The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-03-17
SECOND DECREE cUss WORDS
Chicago Mail.

w ell, Dy JluSO pWch AhAo As the favorite expletive of young man otherwise apparently rational. He picked it up in Dakota, where it is supposed it grows wild. It is an in- stance of the expedients men will make use of to avoid 6 swear word "a little, simple, everyday swear word. Yet these expedients are nec- essary-in fact, there must needs be substitute cuss words for parlor and drawing room use "Great Scott p is an old-time favorite, hallowed by the use of near half 8 century. Of course, it was never intended to glorify Gen. eral Winfield Scott, nor yet Sir Wal ter, but is so strong an ejaculation and SO comfortably near 8 real hard blue bad word that its reason for being is more than passing good. Who knows but that the memory of that doughty warrior may be conserved in this word as flies in amber are, or ancient reptiles in the rock thou dost crack nuts withal?
 "Bloody" is favorite adjective with the English people, and comes in 80 easily that the story is told that when once clergyman was consoling a bereaved mother for the loss of her infant boy, by assuring her that he was in better land and out of the care and worry of this vale of tears, she said: "Oh, yes, sir: 1 s'pose 'e's a bloody little hangel now. l 'opes as low e is."
 How gruesome, gory word like this should have come into such gen. eral use is something of mystery until it's derivation is known. It is corruption of "By our lady," tayor- ite medieval oath, contemporaneous with "By my halidom," without which no doublet-and- hose play could possibly be written.
 "Zounds" is another old corker usually gotten off by the irate father who wears a white wig and snowy "sluggers' in the drama written be- fore the war. 1t is threshing over old straw to say that tbis is contraction of Gods wounds" "Sdeath used to be whispered through the teeth of the d-style villain of the "Ha- Lord Londale- here- I-must- -dissemble" style. Poor old "sdeathw You have, prob ably, in your time done more real, la borious work than any other semi- bad word in the language, and now you are laid on the shelf as out of date and obsolete. And who is there to take your place? Not one. What word is there to-day that will bear being hissed through the teeth to the accompaniment of scowl that pulls the eyebrows half way down the nose? Not one. What villain of even the blackest dye could survive the shock of being made to say: Gee whizz! I will be r-r-revenged of you, me naughty dsme?" Green be the turf above thy head, old "sdeath."
 "Gosh" is a nice cuss word, but lacking in refinement. It somehow breathes the sturdy spirit of the back woodsman, who dared push forward into the new lands of Illinois, brave the chill terrors of the scalping knife and the still more chilly terrors of "fever an ager," settle on quarter section of land on which city would be built, and by judiciously doing nothing but holding fast, build up the community and amass a fortune by his own exertions in collecting his rents.
 There are trimmings to Gosh" that make it picturesque and imposing. "Gosh all hemlock" carries weight with it, but it is only heard in the far, far off hamlets where city people take their summer vacations. and on the mimic boards. It is usually done up in the same package with the country jake, wearing long "yaller" chin whiskers, whiting shingle and squirting tobacco juice with unerring precision.
 "Gosh a' mighty" and "gosh darn" are more natural, and must have been hailed with unfeigned delight by all good citizens when they first came out, for they are such harmless substi- tutes for words that are not at all harmless, and, in fact, are very pro- fane. Any one who has seized the opportunity the new year afforded of swearing off on swearing will appre- ciate this point, for he has ere this found that if he would quit swear ing he must entirely reconstruct the English language.
 Now, ''gosh a mighty" comes just as handy to this kind of man as a piece of chewing gum does to the jaws of the man who has just quit chewing tobacco.
 "Darn it," with its prefix "goldarn it." is still in active use in various parts of the country. It is sometimes pronounced "dern," and in this case it goes along with a sombrero and . shooting gallery, and Stranger, whar dye come fromio s.Dern0 is put up for the western trade, and comes in chunks about so big: "Pll pump your dern skin full of lead" By con-