the United
States, that Woodrow Wilson, the
Princeton school master had been
chosen by the party to become the
head of the greatest country upon
which tn sun ever shown, ftlt that
which the sun ever shown, I felt that
over.
And now in my older days I am
again mad supremely happy in the
thought that my old friend, the COM
panionof my youth, the old blue
back speller that for nearly a
half century had been cast aside,
relegated to the shades Of obscurity,
thrown into the scrap pile of lit
erature, dust covered and moldering
in the attic had been resurrected
and in at least one spot of earth was
to be restored to the plac of honor
from which it had been hurled by the
unholy hands.
The old speller that is to be used
IN Georgia is not to be revised, it
never has needed, nor will it ever
need rvision- from the very first it
has been perfect and with the hun
dreds of other spoilers that have
been printed and forced on the
schools there is not one that is in
any way the equal of the old blue
back of years ago. There is one
Bible, only one, one is all we need
there has never been in the United
States but one speller that was
worthy the name-that- is Web
sters old blue back.
The Georgia speller is to have the
same old but ever new pictures of the
long ago. How the boys and girls of
the then loved to read of the Farm
er who found the boy in his apple
tree and how he brought the young
thief to terms by throwing stones at
the young rascal who was perched on
the limbs of the tree. Then there
was 1.-The Country Maid and Her
Milk Pail" and 1.-The Two Dogs"
where Tray got beating for being
caught in bad company. There was
also the Partial Judge" whose bull
gored his neighbor's OK, and others
that were almost as interesting. real
ly more so than the tales of the
ARABIAN Nights"
The Tri-Weekly Constitution of
Atlanta, easily the leading paper of
the South, holds this book in such
high esteem that it offers a copy of
that speller as a premium with each
yearly subscriber to that journal. If
] did not already have a copy of the
old blue-bsck speller and could not
get one otherwise, l would at once
forward my subscription to the Con-
stitution in order to secure that val
liable premium. Other papers might
do we'll to go and do likewise.