Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1889-02-15

aid, and looking through it's identifying
and mellowing mist all was changed. The
teas and the lunches and the clubs appeared
in the brightest tints; the shivering
waits behind the front door changed into
evening strolls in tropical gardens; the
gray-sprinkled hair of my wife changed
into the sunny auburn of her youth, and she
and once more stood i'll the little church
of our old home listening to the words,
'!For better OF for worse" Happy the
married Philosopher who wears around his
neck with an even temper and an under
standing mind, this talisman of happiness
devised by far-seeing men of other days
'sFor Better or for Worse Man cannot
harm him nor Womankind disappoint him.
/ have been sitting up at the bedside of a
dying Adjective. 1t was not through pity
that sat there, but through hate. For l
detest an Adjective. 1t is the father of
lies, the author Of affectation and the pro-
genitor of all exaggeration. They should
he RENTED to limbo with all the other
crudities of youth. | have listened, to the
poin5 If evaporation, through an evening,
to the absurd use of adjectiyes by young
girls Of education and with some
claims to good taste. Somehow it some
times comes to me, that this Use of adjec-
tives is the besetting sin Of the female con-
versationists Of this day. Some young fell
lows unseX themselves SO far as to follow
the bad example, but the majority of that
sex substitute oaths for adjectives, which
is a social habit on too low a plane for criti-
cism here. But on all sides in the social con-
versation of the young people of this day, it
seems to be agreed to give good, plain,
strong English the go by and to indulge in
the embroidery of Adjectives. Tawdry
adjectives such as beautiful lovely,
shorrid, lawful, and the like worn tinsel. |
suppose might venture the assertion with
out fear of contradiction, that this is the
stock i'll trade of most young girls in quail
flying their conversation. The use of that
tinsel gives wholly unreal tone to what is
being said, and is SO pregnant with affecta-
ton as to be tiresome. Between slang and
adjectives, it is hard to choose, both are SO
detestable from a woman's lips. The diff
ference is that the Adjective insidiously
captures the refined mind, While Slang only
holds captive the coarse mind. In plain,
and intended to be truthful statement of
any occurrence, the injection of three Oh
four adjectiyes will change the whole tenor
Of narration, and give it a craisen,blance of
untruth which it is hard for the hearer &
mind to erase. AS a matter Of fact an
adjective ought to be thought, not word.
A fact should be stated without embroidery
and we should think whether it is beautiful,
lovely, and the like. There are many
thoughts in the human mind that are not
transferable into words. They may have
been, in some other day and some other
language long gone, but they are not so in
ours. AS those words have gone into obliv-
ion, so should the majority of our English
adjectives follow them. 1 have forgotten
to tell you the patient I have been sitting
up with So / have. 1t is the adjective
tasty Years ago Mrs. Boyzy set her foot
down on this word, and as in duty bound I
also set my foot down. Whether our two
feet have stamped the unhappy adjective
out, OF from some other cause that I know
not Of, its end has certainly come. AS in
all fierce popular outbreaks against long
existing oppression, the weakest and most
insignificant of the oppressors are often the
first to fall, so this meXaggerative, unag-
gressive, i'll sounding little adjective is the
first to die. Let us hope that an early day
is appointed unto the others to follow it.
Have you ever watched a man going
down? 1t is an interesting study, and
an unique one for the reason that no other
animal has language by which to express
the various stages at which he arrives be-
fore dropping out of the Procession of Life.
Nor has any other animal so many contri-
vances with which to dodge and play at
hide and seek with Death. The earthly af-
lection which abides in man, seems to over
master all the other emotions hope,
everything, and he who firmly believes in a
future existence is found as frantic in his
efforts to delay it's coming, as the veriest
agnostic. Their faith seems to be theo-
logical treasure of this earth, rather than a
treasure of the future. The man with no
tie to bind his soul to this planet is as re-
luctant to leave it as he who has the strong
est ties of friendship, love, fatherhood. All
mankind seem to have that dread of it
which their children have of being put in a
dark closet. But l am not going to inves-
tigate the mysterious dread Of death, or the
even more mysterious attachment to life,
am merely recalling to my memory men
whom l have seen stagger awhile and then
fall out of the line of Life. There is no
more pathetic sight to me, than man
when he first finds that he is failing. Like
a child, he cannot understand it. This
strange feeling that he has never had be-
fore; that pain that must come from this
OF that-they are all so new to him. He
cannot realize that he is failing, and least of
all can he realize the dread truth that it is
time for him to fail. To mans own
mind he is always at that mythical stage,
his ''prime, y as long as health lasts. 1t is
piteous to hear his excuses for his failing
body-it was this imprudence. it was that
cold, it was too much OF too little exercise
he cannot understand that it is the herald
of the Messenger, and that little way off
through the mist he might see the Messenger
himself holding the Lotus flower in his
hand. 1t is more piteous still to see
him like captured animal, seeking some
way of escape through the bars. He must