The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1888-11-22
eaAMMAn.s BROKEN LAWS.
FOiblcs Of Speech In Refincd Social CT
cles--A nriof Aist.

The strangest Of all the curious cir
cumstances attendant upon the habitasl
disregard of grammatical laws is the IN
consciousness Of the offender. Our SELF
made man End the wife he has tinkered
into "a match article" court. as orna-
ments to their drawing room. eminent
scholars and literary lights. domestic and
foreign; admire intensely in them the
faeisc propristy Of expression in which
they are themselves deficient, and never
suspect the effect Of the contrast they
offer. Does the inability to discern the
differences lie in the ear or the intellect?
] have called this iasensiblity the most
singular of the raradoxes connected with
our subject. May l retract the state
ment and substitute the anomaly of
people. born well and bred well, educated
according to the most approved methods,
| and moving in refined social circles,
whose foibles of speech approach in num-
| ber and rival in Nervousness the direct
lagual faults of iliiteracy2
People who drop the final from par
| ticiples. ard other words ending in ling"
with the constancy the cockney exhibits
| III miss laciag b.
People WHO say she don't like it."
without suspicion that the conjoined
! abbrevntion stands for ''he 90 not
Ike it,"
People who inquire '.you readya" ''you
goings" end sometimes ''where you
beenr'
People who never by any chance say
between you and me-" but with the
steadfsstness Of holy purpose, between
you and IT,
People who pride themselves upon the
| elegant accuracy Of every sentence
| formed by their lips, and tsn you in cul
| ivated euphoniousness of accent, 81 have
travelled some in" Ergland, Russia, Tnr-
key, or Australia, and II have not
coughed any all night"
Peopls who have been on intimate
terms with Lindley Murray and his col
leagues for forty years, and not learned
that amt is not tolerated by any OF them,
being an un-parsable word.
People who consider the fact that they
we're born south of Mason's and Dixson's
line warrant for ignoring the dictum,
after the words like and unlike, the
proposition to or unto is understood, !"
and cruelty our ears by telling us on all
possible occasions Il feel like / should
do. so-and-so. and 'sHe looked like he
| meant it, Who as unsteady and
audaciously say, 81 am heap better, or
"a heap worse"
heard a DID,. F. T. Y. say in ser
mon, ut does seem like the Lord has
some great and gracious purpose to
fulfill in," etc. And q few minutes
thereafter, 81 expect that this is the
proper Interpretation of this passage"
There are people, on the other hand,
| who, born and brought up in the shadow
of Yale, roll the phrase: II want that
you should" like a savory and insoluble
morsel under their tongues, and not a
few, who, as Mr.. Howells' Minister Sewell
regrets, wil-albeit they are Harvard
graduates say, to the close Of well spent
lives, Il Cont know as.''
People-this final count Is written with
groanings unuttczable who, with the
best intentions conceivable benevolent
and syntaxicaD, never let slip an oppor-
tunity Of using the pronoun ''they" when
the antecedent noun is IN the singular
number. ''If person thinks they can
do that" eff anybody has lost any
thing, they can apply at the desk" II
was talking with some one the other day,
and they said," etc., etc.
None of the phrases cited as foiblcs Of
speech trench npon the debatabIe ground
Of language. One and all, they are
glaring defects, flaws in gems which
lessen their value irretrievably. Tbs
critical inspector instantly discounts the
intelligence or conscientiousness Of him
who tenders them.
That these who are guilty of lapses Of
this sort know better, does not e1culpate
them or relieve the listener who respects
his noble vernacular too truly to condone
the unseernly faniliarities that approx
mate insult. When the delineuents are
those who assume to instruct others, the
foible becomes guilt.
A distinguished author, at reception
given in honor of her visit to a certain
town, pressed the hand of sister writer
who was introduced to her, with the COR
dial-ssYou and had ought TO have met
before"
An eminent lecturer upon scientific
subjects remarked at dinner party,
1.-THE hall was not sufficiently het to-
day."
4ao principal OF CoAeSlat9 Institute
| announced during the commencement
exercises that the presentation to himself
Of memorial from the pupils was
''change in the programme made en-
tirely unbeknownest to himself
He was taken by surprise by the tes-
timonial, and the luckless phrase escaped
him when of his guard. It should have
been impossible for him to make use Of
tt In any circumstances. IF he had never
said it before he would not have said it
| thea.-Marion Harland in Once q Week.