The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-03-05
BACKWOoDS ENGLISE.
It Should be Preservation Expressive
to be Lost.
lGreenyille News

[Greenville News
The New York Tribune, we believe
If is, is much delighted by Sam Jones
description of the mayor of Palestine,
who assaulted but failed to batter him,
as a Zone gallus" individual. "One
gallus" as descriptive adjective is, tie
Tribune says, a revelation, all inspi:a-
tion and a poem.
Our contemporary is right. Nobody
knows who invented zone ga!lus" blt
it has lived and endured through al
the mountain regions of the South
and is used with absolute gravity as
expressing a certain kind of mau-a
shiftless, lopsided, loafng person who
doesn't take any interest in himself,
whose wife even takes no interest in
him and is entirely satisfied with the
set of his breeches so long as they hang
to him. The sailor, who is often one
OF the quickest and most graceful Of
the human kind, wears no gal!uses at
all, but the gymnastics of his daily
life make him supple and thin in the
waist and solid in the hips andshis
clothes hang on to hin. to the last,
even when both legs are full of salt
water. The zone gallus' is usually
precisely the same size all the way
down-without form and Woodland
has no hinge in his back bone or fiexi-
bility at the waist. When he wants
anything on the ground he gets 70 it by
bending his legs aud sitting down for
it, like giraffe.
The back woods are full Of home
spun English which is Englisn-ner-
vous, direct and strong. The people
few years back knew comparatively
few words but those they knew were
Saxon and were combined and applied
to be of wonderful use and power.
Then there is an occasional invented
word-such as "rucus." Nobody
knows where "rucus" came from or
how it got here, but when it has once
been heard We can never think of any
other word as properly describing d
general, confused, scrambling fight
with half a dozen or more combatants
which is what "rucus" means.
Then there is the verb ito mixn-ye
mixed, ye or you mixed, he, they or
them mixed, We have mixed, we
might, could would or should have
mixed. Then them two mixedn SAYS
the witness on the stanG, and court,
jury, attorneys and audience know ON
the significance of those four words
that the defendant and prosecutor SIM
ultaneously got together with rapid
exchanges Of kicks, cuffs, bites and
gouges. An entire chapter of Carlyle
could not tell more or present the scene
to the imagination more wildly.
The school master and the preacher
are invading the last stronghoIds CT
home made, provincial English in this
country. The people are beconlinS.
more prosperous, or getting Sf6Cse
money, rather; whether the process is
real prosperity is open for discussion.
They are looking, through the news
papers and occasional excursions, into
the big, busy world beyond their
familiar hills and mountain barriers.
They are sending their son ard laugh
ters to schools and colleges and the.
strong, honely, native words, express
slons ap4 idoms are being banished ty
the more correct an ! elegant English
of the books and students. One secret
OF Sam Jones' success is that he sticks
to the home dialect. 1t is pleasant and
fall of meaning to the people familiar
with it and-as the Tribune says-an
inspiration and delight to tie people
to whom it is new. When he says
thing or doctrine has been worn to
frazzle," everybody knows what lie
is talking about, and We would like 10
know if there is any stronger or palmer
combination of words to tell the meai-
ing.
We wish before the march Of i'm
provemept has banished backwooGs
English somebody would prepare .
glossary Of it for preservation. Much
Of it is entirely too good to be lost.
Betsy Hamilton" wlo used to write
for the Atlanta Constitution knew
and used it more correctly than any
body else we know Of who is capable Of
telling of it properly.