The daily Cairo bulletin., 1884-11-08
Plain and Simple Speech.

a pHIu, hlIoup, Co!IOlulaIlsn may
be at once easy and correct; but who
ever attempts to use long words, or
new words, with an air of plying SUI
periority to express ideas that some
familiar phrase more nearly fits, is as
suredly caught in the slough Of ahec-
tation. A man who talks to you in
casual speech, of localities" ," ''resi-
dences," tragedies" ''domestics. "
"mendicants," and "individuals," in
stead of "placcs," "houses," "shock-
ing affairs" servants" "beggars,
'persons," is certainly bad enough.
If, besides his weak nouns, tho verbs
also are affected, if he Estates" things
that ordinary people "say," and 'pur-
chases' when others "buy," and "com-
mences" when college professor
would "begin' case is decidedly
worse. Even the rude, rustic dialects,
with their quaint and homely Saxon ex-
prcssions that have somehow fingered
among the lower classes for centuries,
are infinitely more interesting and
agreeable than this emasculated mod
ern talk. The daily newspapers often
contain examples of the finest and
most difficult kind of literary work
that in which poise, reserve and bril-
liancy are united, and the style is per-
fectly limpid. But who has not felt
that the oVer-eXpression of a feeling,
the undue emphasis Of fact the ten
dcncy towards extravaganza, are man.
ifest in much that is printed in news
papers?
Perhaps "the public demand it,"
Let us waive that point, and merely
ask of the probable effect of it on what
may be called the speech of the people
The rich expressive, effective vernac-
ular Effort there must be, for every
one reads papers, and even the modern
school book is more and more written
in the stilted style. Despite the con-
tinuance Of "notes and queries" and
the survival of folk lore, and philolog-
zeal societies, it is to be feared that the
harmless idioms will 90 to the wall.
The little English Girl OF the brickyards
who said; I'VE swllls the spottles off
us faces before we has us dinners"
will learn to say: 1--WE perform our
ablutions before our noon repasts."
The colliermen plea during a riot:
1--WE must have something 10 fill our
bellies, is tcrSe, idiomatic, and not TO
be strengthened The Nrginian noun
talner, instead Of saying: 1--WE are 90
ing to harness up our horses, notify the
young ladies, and nave q dauce,n sums
up ali this in the phrase: "We are 60
inc on dyke" "
1t IS desirable to know the meaning
OF words and 70 use them with correct
ness Yet it is pleasant to notice how
uneducatcd common sense will assert
itself in the long run and how it man
ages to be understood through all its
blunders. No one wants mere barbar-
isms of speech kept alive; the ideal is.
OF course, to have the easy and correct
use OF our mother tongue become uni
versaL. But it would be a sad result if
the unculliyated classes of society
should give up their spicy idiom5 and
accept instead secondhand language,
the cast-of fripperes of ordinary news
paper English. How often, in rural
circles, il is said Of some shallow brain
she talks like book. " Let a man
whose education has permeated his
WHOLE nature, and who dwells naturally
on high levels, come into the same COM
mun!ty and the rustic comment will
be, ''why! We can understand every
word he saws"
Mr.. Ruskin thinks there is = great future
II Ancfcan art but he hardly realizes
le enormous demand over here for DR..
uIl's Cough Syrup. Indeed he doesn't.