FEINBERG/WHITMAN 
Box 32 Folder 4 

LITERARY FILE Prose "An American Primer" (1855-61). 

A.MS.draft.

Edited by Horace Traubel and published in 1904.15

1855-1861  An American Primer: prose.  A.MS. (111p. various
sizes)

Written on sheets of various tints improvised from the paper
covers used on unbound copies of the 1855 edition of Leaves of
Grass, and on some later paper. Planned as notes for a contemplated
lecture which was never delivered, the Primer continued 
to interest Whitman, who told Horace Traubel in the late
eighties: 'I may yet bring the Primer out;' When Traubel laughed 
W. added: ' Well, I guess you are right to laugh: I suppose I never
shall. And the best of the Primer stuff has leaked into my other
work'. The poet also said of it: 'It was first intended for a 
lecture: then when I gave up the idea of lecturing it was intended
for a book: now, as it stands, it is neither a lecture
nor a book.' Edited by Traubel, it was first published in 1904
by Small, Maynard & Company.
 The Primer of Words
[For American]
For American young Men and Women,
For Liter ats,
Orators,
Teachers,
Musicians,
Judges,
Presidents,
&c(Because it is a truth that)
the words continually used among
the people are, in numberless cases, not the words
used in writing, or recorded
in the dictionaries of authority.
[Probably] There are just as many
words in daily use, not inscribed in the dictionary, 
and seldom or never in any print,
[as there are words recorded. -
Also,
the forms of grammar are [seldom]
never [at] persistently obeyed, and
cannot be. -- 
     The [Prop] Real Dictionary will 
give all words that exist in
use, the bad words as well as17What is the [strange charm on] fitness - What the [fitness] strange charm of aboriginal names - Monongahela (sp)- it rolls with venison richness upon the palatePLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]                   [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Street.
Office hours from 9 A. M. till 2 P. M. daily - Wednesday and Saturday Evenings between 7 and 9 o'clock.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh,      Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185                        on the following Lot
Ward    Assessed No.      Location     Valuation   City   County  Default   Total
The nigger dialect furnishes hundreds
of outre words; many of them
adopted into the common speech
of the mass of the people.
Curiously these words show the
old English  wide open
instinct for pronunciations,
as yallah, for yellow - massah
for master -- and for rounding off all
the corners of words the 
nigger dialect has prints of the 
future theory of the
modification of all the words of the
English language for musical purposes,
for a native ground opera in Americaes of Grass.[Our] Language. -
[Woods are the]
            Much is said of what is spiritual,
and of spiritualing, in this, that, [are] or the
other - in objects, expressions. For me, I see
[mostly that ??] no object, no expression, no animal, no tree, no art, no book,
but I see, from many to night, and from night to morning, the spiritual. Bodies are all spiritual. - All words are spiritual - nothing
is more spriritual than words. - Whence
are they?  about how many thousands and [and hundreds] tens of thousands
of years have they come?  those eluding, fluid, beautiful,
flashless, realities, Mother, Father, Water, Earth, Me, This, Soul, Tongue, House, Fire,

                             ??
                  (?outset of Language)
       A great observation
will detect [samedtness] sameness
through all languages,
however old, however new,
however polished, however
rude. -- As humanity is
one under [all] its 
amazing diversities, [so] language
is one under its. The
flippant, [observer],
reading [or studying] [of] on
some long-past age.wonder[s] at its dead costumes,
its amusement, etc; but 
the master, [below those 
annual growths, acknowledges]
understands well the 
old, ever-new, ever-common 
grounds, below
those annual growths.-
[The master, I say] & [beholds]
between any two ages, any
two languages and two humanities
however [?] about in time and space marks well not the superficial
shades of difference but the mass-shades of a
joint nature. -3I see that the time is nigh when
the [shallow] etiquette of [foreign] saloons
[shall not] is to be [applied to] discharged from this great
thing, the renovated English speech in America.--
The occasions of the English speech, 
in America are immense, profound, stretch over ten thousand, vast cities, over millions of miles of meadows, farms, mountains, such through thousands of years--are immense,-- the occasions of saloons 
are for a coterie [for are] a bon soir
or two,-- [and] involve [besides they have] waiters
standing behind chairs, a [--] silent, obedient,
with [bend] backs that can bend[,--]
and must often bend.-- [How long do you
suppose]6What beauty there is in words! What
a lurking curious charm in the sound of
some words! - Then voices! [Two or three] Five or six times in
a lifetime, (perhaps not so often) [voices]
you have heard [such] from men and women
[speak in such tongue!] such [perfect] voices, as they
spoke the most common word! - What can
it be that from [such] those few men and women
made so much out of the most common word!
<vertical on left side of page, seems to be missing letters>
es
of
GrassGeography, shipping, the mint, the electric
telegraph, railroads, and so forth, have 
may strong and beautiful words.8mines - iron works - the sugar plantations of Louisiana - the [rice] cotton crop and the rice crop - [wheat], Illinois wheat - Ohio corn and pork - Maine Lumber - all these sprout in hundreds and hundreds of words, [of] all tangible and clean lined, all having texture and beauty.s of Grass

9To All [the] thoughts of [the] your or any one's mind - to all
[your] yearnings, passions, love, hate, envies,
madness, desperation of men for women,
and of women for men,-- to all [our that
you] charge[s] and surcharge[s this] that head [that] which
poises itself on your neck [that and that] is electric in the
body beneath your head, [and]-- [that] or
runs with [your] the blood through your
veins -- [that is] or in [that] those curious, incredible, miracle
[cells] you call [your] eyesight & hearing -- to all
these, and the like of these, have been made
words.-- Such are the words that are never
new and never old.-10What a history is folded [folded, and] folded
inward and inward [in and in] again, in the simple word I.-11The words of The Body! The words of Parentage! - The words of [Offsp] Husband and Wife! - The words of Offspring! The word Mother! - The word Father!12The words of [Manners] Behaviour are
quite numerous.-- They follow the law;
they are courteous, grave, have polish,
have an [odor] sound of presence, and [can share] abash
all furniture and shallowness out of their sight. 
[Womanly] The words of Maternity are all the words
that [were are] were ever spoken by the mouth
of [men] man, the [children] child of women -- but 
[t] they are reborn words and the [voice] mouth
of the full-view mother, daughter, wife, and,
[are or not hurt] do not offend by way any one them.13Medicine has hundreds of useful
and characteristic words - new means of
cure - new schools of doctors - the wonderful 
anatoy of the body - the names of a 
thousand diseases - surgeon's terms - hydropothy
- all that relates to the great organs of 
the body. - The Medical art Medicine is always grand -
nothing affords a nobler scope for [the]
superior man and woman. - It, [will] of
course, will [continue] never cease to be near [and]
to man, and [as] add new terms14Law, (Medicine), Religion, the Army, the personnel of
the Army and Navy, the Arts, stand on their old stock
of words, without increase. - In the law, 
[one it] is to be noticed a growig impatience
with [the] formulas, and [the] with diffuseness,
and, venerable slang. - The personnel of the Army and Navy
excists in America, apart from the throbbig
life of America - [exiles] an exile in the land, [- When]
foreign to the instincts and tastes of the
people, and, of course, in due time & soon to [be]
give place to somethig [far] native,
[and that has [?] [?] of] - somethig warmed
with throbs of our own life15These States are rapidly supplying 
themselves with new words, called for 
by new occasions, new facts, new
politics, new combinations. -- [Still
farth] Far plentier [words] additions [are needed]
will be needed, and, of course, will
be supplied. -16[?]  The Real Grammar  will
be that which declare itself
a nucleus [or] of the spirit of the laws, with
[perfect] liberty to all to carry
out the the spirit of the laws,
even if violating them, if necessary.
The English Language is grandly
lawless like the [to] race who
use it or rather breaks out of the little laws to enter truly the higher ones. [Or Perhaps] It is
so instinct with that which 
underlies laws [that] and the purports
of laws, [that] [I think] it [goes toward]
[the destinat] refuses all petty 
interriptuptions in its way 
[toward purports.]18Books themselves have their
peculiar words [all words] - namely
those that are never used in the living speech in the real world [except
in books] but only used in the
world of books. Nobody ever actually
talks as books and plays talk.19The Morning [Day] has its words, and the Evening [Night]
its words.--How much there is in
the word Light!--[How] How vast,
surrounding, falling, sleepy, noiseless is the word
Night!--It [is a word that] hugs [one a man] with
[welcome, vast,] unfelt[,] yet living arms. --[Leaves of]

20Character makes words.--The English stock,
[natural, fibred animal, friendly, fond of] full of enough of faulty but
[women, forest,] averse to all folderal, equable, instinctively just,
[never diverted][always] latent with pride and melancholy, ready
[never] with [the strong st] brawned arms,
with free speech, with the knife-blade
for tyrants and the reached hand for slaves,
-- have put all these in words. -- We
have them in America, -- they are the
body of the whole of the past. -- We 
are to justify our inheritance -- we
[too] are to pass it on to those who 
are to come after us, a thousand years
hence [and] as we have grown of the English of
a thousand years about21American geography--the plenteousness [of]
and variety of the great nations of the
Union--the thousands of settlements--the
seacoast--the Canadian north--the
Mexican south--California and Oregon--
the inland seas--the mountains--Arizonia--
the prairies--the immense rivers--the[Leav]es of Grass

[*22*]Many of the slang words among fighting
men, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes,
are powerful words

[Many of] These words ought to be 
collected - the bad words as well as 
the good; Many of these bad words are
fine. [specimens]23Music has many good words, now technical,
but of such rich and [flavor] juicy 
character [,] that they ought to be [made]
taken for common use in writing and
speaking.-24[All] new forms of science, [all] newer
freer characters, may have something in them
to need new words. - [The] One beauty of
words is exactitude: - To me, each
word out of the that now
compose the English language, has it own
meaning, and does not stand for any thing but
itself - and there are no two words [that are] the same
[and] any more than there are two persons the same.--[words]
-[also words to]

32names of characteristic amusments and
games,

(Much of America is shown in its newspaper
names, and in the names of its
steamboats, ships,26

es of Grass.What do you think words are?
Do you think words are [arbitrary] positive
and original things in themselves? - No: Words
are not original and arbitrary in 
themselves. - Words are [on] result - they are the progeny
of what has been or is in vogue. - If [ever?][s of Grass]

27architecture comes in vogue, as it seems
to be coming, words are wanted to [express]
stand for [those iron girders, facades,] all about iron architecture for
the work it causes, for the different branches of work and of
those blocks of [bu b or] buildings, the workmen, seven
stories high, with light strong
facades, and girders that will not
crumble [a] mite in a thousand years.28Also words to describe all American
peculiarities,-- [and] the splendid and rugged
characters that are [growing up] forming among these
states, [and have] or are already formed,-- in
the cities, the [New York] friends of Mannahatta, and
the target excursionist and Bowery Bay,-- the Boston truck
man--the Philadelphia [-- the]29In America an immense number of new
words are needed, [for] to embody the new
political facts, the compact of the
Declaration of Independence, and of the
Constitution -- the union of the states -- the
new-states -- the Congress -- the modes
of election -- the stump speech -- the30

[Leave]ways of electioneering-- addressing the people
-- [clothing] stating all that is to be said in
[such] modes [the] that fit the life and
experience of the Indianian, the
Michiganian, the Vermonter, the man of
Maine, [and] the31
[s of Grass]-- also words to answer the [greater]
modern [faith], rapidly spreading; faith, of
the vital equality of women with men,
[and of that their] and that they are
to be placed on [the same grounds,] an exact plane,
politically, socially, and in business, [as] with men.32words are wanted to supply the copious
trains of [facts] facts, and flanges of facts,
feelings, arguments, and adjectival facts; growing out
of all new [sciences] knowledges, Phrenology,33Drinking brandy, [or] gin, beer, is generally fatal 
to the perfection of the voice; [A M]meanness of mind [and
all is] the same; [G]gluttony in eating, of course the
same; a thinned habit of body, or a rank habit
of body -- masturbation, inordinate going with women, 
[total and spoil sternly] rot the voice. -- yet [none] no man can have 
a great vocalism [whose oration] who has no 
experience of [love] with women and no woman who has no experience with men.-- The [voice is rich with] final fibre, and charm
[the exact] of the voice, follows the chaste [experience] drench of love.34The great Italian singers are above all others
in the world from [for reasons preciously same like
the reasons quite for] the causes quite the same
so those that make the voices of the
[New strong] native healthy substrata of
[New York] Mannahatta young men, especially the drivers of
horses and all whose work leads to free loud
calling and commanding [the poss] have such a ring
and freshness.35Pronunciation of Yankees is
nasal [and chromatic -- it is] and
offensive -- it has [flate] the flat tones.-- 
It could probably be [remedied entirely] changed
by placing only those teachers in schools
who have rich ripe voices --
and by the children practicing
[the] to speak from the chest
and in the guttural ? and baritone ? [pitch of] methods
of voice.-- All sorts of physical,
moral and mental deformities
are inevitably returned in
the voice.

36 














                                                                                     Leaves   ofEnglish words -- Even people's names
were spelt [in] by themselves, sometime 
one way sometimes another.  Public necessity
remedies all troubles. -- Now in the 80th year of these States, there is 
a little diversity in the ways of spelling 
words, and [great] much diversity in the ways
of pronouncing them; - [but] steamships, 
railroads, newspapers, submarine telegraphs, will 
bring them in. --If not, it is not
important. --38
LeaveSo in the accents and inflections
of words.--  [The car coherence]
Language must cohere -- it cannot
be left loosely to float or to fly 
away.  Yet all the rules [?] of the accents and
inflections of words drop before a
perfect voice -- [it] that may follow the
rules, or be ignorant of them -- it is
indifferent which -- Pronunciation is the
[?] stamina of language -- it is
language. -- [A] The noblest pronunciation, 
in a city or race, marks [a] the
noblest city or race, or [the] descendants
[?] thereof. --39robust                         stern
brawny                        resistance
athletic                        bracing
muscular                      rude
acrid                             rugged
harsh                            rough
rugged                         shaggy
severe                           bearded
pluck                             arrogant
grit                                haughty
effrontery
The [nations] races that in their reality are supple, obedient,
[cringing] have hundreds of words to
express hundreds of forms of acts, thoughts,
flanges, of those [ideas] realities, which
the English tongue knows nothing of
The English tongue is full of
stray words native or adopted to express the blood-born
passion of the [Teutonic] race for
rudeness and resistance as against [the] polish and all
acts to give in.
These [are] words are alive and sinewy,
they walk, look, step with an air of [danger]
command.  They will [always] often lead
rest -- they will not follow.--  How can
they follow? -- They will  appear stoic in company with thought37Why are words names so mighty?-- Because
[father's] facts, ancestry, maternity, [is] faiths, are.--
Slowly, eternally, inevitably, move[s] the 
souls of the earth and words names are its their signs. [All is inextricable
from precedents and therefore should be
so.40Kosmos=words, Words of the [Enlargement] Free
Expansion of Thought, History, Chronology,
Literature, [-- Kosmos=words] are [becoming]
shows themselves with [grand larges and] foreheads, muscular necks and breasts.
This gladdens me.]! I put my arms around them -- touch my lips to them.
[The] The past [is can too thousand
years] hundred centuries have confided
much to me, [but] yet they mock me,
[and] frowning.-- [I cannot tell] I think I am
[startled at] done with many of the words of the past
hundred centuries.-- I am [terrified] mad that 
their poems, bibles, words, [yet represent] still rule
and represent the earth, and are not [at all overlaid] yet superseded.
[Walt Whitman, are you will you be impatient?]
But why do I say so?-- I
[am] must not,-- will not be
impatient.--



41[Why shoul]
In [these] American ei[?] excursions, for military
practice, for firing at the target,
for all the exercises of health and 
manhood - why should not women
accompany them? [Though these stale,]
I expect to see [the day] the time in [those in] Politics, Business [conventions], Public gatherings, [????], 
Processions, Excitements, 
when women shall not
be divided from men 
but shall take their part [in] on the 
same terms as men. [take their part.]
[only the]
[what] [???] [men being fitter to stand]
[back those men that] What sort 
of women have Massachusetts, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and the rest, 
[States to] correspondent with what [what] they continually 
want? 
Sometimes, I have [?] fancied that only from superior 
hard women [????] [?] rise the future superiorities of the States





42gallus
Man's words, for the young men of these states, are all words that have 
arisen out of the qualities of mastership,
[freedom] [go] going first, trusting danger first,
- word to identify [an] [erect] [a new] a hardy [?]
[upright] boyhood - [an unstained] knowledge -
an [sweet] erect, sweet, lusty, body without taint [Here]
[where] [where all] choice [and ?] of its [love] [life] love = power -Grass.
43The spelling of words is subordinate.
[To Great Excessive nicety] Morbidness [about] for
nice spelling, [me] and tenacity for or against some one letter or so means dandyism and impotence
in literature .-–  Of course the great writers
must have digested all these things,-– 
[and] passed lexicons, etymologies [ayntages]
orthographies, through [him] them and extracted [all] their nutriment .-- Modern
taste is for [brief] brevity and for ranging
[in] word in spelling classes;-– Probably the words of the 
English tongue can never be ranged in 
spelling classes.-– The Phonetic Spelling is on 
natural principles -– it has arbitrary 
forms of letters, [for all] and combinations
of letters, for all sounds. [-- For a long] It may [one] in time prevail -- it surely will prevail if it is [?] best it should.
[will while after] For many hundred years there 
was nothing like [uniform] settled spelling in most44
LeaveSheet to Maynard

A perfect use of words45A perfect user of words
uses things - [they] thy exude
[A po] in power and beauty
from him - miracles from
his hands - miracles from
his mouth - [the or[?]] lilies clouds sunshine woman - probed[?] exposure[?] - things, whirled
like chain = shot - rocks,
defrance, compulsion,
houses, iron, locomotives,
the oak, the pine, the keen eye,
the hairy breast, the
Texan ranger, the
Boston truckman, the
[to] woman that arouses
[an] man, the man that
arouses a woman .. -Tavern words, such as have reference to
drinking, or the compliments of those
who drink - the names of some
[two] three hundred different American taverns = drinks
in one part or another of these
states. -46Words of all degrees of dislike, from just a
tinge, onward [to the and] or deepward. -
Words of approval, admiration, friendship.
([It is to be] This is to be said [?away] the
young men of these states, that with a
wonderful tenacity of friendship, and [a manliness of]
passionate fondness for their friends, and always a
[manly?] readiness to make friends, they yet have
remarkably few words [to] of names for the friendly sentiments.-
They seem to be words that do not thrive here [?away], the
muscular classes, where the real quality of friendship is
always [?ies] to be found. - Also they are



47







s     of    Grass.words which the muscular classes, [and] the young
men of these states, [are] rarely use, and have
an aversion for; - they never give words to
their most ardent friendships. -





     48




es    of   Grass.Words of politics are numerous
in these states, and many of them
peculiar-- The western states have
terms of their own
Words of costume






49[the all new goods] the Presidents message  -
 the political meeting - the committees - the
resolutions -

- new vegetables - new trees - new animals 

If success and breed follow the camels and dromedaries, [succeed and breed], that [have]
are now just introduced into Texas, to [br]
[be used] be used for travel and traffic over the
[plains[?]] vast wilds between the lower Mississippi 
and the Pacific, [over issuance[?]] a number of new words will also have to be bred after them.




50Politics
(being in last of "Appeal")

Words of Epithets. 

[American speech and writing
?] The [tastes] appetites of the people of
These States, in [?] popular speeches and writing [are] is for [great] unhemmed latitude
coarseness, directness, live epithets, expletives,
words of approbation, resistance. [in
public speeches and writing] -- This I
understand because I have the [?] taste 
myself as large as large and in [?] one [I have pleasure in the use of fit
discourse] of
traitor          mean curse
coward        backslider
liar                thief
shyster         impotent
skulk             lickspittle
dough face
trickster51[As long as] Appendant, I see, The great writers, [ I see]
are often select of their audiences. -
The greatest writers [are] only [they]
[who] are [perfectt at] well-pleased and at their ease
among the [common ?] unlearned [and create]
[? all] are received by [?] common men and women
[received as] familiarly, [and who] do
not [possible] hold out obscure, [and] but
[are] come welcome [at] to table, bed, leisure, by
day and night.-



   52A perfect writer [will] would make 
words, [do any thing that any thing can do] 
sing, dance, kiss, [copulate] do the male and female act, bear children, 
weep, bleed, rage, stab, steal, 
[as] fire cannon, steer ships, [play 
overtures of music perform operas,] 
sack cities, [short trot or be] 
charge with cavalry or infantry, 
or do any thing that [any thing,] man or woman or the natural powers can do.s of Grass.

[*53]Latent, in a great user of words, must
actually be all passions, crimes, trades, animals, 
stars, God. [?], the past, night,
space, metals, and the like -- because these
are the words, and [of] he who is not these,
plays with a foreign tongue, [talking]
turning helplessly to dictionaries, and authorities. 
How can I tell you? - [I dare say 
I cannot tell you after all]. --- I 
put many things [now] on record
that you will not understand at 
first -- perhaps not in a year -- but 
they must [are to be] be understood. -- [I am?] The
earth, I see, writes with prodigal
Clear hands all summer, forever, and all winter also, content
and certain to be understood in time.




       54as, doubtless, only the
greatest user of words [poet] himself [ever] fully enjoys
and understands himselfs of Gr

[*55]Mannahatta
Words of Names of Places, [give
a make a] are strong, [and unshaped autrimmed] copious, unruly
[ingredient] in the repertoire [of] for
[our the] American pegs and tongues. -- The Names of These States --
the names of Counties, Cities, Rivers,
Mountains, Villages, Neighborhoods
-- [Some] poured plentifully from [the] each of the [va] languages
that [have contributed to] graft the English
language -- or named from some natural[ly]
peculiarity of water or earth, or [from] some
event that happened there -- often
[rudely] named, from death, from some
animal, from some of those subtle analog[y]ies
that the [ages peo] common people are
so quick to perceive. -- The names56in the list of the Post Offices of these 
States are [in] studies. -- [The few
will realise they indicate]
What name a city has -- What name
a State, [a] river, sea, mountain, wood, 
[me] prairie, has -- [I think it] is [not] no
[an] indifferent matter. -- [The] All aboriginal
names [are] sound [all] good; I see how
they are being preserved. I was asking for something savage and luxuriant, and behold here are the aboriginal names. They all 
fit, -- they give the true length, breadth, depth -- Mississippi! -- [how] the word [rolls] winds,
with chutes -- [and is] it [?] rolls a stream three thousand miles 
long; -- Ohio, [is as true the] Connecticut, Ottawa all fit [fit this] Monongahela [Delaware Ontario] and57[There is]
Names are [wonderful] magic[al words] -- [the] one 
word[s bring up an opens such] can pour such
a flood [in] through the soul. -- [I] To=day 
[have mentioned Christ --] I
[will always] will mention Christ's
before all other names. [But what]
[heros] Grand words of names are still
left. -- What is it that flows 
through me at the sight of
the word [Hermes or Pythagoras or] Socrates, [or Plato,]
[or Pythagoras, or Hermes;]
or Cincinnatus, or Alfred of
the olden time -- or at the sight
of the word Columbus, or Shakespeare


   58









 Grass.(?)    or Rosseau or
Mirabeau - or at the sight (?)
of the (words) word George Washington,
or Jefferson, or R.W. Emerson?59









Grass.Out of Christ are divine words.
Out of this saviour
Some words are [some first] fresh=smelling like roses to the soul,
blooming without failure -- the name of Christ - all
[Such] words [are those] that have
arisen from the life and [and] death
[Christ] of [Jesus] Christ, the [saviour]
[of men, the] divine son [of Mary,]
who [was crucified,] went about
speaking perfect words, no patois -- whose life
was perfect, -- [who the well-beloved
whose hand] the touch of whose hands and
feet [did] was miracles -- who was crucified -- his
flesh laid in a shroud in the grave, but60








                                



                                                  Leaves    ofA few characteristic words
unprove this
Words give us to see (list of 
poets -- Hindoo -- Hower -- Shakespeare
Pythagoras -- Socrate -- Christ
Pluto                 Sesostris, Menes that walked with Admas
Toroaster
Menas
[[A] Say,
I say that either liberty is to
have the [life] blood of slaves, or slavery is to have the blood
of liberty.--]61





     






                                                                Leaves   of? [A Suggestive] Primer
Words of names of Persons, thus far,
[follow the are result from the
precedent of have no other return as of a] still return the [other] old continents
and races -- return the past three thousand
years -- perhaps twenty thousand -- [return from] return the Hebrew Bible, Greece,
Rome, France, the Goths, the Celts, Scandinavia, [the Anglo] Germany, England.
Still questions come: 
What flanges [are appear there wait for to be] are practicable for names of persons that
[expand from ourselves] mean These States? What [are] is
there in the best aboriginal names?
What [are] is there in strong words
of qualities, bodily, mental, --  a name
given to the [mos] clearest and most
beautiful body, or to the offspring of
the same? What is there that will
conform to the genius of These States,
and to all the facts? -- What escape [without]62with perfect freedom, without affectation,
[is there] from the shoals of Johns, Peters, 
Davids, Marys, 
Or on What [other names shall be preferred] happy principle popular and fluent, could other words
or suffisced to these, to make them 
show who they are [and] what land they 
were born in, [and] what government, [wat S] which of The States, what genius, mark, 
blood, [?] times [?] have coined them 
with [this out] strong=cut coinage?




63The [heart] subtle charm of beautiful pronunciation
is not in dictionaries, grammars, marks of accent,
[or any] formulas of language, or [any thing]
in [the] any laws or rules. [The [heart] charm of [all] the
beautiful pronunciation of all words, of
all tongues, is [a] in perfect flexible vocal organs,
[flexible] and in a developed harmonious soul. -- [These
make ? all words of A Canon] All words, spoken
[?] from these have [superb] deeper sweeter
sounds, new meanings, impossible on any less
terms. -- Such meanings, such sounds continually
wait in [all words] every word that exists -- in these words -- perhaps slumbering] [not]
[worked] through years, [perhaps] closed from
all [ears, and] tympanies of temples, lips, brains, until [the]
[that it] that comes which has [that] the quality [of]
[that none are] waiting patiently in [in that] the word[s,]. [and even
now to die.]]



64








                                                                                                   LeaveThe blank left by Words wanted, but [not yet adopted have] unsupplied has
sometimes an [ghastly] imaginable putrid [for most frightful indescribable
It is a bitter] cadaverous meaning. It [glares is curse] talks louder
[What a [bitt] bitter taste it [throws] than [sound] tongues]
What an a [rank acrid unsweetened] stinging taste is [yet]
left in that [all] literature [and] or conversation [words that there are that there]
[have] where have not yet been [adopted] served up by resistless
consent, words [that] to be freely used
in [liter] books, rooms, at tables, any where,
to specifically mean the act male and
female. [What can ?]  


     65Likely there are other words wanted.
Of [all] words wanted, the matter is
summed up in this;  When the time
comes for them to represent any thing,
or any state of things, the words will
surely follow. -- The lack of any words, I say again, is as historical as the existence of words. -- As for me, I feel
[many] a hundred realities, [perfectly well] clearly determined
in me, that words are not yet
formed to represent. -- Men like me, also women, our counterparts, perfectly equal. --
will gradually get to be more and 
more numerous -- perhaps swiftly, in
shoals; then the words will also 
follow, in shoals; -- It is in the glory 
and superb rose=hue [bloom] of the English 
language, any where, that it [admits of] favors growth 
as the skin does -- that it can soon become, wherever that is needed, the
tough skin of a superior man or woman.




   66The [whole] art of the [great] use of
words, [dwindles into a] would be a stain & smutch,
[in before] but for the stamina of things. Now

      67For in manners, poems,
orations, music, friendship, authorship,
what is not said is just as important
as what is said, and [gives out as] holds just as much
meaning--
fond of men, as a living woman
is--fond of women, as a living 
man is.
Grass.




     68I like [a] limber, lashing, fierce words [tongue]. -- I
like [it] them applied to myself -- and [a]
I [would] like [to see it] them in newspapers,
courts, debates, congress. [The liberty,
the brawn of These States -- What] Do
you suppose [they] the liberties and the brawn of These States have to do as with
delicate lady=words? with gloved gentleman
words? -- [the] Bad Presidents, bad judges, bad
clients, bad editors, owners of slaves and the long ranks of
Northern Political suckers, monopolists, infidels, robbers, traitors, suborned, castrated persons,
impotent persons, shaved persons,
supplejacks, ecclesiastics, men not fond
of women, [and] women not fond of men,
[women not will] cry down the use of
strong, cutting, beautiful rude words -- [but] To the
manly instincts of the People [it will be different] they
will forever be welcome. [to them.]




    69In words of names, the [ear] mouth and 
ear of the people [prefers love are averse
brevity and no] show antipathy to titles, [or] Misters, -- handles
they love short first names abbreviated to their 
[mouths] like: Tom, Bill, [Walt], Jack. --
These are to enter into literature
and be voted for on political
tickets for the great offices,




      70Expletives,
Words naming the act male and female.
[Words of]
Curious words and phrases, of assent or inquiry,
Nicknames, either to persons or customs,
(Many actions many kinds of character, & many of the fashions of dress have names among
two thirds of the people, that would never be
understood among the remaining third, and never
appear in print.)


    71  








                                                                                              es   of   Grass.Factories, mills, and all the
processes of hundreds of different
manufactures, grow thousands of
words. -- Cotton, [and] woollen, and silk
goods -- hemp, rope, carpets,
paper=hangings, paints, [tin] roofing
preparations, hardware, furniture, paper=mills
the printing=offices with their wonderful
improvements, [paper] engraving, daguerreotype,
[From] This is the age of the metal
Iron. -- Iron, [and] with all that [it]
it does, or that belongs to iron, or
flanges from it, [has a prolific
seat] results in words: from the 
[minds] mines, [a thousand words] have 
been drawn, as [the] ore has been
drawn. -- Following the universal
law of words, these are
welded together in hardy
forms and characters. -- They
are ponderous, string, definite,



    72not indebted to the antique -- they
are [iron] iron words wrought
and cast. -- I [consider] see them 
all good, [and] faithful, [true
sturdy, &] massive, permanent
words. -- I love well these iron words of 
1856. Coal has its words
also, that assimilate very
much with those of iron.
Gold of course has always
its words. -- The mint, the
American coinage the dollar
piece, the fifty dollar or
one hundred dollar piece
-- California, the metallic basis
of banking, chemical tests of
gold -- all these have their
words. --




      73







                                                                                       Leaves    of[California words]
Canada Words
Yankee Words
Mannahatta Words,
Virginia Words
[Caroli]
Florida and Alabama Words,--
Texas Words
Mexican and Nicaraguan Words,
California Words,
Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana words,



    74








                                                                                 Leaves   ofThe different mechanics have
different words -- all however
[following gr a the] under a few great over=arching
laws. -- These are
Carpenter's words      Tailor's words
Mason's words            Hatter's words
Blacksmith's words     Weaver's words
Shoemaker's words    Painter's words
[The modern American printing press
Farmers]
The Farmer's words are immense. --
They are mostly old, [have] partake
of ripeness, home, the ground, -- [and]
have nutriment, like wheat and milk.
Farm words are added to, now, 
by a new class of words, from
the introduction of [scientific]
chemistry into farming and from the
introduction of numerous machine[ry]s into the 
farm and field.




     75Sheet [?]
The Nigger Dialect



   76leaving the words just as they are for writing and speaking, but the same words so modified as to answer perfectly, for musical purposes, or grand and simple principles. Then we should have two sets of words, male and female as they should be, in these states, both equally understood by the people, giving a fit much needed medium to that passion for music, which is deeper and purer in America than any other land in the World.
The music of America to adopt the Italian methods, and expand it to the vaster, simpler, far superber effects. It is not to be satisfied tile in comprehension the people, and is comprehensible by them.77
es of Grass.Coast words,
Sea = words, sloop = words, sailor's and boatmen's words, words of ships, are numerous in America. One fourth of the people of these states are aquatic [in character] - love the water, love to be near it, smell it, sail on it, swim in it, fish, clam, trade to and fro, upon it. To be [?] on the water, [and] or in constant sight of it, affects words, [affects character,] the voice, the passions. Around the markets, among the fish = smacks, along the wharves, you hear a thousand [strong, a never] words, never yet printed in the repertoire of any lexicon - words [that are to the life of] strong words [strong] solid as [timber timbre] logs, and [of] more beauty to me than any of the antique.78
es of Grass.This is insert # 7 (see page 467 Atlantic pages)                                      THE

             GOSPEL    OF    FREEDOM
       79 A    FORTHCOMING   BOOK.

                              BY
                       MOWRY   SABEN.

I  desire   to  announce   that  I  have  in press  a
work   entitled   The  Gospel  of   Freedom,   which
will   be  out  on  or  about  Sept.   15th.    It  consists
of  four  lectures,   entitled :    The  Twilight   of   the
Gods,     The   Divine  Right   of   Freedom,   The  Re-
ligion   of  Humanity   and  The  Golden    Age.
     The  book   will  consist  of  some  two  hundred
pages,    printed   on   good   paper   and  substaintially
bound   in  cloth.          The   price   will   be  one  dollar.
   The   Gospel    of   Freedom   is   a  book   for  all  who
dare    to   think   for   themselves.
                                                         MOWRY   SABEN.
     Send   subscriptions   to   the  Unity   Publishing   House, 173
Purchase    Street,   New   Bedford,   Mass.460   An American Primer.

      >>Horace Traubel's introduction<<
The American Primer is a challenge rather than a finished fight. Whitman shows in it what
he was prepared to do rather than what he thought he had perfected. It was his original intent
to enlarge these notes into a study which would in a sense inclose the theme and dignify it
in the way it deserved. Whitman in his early career planned for all sorts of literary ventures
which were not consummated. Whitman was undoubtedly convinced that he had a mission.
This conviction never assumed fanatic forms. Whitman was the most catholic man who ever
thought he had a mission. But he did regard himself as such a depository. Yet he never believed
or contended that he possessed exclusive powers or an extraordinary divination. He felt
that if the message with which he was entrusted did not get out through him it would get out
through some other. But in his earlier career, after he tired of writing in the formal way and
to the formal effect -- for he played the usual juvenile part in literary experiment, -- he felt that
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to secure publishers either for his detail work or for his
books. He often asked himself How am I to deliver my goods? He once decided that he
would lecture. And he told me that when the idea of the American Primer originally came to
him it was for a lecture. He wrote at this thing in the early fifties, -- even as far along as 1856-57.
And there is evidence that he made brief additions to it from time to time in the ten years that
followed. But after 1855, when he succeeded in issuing the first edition of Leaves of Grass,
some of his old plans were abandoned, -- this lecture scheme with others, -- and certain new plans
were formulated. The Primer was thenceforth, as a distinct project, held in abeyance. I remember
that once in the late eighties he laughed and said to me "I may yet bring the Primer
out." And when I laughed incredulously he added "Well, I guess you are right to laugh. I
suppose I never shall. And the best of the Primer stuff has no doubt leaked into my other
work." It is indeed true that Whitman gave expression to the substance of the Primer in one
way or another. Even some of its sentences are utilized here and there in his prose and verse
volumes. But the momentum gathered and brought to bear upon the subject in the manuscript
now under view was nowhere else repeated. The Primer, therefore, has, as a part of Whitman's
serious literary product, a marked identity. Whitman said of it "It was first intended for a
lecture: then when I gave up the idea of lecturing it was intended for a book: now, as it stands,
it is neither a lecture nor a book." --
      >>handwritten #Insert from below<<
I have followed
the original manuscript
without
any departures
whatsoever. All
its peculiarities
of capitalization
& punctuation are
allowed to remain
untouched.
--  HORACE TRAUBEL.

An American Primer.
      >>left column of American Primer<<
Much is said of what is spiritual, and
spirituality, in this, that, or the other, --
in objects, expressions. For me, I see no
object, no expression, no animal, no tree,
no art, no book, but I see, from morning
to night, and from night to morning,
the spiritual. Bodies are all spiritual.
All words are spiritual -- nothing
is more spiritual than words. Whence
are they? Along how many thousands
and tens of thousands of years have they
come? -- those eluding, fluid, beautiful,
fleshless realities, Mother, Father, Water,
Earth, Me, This, Soul, Tongue,
House, Fire.
A great observation will detect sameness
through all languages, however old,
however new, however polished, however
      >>right column of American Primer<<
rude. As humanity is one under its amazing
diversities, language is one under its.
The flippant read on some long past age,
wonder at its dead costumes [customs?],
its amusements, &c.; but the master understands
well the old, ever-new, ever-common
grounds, below those animal
growths, and, between any two ages, any
two languages and two humanities, however
wide apart in time and space, marks
well not the superficial shades of difference,
but the mass shades of a joint nature.
In a little while, in the United States,
the English language, enriched with contributions
from all languages, old and
new, will be spoken by a hundred millions
of people : perhaps a hundred thou-

      >>left column of footnote to Horace Traubel's introduction<<
"As an alternate to his adopted headline I
find this among Whitman's memoranda: "The
Primer of Words: For American Young Men
      >>right column of footnote to Horace Traubel's introduction<<
and Women, For Literati, Orators, Teachers,
Musicians, Judges, Presidents, &c." -- H.T.
Copyright, 1904, by HORACE TRAUBEL.

Copyright, 1904, by Horace Traubel.The Frenchwoman's Son. 459
 
"with your father. What would you
like me to do? For I burned the mill
because your father was cruel to you, and 
I disliked him." He kept his strange
gaze on her, standing motionless.

McManus's daughter sobbed wordlessly
as she sprang at him and ran him
out the back door.
 
"There's the swamp; you ain't afraid
of it," - anguish and hate had killed  her
own terror of the place; "hide! What's
an old mill? Hide!"

"You'd be afraid in it! he said uneasily;
and she laughed fiercely over her
sobbing.

"That wouldn't make me stay. Hurry;
stoop down!"
        
There was dead silence abroad now.
Through it the two slipped safely across
Welsh's inadequate clearing, into the
thin green of its fringe of alders; and
between them and the heavy screen of
the swamp maples something moved.
It was the man from Sabean's, the dirty
messenger of the morning; and the
Frenchwoman's son cut off his shout in
the middle. But the half cry had done
it. McManus was hot foot round the
house with the sheriff after him, and
Noel was dragging the girl through the
binding maples, down into the bay bushes
that stretched breast-high between green
abysses and runnels of fathomless black
water. When they reached his path
they could drop and lie hidden, for not
a man would dare follow them; but for
now they must be cat-footed over the
deadly green that spurted to their every
step. There was cover enough, and he
put her behind him, without daring to
take his eyes from the quaking ground
under his feet.

"Walk in my steps," he ordered,
wondering if the next few yards would
bear them ; and his heart stopped as she
screamed, -
"My dress - my dress with roses on
it!" Even as he wheeled to clutch her
she had broken away from him and was
running, leaping helter-skelter back to 
the house, with no heed to the careful 
way she had come. 

The Frenchwoman's son stood up
straight in the afternoon light, his black
head a clear mark against the young
sun-filtered green of the thicket he was 
making for.

"Lie down!" he yelled, "lie down!"

He did not hear any answer. It was
McManus who had fired, and the sheriff,
who was half-hearted about the whole
business, had been slow in knocking up
his gun. Mary McManus had lain down
in a very pretty patch of quaking grass.
The Frenchwoman's son knew she was
dead as she crumpled forwards, but he
was a white man who had been going to
marry a white girl. He went back for
her. He was heedless of the sheriff's
calling; he knew a path through the
swamp, and he must carry her to it that
he might bury her out in the clean ground
of the Sou'west. But the weight across
his shoulder had somehow confused him;
and the dead girl's hair kept brushing
over his eyes, so that in the waving shadow
of it he saw another shadow moving
before him. To the dull anguish of his
haste the very bushes were malignant;
they kept him back, springing in his face
with blow after blow, as though he followed
too close a trail, But he was a
white man, and he fought through them,
making blindly for the sinking sun. It
was on the edge of a bottomless black
channel that he stumbled, and fell.

No sound came back out of the swamp;
that which had been unquiet was perhaps
fed; but in Welsh's house a light air
crept through the open back door and
fluttered the dress with roses on it that
lay half made on the floor.

S. Carleton.

Gospel of Freedom
A Forthcoming Book.
By 
Mowry Saben.

I desire to announce that I have in press a 
work entitled The Gospel of Freedom, which 
will be out on or about Sept. 15th. It consists 
of four lectures, entitled: The Twilight of the Gods, 
The Divine Right of Freedom, The Religion of Humanity 
and The Golden Age.

The book will consist of some two hundred 
pages, printed on good paper and substantially 
bound in cloth. The price will be one dollar.

The Gospel of Freedom is a book for all who 
dare to think for themselves.

Mowry Saben.

Send subscriptions to the Unity Publishing House, 
173 Purchase Street, New Bedford, Mass.An American Primer.       461
     >>>LEFT COLUMN<<<
sand   words (" seventy  or  eighty  thousand
words"-----  Noah  Webster [*of the English languages*]).
The  Americans    are   going   to  be  the
most   fluent  and   melodious  voiced  people
in   the  world ----and   the   most   perfect
users   of  words.      Words  follow  character,
------ nativity,   independence,  individuality.
I see  that   the   time   is  nigh   when   the
etiquette   of   salons    is   to be  discharged
from   that  great  thing,    the   renovated   Eng-
lish   speech   in  America.         The  occasions 
of   the  English   speech  in  America    are
immense,   profound ------  stretch   over  ten
thousand  vast  cities,  over   through   thousands
of  years,  millions   of   miles   of  mead-
ows,   farms,  mountains,  men.    The   occasions
of  salons   are   for   a  coterie,  a  bon
soir   or  two -----  involve  waiters   standing
behind  chairs,  silent,  obedient,  with  backs
that   can  bend  and  must  often  bend.
  What  beauty   there  is  in  words !  What
a  lurking  curious  charm   in  the  sound   of
some   words  !   Then  voices  !   Five  or   six
times  in  a   lifetime  (perhaps   not  so  often)
you   have   heard   from   men   and  women
such   voices,  as   they   spoke   the  most  common
word  !   What  can  it   be   that   from
those   few   men  and  women  made   so  much
out   of   the  most   common  word  !  Geography,
shipping,  steam,  the   mint,  the  electric 
telegraph,   railroads,  and  so  forth,
have   many   strong   and  beautiful   words.
Mines ----  iron  works -----   the   sugar   plantations
of  Louisiana ----  the   cotton   crop  and
the   rice  crop  ---- Illinois   wheat ----   Ohio
corn   and   pork  ----   Maine   lumber ---- all
these sprout   in  hundreds   and  hundreds
of  words,  all  tangible   and  clean-lived,  all
having   texture   and  beauty.
    To all  thoughts   of   your  or   anyone's
mind,  -----  to  all  yearnings,  passions,  love,
hate, ennui, madness, desperation  of  men 
for  women,  and   of  women   for  men,--- to
all  charging  and  surcharging, ---  that  head
which  poises  itself   on  your   neck  and  is
electric  in  the  lobby  beneath  your  hand,
or  runs  with  the  blood   through   your
veins,  or  in  those  curious  incredible  miracles
you  call  eyesight  or  hearing, --- to all
these,  and  the  like  of  these,  have been
     >>>RIGHT COLUMN<<<
made   words.   Such   are  the  words  that
are  never  new  and  never  old.
What  a  history  is  folded,  folded  inward
and  inward  again,  in  the  single  word I.
The  word  of  the  Body  !  The  words
of  Parentage !    The  words  of  Husband
and  Wife.   The  words   of   Offspring  !
The  word  Mother  !  The  word  of  Father!
The words  of  Behavior  are  quite  numerous.
They   follow   the  law ;  they  are
courteous,  grave ,   have  polish,   have  a
sound   of  presence,  and  abash  all   furniture
and   shallowness   out  of  their  sight.
The  words  of  maternity   are   all  the
words   that  were   ever  spoken   by  the  mouth
of  man,  the   child  of   woman, ----   but    they
are  reborn  words,  and   the  mouth   of  the
full-sized   mother,  daughter,  wife,  amie,
does   not   offend   by  using   any  of  them.
Medicine   has   hundreds  of  useful   and
characteristic   words --- new  means  of  cure
----  new  schools   of  doctors --- the   wonderful
anatomy   of  the  body --the names of
a thousand diseases -- surgeon's terms
--hydropathy -- all that relates to the
great organs of the body.  The  medical
art  is  always   grand --  nothing  affords  a
nobler  scope   for  superior  men and   women.
It,  of  course,  will  never  cease   to
be  near  man,  and  add  new  terms.
Law, Medicine, Religion, the Army, 
the personnel of the Army and Navy, 
the Arts, stand on their old stock of 
words, without increase. In the law is
to be noticed a growing impatience with 
formulas, and with diffuseness, and venerable
slang. The personnel of the 
Army and the Navy exists in America,
apart from the throbbing life of America,
-- an exile in the land, foreign to the instincts
and tastes of the people, and, of
course, soon in due time to give place
to something native, something warmed
with throbs of our own life. 
These States are rapidly supplying
themselves with new words, called for by 
new occasions, new facts, new politics, 
new combinations. Far plentier additions
will be needed, and, of course, will 
be supplied.462     An American Primer.

   Because it is truth that the words
continually used among the people are,
in numberless cases, not the words used
in writing, or recorded in the dictionaries
by authority, there are just as many
words in daily use, not inscribed in the
dictionary, and seldom or never in any
print. Also, the forms of grammar are
never persistently obeyed, and cannot be.
   The  Real  Dictionary will give all the 
words that exist in use, the  bad words as
well as any. The Real Grammar will
be that which declares itself a nucleus
of the spirit of the laws, with liberty to
all to carry out the spirit of the laws,
even by violating them, if necessary.
The English Language is grandly lawless
like the race who use it, -- or, rather,
breaks out of the little laws to enter
truly the higher ones. It  is  so  instinct
with that which underlies laws and the
purports of laws it refuses all petty interruptions
in its way.
   Books themselves have their peculiar
words, -- namely, those that are never
used in living speech in the real world,
but only used in the world of books.
Nobody ever actually talks as books and
plays talk.
   The Morning has its words and the
Evening has its words. How much there  
is in the word Light! How vast, surrounding,
falling, sleepy, noiseless, is the
word Night! It hugs with unfelt yet
living arms.
   Character makes words. The English
stock, full enough of faults, but averse
to all folderol, equable, instinctively just,
latent with pride and melancholy,  ready
with brawned arms, with free speech,
with the knife-blade for tyrants and the
reached hand for slaves -- have  put  all
these in words. We  have  them  in
America, -- they are the body of the
whole of the past. We are to justify our
inheritance, -- we are to pass it on to
those who are to come after us, a thousand 
years hence, as we have grown out
of the English of thousand years ago:
American geography -- the  plenteousness
and  variety   of  the  great   nations  of
the  Union ----  the   thousands   of   settlements
----   the  seacoast ----  the   Canadian   North
----  the  Mexican  South -----  California   and
Oregon -----   the  inland   seas ----   the  mountains
----  Arizona ---  the  prairies ----   the 
immense rivers.
   Many of the slang words among fighting
men, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes,
are powerful words. These words ought
to be collected,  ------ the bad words as well
as the good. Many of these bad words
are fine.
   Music has many good words, now
technical, but of such rich and juicy
character that they ought to be taken for
common use in writing and speaking.
   New forms of science, newer, freer
characters, may have something in them
to need new words. One beauty of 
words is exactitude. To me each word
out of the  ------  that now compose the
English  language, has its own meaning,
and does not stand for anything but itself
---- and there are no two words the
same any more than there are two persons
the same.
   Much of America is shown in its
newspaper names, and in the names of
its steamboats, ships, ----  names of characteristic 
amusements and games.
   What do you think words are? Do
you think words are positive and original
things in themselves? No. Words are
not original and arbitrary in themselves.
Words are a result -- they are the progeny
of what has been or is in vogue. If
iron architecture comes in vogue, as it
seems to be coming, words are wanted
to stand for all about iron architecture,
for the work it causes, for different
branches of work and of workman --
those blocks of buildings, seven stories
high, with light, strong facades, and girders
that will not crumble a mite in a thousand
years.
   Also words to describe all American
peculiarities, -- the splendid and rugged
characters that are forming among these
states, or are already formed -- in theAn American Primer.      463
    >>>LEFT COLUMN<<<
cities,  the  firemen  of  Mannahatta,  and  the 
target  excursionist  and  Bowery  boy  ---  the
Boston  truckman ----  the  Philadelphian.
In  America  an  immense  number  of
new  words  are  needed  to  embody   the
new  political  facts,  the  compact  of  the
Declaration  of  Independence,  and  of  the
Constitution ---- the  union  of  the  States
-----  the  new  States ----  the  Congress --- the
modes  of  election --- the  stump  speech ----
the  ways  of  electioneering  ----  addressing
the  people  ----  stating  all  that  is  to  be  said 
in modes  that fit  the life  and  experience
of  the Indianian,  the Michiganian,  the
Vermonter,  the  men  of  Maine.     Also
words  to answer  the  modern,  rapidly
spreading  faith  of  the  vital  equality  of
women  with  men,  and  that  they  are   to
be  placed  on  an  exact  plane,  politically,
socially,  and  in  business,  with  men.
Words  are   wanted  to supply  the  copious
trains   of  facts,  and  flanges of facts,  arguments,
and adjectival  facts,  growing  out
of  all  now  knowledges.    (Phrenology).
Drinking  brandy,  gin, beer,  is  generally
fatal  to  the  perfection  of  the  voice ;
meanness  of  mind  the  same;  gluttony  in
eating  of  course the  same ; as thinned 
habit of body, or rank habit of body
[*-- masturbation, inordinate going with women,*]
rots the voice.  ... 
[*but no man can have a
? vocalness who has no
experience with women & no
woman who has no experience
with men. The final fiber &
charm of the ? ?
laws the chaste
drench of
love.*]
The great Italian
singers are above all others in the world
from causes quite the same as  those  that
make  the  voices  of  native  healthy  substrata
of  Mannahatta  young  men,  especially
the  drivers  of  horses,  and  all  whose
work  leads to free  loud  calling  and  commanding,
have  such  a  ring  and  freshness.
Pronunciation  of  Yankees  is  nasal   and 
offensive  ---  it  has  the  flat  tones.   It  could
probably  be  changed  by  placing  only
those  teachers  in  schools  who  have  rich
ripe  voices ---- and  by  the  children  practicing
to  speak  from  the  chest  and  in  the 
guttural  and  baritone  methods.   All  sorts
of  physical,  moral,  and  mental  deformities
are  inevitably  returned  in  the  voice.
The  races  that  in  their  realities  are  supple,
obedient,  cringing,  have  hundreds  of
words to express hundreds of forms of
acts,  thoughts,  flanges,  of  those  realities,
    >>>RIGHT COLUMN<<<
which  the  English  language  knows  nothing
of .  
The  English  tongue  is  full  of  strong
words  native  or  adopted  to  express  the
blood-born  passion  of  the  race  for  rudeness
and  resistance, as  against  polish  and
all  acts  to  give  in  ;  Robust,  brawny,  athletic, 
muscular,  acrid,  harsh,  rugged,  severe,
pluck,  grit,  effrontery,  stern,  resistance,
bracing,  rude,  rugged,  rough,  shaggy,
bearded,  arrogant,  haughty.    These  
words are  alive  and  sinewy, -- they  walk,
look,  step,  with  an  air  of  command.   They
will  often  lead  the  rest, -- they  will  not
follow.    How  can they  follow ?   They
will  appear  strange  in  company  unlike
themselves.
  English  words.    Even  people's  names
were  spelt  by  themselves, sometimes  one
way,  sometimes  another.   Public  necessity
remedies  all  troubles.    Now,   in  the
80th  year  of  these  States,  there  is  a little
diversity  in  the  ways  of spellings  words,
and  much  diversity  in  the  ways  of  pronouncing  them.
Steamships,  railroads,
newspapers,  submarine  telegraphs,  will
probably  bring  them  in.    If  not,  it is  not
important.
   So  in  the  accents  and  inflections  of
words.   Language  must cohere ---  it  cannot
be  left  loosely  to  float  or  to  fly  away.
Yet  all  the  rules  of  the  accents  of  and
inflections  of  words  drop  before  a  perfect  voice
---  that  may  follow  the  rules  or
be  ignorant  of  them ---  it  is  indifferent
which.   Pronunciation is  the  stamina  of
language,  --- it is  language.   The  noblest
pronunciation,  in  a  city  or  race, or  descendants
thereof.
    Why   are  names  (words)  so  mighty ?
Because facts, ancestry,  maternity, faiths,
are.   Slowly,  eternally,  inevitably,  move
the  souls  of  the  earth,  and  names  (words)
are  its  (their)  signs.
    Kosmos  words,  words  of  the  free  expansion
of  thought,  history,  chronology,
literature, are  showing  themselves,  with 
foreheads,  muscular  necks  and  breasts.
These  gladden  me.    I  put  my  arms464             An American Primer. 
    >>LEFT COLUMN<<
around them----touch my lips to theirs.
The past hundred centuries have confided
much to me, yet they mock me, frowning.
I think I am done with many of
the words of the past hundred centuries.
I am mad that their poems, bibles, words,
still rule and represent the earth, and are
not yet superseded. But why do I say
so? I must not, will not, be impatient. 
The American city excursions, for
military practice, for firing at the target,
for all the exercises of health and manhood,
-- why should not women accompany
them? I expect to see the time in
Politics, Business, Public Gatherings,
Processions, Excitements, when women
shall not be divided from men, but shall
take their part on the same terms as men.
What sort of women have Massachusetts,
Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the
rest, correspondent with what they continually
want. Sometimes I have fancied
that only from superior, hardy women
can rise the future superiorities of these States. 
Man's words, for the young men of
these States, are all the words have
arisen out of qualities of mastership,
going first, brunting danger first, --
words to identify a hardy boyhood --
knowledge--an erect, sweet, lusty body,
without taint---choice and chary of its
love-power.
The spelling of words is subordinate.
Morbidness for nice spelling and tenacity
for or against someone letter or so
means dandyism and impotence in literature.
Of course the great writers must
have digested all these things, ----passed
lexicons, etymologies, orthographies,
through them and extracted the nutriment.
Modern taste is for brevity and
for ranging words in spelling classes.
Probably the words of the English tongue
can never be ranged in spelling classes.
The phonetic (?) spelling is on natural
principles --- it has arbitrary forms of
letters and combinations of letters for all
sounds. It may in time prevail, ----it
surely will prevail if it is best it should. 
    >>RIGHT COLUMN<<
For many hundred years there was nothing
like settled spelling. 
A perfect user of words uses things
---they exude in power and beauty from
him---miracles from his hands---miracles
from his mouth----lilies, clouds, sunshine,
woman, poured copiously---things
whirled like chain-shot rocks, defiance,
compulsion, horses, iron, locomotives, the
oak, the pine, the keen eye, the hairy
breast, the Texan ranger, the Boston
truckman, the woman that arouses a man,
the man that arouse a woman. 
Tavern words, such as have reference
to drinking, or the compliments of those
who drink, --- the names of some three
hundred different tavern drinks in one
part or another of these State. 
Words of all degrees of dislike, from
just a tinge, onwards or deepward. 
Words of approval, admiration, friendship.
This is to be said to be among the young
men of these States, that with a wonderful
tenacity of friendship, and passionate
fondness for their friends, and always a
manly readiness to make friends, they
yet have remarkably few words of names
for the friendly sentiments. They seem
to be words that do not thrive here among
the muscular classes, where the real quality
of friendship is always truly to be
found. Also, they are words which the
muscular classes, the young men of these
States, rarely use and have an aversion
for; they never give words to their most
ardent friendships. 
Words of politics are numerous in these
States, and many of them peculiar. The
Western States have terms of their own:
the President's message----the political
meeting----the committees----the resolutions:
new vegetables----new trees----new animals. 
If success and breed follow camels
and dromedaries, that are now just introduced
into Texas, to be used for travel
and traffic over the vast wilds between
the lower Mississippi and the Pacific, a
number of new words will also have to
be tried after them.An American Primer.      465
    >>LEFT COLUMN OF PRIMER<<
The appetite of the people of these
States, in popular speeches and writings,
is for unhemmed latitude, coarseness,
directness, live epithets, expletives, words
of opprobrium, resistance. This I understand
because I have the taste myself
as large, as largely, as any one. I have
pleasure in the use, on fit occasions, of --
traitor, coward, liar, shyster, skulk,
doughface, trickster, mean cuss, back-slider,
thief, impotent, lickspittle.
The great writers are often select of
their audiences. The greatest writers
only are well pleased and at their ease
among the unlearned, -- are received by
common men and women familiarly, do
not hold out obscure, but come welcome
to table, bed, leisure, by day and night. 
A perfect writer would make words
sing, dance, kiss, [*do the male & female act,*] bear children, weep,
bleed, rage, stab, steal, fire cannon, steer
ships, sack cities, charge with cavalry or
infantry, or do anything that man or
woman or the natural powers can do.
Latent, in a great user of words, must
actually be all passions, crimes, trades,
animals, stars, God, sex, the past, might,
space, metals, and the like -- because
these are the words, and he who is not
these plays with a foreign tongue, turning
helplessly to dictionaries and authorities.
How can I tell you? I put many
things on record that you will not understand
at first, -- perhaps not in a year, --
but they must be (are to be) understood.
The earth, I see, writes with prodigal
clear hands all summer, forever, and all
winter also, content, and certain to be
understood in time. Doubtless, only the
greatest user of words himself fully enjoys
and understands himself.
Words of names of places are strong,
copious, unruly, in the repertoire for the
American pens and tongues. The names
of these States -- the names of Countries,
Cities, Rivers, Mountains, Villages,
Neighborhoods - borrowed plentifully
    >>RIGHT COLUMN OF PRIMER<<
from each of the languages that graft the
English language -- or named from some
natural peculiarity of water or earth, or
some event that happened there -- often
named from death, from some animal,
from some of those subtle analogies that
the common people are so quick to perceive.
The names in the list of the Post
Offices of these States are studies.
What name a city has -- what name a
State, river, sea, mountain, wood, prairie,
has -- is no indifferent matter. All aboriginal
names sound good. I was asking
for something savage and luxuriant, and
behold, here are the aboriginal names.
I see how they are being preserved.
They are honest words, -- they give the
true length, breadth, depth. They all
fit. Mississippi! -- the word winds with
chutes -- it rolls a stream three thousand
miles long. Ohio, Connecticut, Ottawa,
Monongahela, all fit.
Names are magic. One word can pour
such a flood through the soul. To-day I
will mention Christ's before all other
names. Grand words of names are still
left. What is it that flows through me
at the sight of the word Socrates, or
Cincinnatus, or Alfred of the olden time
-- or at the sight of the word Columbus,
or Shakespeare, or Rousseau, or Mirabeau --
or at the sight of the word
Washington, or Jefferson, or Emerson?
Out of Christ are divine words -- out
of this savior. Some words are fresh
smelling, like lilies, roses, to the soul,
blooming without failure. The name of
Christ -- all words that have arisen from
the life and death of Christ, the divine
son, who went about speaking perfect
words, no patois -- whose life was perfect, --
the touch of whose hands and feet
was miracles, -- who was crucified, --
his flesh laid in a shroud, in the grave. 1
Words of names of persons, thus far,
still return the old continents and race
-- return the past three thousand years -- 
    >>RIGHT COLUMN OF FOONOTE 1<<
Whitman here inserts a memorandum, a
sort of self-query, to this effect: "A few characteristic
words -- words give us to see -- (list
    >>LEFT COLUMN OF FOONOTE 1<<
of poets -- Hindoo -- Homer -- Shakespeare --
Pythagoras, Plato, Zoroaster, Menu, Socrates,
Sesostris, Christ).  Improve this" -- H.T.

VOL. XCIII. -- NO. 558.       30466    An American Primer.
    >>LEFT COLUMN<<
perhaps twenty thousand - return the
Hebrew Bible, Greece, Rome, France,
the Goths, the Celts, Scandinavia, Germany,
England. Still questions come:
what flanges are practicable for names of
persons that mean these States? What
is there in the best aboriginal names?
What is there in strong words of qualities,
bodily, mental, - a name given to
the cleanest and most beautiful body, or
to the offspring of the same?  What is
there that will conform to the genius of
these States, and to all the facts? What
escape with perfect freedom, without affectation,
from the shoals of Johns, Peters,
Davids, Marys? Or on what happy
principle, popular and fluent, could other
words be prefixed or suffixed to these, to
make them show who they are, what
land they were born in, what government,
which of the States, what genius,
mark, blood, times, have coined them
with strong-cut coinage ?
The subtle charm of beautiful pronunciation
is not in dictionaries, grammars,
marks of accent, formulas of a language,
or in any laws or rules. The charm of
the beautiful pronunciation of all words,
of all tongues, is in perfect flexible vocal
organs, and in a developed harmonious
soul. All words, spoken from these,
have deeper, sweeter sounds, new meanings,
impossible on any less terms. Such
meanings, such sounds, continually wait
in every word that exists - in these 
words - perhaps slumbering through
years, closed from all tympans of temples,
lips, brains, until that comes which
has the quality patiently waiting in the 
words.  ...  Likely there are other words
wanted. Of words wanted, the matter
is summed up in this: When the time
comes for them to represent anything or
any state of things, the words will surely
follow. The lack of any words, I say
again, is as historical as the existence of
words. As for me, I feel a hundred realities,
clearly determined in me, that
words are not yet formed to represent.
Men like me - also women, our counterparts -
    >>RIGHT COLUMN<<
perfectly equal - will gradually 
get to be more and more numerous -
perhaps swiftly, in shoals; then the words
will also follow, in shoals. It is the glory
and superb rose-hue of the English language,
anywhere, that it favors growth
as the skin does, - that it can soon become,
whenever that is needed, the tough skin
of a superior man or woman.
The art of the use of words would be
a stain, a smutch, but for the stamina
of things. For in manners, poems, orations,
music, friendship, authorship, what
is not said is just as important as what
is said, and holds just as much meaning.
Fond of men, as a living woman is -
fond of woman, as a living man is.
I like limber, lasting, fierce words. I
like them applied to myself, - and I like
them in newspapers, courts, debates, congress.
Do you suppose the liberties and
the brawn of these States have to do only
with delicate lady-words? with gloved
gentlemen words?  Bad Presidents, bad
judges, bad clients, bad editors, owners
of slaves, and the long ranks of Northern
political suckers (robbers, traitors,
suborned), monopolists, infidels, ....
shaved persons, supplejacks, ecclesiastics,
men not fond of women, women not
fond of men, cry down the use of strong,
cutting beautiful, rude words. To the
manly instincts of the People they will
forever be welcome.
In words of names, the mouth and ear
of the people show and antipathy to titles,
misters, handles. They love short first
names abbreviated to their lips: Tom
Bill, Jack. These are to enter into literature,
and be voted for on political
tickets for the great offices: Expletives,
... curious words and phrases of assent
or inquiry, nicknames either to persons
or customs. Many actions, many
kinds of character, and many of the
fashions of dress have names among two
thirds of the people, that would never be
understood among the remaining third,
and never appear in print.
Factories, mills, and all the processes[An America]n Primer.    467
into the common speech of the masses of the people. Curiously, these words show the old English instinct for wide open pronunciations, as yallah for yellow, --- massah for master, --- and for rounding off all the corners of words. The nigger dialect has hints of the future theory of the modification of all the words of the English language, for musical purposes, for the native grand opera in America, leaving the words just as they are for writing and speaking, but the same words so modified as to answer perfectly for musical purposes, on grand and simple principles. Then we should have two sets of words, male and female as they should be, in these States, both equally understood by the people, giving a fit, much-needed medium to that passion for the music which is deeper and purer in America than in any either land in the world. The music of America is to adopt the Italian method, and expand it to vaster, simpler, far superber effects. It is not to be satisfied till it comprehends the people and is comprehended by them. 

     Sea words, coast words, sloop words, sailor's and boatman's words, words of ships, are numerous in America. One fourth of the people of the States are aquatic, --- love the water, love to be near it, smell it, sail on it, swim in it, fish, clam, trade to and fro upon it. To be much on the water, or in constant sight of it, affects words, the voice, the passions. Around the markets, among the fish-smacks, along the wharves, you hear a thousand words, never yet printed in the repertoire of any lexicon, --- words, strong words solid as logs, and more beauty to me than any of the antique. [* at this point ? ? ? ? and ? ?*]

     In most instances a characteristic words once used in a poem, speech, or what not, is then exhausted ; he who thinks he is going to produce effects by freely using strong words is ignorant of words. One single name belongs to one single place only, --- as a keyword of a book may be used only once in the book. A true composition in words returns the468    An Ameri[can Primer.]

human body, male or female, --- that is the most perfect composition, and shall be best beloved by men and women, and shall last the longest, which slights no part of the body, and repeats no part of the body. To make a perfect composition in words is more than to make the best building or machine, or the best statue or picture. It shall be the glory of the greatest masters to make perfect compositions in words. 

     The plays of Shakespeare and the rest are grand. Our obligations to them are incalculable. Other facts remain to be considered : their foreignness to us in much of their spirit --- the sentiment under which they were written, that caste is not to be questioned --- that the nobleman is of one blood and the people of another. 

     Costumes are retrospective, --- they rise out of the sub-strata of education, equality, ignorance, caste, and the like. A nation that imports its costumes imports deformity. Shall one man be afraid, or one women be afraid, to dress in a beautiful, decorous, natural, wholesome, inexpensive manner, because many thousands dress in the reverse manner? There is this, also, about costumes, --- many save themselves from being exiled, and keep each other in countenance, by being alike foolish, dapper, extravagant. I see that the day is to come very soon in America when there will not be a flat level of costumes.

     Probably there is this to be said about the Anglo-Saxon breed, --- that in real vocal use it has less of the words of the various phases of friendship and love than any other race, and more friendship and love. The literature, so full of love, is begotten of the old Celtic metrical romances, and of the extravagant lays of those who sang and narrated, in France, and thence in England, --- and of Italian extravaganzas, --- and all that sighing, vowing, kissing, dying, that was in songs in European literature in the sixteenth century. Still, it seems as if>>> WARNING:  Transcribed printed text only. Ignored all penciled-in notes & editing marks<<<

An Americ[an Primer.]

of hundreds of different manufacturers
grow thousands of words. Cotton, woollen, 
and silk goods, -- hemp, rope, carpets, 
paper-hangings, paints, roofing 
preparations, hardware, furniture, paper 
mills, the printing offices with their 
wonderful improvements, engraving, daguerreotyping. 
This is the age of the metal iron. Iron, 
with all that it does, or that belongs to 
iron, or flanges from it, results in words : 
from the mines they have been drawn, as 
the ore has been drawn.  Following the 
universal laws of words, these are welded 
together in hardy forms and characters.
They are ponderous, strong, definite, not
indebted to the antique, -- they are iron
words, wrought and cast.  I see them all
good, faithful, massive, permanent words,
-- I love well these iron words of 1856.
Coal has its words also, that assimilate
very much with those of iron.
Gold, of course, has always its words.
The mint, the American coinage, the
dollar piece, the fifty dollar or one hundred
dollar piece.  California, the metallic
basis of banking, chemical tests of
gold, -- all these have their words:  Canada
words, Yankee words, Mannahatta
words, Virginia words, Florida and Alabama 
words, Texas words, Mexican and 
Nicaraguan words, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana
words.
The different mechanics have different 
words, -- all, however, under a few
great over-arching laws.  These are carpenter's
words, mason's words, blacksmith's
words, shoemaker's words, tailor's
words, hatter's words, weaver's words,
painter's words.
The farmer's words are immense.
They are mostly old, partake of ripeness,
home, the ground, --have nutriment, like
wheat and milk.  Farm words are added
to, now, by a new class of words, from
the introduction of chemistry into farming,
and from the introduction of numerous
machines into the barn and field.
The nigger dialect furnishes hundreds
of outré words, many of them adopted[*9-1/2*]   

[can] Primer.

this love sickness engrafted on our literature 
were only a fair response and enjoyment 
that people nourish themselves
with, after repressing their words.  The
Americans, like the English, probably
make love worse than any other race.
Voices follow character, and nothing is
better than a superb vocalism.  I think
this land is covered with the weeds and 
chaff of literature.  [*(10) Miss Fraser*]

California is sown thick with the 
names of all the little and big saints. 
Chase them away and substitute aboriginal 
names. What is the fitness -
what the strange charm - of aboriginal
names? Monongahela: it rolls with venison 
richness upon the palate.  Among
names to be revolutionized: that of the 
city of "Baltimore."

Never will I allude to the English
Language or tongue without exultation.
This is the tongue that spurns laws, as
the greatest tongue must.  It is the most
capacious vital tongue of all, - full
of ease, definiteness, and power, - full
of sustenance, - an enormous treasure
house, or ranges of treasure houses, arsenals, 
granary, chock full of so many
contributions from the north and from 
the south, from Scandinavia, from 
Greece and Rome - from Spaniards, 
Italians, and the French - that its own
sturdy home-dated Angles-bred words
have long been outnumbered by the 
foreigners whom they lead - which is 
all good enough, and indeed must be. 
America owes immeasurable respect and 
love to the past, and to many ancestries, 
for many inheritances, - but of all that
America has received from the past, 
from the mothers and fathers of laws,
arts, letters, etc., by far the greatest
inheritance is the English Language -
so long in growing - so fitted. 
  
All the greatness of any land, at any
time, lies folded in its names.  Would I 
recall some particular country or age? 
the most ancient? the greatest?  I recall
a few names - a mountain or sierra of 
mountain - a sea or bay - a river -[*10*]
An American Primer.                                                   469

some mighty city - some deed of persons, 
friends or enemies, --some event, 
perhaps a great war, perhaps a greater
peace - some time-marking and placemarking 
philosoph, divine person, king, 
bard, goddess, captain, discoverer, or the 
like.  Thus does history in all things hang
around a few names.  Thus does all human 
interest hang around names.  All
men experience it, but no man ciphers it
out. [*  ] Miss Grant*]

What is the curious rapport of names?
I have been informed the there are people 
who say it is not important about
names, - one word is as good as another 
if the designation  be understood.  I say
that nothing is more important than
names.  Is art important?  Are forms?
Great clusters of nomenclature in a land
(needed in American nomenclature) include 
appropriate names for the months
(those now used perpetuate old myths); 
appropriate names for the days of the 
week (those now used perpetuate Teutonic
and Greek divinities); appropriate 
names for persons American - men, women, 
and children; appropriate names
for American places, cities, rivers, counties, 
etc.  The word "country" itself
should be changed. Numbering the 
streets, as a general thing, with a few
irresistible exceptions, is very good.  No
country can have its own poems without
it have its own names.  The name of 
Niagara should be substituted for the St.
Lawrence.  Among the places that stand
in need of fresh appropriate names are
the great cities of St. Louis, New Orleans, 
St Paul. 

The whole theory and practice of the
naming of college societies must be remade
on superior American principles.
The old theory and practice of classical
education is to give way, and a new race
of teachers is to appear.  I say we have
here, now, a greater age to celebrate,
greater ideas to embody, than anything
eve[n]r in Greece or Rome, or in the names 
of Jupiters, Jehovahs, Apollos, and their 
myths.  The great proper names used

in America must commemorate things
belonging to America and dating thence.
Because, what is America for?  To
commemorate the old myths and the
gods?  To repeat the Mediterranean
here?  Or the uses and growths of Europe
here?  No (nä-o-o), but to destroy 
all those from the purpose of the earth,
and to erect a new earth in their place.

All lies folded in names.  I have
heard it said that when the spirit arises 
that does not brook submission and imitation,
it will throw off the ultramarine
names.  That Spirit already walks the
streets of the cities of These States.  I,
and others, illustrate it.  I say that
America, too, shall be commemorated,
- shall stand rooted in the ground in
names, - and shall flow in the water in
names, and be diffused in time, in days,
in months, in their names.  Now the
days signify extinct gods and goddesses,
- the months half-unknown rites and emperors, 
- and chronology with the rest is
all foreign to America, - all exiles and
insults here.

But it is no small thing, - no quick
growth ; not a matter of ruling out one
word and of writing another.  Real names
never come so easily.  The greatest cities,
the greatest politics, the greatest physiology
and soul, the greatest orators, poets,
and literati, - the best women, the freest
leading men, the proudest national character,
- such, and the like, are indispensable
beforehand.  Then the greatest
names will follow, for they are results, -
and there are no greater results in the
world.
Names are the turning point of who
shall be master.  There is so much virtue
in names that a nation which produces its
own names, haughtily adheres to them,
and subordinates others to them, leads
all the rest of the nations of the earth.
I also promulge that a nation which has
not its own names, but begs them of
other nations, has no identity, marches
not in front, but behind.
Names are a test of the æsthetic and[*11*]

470 Life's Tavern.

of spirituality. A delicate subtle something 
there is in the right name - an 
undemonstrable nourishment - that exhilarates 
the soul. Masses of men, unaware 
what they like, lazily inquire what 
difference there is between one name and 
another. But the few fine ears of the 
world decide for them, [*also, + recognize them -*] - the masses being 
always as eligible as any whether 
they know it or not. All that immense 
volumes, and more than volumes, can 
tell, is conveyed in the right name. The 
right name of a city, State, town, man, 
or woman, is a perpetual feast to the aesthetic 
and musical nature. Take the 
names of newspapers. What has such 
a name as The Aegis, The Mercury, 
The Herald, to do in America? 

Californian, Texan, New Mexican, 
and Arizonian names have the sense of 
the ecstatic monk, the cloister, the idea 
of miracles, and of the devotees canonized 
after death. They are the results of the 
early missionaries and the element of 
piety in the old Spanish character. They 
have, in the same connection, a tinge 
of melancholy and of a curious freedom 
from roughness and money-making. 
Such names stand strangely in California. 
What do such names know of 
democracy, - of the hunt for the gold 
leads and the nugget, or of the religion 
that is scorn and negation? 

American writers are to show far more 
freedom in the use of words. Ten thousand 
native idiomatic words are growing, 
or are to-day ready grown, out 
of which vast numbers could be used 
by American writers, with meaning and 
effect, - words that would be welcomed 
by the nation, being of the national 
blood, - words that would give that taste 
of identity and locality which is so dear 
in literature.

Walt Whitman.

LIFE'S TAVERN.

IN this old Tavern there are rooms so dear
That I would linger here.
I love these corners and familiar nooks
Where I have sat with people and with books;
The very imperfections and the scars
About the walls and ceiling and the floor,
The sagging of the windows and the door, 
The dinginess that mars
The hearth and chimney, and the wood laid bare
There in the old black chair.
The dear dilapidation of the place
Smiles in my face, 
And I am loath to go.
Here from the window is a glimpse of sea, 
Enough for me;
And every evening, through the window bars, 
Peer in the friendly stars.
- And yet I know
That some day I must go, and close the door, 
And see the House no more.

Mary Burt Messer.Words of [all] the Laws of the Earth,
Words of the Stars, and about them,
Words of the Sun and Moon,
Words of Geology, [Chemistry Geogra] History,
   Geography,
Words of Ancient Races,
Words of [Me] the Medieval Races,
Words of the Progress of [Law], Religion,
   Law, Art, Government,
Words of the [Topigraphy] surface
   of the Earth, grass, rocks,
   trees, flowers, grains, and the
Words of like climates,
Words of the air and Heavens,
Words of the Birds of the air, and
   of insects,
Words of Animals,


79Words of the Men and Women - 
the hundreds of different nations,
tribes, colors, and other distinctions,
Words of the Sea
Words of Modern Leading Ideas,
Words of Modern Inventions,
Discoveries, engrossing Themes,
Pursuits
Words of [the] These States - the
[Revolutionary] Year 1, Washington,
the Primal Compact, the Second
Compact, (names the Constitution)
- [the] - trades, forums, wild lands,
iron, steam, slavery, elections,
California, and so forth,
senses,
Words of [all] the Body, Limbs, Surface, Interior,



80Words of dishes to eat, or of naturally produced
things to eat,
Words of clothes,
words of implements,
Words of furniture
Words of all kinds of Building and
Constructing,
Words of Human Physiology
Words of [?] Human Phrenology,
Words of Music,
Words of Feebleness, Nausea, Sickness, Ennui,
Repugnance, and the like,s of Grass. 81(one single name belongs to one single place only as [a word or] a key-word of a book, may be best used only once in the book.

[In most instances]
A characteristic word once used in a poem, speech, or what not, is then exhausted; he who thinks he is going to produce effects by freely using strong words is [but a] ignorant of words. A [great] true composition in words, [is] returns the human body, male or female - that is the most perfect composition, and shall be best- beloved by men and women and shall last the longest, which slights no part of the body, and repeats no part of the body. - to make a [good] [great] perfect composition in words is more than to make the best building or machine or [any] the best statue, or picture. It [is] shall be the glory of the greatest masters to make [a] perfect compositions in words.



82As wonderful delineation
of character - as
is the picturesque of men,
women, history -
as

these plays of Shakespeare & the
rest
are grand - our obligations
to them are incalculable
[It] Other facts remain[s] to be considered -
Their foreignness to us in much 
of their spirit - the sentiment under
which they were written, that 
caste is not to be 
questioned - That the [? kind the]
nobleness is of one blood, and this



      83Costumes [refer] are retrospective, they [refer to] rise out of the substrates of
[the] education, equality, ignorance, caste, and the like.
[The day is soon to]
A nation, that imports its costumes, imports deformity.
[An individual that is]
See that the day is to come
very soon in America when these
will not be [or] a flat level of
costumes. 

[A man that is] Shall one man be afraid, or [a] one woman [that] be
[is] afraid, to dress in a beautiful [?air] decorous, natural,
wholesome, inexpensive manner, because many [thousands] [hundres] thousands
dress [preposterously.] in the reverse manner? [or because] [Now]

There is this also, I see, [this] about costumes -
[thousands of] many [keep] save themselves from being exiled [in] and keep each others countenance by being alike foolish, dapper, extravagant



   84[*add to other.*]

[For] Probably there is this truth to be
said about the Anglo - Saxon breed 
that [it has] in real vocal use it
has less [us] of the words of
friendship and love than any
other race, and more friendship and 
love. [Our] The literature, so 
full of love, is [in] begotten
[succession of the]

[*Grass.*]



   85An American Primer.
[begetting] of the old [?] Celtic metrical
romances, and of the extravagant
days of those who sang and
narrated, in France, and thence in England
[Ireland], - and of Italian extravaganzas -
and all that sighing, vowing,
kissing, dying, that was in songs,
in European literature, in the
seventeenth century. - Still, it
seems as if this love=sickness
[of] everafter [on] our literature were only a
fair response and enjoyment [to after
came the a] that people nourish themselves
with after repressing [it in] their words. -Grass.
86 The  Americana   like  the  English,
probably  makes  love  worse  than  any
other  race.---



87Voices.
These follow character, and [a Vocalism
is] nothing is better than
a superb vocalism.
[Openness,
What a charm there is in
Would you be well=beloved? -]

[I think this land is [civ]
covered with the weeds and chaff
of literature]Leaves of
88Names
California is sown
thick with the names
of all the little
and big saints
-(Chase them away
and substitute aboriginal
namesPLEASE    PRESERVE  THIS  BILL.]
                       Collector's Office,  City  Hall,  corner  of  South  2d  and
   Hours  for Receiving  Taxes  from   9  A.  M.,   till  2 P.

M.............................................................................
                      To   City   of   Will

To  City   and  County  Tax  for  the  Year  185
What is the fitness [strange charm our]
-What the [fitness] strange
 charm of aboriginal 
names?— Monongahela
(rep) — it rolls with 
venison richness upon
the palateTo Maynard

What is the fitness
   90Among names to be Revolutionized
that of the City of
"Baltimore."-ECEIVED

91

R,

[g] Let

Total.Never will I Allude to the English
Language or tongue without [with gratitude, deference,] exultation
[appreciation and pleasure.] This is the tongue
[It It] that spurns laws as the [language] greatest tongue must.
It is [surely] the [most capacious
of all tongues yet language Ton] vital tongue
- [- an greater than all the]
of all - full of ease, definiteness and power - full of sustenance. -
[rest.] An enormous treasure=house,
or range of treasure[s] houses, [and] arsenals, granary,
- [stocked all] chock [up] full with so many
contributions [wrested] from the
north and from the south, [F]from
Scandinavia, from Greece and
Rome[,] - From [the] Spaniards, Italians,
and the French - that its own
sturdy home=dated Angles=[roots]bred words [have] have long been
outnumbered by the foreigners, whom they lead, which
is all good enough, [as it] and indeed [should] must be . -92America owes immeasurable
respect and love to the past
and to [the] [as] many ancestries
for many inheritances - but
of all that America [owes] has rec'd
[to] from the past, [to] from the mothers
and fathers of laws, arts,
letters, &c  by far the greatest inheritance
is the English Language -
so long in growing - so fitted93American Names

All the greatness of any
land, at any time, [lies] lies folded in its names. -
[Think] Would [you] I recall [upon] 
[up] [any] some particular country or age,
[the greatest, ?] the most
ancient? The greatest ? -
I [call] recall a few 
names. - a mountain, or
[cha] sierra of mountains -
a sea or bay - a river -
some mighty city - some deed of persons friends or enemies - some
event, perhaps a great [**]
war, perhaps a greater
peace; - some [era has ?] [safe teacher] time marking place [land], and marking
[inventor] philosoph, divine
person, king, bard, goddess94Captain, recoverer, or the
like. Thus does history
in all things, hang around
a few names— Thus does all
human interest hang 
around names



95[It is a problem] All [and] men experience it - but no man ciphers it out.

What is the curious rapport
of names? - [No man knows. -] [can tell for] [no man has ever accepted? there]
I have been informed that
there are [persons] people who say [that]
it is not important about
names, [or words] - one word is
as good as another, [as long
as] if the designation [is generally]
[passes and in] [is generally]
[is] be understood. - I say that
nothing is more important
than names. - [All language
is only nomenclature] Is art important? - Are forms? [Are]
[forms] [shapes] [important ? - Is art?]
Great clusters of nomenclature
in a land, include


96Needed in America
Nomenclature
Appropriate names for the
Months--(Those now used perpetuate old myths
Appropriate names for the Days of the Week
(Those now used perpetuate Teutonic
and Greek [} divinities
Appropriate names for Persons American
men, women, & children
(Those now
Appropriate names for American
places, cities, Rivers, counties &c -
- The word county itself
should be changed
[names of streets -]
Numbering the streets as a general thing,
with a few irresistible exceptions, is
very good. -

     97[I say that]
[The native names of 
a country are its]
No country can have 
its own poems without
It have its own names. -
The [River] name of Niagara should be substituted for the St Lawrence 
[should be changed -]


      98Among the places that
stand in need of
fresh appropriate
names are the
great cities of
St. Louis, New  
Orleans, St. Pauls'

-- and in the interior
of this state the
beautiful cities of Rome
(Syracuse,) it already has already
a perfectly [go] sound and appropriate
name, namely Salina

    99The whole theory and 
practice of the naming 
of College societies must 
be remade [anew] on 
superior American principles. -
[which, of course, 
requires that that the]
The old theory and practice 
of classical education
[should] is to give way, and 
a new race of teachers 
[should] is to appear. — I say 
we have here, now,
a greater age to celebrate,
greater [though] ideas to 
[celebrate and] embody,
than any thing even
Greece or Rome — or [that are]
[in] the names of Jupiters Jehovahs,
[Or] Apollos and their myths.PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]  [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M., til 2 P.M.
M ........................................................................................................... [*100*]
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185 on the following Let
WARD. ASSESSED NO. LOCATION. VALUATION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULT. TOTAL.The great proper names used in 
America must commemorate
[what] things [dates from] belonging
to America and dat[es]ing 
thence. [For] Because What is America for?
[for?] To commemorate 
the old myths [and goddesses] 
and the gods? --[Or] [t]To repeat 
the Mediterranean here?
Or the uses and growths 
of Europe here? --
No, (Na-o-o) but to destroy all
[them] those [growth] from the purposes
of [mankind] the earth, and to 
erect a a new [world] earth in 
their place.--PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.] [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets. 
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A. M., till 2 P. M. 
M...........
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185 on the following Lot 
WARD. ASSESSED NO. LOCATION. VALUATION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULT. TOTAL
[*101*]
All he's folded in names.

[As] [If we]
I have heard it said
that when the spirit 
arises that does not 
[subordin] brook submission
and imitation, it will
throw off [all] the 
ultramarine names. 
That spirit already walks
the streets of the cities
of These States - I [stand]
[here as illustr] and 
others, illustrate it. 
I say America too
[must] shall be [commerated]
commemorated -- shall 
stand rooted in the 
ground in names -- andPLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.] [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Street.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M., til 2 P.M.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185 on the following Lot
WARD. ASSESSED NO.LOCATION. VALUATION. CITY. COUNTY. DEFAULT. TOTAL.
[*102*][I say
America too must be 
At present what]

shall flow in the 
water in names and
be diffused in time,
[and in] in days, in 
months, in their 
names. - Now the 
days signify extinct 
gods and goddesses - 
the months [long]
half 
unknown rites and 
emperors - and [ch]
[the] chronology [is]
with the rest is all 
foreign to America - 
All [exiles] exiles and insults here.PLEASE PRESERVE THE BILL]       [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED. 
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets. 
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M., till 2 P.M. 

M .............
To City of Williamsburgh, Dr, 

To City and County Tax for the Year 185      on the following Lot 
WARD.   ASSESSED No.     LOCATION.    VALUATION.   CITY.   COUNTY.   DEFAULT.   TOTAL. 

[103][It is]; not a [mere] matter of
rubbing out one word and [of] writing another - 
[The] Real names [do not] never come so easy -
But it is no small thing,
[not a] no quick growth;
[nor easy.] - The greatest
cities, the greatest politics,
the greatest physiology
and soul, [No g grea]
The greatest orators, poets,
and literals - The [grea]
best women, the freest
leading men, the proudest national
character - and the like, such, are
[needed] indispensable before
hand. - Then the greatest
names will [likely]
follow, [-] for they are
results - and there are
no greater results in 
the world.PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]                   [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Street.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M. til 2 P.M.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh,      Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185                        on the following Lot
Ward.    Assessed No.      Location.     Valuation.   City.   County.  Default.   Total.Names are the turning point of who
shall be master. -
There is so much virtue
in names that a nation
which [has] produces its own names,
haughtily adheres to them,
and subordinates [all] others
[the] to them, leads all the 
[other] rest of the nations of the
earth. - I also promulge
that a nation which has
not its own names, but begs them of other nations, has
no identity, marches not in front but [is] [a follower]
[not a leader,] behind.PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M.,
M________
To City of [?]
To City and County Tax for the year 185__
WARD   ASSESSED No.     LOCATION.      VALUATION.
[*105*]Names are a test of 
the esthetic and of spirituality. --
[The] [A] [the] A delicate 
[and subtle] subtle
something there is in 
the right name, [an] undemonstrable nourishment that
[soothes an] exhilarates
[and nourishes] the soul
[with the undemonstrable
nourishment]. [The noble?]
Masses of men, unaware
what they [?] [like] like, lazily
inquire what difference
there is between one
name [and] [or] and another. --
But the few fine ears
of the world decide
for them also and recognize them -- the 
masses being always as [reas] eligible as any
[but even] whether they know it or not.PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]                   [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Street.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M., til 2 P.M.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh,      Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185                        on the following Lot
Ward.    Assessed No.      Location.     Valuation.   City.   County.  Default.   Total.As all that immense volumes, and
more than volumes can
tell, are conveyed in the
right name
The right name of a
[person] city, [or] state,
[or] town, man, or
woman, is a perpetual
feast to the [ear.] aesthetic
[for not in] & moral [sense] naturePLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]                   [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Streets.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A.M. till 2 P.M.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh,      Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185                        on the following Lot
Ward.    Assessed No.      Location.     Valuation.   City.   County.  Default.   Total.Names of News Papers:
- What has such a name as 
the [Herald] Aegis The Mercury or the Herald, or 
to do [The Mercury to] in America?108Californian, Texan,
New Mexican, and 
Arizonian names,
[all] have the sense
of the ecstatic [devotee,] monk, [or nun]
[the breviary] the cloister, the idea
of miracles and of
[can] [men and women] devotees
canonized after death.
They are the results
of the early missionaries
and the element of 
[a] piety in the old
Spanish character.-- They
have, in the same connection,
[the sense of] a [curious]
tinge of melancholy, and 
of a curious [?] freedom from
[grossness] roughness, and money=making. 
[They] Such names stand strangely in California.
What do [such names] they know of democracy, of
the [gold men] hunt for the gold leads and the [??] or of the religion that is [scorn] scorn and negation?PLEASE PRESERVE THIS BILL.]                   [BANKABLE MONEY ONLY RECEIVED.
Collector's Office, City Hall, corner of South 2d and Fourth Street.
Hours for Receiving Taxes from 9 A. M. till 2 P. M.
M ...............................................
To City of Williamsburgh,      Dr,
To City and County Tax for the Year 185                        on the following Lot
Ward.    Assessed No.      Location.     Valuation.   City.   County.  Default.   Total.American writers [will] are
to show far more freedom in
the use of words.-- Ten thousand
native idiomatic words are growing, or are to=day
already grown, out of which
vast numbers could be used
by American writers, with
meaning and effect - words that
would be [dear to] welcomed by the [people] nation,
[because they are] being of the national
blood - and would give that
taste [and] of identity and locality
[to writing,] which is [as] so dear 
in literature.110

Grass. [*5 1/2 inch
T*]
The Primer of Words
[For American] 
For American Young Men and Women, 
For Literates, 
Orators, 
Teachers, 
Musicians, and
Judges
Presidents 
[?]{left column}

Leaves
of
Grass
Walt Whitman
I greet you at the beginning
of a great
career
R. W. Emerson

{right column}

Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
I greet you at the 
beginning of a 
great career
R. W. Emerson

[*4*]Our Language.

In a little while, [here] in
the United States, [this] the English Language
[by far the noblest known], enriched with contributions [with all the] 
from all other languages, old and new,
will be spoken by [more people
in America than any other one
language any where else is, or
probably ever was spoken,]
a hundred millions of people: 
[?] perhaps a hundred thousand
words
("seventy or eighty-thousand words")
Noah Webster
(of the English language)A perfect user of words
uses things - [they] they exude
[A po] in power and beauty
from him - miracles from
his hands - miracles from
his mouth - [?]- whirled
like chain=[?] - rocks,
defiance, compulsions,
houses, iron, locomotives,
the oak, the pine, the keen eye,
the hairy breast, the
Texan ranger, the
Boston truckman, the
[be] woman that arouses
a man, the man that
arouses a woman.Voices
The Americans are going to be the
most fluent and melodious voiced people
in the world - and the most perfect
verse of words - Words follow character 

Nativity 
independence 
individuality

ass.5