Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1885-06-19
ONF ofthe most iDterestingarticle


in the North american ReUielo for
June is entitled, "The Swearing
Habit" The writer speaks Of the
prevalence of the habit, that a man Of
refinement cannot walk the streets of
n CITY or town without having his
sense of decency shocked by sense
less oaths and imprecations; in some
cases the result of a very limited
command of words to express feel
ings ofimpatience, anger, and hatred;
in others used in levity, without any
thought of their import; but in many
eases only expressing in words the
real passions of coarse, hard malig-
nant natures, who Indulge i'll out
ward curses as a verbal reliefto their
inward 'cussedness' of disposition
and character. r"
From the houses of all these char
acters issue a crowd of children that
have breathed an atmosphere OF BIAS
phemv from their birth, who are pro
| fcient in the language of eXecration
and malediction; it is a hard heart
that does not feel trill Of horror at
hearing the oaths that spontaneously
lean forth in their childish voices.
The respectable man shoulders as he
passes by these reprObates, and con
graduates himself that his own child
rem are safe from such vice; but our
author reminds him that the disease
of profanity is infectious, it spreads
like scarlet fever or diphtheria, and
space cannot preserve his innocents
from the cOntagion, "you should
know that You cannot preserve your
protected children from CONTAINING
ton, unless you labor to protect the
neglected children of imprOvidence
carelessness and vice, from what
seems to be their inevitable doom"
While the Latin races are said to
be the most voluble and constant in
their oaths, the English excel all ma
tions in the meaning and power they
put in their curses, and utter now
their favorite oath with the same
emphasis that earned for them il
France, four hundred years ago, the
name of "Goddams."
Our author divides swearers into
two classes, the reclaimable and tho
irreclaimable. The first are those
that swear from the surface, who
s., know it to be wrong and can breaf
up the,habit if they try. The SECOND
are irreclaimable because, profanity
has become a part of their nature
They have long since forgotten thai
it was wrong, the frequency of its
use takes from it all point and force
it is simply dirty stream of verba
sewerage flowing from a corrupt
source, disgusting all with its vile
ness.
Our author claims that swearing
is not the crime of men of high bus
mess capacity, the calm, watchful
self control that gives them theil
power, is incompatible with such 6
stupid use of words. The folly o.
the sin is well set forth in his con
Guiding sentence: "What most i'm
presses us, is the utter senselessness
The pure insanity of curses and NAL
edictions. For it is the Almighty
that this aspiring lump of animated
dirt blasphemes. The folly of il
can only be fifty described in that
energetic passage in which DR.. Soutl
draws the contrast between the
power of the offender and the Divine
object of his puny wrath; "A man SC
behaving himself, he says, lis moth
ing else but weakness and nakedness
setting itself in battle array against
Omnipotence, handful of dust and
ashes sending a challenge to all the
hosts of Heaven. For what else arc
words and talk against thunderbOlts
and the weak empty noise of quer
ulous rage against Him who could
word heaven and earth out Of moth
ing, and can when He pleases word
them into nothing again"