Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-05-04

hlbltlng the use OF slang Wolds or phrases
were dropped into foreign missionary
box belonging to member. Much fun
and more serious reflection ensued upon
the workings of the constitution and by,
flaws. The most careful speakers were
Iconfounded at finding themselves con-
yicted IS transgressors, while college
boys and graduate girls declared that
bankruptcy stared them in the face before
the close OF the season. One merry
youth, who ran up from the city
on Saturday afternoon to spend
Sundays In the mountsin retreat, ha it
uslly rendered quarter Of dollar to the
treasurer on alighting from the carrisge
that had met him st the station, with the
request that he might "be notified when
the amount was used up"
Paterfamilias WAS travelling abroad
when the society was formed, and wrote
home this dryly significant comment:
"With regard to the IS. S. S. have
only TO remark that the conversion of the
world is now s mere question OF time!"
| The result OF the ests blishmens Of SIM
ilar organizations in other families and
communities, with rigid enforcement Of
penalties, would astound members and
| lockers on
The ungrammatieal structure Of a SEN
tepce is fault in him who composes it.
Slang is lingual vice. Collegisns OF both
sexes, who are among the chiefest sin
ners in this matter, palliate 1t to their
consciences by pleading that they nud
nothing in sober, everyday phrase so
rscy snd apt as the catch-words that run
| like wild fire or scarlet fever from band
to band, from city to town all over the
country. Some originate in comic
STOKES or pointed anecdotes which please
the popular fancy; others in witless
sayings that would seem to impartial
listeners to have no terminating power,
yet are as prolific SO wire-grass and
parsley in the great common Of the
peoples vernacular. We may borrow,
in describing the majority of
these parasites, from the negro
preachers delinestion of Melchizedek:
"Wlthou5 father, without mother, with
out no decent behavior at all" They
come and 90 as fit and rise, and sink the
Ian bent eXaalstions of swamp. Those
e this day will be ircomorehensible to
the generation following. We would need
s glossary were those of our forefathers
set before us in print.
Forty years ago ssw Young girlcove
ner. elf with confusion as with garment
BY q careless reply TO her escort on an
evening wax, who asked if she were going
20 wear rub 1ers.
81 an not going to wear anything else"
fell gaily from her lips.
Had sne been asked il she felt ashamed
Of The luckless saying, the chances are
that she would hsve said: swell, dol"
mother slang saying then in vogue.
These expressions, with ST does not
matter" 80 X" and the half dozen 9TH
ers thst were banded into shreds and
dropped for newer sbsurdities, were fool
ish in inception and use, but few and IN
Objectionable by comparison with those
that come in upon US like q muddy hOcd
with eacn passing year. The French mot
d. engine may be witty and servs go d
turn TO the speaker; each house
hold hiss what the same conven-
lent tongue styles mots de famille,
Dorm Of Jest and incident, dignifed, some
times, by usage and years into tradition,
snd endued with pathetic value not
their own. They are treasured and be-
queathed with the battered nursery fur
riture We have not the heart TO send off
to the suction room. Popular slang.
caght by Oar Girl from schoolm.tes and
brothers, is silly, slcvenly, and often vul-
gar. In it's effect upon home and society
conversation, Il Is pernicious to degree
We cannot overestimate.
listened, the other day, with mingled
pain and disgust, to the talk Of s rich law
yer, thirty-fve years old, who was noted
in college for his proficiency in sisng. Ga
the present occasion he desired, I
knew, 10 appear well to the associ-
~ l, h 90 -h,>,,
tinguishsd in art, literature and science.
To an elegant woman who inquired if he
had enjoyed his winter in Rome, he re-
Piled: swell, should relax my fea-
turesi" To another who asked il he
were an admirer Of Chopin, he drswled:
swell, 1 guessl" He told @ reviewer
for sll 1t wss WORTH" stock phrase he
repeated four times in six sentences, no.
tably in commenting upon Professor Cor
sons lectures On browning; ne thought
HowelIs rather "fresh," ana James ode
cidedly tig,you know" The whole"kit and
boozle Of the literary cochalorums were
too much given to footing their own
hor9sn to please him. "Egen Stevenson
yckid be the Deter II he were taken
down peg"
lulS VCLS5tsUic ulco5 ID
BILE than the talk of two collegians across
the table of country hotel, in which one
requested the other TO "rush the bovine"
when he wanted the miIk-pitcher, to
clerk the tinker" for the absent waitress
and asked If he had "doused the glim"
before leaving their bedroom. Both al
luded to the well-cooked and well-served
meal IS "grub."
Oar Girl may not descend to such
Shiny deeps Of lingual inigniry as tine
foregoing, but she is ingenious in the in
vsntion Of a patois OF her own, and quick |
to adopt what strikes her fancy in her
brothers. dialect. She is not above call
Ing Schumann "perfectly mag" and Tur-
per, sjnst too, too, utterly more 80, you
know" admonisnes ner tossing maze TO |
"eome on the roofl' echestnuts!" cries
at tWice-told told, and takes the cuSfSpt
inanity "ior al she's worth" into tn
favor. even overheard one, not aNeeB
ago, remark iscetiously to Q girl friSpd =
"You may wager your saccharlne v11Al-3
ity'' on such and such point. and sayef /
3 visitor (masculine) that he chad th6(
cheek Of BRASS faced monkey"
Toe into1erable 1sfgon u neither Wit |
nor humor. Least Of III Is Il lady-liks |
or refined. ssvuleax1tS'' u mot t6sl
strong : terA 1os ~ IlieGifimste o.