The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-27
THE AMERICAN LANouAoE.
Naw York Trihnne.

tacking this subject with some amus- ing results. He has, apparently, trav- eled much in the United States. At all events, he has read something of our contemporary literature, especial ly of our newspapers, and has acquired degree of familiarity with the many varieties of American slang which is really remarkable in a foreigner, and which probably few Americans share with him. Most Americans know some slang-the slang of their locality, of their profession, of their social en- vironment-but few of them probably know, as this Englishman seems to have succeeded in knowing, the slang of the many sections, races and classes of which this heterogeneous people is made up. He has gathered together the slang of the north and the south, the east and the west; the slang of the dude and the cowboy, the masher (which he seems not to know Is Lon- don slang) and the miner; the negro and the Spaniard, the Yankee and the Irishman, the Bowery tough and the New York schoolgirl; and he has poured it all in rich flood upon the startled head of John Bull, leaving that respectable but slow-witted indi- vidual gasping for breath.
 The reader will infer that this wri- ter, who Is anonymous, represents that the American language, even when spoken by educated persons, consists mostly of slang. He admits that the language, in the clothes that it stands up in, is Gan off shoot" from the speech of Shakespeare and Milton, but farther than this he will not go. Yet 1t should not be supposed that his criti- cisms are altogether sweeping and without force. He recognizes the fact that many words and expressions which Englishmen, ignorant of their own language, take to be American isms, are really survivals of old Eng fish. He is forced to admire the re- spect we show to the letter H. He seems to understand that the presence of large and diverse foreign elements necessarily results In the legitimate admixture of words from other lam guages, and that when a new civilixa- tion is built up the language grows with 1t. He appreciates one thing which the average Englishman does not seem able to comprehend--that the national characteristic of humor, developed in the American people as never before in any other, tends to quaintness of expression, often mis- taken for slang by the intelligent for eigner, and also, 1t must be admitted, to the use of slang itself.
 The chief error of the writer, aside from exaggeration and few amusing blunders of detail, is the customary one of the English traveller. What ever is is English; whatever is not English does not exist. At home he has his Luggage labeled" When he hears them talk in America about checking baggage" he is infinitely amused. This, he seems to think, is slang. He ignores the fact that lug gage is not labeled in this country, and therefore his phrase cannot be em- ployed. He forgets, too, that the American expression is quite as good English as the other. When he hears an American talk of 6 horse car in- stead of tram, or the sidewalk instead of, the pavement, he gazes upon him with benignant smile, as if he were contemplating a new variety of sav- age. Yet the American has in each case, as he has in many cases, the bet ter word. The Englishman is shocked to find that store is used for shop, saloon for bar-room, fall for autumn, corn for maize, candy for what he calls sweet-meats, crackers for biscuits, railroads for railways. It is not be- cause he can demonstrate in every in- stance that the English word is pref erable, though he may be able to do 90 in some, but because his insular con- ceit is wounded. The English lan- guage, in precisely the form in which he uses 1t, is sacred, not because 1t bears some resemblance to the Eng fish of Shakespeare and Milton, but because he speaks it.
 There is too large basis of truth, however, for this writer's rather good natured derision of the American lan- guage. We are not the sinners we are made out to be, but there is too much slang in the daily talk of educated Americans. There is too much slang in the newspapers, often written by men who can write pure English, and who, if they would only use 1t, would find that it was quite as simple, as forcible and as popular as the hybrid tongue they employ. Some of our humorous writers have much to an- swer for in this respect. Every man who knows what good English is ought to resist both in his talk and his writing this vulgar and ehsspen- ing tendency. The English language is sufficient instrument tor any one of us; and while 1t must grow to its environment, 1t need not be trained l into hideous forms
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