Greece alone had forty local alphabets, reduced by careful study to about half a dozen generic groups, characterized by certain common local features, and also by political connection.
Of the oldest "a, b, c's" found in Italy, several were scribbled by school-boys on Pompeian walls, six in Greek, four in Oscan, four in Latin; others were scratched on children's cups, buried with them in their graves, or cut or painted for practice on unused portions of mortuary slabs. The earliest was found as late as 1882, a plain vase of black ware with an Etruscan inscription and a syllabary or spelling exercise, and the Greek alphabet twice repeated.
What a Child Can Do.
"Pa, I have signed the pledge," said a little boy to his father, on coming home one evening; "will you help me keep it?"
"Certainly," said the father.
"Well, I have brought a copy of the pledge; will you sign it, papa?"
"Nonsense, nonsense, my child! What could I do when my brother-officers called—the father had been in the army—if I was a teetotaler?"
"But do try, papa."
"Tut, tut! why you are quite a little radical."