THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



23 



cli]), and fix over, as we may, there will 

 still be confusion worse confounded when 

 we attempt to spell words. As I said 

 sometime ago in the Review, when a sys- 

 tem is radically wrong:, nothing is to be 

 gained by tinkering with minor results. 

 I have just picked up an old copy of the 

 Review, and counted the words in a col- 

 umn until I had counted 100 words. I 

 then carefully examined each word. How- 

 many words do you suppose I found that 

 were spelled strictly phonetically? Just 

 lii'o! You have no idea how few words 

 there are in which there are no silent let- 

 ters, and in which each letter is given its 

 true sound — the sound that we give it, or 

 attempt to give it, when we pronounce the 

 letter. I will give just a few words that 

 I look upon as spelled phonetically: be, 

 he, me, we, pi, no, so, most, post, fort. 

 Now, you go on and add to the list. You 

 will be astonished to see how many words 

 you will be compelled to think of before 

 yoa will find one that is spelled purely 

 phonetically. The truth of the matter is 

 that the spelling of a great many words is 

 a verv poor guide to tlieir pronunciation. 

 We siTuplv aie obliged to remember that 

 a word is spelled thus and so because it is. 

 It can't be otherwise, because we are 

 lacking in letters. 



We don't learn to read by spelling the 

 words. We first learn the words and then 

 learn to spell them. We learn to recog- 

 irize a word by its general appearance, by 

 "how it looks," not by spelling it over. 

 We have become accustomed to the looks 

 of words as they are now spelled, and to 

 change the spelling and appearance of 

 some of the words, unless we thereby 

 gain so*n2 great a ] vintage, seems to me 

 inadvisable. It is true that the newly 

 proposed changes shorten up the words, 

 but they don't spell them phonetically. 

 They simply compel us to unlearn one 

 unphonetic way of spelling a word and 

 learn another unphonetic method. If by 

 making occasional changes, as proposed 

 by the promoters of the so-called phonet- 

 ic system, we could graduallv change 

 the spelling of words until they were all 



spelled really and truly phonetically, I 

 should huM up both hands in favor of 

 the plan; Vjut with our limited number of 

 letters this is simply an Impossibility. 



If we were going to gain any real, per- 

 manent advantage, I would willingly 

 bear the unpleasant, shocked, repugnant 

 feelings that come over me when I come 

 across some of these clipped, maimed and 

 mutilated words. They arouse the same 

 feelings that come from seeing a woman 

 dressed in bloomers, or a man with his 

 hair clipped tight to his head. That I 

 am not alone in the possession of such 

 feelings, I know by t}ie fetters I receive. 

 I look upon the motives, of those who 

 started this movement, as praisworthy, 

 but to me it looks as though about the 

 only thing accomplished is change. To 

 be sure, some of the words have been 

 shortened, but I look .upon this as a small 

 gain compared with the confusion, and 

 the shock to the eye, that result from 

 bringing in a different st^-le of spelling. 

 There have been intimations by some of 

 the editors that would not be influenced 

 in this matter because some of their sub- 

 scribers objected, to the extent of order- 

 ing their papers discontinued. I honor 

 any man for standing by his principles. 

 I also admit that an editor has a right to 

 conduct his journal as he sees fit; but I 

 also believe that the views of subscribers 

 ought to be considered — if an editor does 

 not consider them, he will be eventually 

 without readers. There is one more 

 point: Asking readers to vote upon a sub- 

 ject, after the editpr has expressed his 

 opinion, is not a very sure way of learn- 

 ing the wishes of the majorit}'. 



I sorrowfully admit that our spelling 

 is something fearful to contemplate, and 

 herculean to accompli.sh, and it will re- 

 main such so long as our alphal)etical 

 characters are so sadly lacking in num- 

 bers. This being true, it is better that we 

 continue to spell as "other folks do," 

 rather than waste our energies in attemp- 

 ting to make changes which, even if ac- 

 complished, would bring us no nearer the 

 goal — phonetic spelling. 



