Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-04-19
ON THE USE OF SLANG.
Little Morsels of Slang Which Creep into
the Conversation of Girls

want to talk little to the girls,
says Polly, in the Cleveland Herald,
about slang. There, imagine you will
sigh and think it is to be the old, old
story, and am going to tell you that
no lady uses slang, ETC., but am not,
so you needn't be afraid to keep on
reading. THERE'S an evil resulting from
the use of slang which is quite as bad
as, if not worse than, its mere coarse
ness. I suppose there are many of
you who use slang expressions at home,
when you would never think of using
them if talking to strangers, and you
imagine that as long as you are talking
to people who know you well, it makes
no difference, and you need not be par
ticular. But the habit of expressing
yourself thus will narrow and warp
your powers of conversation more than
you dream of. By and by, when you
attempt to converse with persons with
whom you wish to appear at your best,
you will find yourself at a standstill,
where had you been at home you would
use slang, but as it is, you hesitate and
you are at a loss to find the right words
and perhaps fail altogether to express
your idea. You will find this trouble
again and again whenever you enter a
serious conversation, and it will NOR
tify you exceedingly. Nothing cripples
one in the use of language more than
the habit of not calling things by their
names. For instance, there are many
people who call everything a ching"
If they want you to give them a stick,
they will say, 'tPlease let me take that
thing" or,what is worse, ''thingamy,"
or ''thingumbob," or "thingamaiig.
After time they will be unable to re-
member the real names, and if any one
should say, ''What thing?" instead of
answering the name, they will be
obliged to say, "Why, the thing on the
table," or whatever it is. I have even
known people, when driven to extrem-
ity, compelled to describe the ching"
they meant, even when it was very
common article of daily use, whose
name they knew perfectly well, but
were unable to remember. This dwarf
ing to the vocabulary is even worse in
its efectupon writing than in speaking.
When writing we cannot absolutely say
''that thing" because no one knows
what is meant unless there is a descrip-
ton of it. 1t would scarcely do in con-
graduating lady on the success of her
party to say that sit took the rag off the
| bush" even if we put it in the more pol
ished CD way and said, ''It removed
the dilapidated garment from the shrub
berry," Slang looks great deal worse
| written that it sounds said. In any
| writing at all serious the introduction
| of one slang word ruins the effect,
though sometimes it seems in our
thought to express our thought better
| than anything we can think of. Sup
pose, instead of saying above, ''you will
find yourself at standstill, u had said:
'syou will find yourself up stump -
(and / confess I have used that ex-
preston so much that was strongly
| tempted to use it there), what effect do
think all of my preaching could possibly
| have? You see, I am not altogether
unacquainted with slang, and I may as
well own that I write from bitter ex-
per;ence. Please, girls, before you get
to my deplorable condition, call things
by their right names; don't cripple
| yourselves with slang, and be as little
sloyenly in your talk as possible.