San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-04-04

"Now, boys" said Sunday school teacher
"who can tell me where the rest of the PEG
pie were when Noah and his family wen
into the arkP
II know" exclaimed a young newsbOy.
Where were they"
"In de soupr he answered.
The answer was not perhaps exactly wha
the teacher expected, but it described the
situation of humanity at that time in STYLE
best adapted to the boys comprehension.
To be 'chc" in conversation is an attribute
much admired in either the man or the
woman of society. A generous sDrinkling OF
slang is permitted to enlven the small talk
of the hour, and a new phrase that IS sug'
gestive is welcomed with positive delight.
The latest that tails on the ear with some
what odd effect is lin the soup" The eX-
preston is an elongated form of the hitherto
popular left" The unsuccessful sutton, the
defeated political candidate, the ''eZplOded'
financial venture, the overturned market
basket; in short, mishaps and disappointment
of all kinds. are described as ''in the soup"
This phrase, which is supposed to be novel,
savors strongly of the old expression lin a
pickle" or lin a stew" The Use of the new
term promises to be as widespread and lasting
!
want in the English language.
SLAND IS A RECRUITING OFFICE.
There is, of course, great objection to the
use of slang in conversation, especially as a
STEADY diet" but one of our most prominent
writer's has denominated slang as the recruits
of a language, and the conclusion would ap-
pear correct from the avidity with which the
public accept an applicable term and use it.
10 l.,
present time justfics the above assertion.
There are many words such as kidnapping,
boycotting, husting, etc, which are received
as valuable additions to our language Dude
and boom are two very comprehensive words,
which will be found in future dictionaries.
By the way, an item is going the rounds
credited to The Boston Herald, and speaking
of ''boom" as New American word, proba
bly, suggested by the boom of a cannon" We
expect to find more reliable information than
that in a Hub journal, published in the Athens
Of America. They might as well try to trace
its derivation to the boom of a schooner. The
fact is, it comes from a logging term, a boom
being a mass of logs rushing down stream on
spring freshet.
One of the very latest additions to our
vocabulary of slang terms is the expression
"onto your curves" This originates from
the baseball field, and when you try to bor-
row five and man tells you he is onto your
curves you will know what he means, for a
oatsman that is onto the curves of pitcher
is the one that hits the Eail for our-bagger
The word "whiskers" is a wonderful thing
For some inscrutable reason the great Ameri-
can public have decided that the word
"whiskers" is irresistibly comical, and the
poorest comedian can introduce it into the
hatteSt song and score a hit, especially if
anything is limited at about the breeze sigh
ing through, etc. Even the most remote
allusOn produces a singular effect, and an
audience has been thrown into commissions of
laughter on hearing a man tell of letting
the wind tamper with his chinchillys." Pat
Rooney is the supposed sponsor of the word,
and it has high position in the theatrical
vocabulary.
MISUSE OF ORDINARY WORDS.
a short time ago the word ''potwalloper'
was used, and a school teacher objected to it
as slang. The one who used it contended
that it was Queens English, and referred her
to any dictionary \ glance at Webster
showed the word there and defined as "a
voter in certain bOroughs in England where
all who boil (wallop) a pot are entitled to
vote" A similar term in this country is the
mattress voter" of New York, j. e., men
who ostcnsibly live at two or three different
places about election time.
This ignorance of the correct meaning of
words il more universal than ono would sup
pose. Should YOU ask a person the meaning
Of "tramspirc" he would say it meant TO
happon,' and it would be very hard to make
him beIicvo it also meant ito sweat" Ho