Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-02-16
slangy Barbarisms that Shock Good Taste.
From the New York World,

If there is one thing more disgusting than
another as indeed there is-it must be the
netarious practice of making ones saiuta-
tons scanty or slangy, custom which,
though infinitely more honored in the breach
than IN the observance has invaded all ranks
of society. From the Prince of Wales on
his throne to the beGgar on the Bowery, the
clipped com of courtesy is current The
most common I'm both senses of the word)
OF these phrases is the atrocious abbrevia-
ton /" Thanks. A Judgment should light
upon tho individual who makes misuse OF SO
simple, gracious and manly phrase of cour-
tesy as Thank you. one which in its proper
employ fits all possible cases that may arise
between persons bearing to each other any
posable relations. A Judgment did indeed
overtake the two children in Mr.. Longfel-
lows poem, who, at the tournament on the
feast of Pentacost, drank of the very cool
draught and
Gave many a courteous Thank"
They died miserably, did those children, and
deserved SO TO die, since Thank" is even
more atrocious than Thanks" Can any
one imagine i'll the last scene of Lear
scene SO tender and so true the dying king
saying:
ihy sOu uhuO tuIs bullOu
No the word is an insult to kindness, and
dishonors alike those who use it and those
towards whom it is employed.
Another almost equal atrocity, though less
epidemic, is the vulgarizing OF parting salu-
tntions. % So-long," possibly an Americana
cation of the oriental .'salnam, is the worst
OF these, though 1t is not much worse than
the 'au river" ''au reservoir" and " olive
oIl' wl Ann Of til al
moral and philosophical gifts counterfeit the
French au revoir. We have the most per-
feet of parting salutations, Good by" in
fnitely preferable to our thinking to the
''adieu" or the farewell" which always has
suspicion of buskins and footlights about
it. Many persons who are habitually addict
ed to the use of ''so-long" have no adequate
idea OF the ineffable meanness of the phrase.
That can only be obtained by the process of
substitution. Let ns improve Shakespeare
popularize and nineteenth-centuriZe him, MS
1t were. Can the lovers of Verona charm us
II thsir passionate phrase be
So long solong, Parting is such sweet sorrow
That shall say so-lOng till 1t be morrow"
or the fallen cardinal compel our pity by
breathing Il long " so-long" to all his great
nesst Much of the force and dignity of the
fine passage where De Quincy describes his
opium dream would be lost if for .Everlast-
ing tarewels and yet again everlasting
fsrewells ~ We employ Everlasting So
longs !" or even Everlasting au reservoirsr'
Then, again, ill the yiceroy Of lndia's rather
gushy verse,
Farewell, and yet again farewell, Ard yet
Never fare well II iarew, Il be To fare
Alone and disunited. Love hath set
Our lives in music to the Sell same air
if "by-bye" be substituted for farewell the
poem cannot fail to lose some its neatness
and sweetness. Thus restored. Mr.. Aldrich
might become the author of ridiculous copy
of verse beginning
80 Ia ia = have to say Ia Ia
To such host Of pretty things"
and the author of 'Childe Harold" appear to
II wick,d and familiar generation remarklng
MY native land-ajoo"
None can have so hearty All admiration OF
expressive slang Judiciously employed, as
ourselves In the present economy OF things,
slang to n great degree means Saxon, but as
il said i'll Connecticut Of deacons there is II
difference in slungs. Between the conycn-
tional expressions of the collective idiocy of
the time, and the terse presentation of IL met
or sentiment of broad humanity there liz MS
much difference as there is between city
slime and country mud. We cannot, perhaps.
hope for return of those Ausonan days
when the Roman who, in lieu of "Vale 81 oh
served to his intimate ''Na-ya '" was hurled
from the 1arpeiian rock amid the acclamn-
ton of plebs md patriciuna, bnt we may ut
least be allowed to entertain conjecture of II
time when the man who Says a. thanks T. will
be expedited with kicking feet down hospita-
BILE stairs amid the derisive ''so-longs" of the
company
THE Governors of the States and Terri
tories afflicted with grasshoppers have
asked Government aid to put an end to the
evil. The destruction inflicted by this pest
is serious matter. Professor Packard
states that ten thousand settlers were Griv-
on out of Kansas by its ravages in 1875.
Mr.. Riley puts the loss from this source in
Missouri. in 1874, at fully $4,000. 900,
while throughout the afflicted region the
total loss is placed at not less than $d5,-
O00. 600.