Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1915 — SCHOLARS OFTEN BAD SPELLERS [ARTICLE]

SCHOLARS OFTEN BAD SPELLERS

An Accomplishment That Many Famirtfi Men and College Graduates Lack. Correct spelling and good English are not always the accomplishments of a college student, or even of a college graduate. The Harvard authorities think that they ought to be, for the examination officials and teachers are much distressed over the fact that the hoys whose writing- are submitted are often ignorant of the fundamental principles of spelling and grammar. Deaa Briggs, himself one of the finest writers at the university , says, in writing of the matter: “We all live in glass houses. Until the written and spoken English of college officials throughout the country is better than it is now, the English used by many worthy boys in an examinatidzi will never be ‘ correct, coherent and idiomatic,' in any strict sense of these words. We all live in glass houses; yet we must accept the duty, and take the risk of throwing stones.*’ Evidently Prof. Briggs is not one who will enforce the new rules without a wide leniency in favor of any man with a good head whose failings in English are native. In excuse for faulty spelling, he writes: “Spelling is an accomplishment, the lack of which is still—or still should be- —a disgrace: but many sfood and great men have lacked it: and since the spelling book has ceased to be in daily and universal use at school, the proportion of intellectual persons who cannot spell appears to have increased. One of the world's greatest scholars in his own department habitually in college spelled ‘speech’, with an “a,“ and wrote themes about 1 Thackery arid 'Scot.” One of the best loved professors in America spelled ‘usually’ and similar words' with one I,' and ‘niche,’ ‘ni'ch.’ An-

t'ner e ollege professor, who more than justified his academic training, wrote purgerer' 'for ‘perjurer’ in his junior year. "We must face the fact that bad spellers may be good writers. In a certain- college course in English composition the man who was recognized as the ablest writer of the class was quite capable of writing Satin' for ‘Satan' and of spelling other; words to match. In the gram mar school his writing might have been marked zero; in college it was I y marked 'A.’ ” Long agq some university professor, said to be President Elliot produced a test sentence that would • rve as aK examination in spelling tor old Noah Webster himself: "It i- amusing to view the unparalleled arrassnaent of a harassed pedler or -;.ddler. sitting on a cemetery wall and viewing the symmetry of a j-cJcd potato, pomegranate or per..ou."—Boston. Glo’:."