The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-04-17
PLAIN ENGLISH.

The Boston Globe, under the head OF
TOO Much Latin" says:
It would seem tia: two governments thst
speak the sans language. ike England AID tie
United states. saoui1 30; b. obliged 70 use %
many Latin words in their diplomatic CORE
spen1enee Fsyz Esdtnrz, slodEs pspeEdf and
mare cJoasupl can be expressed ty Engllsh words
Of equal meaning and dix5ity. There 10 no
reason way Law Ispers and diplomatic docu-
rnenfs should net be eouchsd in intsllig.ble En-
g.ish; br. they seldom are
The Gio5e is right. but orr public men
are not nes-ly 50 much given TO interlard-
Jag the poverty Of their English with
Latin as they were before the war. Inc
statesmen Of the old South and Of the
doughface pro-slavery party of the North.
were always devout believers in the most
sulphurous sort of blue light" ana blue
belIied orthodoxy and were passionately
fond Of classical q1otati ions in public dis
course. They believed that as Paul sent
back onesimus SO Christian North ought
10 send back a fugitive slave. and they
were never tired o. "gilding crime with a
Greek aneedote or a Latin aphori.m," as
Wendell Phillips said of Edward Everett
when that eloquent doughface tried to dis
perse the anti-slavery party by pointing at
II his derisiye, quivering finger.
The late Jefferson Davis was greatly given
to dicharging on public occasions worm
eaten classical chestnuts and compliments.
The old South always loved to sport its
little Latin, but the North has learned to
drop classic quotations as rule from its
spoken or written popular discourse. and
Northern statesmen who are also scholars
seldom lard their lean thoughts with Latin
or Greek quotations. Newspapers seldom
nowadays place Latin or Greek notices at
the head OF their columns. Even ceme-
teries do not furnish as much as formerly
the spectacle of monument to English
virtue or valo- inscribed with Latin
legend.
The change il complimentary to the in
creasing good sense Of the American pub
lie. Why should our English-speaking
and English-writing people write in Latin
in memory Of patriot dead the legend,
"Dulce ct decorum est pro patria mort, I"
when We can say in simple English. st is
sweet and decent to die for the iag"7
There is no literature like that of our own
English-speaking race. 1t is a confession
of ignorance Of our own language when
we fail to find in our English speech the
identical or at least equivalent expression
for the lofty sentiments of Greece and
Rome. Why write a motto in honor Of
English arms or English action other than
in that fine simplicity of speech which
| all great masters Of English literature
welded so well; the speech of the
heart and the home; the speech of the soul
and the street; the speech of passion and
patriotism; the speech Of love and war;
the speech that stands for heart, home.
hope and heaven. The sinewy, soulful
Saxon speech is good enough to write in
English all that is worth saying 10 the
people.
The literature that really moves, and
stirs and warns the world to higher
thoughts and good works is all either
English or has been made good English.
A speech that was equal to giving US such
a mine Of beautiful thought and expression
as the English Bioei is equal to running the
ore of other lands and languages through
| its furnace and smelling out its gold.
| This has been done, so far as the classics
are concerned. and there is no sound rea-
son today for young man of limited
| means wasting single hour upon the
\ classics. He had far better study his own
| language and literature, because that has
| absorbed long ago all the blood and fiber
| of valuable thought and feeling repre-
| sented by the classics. Daniel Webster
| found out when be left Dartmouth
that his study of the classics had
impaired his power TO place himself
| in close touch with his audience
in court or on the hastings. He found
out that the superior success of the
famous jeremiah Mason was due to the
fact that he had better mastery of the
English language than he did and was
therefore able 10 get nearer to the hearts
Of jury than he possibly could with his
Latinized dietion. Webster. perceiving
the advantage of 4ason's methods OF
speech, resolutely set to work to reform
his own, but he was thirty years OF age
before he finally succeeded in satisfying
himself that his style was entirely disin-
fec;ed of the ta.nt of Dartmouth classical
diction.
Every man who has spoken with great
public impressiveness has found out what
Webster found out and confessed. viz.
that the way TO learn the English language
in order to WELD it most effectively in
court, on the stump or in the legislature i,
10 read and study English; the method
practioed by Tom Corwin, Louis Kossuth.
Roscoe Conkling and John Bright. Cor.
win, kossuth, Conkling and Bright found
their Saxon vocabulary in English poetry ;
Shakespeare, Milton and Byron. Poetry
from its very nature demands short,
soulful words that are understood BY the
| street and the sidewalk and are equal To
the expression Of the whole range of the
gamut Of human feeling, if not human
knowledge.