Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-29
ALAwYPR's SLANG.

listened lut OlutT udy WIN AlLbitu
pain and disgust TO the talk OF rich
lawyer, thirty-tive years old, who was
noted in college for mis- proficiency i'll
slang. On the present occasion lie de-
sired. I knew, to appear well &c the as
sociates OF the hour, some Of whom were
distinguished in art, literature, and
science. To an elegant woman, who in
quired if he had enjoyed his winter
In Rome. he replied "Well, / should
relax nv features " To another who
asked il he were an admirer OF Chopin,
be drawled "Woll, ] guess ," He
told reviewer that Matthew Arnold
worked his muse for all it was worth. "
a stock phrase he repeated four times IN
six sentences, notably in commenting
upon Professor Corson's lectures on
Browning he thought Howells rather
fresh, and James decidedly fly, you
know" The whole exit and boozle of
the literary cockalorums were too much
given to footing their own horns TO
please him. Even Stevenson would be
the better if he were taken down peg. "
This detestable mess is more intelligi-
BILE than the talk OF two collegians across
the table of country hotel, in which
one requested the other to crush the
bovine when he wanted the milk
pitcher, to Jerk the tinker for the
absent waitress, and asked If he had
"doused the glim before leaving their
bedroom. Both alluded to the we'll
cooked and well-served meal as "grub. "
Our Girl NAV not descend to such Shiny
deeps of lingual iniquity as the fore
going, but she is ingenious in the inven-
ton Of a pdtOis of her own, and quick
TO adopt what strikes her fancy in her
brothers dialect. She is not above call
ing Schumann "perfectly mag" and
Turner, "just too, too, utterly more so,
YOU know %; admonishes her teasing
mate TO leone off the roof "chest-
nuts" cries at a twice-told tale, and
takes the current inanity "for all she's
worth into full favor. l even overheard
one. not week ago, remark facetiously
TO q girl friend: "You may wager your
saccharine vitality" on such and such
point, and say of visitor (masculine) that
be chad the cheek OF braSs-iaced
monkey"
DUTY TO MOTHER TONGUE.
The intolerable jsrgon is neither wit
nor huinor. Least of all Is it lady-like
or refined. "Nulgsrity" is not too
strong q term for the illegitimate off
spring of folly and incidence. In the
last word is wrapped the secret OF the
villainous practice. What Mrs. X. w.
Bellamy calls, in an admirable essay
lately published" Our DUTY TO Our
Mother Tongue lis among the least
considered obligations in the calendar OF
our BOYS and our girls Ii is easier to
Law hold Of o ready-made phrase that
lies near the tongue than to formu-
late thought into correct and forci-
be words. Just as censure is cheaper
than discriminating praise and ore dearer
than dirt. A child should be taught
with the forming Of his earliest sen
fences that language is the vehicle OF
ideas, and that he dishonors the thing
carried by neglect Of that which bears
il. Thought is TO speech what the SOU
is 10 the body. Our Girl should dread
10 cast discredit upon her intellectual
powers by robiDg what she THINKS
(which is what she Is . in secondhand
rags. as much as she would shrink from
debasjng her clean body by apparel
picked up in an old clothing store IN
Chatham or Baxter street.
CONTAGIOUS.
The habit Of slang is 50 fearfully con-
tagious, and 20 nearly incorrigibie when |
fsisls contracted. that one Is amazed ~