The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-08
LITERARY HABERDASH-
 FRY.
BY JULIAN HAwTHo lNE.

Webster's Dictionary, in attempting to account for the word "haber- dasher," indulges in picturesque his- torical anecdote. We are informed that, many years ago, in an antique continental town, there used to be quarter specially set apart for mer- chants of the Hebrew cast. (It must have been one of the German towns Low German probably; though, in the absence, at this moment, of the volume of etymological truth to which I refer, am unable to give the name of it.) These Hebrew merchants, at all events, availed themselves, for the purposes of their trade, of the Ger man tongue; and this trade, like that of their descendants who now hold the Bowery and Chatham street in fee, was concerned chiefly with the barter of second hand clothing. Coats, trousers, and waistcoats dangled, as now, in front of the modest ware- houses of those energetic and opti- mistic tradesmen, and, taking their stand amidst the festoons of garmen- ture, it was their want to uplitt their voices and cry aloud to all and sum- dry: "Hobt ihr dns, Herr" ("Did you get that, Mister?" or words to that effect at the same time indicat- ing, by gesture of the thumb over the shoulder, this or that particular habiliment which their quick eye had. marked as deficient in the array of the possible customer. Now, the words "Habt ihr das, Hesr2" trippingly pro- nounced on the Hebrew tongue, be- come "hdU q dasherr," with which our word "haberdasher" is manifestly akin.
 Second hand clothing in the opin- ion of it's purveyors, probably did then, as it certainly does now, fit those who tired it on like de paper on de wall and then, as now, in the judgment of less impassioned critics, it was tawdry, vulgar, and out of re- lation to the wearer. Nevertheless, the business thrived, as it does still, and is likely to do hereafter, because the world contains many persons lack ing in taste, knowledge and percep- tion. And, as regards the clothing of bodies and the clothing of ideas, the case is much the same. There are many purveyors of literature (so- called) who persist in decking out their unhappy conceptions in the most grotesque toggery of phrase, until their books become perfect Chatham street of inaptitudes. Often one would almost prefer to see the poor things go naked; for some of them are not so badly fashioned, so for as their pura ndturalta are con- cerned, but are fatally handicapped in appearance by their "paper-on-de- wall' slops.
 Writers who are guilty of these departures from sweetness and light are not, suppose, conscious of sin; on the contrary, they are trying to be original, vivid, or even powerful. They consider simplicity to be dull and hackneyed; they would make their narratives bundle of snatches at impressions, instead of going about to gain their end by graduated degrees; they wish to keep their reader in constant fiutter and fever of excite ment, instead of allowing his tor tured sensibilities rest now and then; and they imagine that forced forms of speech are as exciting as great ideas. And yet it cannot but be true that words are nothing but arbitrary signs invented to ex- press thoughts: every word, in its right place, possesses incomparable meaning and force; and, out of it's right place, means or emphasizes nothing, or worse. To knock . man down with a flush hit on the mouth is good, under certain circumstances to kiss . woman is also good, If you love her, and she is not unwilling 1; but to kiss s truculent bully, or knock down your lovely wife-these are incongruities.
 One of the commonest forms which this disease of verbiage assumes is that of variations from the simple form ula, "I said-he replied" These two words are in themselves sufficient for all emergencies; or, in quick, dramatic dialogue, they can be omitted alto gether. But 1t may sometimes seem worth while to indicate the mood of the speaker by adjoining some adverb to the verb, as aI said slowly; he re- piled coolly." Of adverbs, however, as of adjectives, it may be aid that the les they are used the stronger is their effect and master of narrative, like Shakespeare, will render them superfiu0us by O contriving his speeches and situations as that tho reader shall mentally supply them himself. They arc at best but sort of explanatory after- thought, and be- tray lack of purpose and prepara-