Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-12-03
oh CONSISTENCY
Il Won catch white cat. shay" her. shave her.
Il ION 'u'.h - hla, X cat. shave i."r Al u>,'
an >,.uU

Il Won catch white cat. shave her. shave her,
Il ION 't'.h hlu, * cat. shave ;''r Al u>,''
nd >"nq
Friend Fuller. 81 Tacoma C"n,m, re-,
gives a> II reason i"r lIi> innovation on
t-tai.li> he'd custom in the Use OF Ian
quay. the rejection "i one ui the I.art-
al -I,rccl-th, definite, and ind,iinit,
articles. IT. an and N-tl.at ii j. Il great
saving OF space and weight Of type; but
where economy in the latter cnn>dtra
tirn j. to be >uh>crvcd except when Il
publisher has To- ship his forms" t.
another city t" Toe printed from, ",
fail To- discover. Here is what he saws
e>pundent asks if Commerce ha.
spite against definite article TIE rs pa.
per takes pains is rule il out OF English
lan1usge. n ,.inUoNatlon Il experiment
To determine econ Onlv of space as well a>
effect upon style and dcilniteness OF con.
Struction bv elimination of article over
ordinary Verbiage. To illustrate: Above
department railroad drift" would, in
ordinarily careless tyle " newspaper
writing, repeat word the" 10l times Ii
IL easy matter to compute saving of space
by emitting word. See:
the the the the the the the the the the
Thus 4 space equal 10 ten lines has been
economical in this department. Ten
lines OF this type weighs IL : ounces avor-
duorOiS, l5I lines in long column R"at :
ers, including esteemed friend Murphy,
of WASHINGTON STANDARD. can calculate
amount of space and pounds of type saved
by leaving out article the.
Granting that space and weight
are factors OF great moment let H.
pursue the pruning process Il little
further. The idea expressed i'll the
first sentence might be conveyed by
much fewer words. Let us see
Has" may be stricken out with just as
much propriety as "the"; the word
"dcfnitc" is entirely sureriluous, and
the phrase Gas paper takes pains to
rule it out" might just rs well be ex-
pressed by the five words cas- it rules
it out" and the English language he
ing the only tongue under considcra-
ton, it must be evident that the word
" English" might just as well 60. This
would reduce the sentence of twenty
one words to fifteen, as follows: "Cor-
respondent asks ii Commerce spite
against article the, as it rules it out of
language" Take the next sentence :
The negative answer to the question
is altogether unnecessary. 1t adds
nothing to the idea expressed by the
context, so We will take the liberty of
erasing it. "Is," to-" and one Of the
COTS" follows the same rule; as we'll
as" may be replaced with "and"; "of
article" is altogether unnecessary rs it
is the subject matter, or object, clearly
understood, that is to he eliminated.
Ordinary" it must be admitted, is
plainly understood, and is therefore an
interloper and should be put down. SO
the sentence would stand: "Innova-
ton experiment determine economy
space and effect upon style and def
niteness of construction, by elimina-
ton, over verbiage." This reduces the
number of words about one-third. In
the remainder of the extract the
words, To, illustrate, above, would,
ordinarily, Of, matter, has, been, in,
this, department, this, avoirdupois, a,
esteemed friend, WASHINGTON STAND
ARD, can, amount, of and article"
could all be left out without clouding
the idea that the writer intends to
convey. The use of the word Murphy
of course presupposes that the idea of
"esteemed" and "friend" fitted through
Commences brain, and when that name
is used WASHINGTON STANDARD just as
readily arises in the Imagination as Il
synonym, and should he extirpatcd.
1t is true the style that this pruning
process enforces does not strike the
fancy of Old-fashioned writers, but
that is a matter of little consequence
when Reform seizes, with remorselcss
hands, the knife, and yields it in the
interests of economy-space and
weight! Let us hope that our es-
teemed friend Fuller will take the hint
kindly and not longer confine his ex-
perimental efforts to one of the nine
parts of speech. Let verbs, adverbs.
adjectives and conjunctions, occasion
ally, he regarded rs excresenccs as well
as the harmless and at times potent
little words a, an and the.
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