The Hawaiian gazette., 1874-09-23
United states English.

Under the above title a writer in Chambers Jour
nal discourses first upon the old topic of two
rs in traveller and like words, a question about
which the followers of Webster and johnson are
never likely to agree. The same remark will apply
TO ter" and "tre "-theater and theatre II the
writer had talked with educated Americans be
would have found that there were almost as many
opposed to the new mode OF spelling this side
of the water as on the other That he did not con-
verse with many educated Americans on this or any
other topic would seem TO be evident from other
words and expressions quoted BY him as in ha5itua
use here Who among our readers ever heard such
an expression as, 1.-The moon raises late" or, al
guess be raised before ten" or "Quite some excite
ments?" He says be never heard any person speak
Of being i'll or unwell; they were always "sick!"
Moreover, it seems we never speak of the weather
as lovely delightful, charmirg or beautiful but
say, :" This is pretty days. " What pretty morn
ing"
The word "elegant" has to do strange duty, being
applied as never thought TO hear it the joint at
your dinner, the relish at tea.tme (always.supper
by.the-by). being usually described as elegant"
We have heard exuberant young misses laughed at
for calling everything "perfectly elegant" but the
very fact that they were ridicued indicates that it
was not very good taste to use such language.
From the following it would seem that the writer
passed his time, while here, in some CT the secluded
districts of the South, or in Pennsylvania, where
old people still cling to green tea The tea in
is nearly always wholly green, the consumption of
green tea being far in advance of that of black;
directly opposite to the practice in England indeed,
If you require anything different at the hotels, you
should order English breakfast tea which is com
monty one of the items In the bill of fare. My own
house was probably the only one, for vast dis
lance where mixed tea was drunk and was the only
one where, also, to my London taste, cup of good
tea was ever to be obtained at all; the whole of my
acquaintance. native and foreign, confirmed this,
yet no one would initiate us Irecollect advocating
at the house where boarded. before my family
Joined me- the use of mixed tea in lieu of the decoc-
ton, almost corrosive in its strength which they
give you of green tea; and also the derision with
which the idea was received 1t was pronounced
to lie utterly impossible, because you only scaked
green tea, iche black Tea you iOas obliged 10 stec
He may have heard some Western hoosier talk
about stewing tea, as he has undoubtedly heard
iiterate people everywhere use bad grammar but
among cultivated persons he found no authority FOR
such an absurd statement as the following: mot
got nothing is quite correct; and so it would be,
l fancy, out West" "Ain't got no" "Don't see
no." and kindred phrases, are the rale. To wit:
show" means chance or opportunity; he didn't
give me no show y; faint got no show 10 do it'';
any one who did not speak so would depart from
the standard.
We give another quotation: The editor Of the
BIgslor R1pers-if am not mistaken--speaks of the
inyariabe accuracy With which the is used in the
States, and the reluctance the people there have
even to joke about mistakes with that often mis-
placed letter 1t may be so, and at any rate Ihave
often been taken TO task as 40 Individual, and as
Englishman, for my shortcomings
and excuses in that way. AS a Pennsylvania once
said to me: "some of you British people don't use
no rs. How is that? Now you say og' and We
always say org How do you account for the diff
ferenceg' Why, could not account for it; bad
intended to say s.hog"; and SO, suppose, he had.