New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-05-30
our Girls and sIane

Our UlflS ana slang
A party of refined, educated people
who filled a country house last sum
mer formed themselves by common
consent into Society for the Sup
preston of Slang" The fines imposed
II penny for each and every infringe
| ment of the rule prohibiting the use
of slang words or phrases-Were drop
! ped into foreign missionary box be-
| longing to member. Much fun and
more serious reflection ensued upon
the workings of the constitution and
| bylaws. The most careful speakers
were COMPOUNDED at finding themselves
convicted as transgressors, while col
lege 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 afternoons to spend
Sundays in the mountain retreat, ha-
bitually rendered quarter of dollar
| to the treasurer on alighHng from the
| carriage that had met him at the sta
ton, with the request that he might
| "be notified when the amount was
used up"
Patel1aa1aizias was travelling abroad
when the society was formed, and
wrote home this dryly significant COM
ment:
"With regard to the IS. S. S. I have
only to remark that the conversion of
| the world is 7ao1O a mere question Of
time!''
The result of the establishment of
similar organizations in other families
and communities, with rigid enforce
ment of penalties, would astound men,
| bers and lookers-on.
1t is easier to lay hold of ready
made phrase that lies near the tongue.
than to formulate thought into cor
rect and forcible words. just as cen
sure is cheaper than discriminating
praise and ore dearer than dirt. A
child should be taught with the form
ing of his earliest sentences, that
language is the vehicle of ideas, and
that he dishonors the thing carried by
| neglect of that which bears it.
Thought is to speech what the soul is
to the body. Our Girl should dread to
cast discredit upon her intellectual
powers by robing what she thinks
| (Which is what she is !! in second hand
rags, as much as she would shrink from
debasing her clean body by apparel
picked up in an old clothing store in
Chatham or Baxter street.
The habit Of slang. is SO fearfully
contagious, and so nearly incorrigible
| when fairly contracted that one is
amazed at the number and character
of those who yield to it. The slovenly
thing comes to the lips against the
will of the speaker, who has battered
herself that she only uses in the des-
.1obille speech, pardonable Tin her es-
timation) when she is with her fami-
liar friends.
Our Girl may be decorous Of tongue
while on her guard, although not
fluent. She may not hope to emulate
the brilliant woman at her side, who
has thought it worth while to study
conversation as one of the fine as well
as useful arts, but she plods on reason
ably well until she becomes ami
mated or enthusiastic, when ssout flies"
the slang which is the everyday habit
! OF her speech. Bitter modification to
herself and those who love her is SO
frequently the result of the experience,
that wisdom might be bought by it.
Madame Recamier is reported to
have assigned as the secret of her
well bred elegance of department, her
rule of behaving when alone as if un-
der the eyes Of others. IF Our Girl
would lay to her speech with her
family and intimate friends, the rule
and plummet she essays to apply
when conyersing with comparative
strangers, she would uccessfully over
come a habit which degrades her more
than she dreams Of. She ought not to ]
feel it to be irksome to be compelled
to abandon slip shod talk, but she
does, and, by the very admission of the
fact, announces her slavery to what
sober reason condemns.
II silence be golden, and speech