I have received through Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, publishers of a Methodist dictionary and other works of erudition and vital piety, an invitation to vote aye on a large number of changes of words in common use—mostly in the fonetic direction. Simplicity is the apparent aim. There is a good deal of retrospect in the list. Some of the spellings that were licked out of us when we were boys seem like old friends come back to ask our pardon. The old days are with us when we are told to spell “skul,” for example. The evisceration of sacred words is a little arbitrary. “Savior” is spelt without the full-mouthed British “u,” dear to every lover of the Prayer Book, but Antichrist isn’t economized at all. “Pel-mel” looks it, if a word ever did. “Graf” is something to be guessed at, and one may ask if “adulterin” is something to eat. The fonetix didn’t reach Czar, or perhaps our M. E.—me friends are respecters of persons. However, they shortened “pontiff” by an “f,” and I wouldn’t be surprised if His Holiness masqueraded as “Pop” in the next circular. It is interesting, if not impressive, this reform—like the abbreviation of bicycle clothes and the sending of bad writing by wire. * * * * * That choking female on the cover of the _Mid-Continent_ is still tottering, but hasn’t tumbled yet. Neither have the publishers, it would seem. * * * * * A hammock and a book and a horse and a yacht are really enough to begin with for Robert Grant. He says as much in _Scribner’s_ and he doesn’t care a dam for Newport for a week or two. How little the things of this vain world appeal to those who can have them by touching a button. * * * * * It runs in the Howl family. W. Dean has a daughter who puts her poems under display ad heads in _Scribner’s_. The decorative head is the thing. The poem just belongs. * * * * * The last _Century_ is not so distinctly medieval as some of its predecessors. * * * * * Mrs. Robert Humphrey Elsmere Ward has quit twaddling for a space. “Bessie Costrell” is ended, and it’s a toss up between jubilate and nunc dimittis. * * * * * The current _Atlantic_ is very pacific—not to say mild. * * * * * The June _Chautauquan_ really praises “newspaper English.” This is the time of year when the Reservation wants all the newspaper English it can get for nothing. The amazing thing about that Amazing Marriage is the lot of talk the proof reader has read about it. * * * * * Tarbell discovered Napoleon, but McClure discovered Tarbell. Now let’s have a series of living documents—“Tarbell at 8,” “Tarbell at 9:30,” “Tarbell at 46,” etc. * * * * *