MOORE’S RURAL NEW-YORKER: AN AGRICULTURAL, LITERARY AND FAMILY NEWSPAPER. 
401 
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PHONETIC SPELLING. 
Spelling according to sound is a hobby 
which has been a good deal ridden in cer¬ 
tain quarters; and not unfrequently the 
persons most zealous in this behalf, are those 
least educated and competent to judge. That 
it is desirable in a certain degree to approach 
with the sound of the letters the sound of the 
word intended to be spelled, no one will deny; 
but that this should be the first, the last, and 
the only idea, is advocated only by that class 
of would be educators, who go blind into any 
subject they undertake to advocate. There is 
no sense, it is true, in spelling such a word as 
phthisic in that way, any more than there is in 
spelling such words as rite, right, write and 
wright, all alike. By a variation of the let¬ 
ters used to indicate the word, the reader has 
a key to the meaning intended without re¬ 
course to the sentence in which the word 
stands. This variation serves to remove am¬ 
biguities which might exist in sentences where 
words of kindred sounds occur, and renders 
explicit what might otherwise be uncertain. 
It is as desirable to have a uniform standard 
of orthography as of anything else ; and this 
would be impossible undi'r a strictly phonetic 
method. Take the English language for an 
illustration. It is spoken by millions of peo¬ 
ple, scattered over the whole face of the globe, 
and their manner of pronouncing it varies 
considerably in sound. As it is now, all use 
a common standard of orthography, and the 
written language is perfectly comprehended 
by men at the antipodes of each other. Even 
in England proper, there are counties whose 
inhabitants can scarcely understand each oth¬ 
er’s speech ; but all can read the London 
Times (if they can read at all,) with equal fa. 
cility. A cockney would be puzzled to com¬ 
prehend a Yorkshireman’s speech, but an ed¬ 
ucated Londoner can read a Yorkshireman’s 
letter as readily as he can read a metropolitan 
communication. 
What would be the result if the demands of 
these zealous friends of phonetic spelling jjjad 
their way ? There would be as many different 
standards of orthography as there are dialects, 
and confusion inextricable would ensue. No 
fixed rule for spelling would exist any more 
than a fixed meridian exists for reckoning 
longitude. Great publishing cities would take 
the lead in prescribing laws of orthography 
just as great observatories fix the meridian ; 
but it would depend upon the power of their 
presses rather than the purity of their pronun¬ 
ciation. 
Greece, with a territory not exceeding that 
of the State of New York, has transmitted to 
us in the few fragments of her literature saved 
from the wreck of time, half a dozen dialects 
and modes of spelling ; and it is one of the 
difficulties in the way of the classical student 
to master these dialects. If a territory of 
forty thousand square miles, and with educa¬ 
tion confined to the few, presents such a vari¬ 
ety of dialects that have made their mark 
upon contemporary literature, how would it 
be with a language like ours, which exercises 
the pens of millions of men as far apart as the 
poles ? Instead of half a dozen lexicograph¬ 
ers, recognizing all a common standard of 
spelling and pronunciation, we would need as 
many as there are different localities of men 
speaking the language. 
All things are mutable, and language must 
also change in time. Milton and Shaks- 
i’eare will be eventually what Chaucer and 
SrENCER are now. But this change becomes 
more show as a language approaches polish 
and perfection, and hence we may reasonably 
expect a more uniform and fixed standard for 
our language hereafter. Set up this idol of 
phonetic spelling for all men’s worship, and 
we arc afloat upon a sea of change which will 
merge our language in the deepest barbarism. 
We shall have more to say upon the subject 
at another time. 
FEMALE EDUCATION. 
A t oi.taire used to say that all he wanted to 
mould the character of a nation was to have 
the making their songs. With much more 
truth may it be said, that the character of a 
people depends upon the education of their 
women. Wherever you find the female sex 
degraded by bondage or sensuality, there you 
find the people proportionally debased. In 
the East, where women are shut out from any 
society except that of the harem, the social 
condition of the other sex is but little better 
than that of the tribes of the surrounding des¬ 
erts. In Southern Europe, and America, 
where the female mind is veiled and shackled 
by superstition, its inlluence tends to enervate 
and dwarf the whole population. 
When Christianity broke in upon the moral 
darkness of the Iloman Empire, its first im¬ 
pulse and triumph was to make women co¬ 
workers with holy men in the world’s conver¬ 
sion. The great burning and shining lights 
who lit up the Eastern and Western Empire 
with the torch of religion and science, were 
men who received their earliest lessons of truth 
aud love on their mother’s laps, and imbibed 
the loftiest principles of virtue from their 
mother’s lips. It wah to such teaching that 
Gregory, and Basil, and Chrysostom, and a 
Allegro Moderate 
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host of others owed their devotion and elo¬ 
quence in the cause of re.'gion and learning. 
From such men came the schools, which by 
educating females in their social position, 
spread over all Europe a higher civilization 
than the world had ever before known. 
In our own country we have not as yet 
made that progress iu female education which 
we have in almost every branch of the me¬ 
chanical arts. And yet, where is there a 
country so dependent for its prosperity and 
happiness upon the character of its women as 
our Republic ? Wealth is so subject to fluc¬ 
tuations among us, that unless a good educa¬ 
tion is secured, families are liable to lose not 
only their social position by pecuniary rever¬ 
ses, but also to fall into degradation by the 
ignorance of its members. Having no re¬ 
sources but their money, when that is gone 
they sink into obscurity. This frequently 
happens in this country, where the mother of 
a family is herself only partially educated.— 
Her sons and daughters measure themselves 
by her standard, and thus very often the evil 
of a superficial education is propagated from 
parents to children. How many riciculous 
illustrations of this defect are to be met with 
among those who have risen to sudden wealth 
where all the outward show and glitter of 
splendid equipages, and mansions and furni¬ 
ture, only serve to throw a strong light upon 
mental depravity and poverty ! What a pity 
it is that so many should be more solicitous 
to show a good team of horses, than to 
provide proper education for their daugh¬ 
ters. All this neglect falls with the heaviest 
weight upon the daughters of a family. The 
world is not open before them as it is with 
the sons. They must either get married, or 
be wretched for want of employment, unless 
they have the resources of a good education, 
and yet how few have these. One meets with 
many bright eyes, and rosy cheeks, and flip¬ 
pant tongues, but the calm and steady look of 
conscious knowledge, and self-control, and the 
eloquence of thought, are sadly wanted amoDg 
the young women of our land. Hence they 
soon grow wearied and wearisome ; their sen¬ 
sibilities become unnaturally acute, and they 
make careless mothers or careworn old maids. 
Of course, there are many exceptions to 
these, but not so many as to lessen the neces¬ 
sity of attention to the subject of female edu¬ 
cation. Whoever has daughters, knows that 
there are two great hindrances in affording 
them a full opportunity of mental culture; 
one is the expense, and the other the want of 
a system suited especially to the condition 
and duties of the sex. But this is not the 
main difficulty. Too many female schools 
sacrifice utility to show a parade of studies 
and teachers, made on paper, lectures and ex¬ 
hibitions to attract notice, while really the 
pupils come out finished in no branch of use¬ 
ful knowledge. 
Encouragement. —Teachers, do you often 
say words of encouragement to your scholars ? 
Such kind and hopeful words are a great deal 
better than long lectures on what they ougbt^j 
to do, or thau captious fault-findings on ac¬ 
count of delinquencies. You need not be 
afraid to say to your pupils all together, that 
they have done well, or to tell John or Alary 
that you are very much pleased with their 
conduct. Be judicious iu this, as you are 
bound to be in everything else, and you will 
find it will work wonders. Read the follow¬ 
ing from a recent volume of poetry : 
There Is a word—the word of words, 
To which a charm is lent, 
That keeps the universe alive, 
This word —Encouragement ; 
’Tis like a main-spring to the world, 
That, with a sovereign sway, 
Whene’er tho b ill would cease its course, 
Impels tt on its way. 
STATISTICS OF GERMAN PUBLISHING. 
ILLUMINATING GAS. 
The discovery of illuminating gas has 
wrought great changes in the manner of 
lighting houses, shops, and streets, and intro¬ 
duced a new era into the economy of domes¬ 
tic life. It is a sublime idea, that under the 
stony crust of every important street of a city 
there are systems of conduits and pipes, in¬ 
visible and imperceptible to the eyes of men, 
but which, each in its sphere, perform impor¬ 
tant functions in the sanitary and the police 
system ; black and loathsome sewers, charged 
with the filth and refuse of street and dwell¬ 
ing, roll their noisome and sluggish floods in¬ 
to ocean or river; water pipes, sustain an im¬ 
mense pressure of the pure and invigorating 
element, which is ready at the starting of a 
plug to leap up to the very roofs of the lofty 
buildings ; gas tubes send their ramifications, 
dividing and subdividing as they extend, each 
minute division terminating in a brilliant jet 
of flame. 
Hundreds of miles of these gas tubes are 
laid through the streets, varying in size from 
the main of two feet diameter, down to the 
single service pipe of scarcely half an inch. 
Only a few years since, none but large and 
densely populated cities could afford the ex¬ 
pense of gas works ; now, nearly every city, 
and many of the large villages are sup plied, 
and every year extends its use to communi¬ 
ties smaller in size, and more sparse in popu¬ 
lation. It is by far the most economical light 
in use, considering the amount of illumina¬ 
tion furnished ; and if a householder’s bill to 
the gas company exceeds his former oil and 
candle expenditure, he is compensated by at 
at least five times the brilliancy of his lights, 
and the greater number of rooms he keeps 
lighted. 
We append the cost of gas, as charged by 
the companies in various cities of this coun¬ 
try, which is as follows :—New York, Bos¬ 
ton, and Baltimore, $3 per thousand cubic 
feet; Hartford, Providence, Brooklyn, Roch¬ 
ester, Buffalo, Newark, Philadelphia, Read¬ 
ing, Louisville, Cincinnati, Chicago, Milwau¬ 
kee, St. Louis, Cleveland, Columbus, and 
Wheeling, $3,50 per thousand ; Indianapolis, 
$3,75 ; Washington, $3,80; New Haven, 
Albany, Troy, Schenectady, Syracuse, Pat¬ 
terson, Lancaster, Pa., Charleston, Savannah, 
Nashville, Memphis, Lexington, Ky., and 
Dayton, $4 ; New Orleans, Galveston, Mo¬ 
bile, and Springfield, $5 ; Auburn (rosin gas) 
$7 ; San Francisco $L0 per thousand feet. 
The difference in price of coal in places 
wide apart, and where the gas rates are the 
same, is compensated by the sale of the coke, 
which is usually proportionate to the price of 
the raw material. In Baltimore the average 
annual consumption of gas is 1,6-IS,000 cubic 
feet for each mile of pipe ; in Philadelphia it 
is 2,083,000 cubic feet ; in New York 1,765,- 
000 ; in Boston 2,700,000 ; in Albany 2,100,- 
000; in Brooklyn 1,S30,000; in St. Louis 
1,718,000 ; in Charleston 1,946,000, &c. 
We learn from the “ Atheneum Francais,” 
that during the first six months of the pres¬ 
ent year, there were printed in Germany, in all 
3,879 different works. Of this number, there 
has appeared from the presses of Leipsic and 
Berlin, 1,169 ; 598 from the first of these 
cities, and 571 from the latter, showing that 
Berlin is but 27 works behind the great pub¬ 
lishing mart of Germany. After these two 
great centres, comes Sfnttgard with 197 pub¬ 
lications, Hamburgh 96 ; Munich 93 ; Ratis- 
bon, Frankfort-in-the-Main, and Halle, each 
62 ; Breslaw 56 aud Cpetty Dresden, Bruns¬ 
wick, Erlangen and Weimar, with many o a- 
ers yet smaller. In the thirteen cities which 
have been named, have appeared in ail 2,018 
works, nearly two-thirds of the whole num¬ 
ber. It is not les3 interesting to know the 
part taken in this publishing of books, by the 
different States of Germany. Here Prussia is 
far in advance of her neighbors, she has pro¬ 
duced 1,242 works, when Saxony has only 
printed 724; Austria 715 ; Bavaria 397 
Wurtembnrg, 270 ; Hanover 109. The low¬ 
est ranks in inis scale of product’on are occu¬ 
pied by the city of Lubeck, the Grand Ducky 
of Luxembourg and the Principality of Wai 
deck, each have issued but 3 publications, 
Lippe Detwold only 2 ; Antarlt Bernbourg 
and Hesse Hambourg, one single one each.— 
Besides these many German works have been 
published in other countries ; 155 in Switzer 
laud; 31 in Russia; 16 in Hungary; 12 in 
France ; 10 in Belgium ; 6 in Denmark ; 3 in 
Holland ; 1 in England, in all 235. This state¬ 
ment gives as the total of all the works pub¬ 
lished in the German language, during the 
first half of the present year, 4,114.— Amer¬ 
ican Publisher's Circular. 
ffUitsragi 
For Moore’s Knral New-Yorker. 
GEOGRAPHICAL ENIGMA. 
I am composed of 21 letters. 
My 1, 10, 5, 17 is a city in Italy. 
My 13, 7, 9, 16, 14 is a county in Illinois. 
My 4, 19, 20, 9 is a town in England. 
My 6, 18, 9, 12, 21, 14 is a town in Ireland. 
My 3, 20, 9, 16, 10, 17 is a county in Ohio. 
My 5, 18, 15, 20, 36 is a town in Illinois. 
My 2, 12, 9, 18 is a mountain in Sicily. 
My 6, 8, 10, 11, 9 is a county in Ohio. 
My whole is a Bible command to youth. 
Beloit, Wis., 1S55. T. S. T. 
filP Answer next week. 
Written for Moore’a Rural New-Yorker. 
MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM. 
A provision merchant bought of a miller a 
certain number of barrels of flour, for which 
he paid four hundred dollars. If the number 
of cents the flour cost were divided by eight, 
and the number of barrels substracted there¬ 
from, the remainder would be 4965. What 
was the number of barrels, and how much did 
the flour cost per barrel ? 
fliT Answer next week. 
Answer to Miscellaneous Enigma in No. 309: 
Religion, Justice, Self-Denial. 
Answer to Mathematical Problem in No. 309: 
1st grinds off 9,175172 inches of diameter ; 
2d, 11,957315 of do.; 3d, 28,867513 of do. 
Notice to Correspondents.— We would be 
pleased to receive from students and others, 
original Mathematical Problems, Charades, 
Enigmas, &c., for the Youth’s Corner. Good 
Problems are particularly desirable. 
Written for tho Rural New-Yorker. 
BODILY DEFORMITY, SPIRITUAL BEAUTY. 
"Who ha3 not observe! in passing through 
the crowded streets of our city, how great, 
comparatively, is the number of those, who 
are more or less deformed. My heart aches 
for these poor unfortunates, who are deprived 
of some of the legitimate avenues of enjoy¬ 
ment which God has so bounteously vouch¬ 
safed to me. 
Here is one (and it would seem to me the 
most unmitigated of all the catalogue) who 
is groping his way along in darkness, holding 
fast by the hand of a little girl. There is 
another who has lost a limb, and make3 his 
way along with the utmost difficulty. Yon¬ 
der is one, so extremely deformed, that his 
sensitiveness forbids him often to appear is 
the crowded streets. And there is another 
still, who i3 quite helpless, sitting in a little 
wagon drawn about by a faithful dog. 
In the minds of different individuals, these 
various aspects of deformity produce pity, dis¬ 
gust and horror; but I have often thought, 
could we but look, as God looks—down into 
the audience chamber of the spirit—the heart, 
—how differently our minds would be affected 
at the sight of these bodily deformities. Per¬ 
haps, yon poor blind man, grinding away 
upon bis hand-organ, whose natural eyes for 
long, weary years, have been closed against 
the profusion of beauty around him, has had 
the eyes of his understanding opened, and the 
pure light from the eternal throne illumines 
the depths of his soul. Perhaps he, who 
hobbles slowly and sadly along upon his 
crutches, treads with care and unknown joy, 
the narrow way, —and when, life’s journey’s 
o’er, he walks through the valley of the shadow 
of death, he will fear no evil ; for a rod and 
a staff unknown to his earthly pilgrimage, 
they will comfort him. Who shall say but he, 
whose deformity drives him from the public 
way, walks continually before God and An¬ 
gels—a perfect man? It may be, that yon 
helpless one— so helpless that his mother feeds 
him has power to move the arm that moves 
the world ; for God hears prayer. 
It is a most solemn truth that He who is 
the judge of quick and dead, looks not upon 
the outer man ; but upon his inner, spiritual 
nature. With His judgment, it matters not, 
that a man be deformed ; that his eyes be blind 
or his tongue be tied : is the heart all right ? 
—has it become a sanctuary, meet for the 
spirit’s residence and lighted by the Sun of 
Righteousness, where every word, thought 
and deed, becomes an acceptable sacrifice to 
God ? is it not disturbed by sin or blinded by 
passion ? These are the things which have to 
do in the estimate which God puts upon every 
intelligent creature. Take good care then, my 
brother pilgrim, that the heart is all right— 
though the body which covers it for a little 
season is distorted and maimed. s. a. e. 
Every day well spent lessens the task that 
God has sent us. 
