The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-10-28
Slang and Bad Grammar.

The number of persons who habitu-
/ ally use language free from slang and bad
! grammar is very small. And the reason
of this is easy to see. Those who have
never studied grammar of course make
! havoc of their mother-tongue continu-
ally, and very many of those who have
! studied it have studied it as a theory, or
! because it's the proper thing to study
grammar and not because they wished
to I" speak and write the English Ian
guage with propriety." Many of those
who understand grammar and know
theoretically how to use the moods and
lenses, adverbs and adjectives, numbers
and cases, are so fettered by habits of
incorrect speaking and by the usage of
those about them that it is next to i'm
| possible for them to root out errors
! from their speech. We know teacher
of considerable distinction who invaria-
bic says, Il done it, - ''They done it, "
We have went,n and a number of
such solecisms, not because he doesn't
know better but because he has never
/ taken pains to correct errors, and has
/ no kind friend to insist that he should
/ do so, and to help him in the task. If
professional teachers habitually use bad
grammar what can we expect from pu-
pills?
1t is not unusual to hear people who
are what are called good Greek and
! Latin and French and German scholars
use very bad English, and use it too,
with manner as though they said,
g We know well enough how to talk,
or we might know if we took the least
pains, but you see we've been busy with
other studies and haven't had time to
bring up our English" A fimsy excuse
this, certainly.
Then as to slang What a vast
amount of it is in use! It's the COM
mon spice in the talk of those who de-
cline to use profane expressions, as COM
mon as cinnamon or nutmeg in apple
pie. We hear it on the street, in the
drawing-room and sometimes in the
pulpit. With slang great deal of dia-
lect talk has become mixed in our COM
mon speech. There is no valid objec-
ton to dialect talk if we don't have too
much of it. We know teacher whose
whole stock of wit was invested in the
use of funny negro talk and she car
ried it so far that she used it uncOn-
sciously on all occasions and infected
the family of the principal of the school
in which she was teaching to such an
extent that they insensibly fell into the
same habit. Surely there is no beauty
in this that one should desire it. But is
no one ever to indulge in pleasantries
of this sortP Not to such an extent as
will dull their appreciation ofclear, cor
rect, plain English. 1t is a reproach to
us that the purest English is spoken by
educated foreigners. 1t may be that
even they speak as much slang and bad
grammar in their own tongue as we do
in ours, but it is pleasure to hear from
their lips the unauthorized, well COM
posed English that " sounds like
book"
Many persons haven't the courage to
speak correctly when those around
them speak incorrectly. 1t seems like
affectation of superiority. As well might
one refuse to keep clean in the midst of
dirty people, to keep pure amid vicious
surroundings, to keep honest among
thieves. The principle is the same.
When we set out to attain excellence in
anv one branch we must of necessity
disregard all unreasonable adverse crit
icism. If my friend laughs at me for
being purist in speech, he is welcome
to the laugh. have the best of it in
the speech. Any one who really under
takes to weed out doubtful and bad
and slang and ungrammatical express
sIons from his language can find help at
small expense and with little trouble.
All our common text books on gram
mar contain the ordinary solecisms in
use with their corrections. Then when
one reads, careful observation of the
constructions used and the words Sc
lected to convey the writer's thought.
will be found helpful. Most efficient of
all aids is kind and judicious friend to
rebuke errors and aid in their correc-
ton.
Teachers by the ten thousand are
now experimenting the education OF
pupils. All that these pupils will osten-
sibly carry from them will be crystal
lized in their speech. A good teacher
is power in the family of every child
he teaches. Through the child he will,
insensibly perhaps, but none the less
surely, reach the parents and influence
them to a greater or less degree.
1t seems very hopeless and uphill
task to attempt the reform of an entire
neighborhood in habits of speech,
but the teacher who can establish
habitual correct speech in his pupils
will inaugurate such a reformation. He
may be looked upon by some invidious
soul as an innovator, but that should
not deter him in his work. The gener-
alton to come will appreciate it and be
bettered by it.
Writing compositions, writing for the
press, writing letters. all these may be
used as corrective of ones errors and
mistakes of various kinds. What
escapes the eyes in manuscript is often
glaringly conspicuous in print. For
this reason there is no better discipline
for a boy or girl than type-setting. The
type-setter learns spelling, grammar,
punctuation, capitalization, expression,
all in one lesson, especially If an expert
in these things looks over the "proof"
and marks the errors.
Fine language, like fine manners,
clings to the educated and refined as
closely as his skin, and can no more
easily be laid aside. 1t may be covered
for time for purpose, out it is never
laid aside.-N Y. Tribune.
The palace of Versailles cost Louis