Exchanges.
| A. M. SHARP, Hesperian, |  | Editors. |
| G. N. RAPER, Columbian, |
Diversity seems to have been ordained of God. This is especially evident in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, and the same law, with some modifications, underlies the world of thought. No two men think alike, act alike or pronounce exactly alike. The difference between the lexicographers of England and America is very apparent, although the two countries are very closely connected by means of rapid communication. Even American orthoëpists differ. Usage has established in New England, for instance, a pronounciation somewhat different from that in the South. Dictionaries do not establish usage, but record usage, and no dictionary is complete if it records the usage of simply a few States. How great a diversity there is between Webster, Worcester, and Stormonth, commonly recognized authorities! The person to whom ‘accessory’ (ak-seśso-ri, Webster) is applied, Worcester calls ak´ses-so-ri. Both Webster and Worcester prefer to accent the first syllable of ‘access,’ while “The Academy Orthoëpist” accents the second. In pronouncing ‘Christianity’ the usage of the South is in accordance with Worcester (kris-ti-ańi-ti), and not Webster (krist-yań-i-ti). The words ‘rise’ (noun) and ‘revolution’ for instance, are pronounced by the South riz and rev-o-loó-tion by Webster and Worcester ris and rev-o-lútion. The Archive was pleased to see the stand which the Roanoke Collegian had taken on the subject of orthoepy. In many instances in pronunciation, when in Rome, it is better to do as Rome does.
Some one has been collecting facts about the fathers of United States Presidents, with this result: Grover Cleveland is the only Clergyman’s son who has ever been elected President, though Arthur’s father was a clergyman. He was not, however, elected President. The fathers of the Virginia Presidents—Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe—were planters. John Tyler’s father was a lawyer and a statesman, and John Adams, the father of John Q. Adams, was by profession a lawyer. Grant was a tanner. Hayes’s father a merchant, and the fathers of Garfield, Lincoln, Pierce, Fillmore, Polk, Van Buren and Jackson were farmers.—Charlotte Chronicle.
Napoleon, while at St. Helena, when asked how the condition of unhappy France could be bettered, replied in his laconic style “Educate the mothers.” The same remark will apply to every country, and it is with special interest that The Archive notices The Monitor, a monthly brim full of plain, pointed common-sense articles. This new magazine hails from Henderson, and is devoted to the interests of “Our Homes.” One of its aims is to make better cooks and better mothers. To know how to cook is more necessary to a truly educated woman than a knowledge of painting and wax-work. A man that marries a wife who has no idea of culinary affairs will either be poor all his life or die early with the dyspepsia.