2. Few men and very few women can be trusted to spell correctly every word
in common use. I have seen the MSS. of many of the foremost women
journalists of the day, and have found orthographic errors in nearly all
of them. Of course spelling is not a matter of the highest importance--a
certain great English novelist is notoriously incompetent in this respect,
and relies upon his printers--but it deserves attention. Bad spelling
spoils the appearance of the cleverest article, and raises a prejudice
against it in the editorial mind. And not all bad spellers have the
ingenuity of Mr. Umbrage of _The Silchester Mirror_, in Mr. J. M.
Barrie's novel, _When a Man's Single_:--

"When Umbrage returned, Billy Kirker, the chief reporter, was denouncing
John Milton [the junior reporter] for not being able to tell him how to
spell 'deceive.'

"'What is the use of you?' he asked indignantly, 'if you can't do a simple
thing like that?'

"'Say "cheat,"' suggested Umbrage.

"So Kirker wrote 'cheat.'"

I think, however, that women have at last learnt to spell words ending in
_ieve_ and _eive_. They go astray nowadays in _ance_ and _ence_; also
in _seperate_ and _irresistable_, and in the past participles of
verbs ending in _it_.

The simplest and best way to cure a case of weak spelling is to hand the
dictionary to some wise friend, and ask him or her to question you. A