Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-10
BIG WORDS.

The English have laughed at US Ameri-
cans a good deal for our habitual use of
long and grand sounding words, and we
have, no doubt, deserved the laugh pretty
well. Our fondness for pompous phrases
is akin to orr love of titles and certain
dashiness in dress which is noticeable in
our women. When Prince Napoleon and
the Princess Clotilde visited Boston, many
ladies were scandalized by the simplicity
Of the Princess attire on certain public
occasion, feeling it to be somewhat of an
insult to our city. We remember that when
young man, who shall be nameless,
made an announcement at an afternoon
concert some years ago-an announcement
referring to change in the programme
his unstudied and colloquial diction was
Indignantly criticised by some persons
present as being an objectionable and pre-
meditated insult to the concert. giver. 1t
is not our purpose now to guess at the rea-
sons for the love Of fine language which
distinguishes a large class of our fellow
countrymen. Suffice it to say that it has
a deplorable influence upon our current
literature, especially upon our drama.
Take, for instance, Bronson Towards in
many ways charming little comedy OF
cold Love Letters" play which
is almost epoch-marking in the an
nails of the American stage. For
witty dialogue, simplicity of scheme and
general cleverness of construction, it can
bear comparison with excellent French
models. But the terribly stilted talk of
the two lovers spoils it outright. These
two people belong avowedly to the social
stratum which is known as elegant socl.
ety." but they talk like a second rate
newspaper. Fancy a high-bred woman
saving that "she continued to reside in
her fathers mansion" and this, too, in IA
miliar chit-chat. Milliners and washer ladies
may reside in mansions, but elegant women
of the world usually live in houses. The
present writer was met in the street some
months ago by decently dressed woman,
who asked him the way to certain church (;
on his saying that he was just going there
himself, she replied that she had "pre-
sumed that he was proceeding in that di-
rection." An Englishwoman would have
thought that he was going that way. What
love of big words there may be in England
does not showit itself in general conversation,
but almost exclusively in advei tisements.
To be sure, London bootblacks do not dub
themselves professors, nor do penny
shaving shops 60 by the name of
tonsorial palaces ;" but English inventors
are rather fond OF giving high-sounding
names to their inventions. The attempt
to make the game of lawn tennis go by the
name of "speristike was deservedly a
failure, but we still hear of linoleum and
pannus coriun,. True, the English often
use slang where we use splendid poly
syllables in ordinary talk. We remem-
Der once discussing this very subject
with Londoner, and when, few min
utes afterwards, our conversation hap
pened to turn to base ball, he laughingly
said, "There, now, here is a case in point.
You say that the various clubs send dele
gates to the national association to deliber-
ate upon the regulations, etc, etc.; l should
probably have said that all the clubs
sent off parcel of beggars to meet and
talk over rules Which of these two
forms is preferable is matter of taste.
After all, there is little use in CRITICS.
ing this tendency of ours to indulge our
sense of sublimity with long words.
We shall most likely continue to erect
edifces in locations, and inaugurate
musician seasons, until our own sense of
humor leads us to prefer to build houses in
places and begin courses of concerts. Per-
haps Western editors and patent-medicine
men are already doing all that can be done
to awaken this sense of humor IN u.s.
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