Show THE NEW SPELLING k the london times though extremely conservative Is abat almost ost committed to the reform spoiling spelling an T editorial edi dealing dealan g with the recommendations of the simplified spelling bo board ard I 1 1 s says a ys 17 f america has never slavishly c conformed ort to english usage in the matter of rs ap ellins we are arc all familiar in boo s and news newspapers printed in america with such words as labor honor hur humor burnor nor fiber center and the like and really except for the influence of usage ind and familiarity it is hard in many cases to say that the american mode of ti spelling is toss less correct than that which usage sanctions in this country there can bu no great principles involved in the choice between labour and labor honour and lionor honor humbur humour hu hur mour nour and humor seeing that tho the more or less redundant it Is usually ornit omitted ted even by english writers when an adjective is formed from the substantive so again for words like catalogue and pedagogue there is ia not much more than usage and the greater influence OL french than of german on the english language to justify the heteu flon t lon of the two final letters it must indeed be admitted that thero there is no ile science wid and very little system in the accepted usage of english orthography 1 tei gage tor for gauge ganger will doubtless relieve many writers writer of a common orthographical perplexity hut but it will nevertheless leave a tiresome ambiguity between gage in the of a pledge and gage in the sense of measure such stich words as gazel and do look strange and uncouth on first acquaintance but there seems to bo be no great principle involved in ill elthor either form of spelling it Is hard to kick hick against fantast tanta fanta sm for phantasm seeing that we already write fantastic but no doubt there Is rather a large principle involved in tile the substitution of 1 11 I for ph in all cases where the latter stands for the single greek letter denoting the same sound sulphur on the other hand is not greek and the romans wrote it indiscriminately sulfur sulphur and sulfur sul pur with it a preference for the first form of the three and obviously sly it if we write sulfur we must adopt tho the same spelling lit in all forms derived from the word perhaps no one would greatly cavil it if it became a common habit to write tho instead of though and 11 thoro instead of thorough the assistant superintendent of the schools of new york city gives his reasons for fa favoring uio uie reform spelling polling next to learning by imitation the child must be taught to learn by association and analogy ile ho develops strength of mind by the exercise of judgments judgment ho he must reason from known facts in the solution of his bis little problems if lie he comes to a now printed word and halts tho the teacher asks hirn him to think of the oral word for which it stands standa having learned that puff and mutt muff tand stand for well known oral words he Is staggered at rough and enough frequently used in conversation conver having learned that f these characters stand for well known spoken words which lie he wrote cruft it mid n danuff anuff from his knot knowledge bedge of puff and muff man hil he M 1 again confused when too the teather tells him that dougli dough is I 1 the spelling of tile the well known word his mother uses use when speaking ot I 1 i broad bread making and that cough stands I 1 for the malady so prevalent in tho the I 1 nursery during winter time the stage of tho the childs tuition during all the similar incongruities aties of our spelling must be mastered mastor d occupies many years of school 2 iffland life Iffe and the process has well nigh produced a disbelief in reason as a means mean of learning and a total lack of confidence in inference the re suit stilt of falling into absurd and ridic ulous situations through the exercise of ills his judgment appears in a hesitancy or fear of drawing any inferences upon data relating to other fields of knowledge the child has lost faith in ills his own conclusions with respect to problems in arithmetic biology geography history etc to what extent of subject matter and time the school child IIA has suffered irreparable loss by failure to acquire confidence in ill the exer exercise else of hir hi judgment as a result of ills his early stultification during lire process of learning to master the spelling of common words may never bo be determined that thai cold wave which began at midnight last night had bad its origin in the democratic primaries if any doubt existed before the championship games started it has given way nay to conviction that chicago Is batty to the last degree f the cruiser california Zall fornia was seriously crippled off on the western western coa coast sl the 1 misfortune which follows anything smacking of california Is simply fateful i decker booker advice for conservative on serva tive tivo action among his countrymen in the south Is the wisdom ofa nian man well posted on the vexatious question |