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Show FRANKLIN AS A REFORMER, , - A new recruit to the support of the simplified spelling commission has been found in Benjamin Franklin, philosopher, once of Boston, Philadelphia, Phila-delphia, Paris and London. He declared de-clared himself in 1786, in a letter 'to Mrs. Jane Mecon. "You need not be concerned, in writing to me," said Franklin, "about your bad spelling; for, in my opinion ps our alphabet now stands, the bad spelling, or what is so called, is generally gen-erally the best, as conforming to the sound of the letters of the words.. "A gentleman once teceived a letter in which were these words: " 'Not finding Brown at horn, I delivered your meseg to htsyf.' "The gentleman, finding it bad spelling, and therefore not being very intelligible, called his lady to help him read it. Between them they j picked out the meaning of all but the 'yf' which they could not understand. under-stand. The lady proposed calling her chambermaid, because Betty, say she, has the best knack at reading bad spelling of any one I know. "Betty came, and was surprised that neitlfccr sir nor madam could tell what yf was. " 'Why,' says she, 'yf spells wife; what else can it spell?' "And indeed it is a much better, as well as shorter method of spelling wife than double you, i, ef, e, which in reality spell doubleyifey." (Youth's Companion. |