Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-23
MURRAY'S MUSEUM OF 100000 WORDS
He Who Read Dictionary for Pure Enjoyment Has
Missed Opportunity Which He Should Immediately Seize
and Improve-Ilusrations for Doubers
By B. X. LITTLE

lust think how painful it would be If a
O COW woke up to the fact that in all the
grand scheme of creation she was nothing
but COW. Happily for us, most cows never
wake to this discovery. They are content to
go right on being cows. Many hundreds of
thousands of years ago an all-wise Provi-
dence foresaw that something would be nee
essary to supply the mornings milk Hence
the cow-the calm, contented patient, hard
working COW.
But did you ever notice how many human
cows there are? Just nice, patient, hard
working people who never wake up to the
fact that they are not brilliant and impor-
tant but who just go on contentedly turn
ing out products that in their way are as
necessary as milk Some of them lay bricks
Some of them make the pens with which
others write great novels or design sky
scrapers that may last thousands of years.
You never hear of these penmakers They
raise families, pay taxes and buy a lot in the
nearest cemetery. Nevertheless they are not
buried before they have contributed to the
world a praiseworthy number of bricks or
pens, and we should all be poorer If these
unknown people had never lived 1t is some
times worth while to pause and admire the
COW, human or bovine.
Pinned Down and Labeled
One such person died the other day. A
very important COW, too, in his way. His
name Murray, and his specially was to
give forth words. He left us what is beyond
doubt the great dictionary of all times. Peo-
pie thought it remarkable when old Samuel
Johnson left his dictionary containing less
than four thousand words. What earth
does a man need of four thousand words
when he can make the mistake of his life in
half a dozen-asking the wrong girl to be
his wife, for instance. But Sir James Murray
left us all a present of about four hundred
thousand words And he hadn't finished when
he died. He got as far as the word-"turn-
down." and there death cut him short Even
so, he stuck to it till he had eight volumes
of "The New English Dictionary finished.
and no doubt some one else will go ahead
and finish it down to the bitter end.
Four hundred thousand words is, one might
say, good deal of milk for one COW to give.
A long time ago Cardinal Richelieu organ
lied the French Academy and charged it
chiefly with the duty of keeping the French
language pure against the invasion of the
| Chicago brand of French A good many
| generations of Academicians have come and
gone, and stiI they have not finished their
|
who has created a permanent museum OF
four hundred thousand English words There
they are. They can never get away again
He has pinned every one Of them fast to the
printed page. Not merely that, he has shown
the origin OF each one of them, it's history, its
shades Of meaning, all illustrated by some
quotation from man of brains who knew
how to use each particular word. Old Arur.
ray had collected fewer than five millions
of these quotations. That's how industrious
he was
Did you ever read dictionary for pur,
enjoyment Anybody knows what teasing
thing II is. You want to look up the wore
"arthritis." but before you come TO It 70,
stumble across Already" and that makes 20,
think Of "eclogue" and "eclogue" leads I,
'idyl" and before you know It you have for
got all about "arthritis" Then you slam tn
book shut and dream OF what a great maj
you would be II you had absolute comman,
OF all these words. You'd crowd Dante OF
the map and lash Homer TO the mast You.
De funnier than Mark Twain. and make Vol
taire look like dolt There's your chance
anybody. Sir James Murray has given yoi
four hundred thousand words to begin with
You and Jones and "Rarebit"
What a, job that wasl And you're mistake
II you think a word Is dead thing. It's
mistake TO think that the dictionary make
the language. It's the man In the street tina
makes the language. Just as II Is not III
professor teaching his class who makes IN
science OF ethics. but Mrs. Jones sossipin
over the back fence with Mrs Brown. so
Is Jones aud Brown ana their wives-chiefi
their wives who make the language. Tn
dictionary exists only to record the word
employed by Jones and Mrs. Jones'
Words are always changing their meanin.