Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-29
WOMEN AND SLANG.
MARION HARLANpsAYssLAsa IssrLLy,
sLovENLY, AND oFTsN VULGAR.
slssg Phrases OF the Day 80 Used BY Our
eirls-Pernicious Effects Of Catch
Words
lFOr tho Observation-Disclosures ISsSl

A party Of refined, educated people
Who filled a country-house last summer
formed themselves nv common consent
into "Society for the Suppression OF
Slang" The fines imposed-one penny
for each and every infringement OF the
rule prohibiting the use OF slang words
or phrases-were dropped into foreign
missionary box belonging to a mem
Der. Much fun and moro serious
reflection ensued upon the workings
of the constitution and bylaws. The
most careful speakers were COMPOUNDED
nj finding themselves convicted AS trans
eressors. while college boys and graduate
girls declared that bankruptcy stared
them in the face before the close OF the
season. One merry youth, who ran mp
from the city on Saturday afternoons to
spend Sundays in the mountain retreat,
habitnally rendered quarter OF dollar
TO the treasurer on slightlng from the car
mage that had met him at the station,
with the request that he might "be no
tilted when the amount was used up.
PaterfamihGs was travelling abroad
when the society was formed, and wrote
home this dryly significant comment:
with regard 70 the ;. 5. s., | have
only TO remark that the conversion Of the
world is nOU a mere question OF time "
The result of the establishment of
similar organizations IN other families
and communities, with rigid enforcement
Of penalties, would sstound members and
IookerS-on.
L1NGUAL VICE.
The ungrammatical structure Of SEN
tence is fault in him who composes it.
Slang is lingual vice. Collegians of both
sexes, who are among the chiefest SIN
ners in this matter, pallIate 1t to their
consciences by pleading that they find
nothing in sober, everyday phrase so
racy and apt as the catch words that run
like wid-hre or scarlet-feyer from band
10 band. from city TO town, all over
the country. Some originate IN
comic stories or pointed anecdotes
which please the popular fancy
others in wtlcss sayings that would
seem 10 impartial listeners to have no
terminating power, yet are prolific as
wire-grass and parsley IN the great com
mon Of the peoples vornacular We
nav borrow, in describing the majority
of these parasites. from the negro
preachers delineation Of Melchizedek
Without father, without mother, ,riM-
out no dCccW bth0UtOr az GH They
come and 60 as fit and rise and sink the
lambcnt exhslstions Of swamp. Those
Of this day will beincOmprehenslblo to the
generation following. We would need
a glossary were those Of our forcfathers
set before us IN print
Forty years ago / saw young girl
cover herself with confusion as with
garment by a careless reply to her escort
on an evening walk, who asked II she
were going TO wear rubbers.
- am not going to wear anything
else fell gaily from her lips.
Had she been asked if she felt ashamed
Of the luckless saying the chances are
that she would have said "Well,
do !"-another slang saying then IN
vogue.
These expressions, with alt does not
matter" 80. H., and the half dozen
others that were banded into shreds and |
dropped for newer absurditlcs, were
foolish in inception and use. but few and /.
unobjechonsble bycomparlsOn with those
that come in upon US like 4 muddy flood |
with each passing year. The French /
qHOf a. engine may be witty and serve a
good turn TO the speaker each house /
hold has what the same convenient !
tongue STYLES H0ts dc famiAe, born Of !
Jest and incident, dienifed, sometimes.
by usuages and years into tradition, and !
endued with a pathetic value not their
own. They are treasured and bequeathed /
with the battered nursery furniture We |
have not the heart to send of 10 the auc-
tion-room. Popular slang, caught by |
Our Girl from schoolmates and brothers, |
10 silly, sloyenly, and often vulgar. In |
its effect upon home and society CONVEX
sation it is pernicious to degree We
cannot overestimate.