The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1881-07-28
Verbal Etiquette.

| There is distinction between certain
phrases, according TO circumstances.
which, when .misused, become vulgar
isms. We give a few, taken from a
London journal, All asaf ..ra,ss -
The terms g ladies" and " gentle.
men" become in themselves vulgarism
when mssapplied, and the improper ap-
plieation of the wrong term at the
wrong time makes all the difference in
the world to ears polite; thus, calling a
man gentleman" when he should be
called a /" man., 2 or the speaking of a
man as man when he should be called
a gentleman; or the alluding to lady
as woman when she should be alluded
to as lady; or the speaking of a woman
as lady when she should be properly
termed a woman. aaI
Tact and a sense of the fitness of
things decide these points. there being
no liked rule to go upon to determine
when man is a man or when he is a.
gentleman, and though he is far oftener
termed the one than the other, he does
not thereby lose his attributes of a gen.
tleman. In common parlance, a man is
always man to man, and never gen.
tleman; to a. woman he is occasionally
man and occasionally gentleman; but
man would far oftener term woman
woman than he would term her lady.
When man makes use of an adjec-'
tive in speaking of lady be almost in
variably calls woman, the term Young
lady gives place rs far as possible to
the term girl, although, it greatly de-
pends upon the amount of intimacy
existing as to which term is employed.
Now. to turn to the really tabooed
words, |" stylish and I" genteeI' are
relegated to the showroom, where they
are very much used at home in each
others company, although considered
decidedly vulgar when met with else
where. Stylish. being bred in the
showroom is the right word in the right
place; but it is hard upon unfortunatea ]
" genteel, = that, conveying IN itself so
much it should have met with such
fate. 6. Nieen bids fair to follow in the
footsteps of discarded words; standing
alone as an adjective, though passe, it
still has its admirers, but when to nice
is added either :. awfully'' or .,too,"
then nice is altogether out Of favor.
s' jolly is well enough on the lips of
a school-boy; to whom it now of right
belongs-a right which no one disputes;
but slang proper is and never can be
anything else than vulgar, and those
who delight in its use for the embellish-
ment of their speech to all intents and |
purposes intend to be, vulgar. af e i
The word :. fellow,'' much in use it
may be between men, sounds very OBJ
jectionable from the lips of women. and
some women are given to the foolish
conceit of speaking of every man they
may happen to know as "dear fell
low,' a . charming fellow" g hand
some fellow, clever fellown fs
- Beau and .'belle'' are terms now
no longer in use, and for beau no equiv
alent has as yet been discovered, al
though the !. beauty has replaced the
:. belle"
Out OF the nursery it is not customary /
for children to style their parents other
than by the good old-fashioned rever-
ential names Of q father and mother
!" Papa and g mamma are now nur-
sery names only, but pa" and 'ma-''
those unpleasant abbreviations, are now
happily quite out of date. as
The courteous g thank you'' has in a
replaced the uncourteous
s. thanks, and it is no longer consid-,
cred very fine to make this curt curtail-
ment rs N3E5 EAE fHtf tff5s