The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-04-04
INSTRUMENTATION.
What Samoa and Appomattox Become
in the Mouth or Senator Sherman.

One of those gentlemen, says the
Washington Post, who always produce
lead pencil when they begin to tell
you anything and draw Imaginary
diagrams and illustrations, or who
make figures along with arithmetical
statements, stood at an uptown hotel
counter last evening and said:
Il notice that Senator Sherman in
discussing the Samoan question repeat
edly called the islands .Sammy-o. He
did this even after being several times
corrected by other senators, both in di-
rect correction and in pronouncing il
correctly for his benefit. 1t was all OF
no use. Sherman kept lapsing from
Samoa with the emphasis on the o, as
the others gave it, to Sammy-o. OF
course that pronunciation is wrong.
/. 1t is not possible TO pronounce the
word that way from spelling. But
were the correctors of Senator Sher-
man themselves correct? A naval of
ticer who has been many times around
the world was talking about this mat
ter here little while ago and he dis
tinctly pronounced the word Samoa,
with the emphasis on the Sam He
made the "a broad so the word sound
ed like .Sarm-o-a'"
This getting a wrong pronunciation
to familiar proper names is particu-
larity of Sherman. He is always mis-
pronouncing names when questions of
foreign relations or the river or har-
Dor bill are being discussed. / sup
pose he pays so much attention to the
idea and the substance he considers
such matter as pronunciation small
matter.
At a speech he made at Petersburg
two or three years ago he alluded to
Appomattox and to the amazement OF
every one pronounced it ''A-pom-at-
tox!' with the emphasis on the "pom, ="
so it sounded like ''Appommy-
tox.i As he saw the sensation he
created he stumblingly corrected him
self, but in less than minute he pro-
nounced it the same way again and
did not correct himself.
1--WE have some funny errors" said
one of the clerks, ''in pronunciation
from our bell boys, who, when new,
do not know what the thing is they
are ordered to bring and can only re-
peat the order by sound as memorized.
'One boy came down and said No.
So and So wanted one 'clarriet punch.
We gave him an order for a claret
punch and it proved correct. Another
boy came with an order for whisky
and kerosene This stumped us and
we sent the boy for a written order.
1t came and it read whisky and Gala
saya.
"a boy once came to me with an Or
der for a pony Charlotte Russo. l
knew after thinking little he meant
pony chartreuse. 1t was an Ameri-
can in the room from whence the Or
der came, and that is about the way
Americans pronounce the name of that
famous liquor. The waiter once came
from an Englishman's room with an
order for two yellow chair trays. /
told the boy he was fool, but he in
sisted he had got the order right, for
he made the gentleman say it twice. l
Englishman and finally figured out
that he wanted yellow chartreuse.
That is the difference between the
English and American styles of pro-
nouncing the word. The American
calls it 'shartruse' and the English call
it 'sharetraos.
"When l was up in northern New
England" said another gentleman,
Il heard people speak of Chickamauga
and they pronounced it 'Chic-a-ma-
u-ga,' with the emphasis on the u I
ascertained that just after that fa-
nous battle Wendell Phillips was on a
lecture through New England and that
was the pronunciation he used. No
New Englander would dream of ques-
tioning an authority that was to him
ory of Phillips by using a different
pronunciation from that taught by
him. takes our people, too, long
time to find out that the e in olemar-
garine is hard. -.