The Abbeville banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1847-1869, 1856-07-17
OUR REF1NEMENTs ON LANGUAGE

The following admirable hit is from the
New Orleans Picayunc. 1t touches point
upon Which all readers of rodcrn literature
must have spent some admiration
Among all the improvements Of the age
none, perhaps, are more striking than those
which have been recently made, and, in,
deed, are at present making in the language
of ordinary life. Who, in these days, ever
reads Of boarding schools: Nobody
They are transformed into academies for
boys and scmnaries for girls; the higher
classes are establishments" \ coachma-
ker's shop is "rcpository for carriages -
miIiner's shop is a "Jepot;' thread
sellers all emporium" One buys drugs
at medical hall = wines of "compa-
| NY" and shoes ut 4 "mart." Blacking is
dispensed from an institution" and meat
from "purvcyor." One would imagine
that the word shop had become not only
contemplate, but had been discovered not
to belong to the English language. Now
a-days, all the shops are called "warc-
houses" or "placcs Of business" :" and YOU
will hardly find n tra,lesmau having the
honest harIihood to call himself shop
keeper. There is now, also, no such word
us that Of tailor, that is to say, amono
speakers polite. "Clothicr" has been dis
covered to be more elegant, although the
term tailor is every bit us respectable.
Instead Of reading that, after Il ball, the
company did not 60 away till daylight, we
are told that the joyous groups continued
tripping on the light fantastic toe until Sol
gave them warning to depart. Ii one of
the company happened to tumble into the
ditch, We should he informed that q" his
foot slipped and ~hc was immersed in the
liqu'I clement" y good supper is de-
scribcd as making the "tablcs groan with
every possible dclicacy Of the SEASON." \
crowd of Lrieflcss, lazy lawyers, unbene-
fitted ciergy'nen, and hali-pay officers, are
enumerated Il host of fashion" at Il wa
tering place, where We are Informed that
ladies', Instead Of taking dip before break
fast, "p!un%e themselves fearlcssly into the
bosom OF Neptune" y sheep killed by
lightning is Il thing unhcarl ot.-,llc AMI
mai may be destroyed by the electric ;iil,
bat even then We should not be tod it WAS
dead w" should be informed that "thc
vital spark had fled forever
All little girls, be their faces ever 50
plain, pittcd, or pi,ia5!e, if they appear at
public office to complain Of robbery. or
i'll trcatmrnt, are invariably intelligent
and interesting" If they have proceeded
very far in crime, they are called "untor-
tunato families" Child-murdcr is elegant
ly termed intantici,lc," and when it is
punished c"pitalIy. we hear not that tile
unnatural mother WAS hanged, but that
"the unfortunate culprit underwent the last
sentence Of the law, and was launched into
eternity" No person reads in a newspaper
that Il house had been burned down: he
perhaps will tind that the "ho,,se fell a
sacrifice to the flames" Tn an account of
the launch, not that the ship went off the
SHIPS without any accident, but that "slc
gI'ded securely and mnjcsticaliy into hcr
native clement the said native element
being the one in which the ship never was
before. 10 send for surgeon if ones leg
IS broken, is out Of the question; a man,
indeed, may be dispatched sor "mc,lical
aid" There are now no public singers ut
tavern dinners; they arc the professional
gentlemen - and actors are all professors
OF the histrionic art" Widows are scarce
they arc all interesting relics :" and as for
nursery maids, they are nowadays univcr-
sally transformed into "young persons who
snpcrintend the junior branches of his fam
ily"