The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1888-10-11
CALLING THINGS BY THEIR NAMES.
The Sham Transformation of Everyday
Life.

| fear that our love for respectable
conventionalities is not an unadulter-
ated virtue. 1t leads us to call dis
agreeable things By agreeable names,
and so makes us tolerant instead OF
critical. just now, when the stern
moralist is laughed out of his vocation.
we have come to look on earnestness
as a species of vulgarity; a symptom of
inexperience and lack of culture, like
eating peas with knife, or shedding
tears over the woes of other people. 1t
is the era of placid giggling, says a
writer in the Boston Gazette. We have
ceased to believe even in ourselves;
but seriousness boreS US, sincerity Is
old fashioned-the discarded crinoline
of last years morals. We are willing
to show a surface of admiration for
the proprieties. but we want to laugh
and be merry just the same. Follow
ing the line of least resistance between
the two contending forces, we indulge
in euphemisms, and so without turn
ing our backs on virtue, we amuse our
selves with vice. We have invented q
| new vocabulary for crimes, changed
| the lazar house of sensuality into a
charming boudoir; dressed thieves,
burglars and murderers in becoming
attire, SO that they are no longer out of
place in drawing-room conversation.
The trouble is that the words have re-
acted on the ideas; we cease to feel the
reality under the affectation; we white
wash disease, and then accept the
whitewash for the ulcer. l find adj
venturesses designated .'shrewd specu-
1otn Inl Ill IL
scribed as midnight suppers for two"
There is pretenSe of refinement in
avoiding blunt word, but the real
coarseness lies in the euphemism and
in the hearts of its inventor. | think
that if we used the plain words of our
ancestors in describing crime and
criminals we should avoid great deal
of the hypocrisy and vulgarity that
now characterizeS us. To treat them
as food for mirth and to indulge in
photographic tlip-tlaps, horse laughter.
| and rough humOr over them is not So
comical. is not as nice as it may
seem to be. | doubt whether the ordin-
ary funny paragrapher has clearer
mind than pertained to Shakespeare
or to Sam johnson. | doubt whether
| the tittle-tattle that was prevalent in
the age of Queen Anne, or in any other
age, was on a lower level than the
| tittle-tattle of the modern drawing
| room. We have refined on words but
have debased ideas. Our ancestors
blurted ont homely word that de-
scribed fully what they meant, and
then dismissed it; we beat all about
| the bush to express our meaning, and,
| by our euphemistic mock modesty
demonstrate, again and again. that
| the nice man is the man of nasty ideas.
l wish that every vile act had vile
word to designate it; that convict
ideas should appear before the world
in convict garb. like a joke, but |
have yet to be convinced that forgery
or murder belongs to the funny man.
| Some day we shall return to the use of
| plain words and deal with serious
| things in Il serious mood. We shall
then have discovered that decency
| does not lie in euphemisms, but in
acts, and that Il coarse thought in an
attractive covering is only the wanton
instinct reinforced by the walton of
nj