Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1880-02-26
What is a lingo 2


An English traveller abroad is said to
have been not long ago asked the ques-
ton by a continental politician, "MaiS,
qu'estce que c'est done, monsieur, que ce
.Iingo?' His own ideas on the matter
not being very clearly defined, he made
answer. with delusive playfulness, that it
was Mr.. Gadstone's familiar spirit. The
epithet is now used by liberal speakers,
even by the most moderate and eminent
Of them, as a convenient missile to fling
at their opponents, and by radicals it is
applied freely, and one may say indiscrlm-
inately, to all who desire to maintain
the honor and integrity of the British
Empire. A word which the political ex-
element of the last three years has en-.
glaved so deeply in peoples memories,
and which the excitement ofthe next cleo
tions will perhaps fix there still more
firmly, cannot be soon forgotten: and
even if it does not attain hereafter to the
classic dignity of the two names cited
above, it's place in history is already won.
But then what is Jingo exactly? 1t is
man who believes in what LNrd Derby
calls ''gunpowder and glory" whatever
this may mean? Is sta man who wants TO
fight everybody all round, if such man
there be? If we turn to that celebrated
refrain which has given currency to the
word, and which will be remembered
longer than many verses ofgreater lyrical
a bor
the expression of modest firmneSs and
self reliance. 1t atfirms that we have no
desire for war, but that, should war arise,
we have the means to face it.. This tenn
perate affirmation is clenchcd with an
oath, reprehensible indeed, and by no
means refined, but far less Objectionable
than many other such words that we un-
fortunately hear even from the liberal
workingmen as we walk along the SteretS
Since there is nothing in the origin of
the word, as political term, which ex-
plains the use made Of it, and since philol-
logy has no key by which to unlock its
significance, where are we to turn for an
explanations? We shall find cew in the
policy and temper of the men who use it
as term of reproach. Bearing this in
mind, we see that Jaingoism comes to
pretty much the same thing as another
word also used by the same sort ofpeople
as term of reproach-namely, "Im-
perialism." London Saturday Revie,o.
preacher who had been preaching on
trial in country church in northern
Pennsylvania was tackeled by an Older
preacher and told that it would please the
consregaton greatly if he would vuote
little Latin, Greek and Hebrew in his SER
mons, as if taking for granted that his
hearers understood it, hwen in reality
none of them knew anything about these
languages. The preacher was puzzled.
he didn' know anything of either Hebrew,
Greek or Latin himself, but was a native
of Wales and thought they wouldn't know
the difference if he gave them little
Welsh every time So he made Il Scripture
quotation in his first sermon TO them, and
and said: "rhis passage, brethern, has
been slightly changed in the translation.
1t is only in the original Hebrew that you
can grasp its full meaning. Twill read 1t
to you in Hebrew, so that you may COM
prehend it more exactly" and he gave
them the passage in very good Welsh.
They liked it first rate, and presently he
gave them some Welsh as Greek, and then
some as Latin. He was going to give
them the Chaldaic version in Welsh, when