The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1884-10-18
NO.g33


Christian Register.
tits some times painful surprise
to hear . stranger whose face we have
been admiring speak. II il rs il toada
and frogs fell from bis lips, as from
the naughty girls mouth in the old
fairy story. Or, If the words are Jew
els, they are SO chipped and marred,
so mingled with base alloy, that the
contrast between the good Thought
and the imperfect vehicle Of convey
ing it is painful. A young woman
stood last winter before noble paint
ing in an art collection. She herself
was no mean artist. Her reputation
as critic was good. With fine
face and figure she was noticeable
even in the crowded gallery. On be-
ing pointed out to 9 stranger as Miss
Native Genius, he drew near to hear
her words Of criticism to q afriend be-
side her. There was moments
pause. Then in the silence the woEdA
smote upon bis car: AHow fine the
'drorini is n Unconsciously, she had
spat out toad.
II is curieus to see how certain ac-
cidents have oyertaken the English
language, and how generation after
generation of those who speak it per
petuate these errors rather than repair
them. How, for instance, does ID hap
pen that III Is taken from one word
where it belongs and given to another
that would do very well without It'll
Why is ''gn treated in the same wayg
By what fatality was kitchen ever
converted into ''kitching,p or garden
into E'garding,' and mountain into
''monnting n The conversion is
daily fact in many homes throughout
New England. Still, it is not Of fre.
quent enough occurrence to account
for the missing @gp in other words
Where is the e" that belongs on
scores Of words that end in "ingP 1t
is often missed in England, and In
Scotland it is almost unknown; but,
someway, in that soft, musical tongue,
there is so much elision that one does
not 80 much notice the omission Of
the "g.o But this side the water,
from Maine to Texas, there are every
where yawning abysses down which
the "g" has been dropped and never
been found again.
The child that begins to talk by
using snch words as goin', doin', seein',
eatin', goes through the primary and
grammar school cipherin' and psrsin',
and is occupied in the high school
composin' and translatin', will wake
up some day peIcbance to a knowl-
edge of the atrocity Of sueh pronun-
citation, only to find himself or herself
q slave to habit as firmly fixed and
difficult to cure as the opium habit.
The old man Of the sea was easy to
shake of in comparison. II he at-
tempts to pick up a ''g" and put il
where it belongs In one case, ho for
gets it in the next and he is at last
80 overwhelmed with the number Of
words with psrticipal endings--or
endin's be would say--that be gives
up in despair, and let's the 'g's" slide
of one by one, dotting the back.
ground of his speech at intervals like
potatoes laid out upon the ground for
8 potato race. But he will nevor win
the race; he will never gather them
up into the basket.
This is no trifing matter. 1t isun-
fourtunate to let . child grow up with
habits Of speech that will submit him
to the sensation Of inferiorIty when
he is with cultivated people. At two
years old ii ID as easy to say going as
'goin'.' After "goinp has been
used for 20 years, "going" sounds to
auch speaker hard and formal, aud
90 times out Of 100 it viii never be
acquired. Parents are responsible for
this slipshod pronunciation, and they
alone can find the missing ''g."