The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-24


long JOY of eternal life begun.
Vdttene IN pace dnfrnd beatd bella.
In Mr.. Richard Grant Whites article the
same Magazine, "words and their Uses,n are
these sensible remarks about "suueamish
slang:"-- .af
LIMA squeamishness which l am really
ashamed to notice, leads many persons to use
anything which is separated from another thing
and yet joined to it. In old English limbed was
used 10 mean joined. Thus, In the "Ancreu
Riwle," "Loketh that ye beon euer mid onnesse
OF herte limed togeder," that is, ''Look that ye
be ever with oneness OF heart joined together
The branches OF a tree have separate indl-
vldual character, and are yet parts OF the tree,
and so are limbs. The fingers are properly
limbs of the hand; but the word is generally
applied to the greater divisions both of trees
and animals. The limbs of the human body are
the legs ana the arms; the former no more so
than the latter; Yet some folk will say
that by railway accident one woman
had her arms broken and another her
l1mbs-meaning her legs; and some will say that
she has hurt her leg when her thigh was injured.
Perhaps these persons think that it is indelicate
for a woman to have legs, and that therefore
they are concealed by garments and should be
concealed by speech. II so, Heaven help them; ;
they are lar cut OF my reach. j can only say to
them that there is no lmmodesty in sDea King OF
any part or function OF the human body when
there Is necessity for doing so, and that when
they are spoken Of is mmodest not to call the N
ny l0blT proper UdueS. Inc notion that DY
giving bad thing wrong or unmcaning name,
the thing, or the mention of It, is bettered is
surely one OF the silliest that ever entered the
mind OF man. 1t IS the occasion and the pur-
pose OF speech which makes it modest or immo-
dest, not the thing spoken Of or the giving it its
proper name.
RoosTER.-A rooster is any animal that roosts.
Almost all birds are roosters, the cocks, of
course as well as the hens. What sense or deli
cacy, then, is there in calling the cock of the
domestic fowl rooster, as many people do
The cock is no more rooster than the hen; and
domestic fowls are no more ROSTERS than canary
birds or peacocks. Out of this mons ense, how
ever, people must be laughed rather than
reasoned.
GENTLEMAN, LADY.-These words have been
forced upon Us until they have begun to be nau-
ofreadiDg these art cles; so that any plea here
for man and arondn would be in vain and out of
place. But will notice very common misuse
OF the former which prevails in business CORES.
pondence, in which Mr.. A. is addressed as Sir,
but the firm Of A. B. & Co. as Gentlemen. Now,
the plural of Sir is SlrS: and if gentleman has
any significance at all, it ought not to be made
common and unclean by being applied to mere
business purposes. AS to the ado that is made
about 'Mr. Blank and lady," it seems ID me
quite superhuous. II it plesses any man to
announce on hotel book that his wife, or any
other woman who is travelling under his protec
tion, is lady, perfect lady, let him do so in
peace and quiet This is matter OF taste and
habit. The world is wide and the freedom OF
IHlS CbuulTy mas uOJ quite yet deprived us OF
the right OF choosing our associates, or Of form
ing our own manners.
FEMALE.-The use of this word for ,comdn is
one OF the most unpleasant and inexcusable of
the common perversions OF language. 1t is not
Britcism, although It is much more in vogue
among British writer's aDd speakers than among
our own. With us lady is the favorite eu uphemism
for woman. For every one of the softer ard
more ambitious sex who is dissatisfied with her
social position or uncertain OF it, seems to share
Mrs. Quickley's dislike of being called woman
There is no lack of what is called authoritative
usage during three centuries for this misuse of
female, as l may show should | undertake the
discussion of Americanisms-so called. But
this is one of those perversions which are jusi-
ned by no example, however eminent A COW,
or SOW, or any she brute is female just as
woman Is: as man is no more O male than a
bull is, or boar; and no woman calls herself
female without thoroby sharing her with oil
the brute creation.
CHEMIsE.-Why women will call their first
undergarment a chemise, it is not easy to under
stand. Chemise means merely shirt, and
nothing else; and its meaning is not changed
or its sound improv ved when 1t is pronounced
shmmy. Shirt Is the original English name for
this garment as well as the corresponding gar
ment of men. See the following passage from
Covers "Confessio Amantis:"
Jason his clothes on him cast,
And made him redy right anon,
And cast on her mantel close.
Wilhoute more, and than arose.
But women wishing, as well they might, 10 dis
~
man, called IT, very properly, SHIFT. (See
Johnson's Dictionary Snlock is much better
than chenise, and has, like sniff, the support of
long usage by the best speakers and writers. I
have heard an EngllShwoman Of high rank, and
OF unimpeachable propriety OF conduct and
manners, speak of her smock just as frankly aud
simply as she would speak of her shoe or her
bonnet. If woman wish to say that she wears
shirt let her say so; she says nothing else
when she speaks OF her chemise.
An appetizing essay, entitled "Mine Oys.
ter" in the October number Of Putnam's
Magazine shows that the life of bivalve has
it's pleasant phases:
Even the life of poor, silent shell-fsh once
reputed the dullest and most inert OF all anil
mails, will then be found to have its interest and
its romance. In vain did Plato already assign,
in his trausmigration of souls, people who, as
men, were thoroughly ignorant and without
thought to oysters thereafter aud speak else
where OF the soul beng fettered to the body
like an oyster to It's she'll; in vain does Virey, in
our time, call them the poor and afflicted among
the beings OF creation, who seem 10 solicit the
pity OF happier animals-they are, as we shall
see, beautifully made, capable Of joying m uch
happiness, and susceptible of being taught a
lesson which most OF us proud men have never
been able to acquire.
Their lite, usually pictured as one of utter
helplessness and unbroken seclusion, is by no
means spent in unvarying repose. At the
proper time, in the spring OF the year, when all
Nature is full of tender love and restless activity
the mother-oyster also is visited by the ruling
passion, and "the icy bosoms feel the secret
fire." Soon after, they are seen to contain a
large quantity of milk-white fluid, which the
microscope shows us to consist of almost invisi-
BILE eggs and milt, lying snugly side by side in
the same shell. Unlike most marine animals,
however, the oyster does not heartlessly aban.
don its spawn and leave it to the mercy of
winds and waves; but from the oyiarY the eggs
pass into the sheltering folds of the mantle,
where they remain for some time. Here they
are surrounded by a nutritious substance,