El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-04-28
The Wonderful Story of the Alphabet
BY GARRETT p. sERvIss.

"HE education OF the child begins
with the slphabst Before It goes
70 school It learns the letters on
its blocks As soon as II knows it,
abe" Its feet are set on the highway
OF knowledge Just so the first step in
the education OF the human race was
the acquisition Of an alphabet There
have been many forms OF the alphab bet.
but the underlying idea has always
been the same. viz: to represent to the
eye by symbols the sounds uttered By
the voice.
When was the first alphabet IN
vented? We do not know. but It was
certainly many thousand years ago.
Fortunately We were taught that the
Phoenicians invented the first alphabet.
and that the Greeks adopted il with
changes But IN A cave OF the Pyrenecs
mountains. in southern France, the
cavern Of Mas d ALL, great numbers
OF smooth panied pebbles have been
found. bearing figures curiously re-
sembling alphabetical signs, and let
there by people who dwcit IN that
cavern at a time intervening between
the old and the new stone ages. at least
1000 year ago.
They painted the pebbles with perox-
ide Of iron. which they found near the
cavern. and a deposit Of which exists
there stin. Some think that the peb-
Dies were mere ornaments, or amulets,
or piaythings, or even gambling ap-
planes But others supposed that thev
really represented an alphabet, and
even that the cave was the site OF 4
school in which the children OF the
strange Azilian race were taught read
inc and writing.
But no combinations OF the figures
have been found TO suggest their ar
rangement in words and sentences, so
that the real intent OF their makers
remains a puzzle. But they certainly
had some meaning. and the definiteness
or the forms shows that those who
painted them used their brains in the
work. and attached ideas TO what they
produced.
One recent theory IS that the Phoe-
nicians. who currently used an alpha
bet at least 900 years before Christ
borrowed IL from the ancient Cretans
one OF the earliest civilized DeoDles
that archaeology has revealed to US
The Greeks got the alphabet from the
Phoenicians, and the Romans got Il
from the Greeks. and we still keep it
virtually in the form which the Ro-
mans gave to it
The Egyptians also had a hand IN
the invention OF the alphabet and some
aver that they taught f. to the Phoe-
nicianS. perhaps after taking if from
the Cretans- But the vanished Azilians
antedated all OF the old emDires Of his
tory, and II their painted pebbles were
letter blocks. who had been their teach
ers. or were those cave men OF the
Pvrenees the real inventors Of the al
phabet?
One can see that the first men who
tried to represent their thoughts other
wise than by uttering sounds must
have begun with simple pictures, imi-
tatine natural objects and animals The
original form Of the Egyptian hierogly-
Dhics was that OF picture writings"
Savage races get hardly any farther
than that Thus the American Indians
of William PENIS day recorded his
treaty with them by drawing q picture
OF an Indian and a white man clasping
hands. That was as good for them as
long winded legal document. md q
great deal clearer
But the Egyptians developed their
first picture writing into a very elabO-
rate system, Introducing arbitrary. con-
ventional signs and altering the oriCi-
nal representations Of objects until in
many cases as pictures. they became
unrecognizabler But Il curious fact IS
that pictures. or symbolical figures. Of
objects the initial letter. OF sound. of
whose name correspond with he alpha
betical sign that the heirogIyph was
meant to represent.
Thus the name Cleopatra was writ
ten in heiroglvphics by making a group
of figures. arranged in regular order.
representing a knee. a lion. a reed. a
moose. a mat. an eagle. a hand mouth
and a second eagle.