Etc. [pp. 471-474]

ETC. 471
is, that those who are best educated have the least need of them. If you misspelled a
word in a letter your correspondent would know it was nothing but a little carelessness
or absent-mindedness; but when a person of defective education misspells, the reader
presumes that it is from ignorance. Just as a man who is known to be rich can afford to
forget his pocket-book when he goes down town; but that would hardly do for some of
us who are less fortunate."
To me," said I, "the worst of the pronunciation problem is, the silent assumptions
and comments of those who think they are educated because they have gathered up a few
niceties of speech. I never say`either' and`neither' without being conscious that some
one among my hearers remarks to himself,`How ignorant he must be, not to know that
those words should be pronounced e?ither and nyther.' I wish they would look into their
dictionaries, where they might learn that those words do not come from any language in
which ei is pronounced like i, but are Anglo-Saxon; and that the true pronunciation is
eet/i~r and neether. They might as well talk of casting their eyes up to the cyling and
observing that the ornamentation on it was very decyving. I remember once asking my
father whether I should pronounce`deaf' (leef or def. He answered,`If you are with
ignorant persons, you should say deefi if you are with those who think they are well
educated, but are not, say d~ but again, if your company are really educated, say deefi"'
At this point the tea-bell rang, and we all left the Arbor.
;.t/?`~`~~t~ 7/t. ~ ~ —
-—.
-~.;,~~ ~`.`~
NOT the grim, ghastly phan- and gone abroad with noisy juhilation, as if it were
tom of horror which soldiers Christmastide. And thus we know that war is
War! know, hut the glittering parade upon us!
of lusty youth and manly cour- Here and there amid the happy hustle a veteran of
age, of flaunting flags and hrazen trumpets, of cheer- the Civil war may he seen. Does he think of the
ing crowds and hot enthusiasm! As we write, rock- cheers and smiles, of the rockets and the red fire? Or
ets are trailing in luminous joy across the sky, does he think of the brave boys who, in a hundred
and the cheers of hoys are heard in vociferous glee trains, are hurrying to the camps of Chickamauga and
as the explosions announce the glad tidings. Happy New Orleans? Is it the ringing shouts that he hears,
throngs crowd the sidewalks, as though keeping holi- or the groans of dying men? Is it the light of jubiday festival, their faces lighted up by the glare of lant journalists that gleams red in his sight, or the
I3engal fire which a millionaire newspaper owner is bloody haze of battle? Are these the glad sounds of
setting off in token of the joyful event. Near hy, a children, or the cries of soldiers' orphans? Does not
jeweled and perfumed crowd moves with silken rustle the rustle of perfumed skirts recall the funeral crapes
into the theater to hear a favorite singer in a of widows and mourning mothers? Perhaps; for he
~panish opera. The world has put on its gala dress alone of all the multitude /`nows that -~ar is /i~i1!