The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1882-02-02
Talk Corkectly.

Probably there is not ,au instrument
IN common use, froSp pencil to piano,
which is used so imperfectly as language.
You were well taught here, and most of
you have been using the English you
learned for some time since you gradu-
ated. But, if you will let me be plain,
suspect that it would be safe to offer q
gold medal as prize to every young
lady here who will not before tomorrow
night utter some sentence that cannot be
parsed will put no singulars or plurals
into forbidding connections; will drop no
participles, double no negatives, mix no
metaphors, tangle no parentheses, begin
no statement two or three times over
without finishing it, and not once con-
struct proposition after this manner
"When a person talks like that, they
ought to he ashamed of it."
VIC all repeat and perpetuate conven-
tional blnnders and hereditary solecisms
without once applying the study of four
or hve years In eyntax and conjugation
to our current speech. Where is the ro-
form to begin? I say emphatically, set
about grammatic correctness, first of all.
Watch yourself. Criticise yourself. Be
mtolerantwith yourself. Get some house.
mate to expose you. Say over the thing
correctly till the mistake is made impos-
sible. 1T would. be no more discredit-
able to your training to finish q picture
out OF drawing, or to misspell the name
Of one of our Territories, or to mistrans-
late q line of Virgil, or to fiat in music,
than to confound the parts OF speech in
o morning call.
Nothing is to be said Of slang. IF I
were to exhort those who are here on
that matter, it should be only to forbear-
ance, in that they are obliged to hear it
from theirill- bred acquaintance. "Awful
handsome" aud "horrid nice and "iolly
sunset" and all that pitiful dialect
coming OF weak heads and early neglect,
we shall have to bear with till select and
high-toned schools have chastened the
manners, and elevated the spirit of the
better conditioned classes; and through
them, the improved standard will work
its way outward and downward into the
public schools and the homes of the
people. Unexpected hyperbole is often
witty; but nonsense is not, nor are
stale repetitions of nonsense.
An lll-natured bachelor ahamefulIv re-
ports that he has entered in his diary n
thousand scraps of talk of young women
overheard In the streets and houses. of
which seven hundred and eighty begin
NlIh Gays Il, OF = says he" and 81
hundred and twenty contain the com.
.binations just splendid, {" "stuck MP"
and perfectly lovely. Bishop Hunt.
S'aGto7s's AdClres before the Re5Ee School
A Sharp ParsOn.
A Chicago clergyman explained to the
committees of deacons that the widow
was so pretty no man could help flirting
with hex, and each OF the committee
quietly OelIad round 60 eco e he told
tho truth, and then noA one OF 'em
dared 20 xise UP IN meeting, with her
present. and say Ehe clergyman wasn't
right. BY sharp management even o
jury oe deaoons osn he handled.
AvTEn an Che arguments sbouE saoapness
end quality Il appsaES shas Or. BuItS Coueii
syrup is the bsgtrsEedy FOR the cure 4. Coughs
and Cclds ever offered to the public, The price
g only Q5 cents bottle and ever ,dyugeigs 10
Eilp Ispd calls aaa geosamsaas C