Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1875-08-26

kDGUST Q6. 1874
fRICKS0F SPEECH.
Nothing i easier 10 acquire, nothing
<ore dilkcult 10 lose. than trick Of
11eeh and manner; and nothing b more
11fpu1sal. Fl we look roupd among
- friends and aequaintances, we shall
~ senrcely one Who has mot his favor
wssd. his perpstnal formula, his
lpn1lle aetion, his unmeaning ges-
y0ll( 3, -, 0elIl eollee1l :
then, next to impossible, to abolish
now. Who does not know the fami-
liar 'T say" n the preface to every re-
mark ?-aud the still more familiar
ssyo1 know" as the middle term of ev-
cry sentence? Who, too in these later
times, has not suffered from the infiic-
ton of "awfuP' and 'jolly f"-miles-
stones in the path of speech interspersed
witheven uglier and more obtrusive signs
of folly and corrupt diction-milestones
that are forever turning up, showing
the successive distances to which good
taste and true refinement have receded
in this hideous race after slang to which
our youth is given. Then there are the
people who perpetrate ejaculations; who
say Goodness T. as a mark of surprise,
and "Good gracious !" when surprise
is little mixed with reprobation; lower
in the social scale it is '.My word !"
"Patience r. "Did I ever!" and in-
differently to all stations, "You don't
say SOP or in voice of depreciation,
"Now and Surely not = To judge by
voice and word, these ejaculatory peo-
pie are always in state of SURPRISE
They go through the world in unending
astonishment; and their appeals to
their Goodness and that indeterminate
quantity called Good Gracious are inces-
SAINT. In the generation that died with
the Fourth George the favorite eja-
culations were 'By Jove ? and BY
George!' with excursions into the re-
gions of Cad 7 and BY Jingo! Be-
fore then we had the bluff and lusty
squires, who rejoiced in 'Odsbodikins!
and ''Swounds with other strange
and uncouth oaths that were not meant
to offend the hearers, but were simply
tricks of speech caught by the speak
ers. So indeed is the habit of swearing
and using bad words generally. 1t is
emphatically habit, trick of speech,
meaning for the most part no more than
the Goodness /! and Patience of the
milder folly.
There b, aeAin, the. trick Of repeti-
tion-the last two or three words Of
the speech always said twice; perhaps,
If the disease is severe, more that twice.
He 10 going down to-day-going down
to-day, says the repeater, not meaning
any special emphasis. when do you
talk of leaving-when do you talk of
leaving ? I'm of to Germany to-mor.
row-off to Germany to- o-morrow.' This
trick has a variation, which we may call
the variation of emphasis. I'm very
sorry to hear it-very sorry indeed
1t was such lovely sight-sueh
q very lovely sight 4 am much
obliged to you-so much obliged
And SO on; the emphatic addendum
pronounced in italics, and always with
more effusiveness than the occasion de-
mands. Twin sister to this Stiffness is
that of perpetually asking the same ques-
tion. For the most part that question
relates to your health, which is..faultless,
Are you quite well ? says your friend
with amiable and unnecessary sympa-
thy. Quite well, thank you, you re-
ply, as you have replied at any time
these last forty years or more. Then
the conversation drifts on the weather,
and you discuss its ups aud downs, past
bearing and future aspects-how it af-
fected the hay and what it will do for
the wheat, and whether the rain came
too early or continued too long, or
whether on the contrary it came too
late and did not continue long enough
to do any good. In short you discuss
the weather thoroughly, and then you
come to full stop. And you are quite
well p says your friend, still with his
unnecessary sympathy. Yes, quite
well, thank you,' you reply. On this
you fall foul Of the theaters, abuse all
the plays now running, pooh-pooh all
the actors now playing-perhaps you
except your own special idol. and per-
haps he excspts his-but you 60 through
the drama from end to end, and in time
come to full stop there too. And
how arc vour Quite well 2 says your
|friend, ready to offer any amount Of
consolation If required, without the
smallest perception that you have new
er known . days illness for these 40
years of your conscious existence !;
that you have already told twice, what
your looks might have told him in the
beginning, that you are quite well; and
that you have also twice thanked him
for his sympathetic inquiry. If it is
not of your health it Is of something
else equally manifest Of which he in
quires. Have YOU removed your resi-
dence, be asked you six times in the
course of ten minutes conversation how
you like your new house. Has your
daughter married, he cannot be con-
vinced short of . skiold repetition Of
that she has really married, and that
you approve Of herchoice. Has your boy
gone TO India, you have to repeat tha.
fact, and give the name Of his station
and the nature of his employment, a.
often ~ If you we're Bones answering
Tambourine. Il II ali trick; you know
that; but manners not allowing you to
say tarsly, why, you have asked me
BEFORE and politeness teaching patience
under boredom. you have simply to slip
under the harrow In the best way you
can; and If you are wise you viii make
your friend trick Of boredom the oc-
! cnsion for oyerhauiinc your own iinpu;x.