The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-10-24 00:00:00

SLANG.

The Language Club held a very interesting meeting
lately, says the New York Times, at which various
valuable remarks were made by President Barnard,
Mr. David Dudley Field, and others. At the same
time various remarks were made which were not
valuable; such, for example, as Mr. Field's objection
to the use, by English-speaking people, of "bills of
fares" printed in the French language. It appears
that Mr. Field recently attended the dinner' of the
New England Society, and found at his place . a
"menu" with the names of all the dishes in French.
This," exclablled Mr. Field, "was for a collection of
men whose fathers ate popcorn and baked beans! "
or who, in other words, were totally ignorant of the
science of eating. That science is the invention of the
French people, and it is, therefore, natural and proper
that the scientific terms relating to matters of dinner
should be French. The metric system is a French
invention, and wherever it is adopted the French
words denoting measurements are retained. BecauSe
the Plymouth Pilgrims never saw a menu, and never
bad the slightest conception of dinner, that is no
reason why ti-ir descendants should not avail them-
selves of the resources of civilisation and use both
dinners and menus. As for the proposal to print
what Mr. Field would call a "bill of fare" in Eng-
lish, it is manifestly impracticable. What, for example,
is the English for ma yonnai sl or for per& ? These ana
other articles of food could be described in English
by describing their constituent parts, or the method
of their manufacture, but this would be to transform a
bill of fare into an elementary treatise on the art of
cooking. So, too, menu may be rendered "bill of
fare "—but why use three words when one will
suffice; Perhaps Mr. Field's legal education would
lead him to substitute the word "calendar" for " bill
of fare; " but, as a lawyer, be must see that at
times it wourd be very objectionable for anyone to
order "a peremptory call of the calendar." President
Barnard devoted his attention partly to the denuncia-
tion of slang. lie was quite right in calling the word
"mugwump " detestable, but a " mugwuinp" is not
slang, but Indian, which is -far worse. There is, of
course, a great deal of slang that is silly and offen-
sive, but, after all, what we call slang consists simply
of new metaphors. To " monkey "is at present slang,
because it has not passed into general use and been
recognised by writers of good English; but to
"lionise " is intrinsically just as objectionable a word,
and the only reason why it is not slang is that it has
the recognition due to age. To clear our language of
all the words that were originally slang would leave
it a repulsive and unyielding skeleton, and that mercy
that we show to the slang of our forefathers might be
extended to the slang of to-day. Instead of anathe-
matising all slang, let us judge each slang expression
by itself, and when, like the verb "to monkey," it
Meets a deep" want of our nature, let us accept it
gladly. .

An impatient author: "I don't think Briggs will
ever be successful in literature." "Why not ?" "He
is sO impatient. He can never wait for anything to'
come to pass." "How so ?" "He buys every morn-
ing paper and magazine to see whether his story has
been published or not.' "Well, what of it ?" "He
hasn't written the story yet."