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

Probably there is not, ,au instrument
IN common Use, frotp pencil to piano,
which ID used so impsrfectly as language.
You were well taught here, and most of
you have been using the English you
learned for some time since you gradu-
eted. But, If you will let me be plain.
L 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 torb1ddlng connections; will drop no
partlc1ples, 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 o person talks like that, they
ought to he ashamed of it,"
we all repeat and perpetuate conven-
tlonal blnnders and hereditary solecisms
without once applying the study of four
or i've years in syntax and coniugation
to our current speech. Where is the re-
form to beginP 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.
slble. 1t would be no more discredit.
able to your training to finish q picture
out OF drawing, or to misspell the name
OK one OF our Territories, or to mistrans-
late 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. III
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
rromthelrlIl-Dreda acquaintance. ssAwfnl
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
mgh-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 nl-naGured bachelor shamefullv 70.
ports that he has entered in his diary n
thousand scraps of talk of young women
overheard In the streets and housas of
which seven hundred and eighty begin
with Says I, or "Says he" and q
hundred and twenty contain the com
.binations sjust splendid, I" "stuck up-
and perfectly lovely. "-- Bishop Hunt.
S'aGtOss' AcIolres before the Re5te School
A Sharp ParsOn.
! "A Chicago clergyman explained to the
committee Of deaoons that the widow
was M Vrofkv No man noYa1d haIYn Airf;no ~
with her, aud each of the COMMITTEES
....ii@ssy called round % ees 20 he told
the truth, and then nOs QUO oe 'er
dared 70 fiso mp ia meeting, with her
present, and say tke clergyman wasn't
light. BY sharp management sven
usy Of deacOns oan be handled.
AYFxR al the afgamsnts short ehaapness
I'D quality & eppsAra thas %. BuIl's Cough
iyrnp q the bessremedy for thocure OF Coughs
I'D Colds ever offered to tho public. The price
sonly a5 consa bottle Rnd every drRggiat 10
ge lsaa salIs sna FssIsads Il '8