Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1922-01-08

the subject of spelling and this may
come as a surprise to some of my
readers as the impression seems to OF
got around that | am not a \. No.
speller though nothing could be fur
Their than the truth. They may be
good many wds. which L don't spell
them the same way like they are
spelled in the dictionary but that is
no sign that my way amt just as
good and maybe a little better and l
always say that if people can under
stand easy what man means, why
that means he is a good speller and
l will bet you can't find no wds. in
any of my writeings that is y as
hard to understand as wds. you will
find in the dictionary.
In fact the dictionary way of spell
ing wds is so hard that after every
wd. they half to write down some
other wd. that means the same thing
SO as people can tell what the LIST wd.
meant.
CPEAKING about the dictionary it
~ has got a couple of chapters in it
which you can read without going TO
sleep and one of them tells where
several different men of learning has
tried to fix up our language SO as
every letter would have only one
sound and as soon as you seen wd.
spelled out you would know the right
way to pronounce it, and one of these
men said the only way that could be
done would be by adding IA more
letters to the alphabet. This idear
was throwed in the ash can on mo-
ton of the people that makes alpha
bet soup.
In another chapter it tells where
man named Ellis was trying expert
ments with the letters We have all
ready got and he found out that you
can spell the wd. scissors 5000 diff
ferent ways. 1t didn't tell what he
done with himself the rest of the
morning. And it didn't tell why we
half to go on spelling it scissors when
sizzers would cut your nails just as
pretty.
H l.. Mencken has wrote a book on
the American language which he
brings out in it how different We spell
than the English though we are sup
posed to both be useing the same
tongue.
Well, they will be more and more
differents as the yrs. go by. SO what
say is that it don't do no harm for me
to spell a wd. different from the way
some old English dictionary writer
spelled it, provided 1 make the SPELL
ing easier, which is what Americans
generally always do. Like for inst. an
Englishman would say:
II have the honour to inclose a
cheque."
whereas we would say:
II have the honor to enclose
check" which is two less letters
which don't amt. to much in one SEN
tence but would be a big savings in
a long book Take Wells history
book for example, and if he had used
American spelling I bet he could of
wrote it in at least " hr. less time.
While we are on the subject OF
spelling, though l don't want to DIS
courage none of the Detroit boys and
gals that's trying to improve them
sells along those lines, yet 1T seems
nessary to say at this pit. that spell
ing is something which you can't
master no more than singing alto.
Either you are a born good speller
or a born bum speller and If you are
a good speller you won't half to
spend no time in school studying how
to spell this wd. or that
an the other hand if you are a rot
~ ten speller> you will keep on
being a rotten speller though If you
have got a good memory you can get
high marks.
Like for inst, know a gal that
when she was in school she always
got a 200 in spelling because she
studied all the wds. that was in the
hook and memorized how to spell
them. But for the 1st. yrs. after
we was married we lived on Prairie
Ave, in Chicago and every time she
wanted to write and tell one of her
friends her address, she would half
m go out first and look at the street
sign. But a woman don't half to be
a good speller to be good. wife and
in fact some of the best vifes know
has their bad spells.
But they's another wd. of cheer
which 1 might breath to folks that
has trouble with their spelling and
that is that some of the most famous
people in history was rotten spoilers
and men like Shakespeare and
chaucer and etc. was so bad that II