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Show uu 3i HOW A DICTIONARY GREW. fag"1! Sir James Murray and the "New pr English Dictionary" progressed side fml by side for many years in "a kind of : i Uji rivalry" for completion, says the New 1 1 f York Evening PosL There seemed iff'j$ some chance that they would reach Ul'l the goal neck and neok; but Sir Sbf'l! James has been forced to fall out, and IimI his great work, though nearing Its Ififfif completion in the latest volume the ijjil tenth must struggle through under iffllnfl other direction. The great lexlco- j grapher died at the age of seventy- llfiJl' eight on July 27. "He was an organ- w lit c izcr of scholarship," says The Even- Bfjf fl ing Post, "calling for recruits, as Sir BfUW Walter Raleigh called for them In the filJil days of his dreams of a flourishing Jjf IJ si Virginia, and leading them Into half- Ji'Siii explored or virgin territory, there to B If ;l spy out the land as a preliminary bo BalJ(3 settling down what they found wimi Bisfj'y such accuracy and fulness that no of-tf II ;jfjj'B else should need to go over tj Jtf B ''jjlljll ground again, except to supply a i li-jf Jj J ill, tall here and there or to cross ani &! i jjjjffi caslonal T or dot an occasional '1 i'''ill The project of the Dictionary or $g'i-u Inated with the Philological Socle 1 Xtf M as early as 1857, and immense mi tHMmIjJ ses of material were accumulated fc JfA fore Dr. Murray, In 1878, Btept In jjifi .1)1 organize and add to the "two toi t, ; weight of slips" bearing quotatfc b' Mw illustrating the use of words. R& 3fr' "lllffi ers were then sought in bothJDnglS n V k ijjwf and America, with these results: f e. n "More than 800 readers, In be v , Hi countries, responded to this appe, ijje'Hi( In a single month, before it, Murra; -. f ' ';jJ i assistants had supplied him with' j , j lA I 000 'good quotations.' During the ne h , 1 1 three years, a million more were plf jj 'jlnK ed at his disposal. But even in Q, jjj i'I resumption of the task Its magnltvj & i Jill was so little realized that 'if Hl statement was made that 'a first if i "jjli of four hundred pages, containing . P ! 'Ifii letter A, Is to be ready in 1882, i jit 1 the rest to follow In the course of ft if years, if possible.' At the end of f j It time, the work was only getting i ' jj ; pjl under way. i u Hi "But the greatness of the task) ' fj 61 less In Its mere magnitude than in, jj . ' II infinity of detail. 'Ten, twenty, I i thirty letters,' the editor remarked S ' If I the preface to Volume I, contalnf J ' jl I the words under A and B, 'have so f j ' ! I times been written to personB v jl I It was thought, might possibly kn fl -" ! 1 or succeed In finding out, sometK n j f ' l S I definite on the subject; and o f(r II I weeks have passed, and 'copy' adv jjj 'j., If I ed into the state of 'proof,' 'proof h I t fl to 'revise,' and 'revise' even into 'fi fl'J ? 11 1 before any resultst could be obtall Jj ( i jl 1 It Is incredible what labor has hat Jj I ,1 it I be expended, sometimes, to find j ' f , I 1 the facts for an article which occu LjJ' L I I not more than five or six lnQs;ymii I 1 even to be able to write tho wQrdsM!F I I 'Derivation unknown,' as the outcomes h , I I of hours of research and of testing mtU I I tne statements put rortn witnouc nesi- ' , I H tation in other works ' It Is partly itst 1 '' j I unique comprehensivenesSj even more jf I its unrelenting testing of 'statements ;l I put forth without hesitation in other J i I works,' that makes Murray's Diction- it '' ary a veritable authorized version of J I the English language. Yet not Its !) I least Interest must always be the man ft who made it When the project was in I first planned, he was Assistant Mast- f'f H er of Hawick Grammer School, In the H B neighborhood of his birthplace When! " B ho revived the Idea, he was Asslstantsff " fl Examiner In English at the Unlversltylr-s fl of London, and president of the Lon-jjljhJ fl don Philological Society. But blsffik,i fl learning did not make him less a niaii.Sj ( fl T-Iic nrlmr minHflrvif Inn fnr hia llfo.cpw'i ' 11 task was the adventurous spirit that M H never failed him In tolling at the Bf jfl work, 'which,' as he once wrote, quot- BjJ M Ing from Dr. Johnson's preface to his Bj H less ambitious Dictionary, 'would In ifS H time be ended, though not complet- J M ed.' " -jEJt M In a biographical sketch of Dr. Mur- W J ray The Evening Post adds: f H "Sir James, as editor-in-chief, vrf w- M assisted by an average of twenty otl rfc M editors, who had been trained to jjjkj j work. There haye also been sevjf.. op M thousand volunteer assistants in k(1 if1 ious parts of England and other I M Jj I'S H lish-speaklng countries, whoso dut 'sg'DFj ' was to read innumerable books, hi ij iB ing out unusual words and supply iv!R fl quotations. It Is said that every E & jj fl lish book written before A.D. 1 u t'jl .fl was read, and everj' book of Imp ,i WV H anqc since that date. iV Wi "Most of the work was dono In w firf'f WM Sir James called the 'Scriptoriumj fljl -,, M temporary building erected expressTMIL i )H tor the purpose In the rear of hii.rj' fH house, 'Sunnyside,' on the BanburjMsi' lfl Road, Oxford. There, ranged HKe thdBfnj ffl case-racks in an old-fashioned printBS i fH Ing office, are hundreds of cases di-BJ IH vided into pigeonholes, each referrlngBii , fH to some word In the English langa-B- ,H age, and containing millions of slips k)1' M upon which have been noted hlstorl- B;i ,'fl ca memoranda, quotations, and other K jj IH material obtained by the regular or W i j volunteer readers." Kn M J IrJ' Mary Fuller has trained down s(rT',jJ B hard with work and exercise she ljj-g jj 'M almost a shadow of former self. Uwf' lfl i mW Frank Powell has x completed V , !' MMm now Nance O'Noll feature, ''lmW Witch." I, . M 'LH I IMS |