Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1893-03-08
GIRLSWHOUSE SLANG
A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO
COLLEGE GRADUATES.

but When Well Bred Young Women Are
Addicted to the Habit 1t Becomes Abso-
Iutely IntoIerable.
Dear girls, avoid slang. There are 80
many reasons why you should not use
it, and only one excuse in it's favor that
have ever heard from any reliable au-
thority! Here it is:
Oliver Wendell Holmes, in one of his
racy breakfast table talks, says: ''Don't
think undervalue the proper use and
application of can't word or phrase. 1t
adds piquancy to conversation as a
mushroom does to q sauce" That this
is tho idea most young people have
when they first begin to use it all will
admit, but unfortunately it is like mod
crate drinking in it's tendency, so insin-
uating in its growth as habit, and they
become so addicted to it" Ito follow
out the simile), that it seems impossible
to make themselves Ineligible without
it. have heard young ladies (O talk
ing who seemed to have an entire vo-
cabulary composed of slang which
would be as utterly unintelligible to
well bred English or Scotch girl as
Chinese or Greek.
Toquote the veteran philosopher again:
''Theso expressions come to be algebraic
symbols of minds which have grown too
weak or INDECENT to discriminate. They
are the blank checks of intellectual
bankruptcy. You may fill them up with
whatever idea you like. Itmakes no diff
ference, for there are no funds in the
treasury upon which they are drawn"
That of course is very severe, but
have often heard quite clever and well
educated young ladies using those odious
"blank checks" to such an extent that
any one not knowing them intimately
might readily have supposed their Sin
tellectual bank" empty.
We 1ler what Dr. Holmes would have
thought Of an actual conversation be-
tween two young ladies in good society,
so called, VINO sat behind me in the grand
stand at q baseball match last summer.
can give it almost verbatim:
LAY, Jen abbreviated form Of Jennie;
lie is too s.-ort' to use the whole of
persons na,pc}, who is the fly looking
'snide il tho yellow striped get upY"
"Oh, come of the roofP To pretend
you don't know Cob. &C. o. B. are the
young gentleInan's initials wittily con-
verted into 'Cob.) After the way you
went for him at the ball last week!
You can't stuff me with that kind of
gag, Miss Innocent"
''Oh, is that Cob? He must be off hts
nut to rig himself in such a 'swagger'
way"
ooh, Jen, look at Cob now! He is hor-
ribly ratified Mabe Short for Mabell
'slung a glance at him, and he lost his
head as we'll as his base"
SIS she mashed on COBB"
"Ha, ha! Pull down your vestr Do
you think Mabe is off her base?' She likes
him TO trot her round and stump up the
needful for ice cream, etc., but she likes
Alf Jones better all the same-ee.' You
can bet your sweet life she won't marry
Cob"
''Look at him now. You bet he's 'hus-
tlingr"
"Get there, Eli" "Ruddigore!" ''That
was boss rum and so on ad fpitum,
ad nauseum. All this in perfectly audi
BILE voice, and they were seemingly IN
aware that there was anything vulgar or
out of the usual in their conversation.
Probably therewas not, and yet those two
young ladies were college graduates and
were possessed of more than average abil-
ity.
If you think this description exagger-
ated, listen critically to the next IN
restrained conversation between two
young ladies whom you know to be
guilty of using slang freely. fancy l
hear you So 7, "But never could talk
like that" Take care Just as conf
dent ones as you have begun by using a
few slang words-'they are so cute and
expressive, you lnow!''-and ended by
forming vulgar and enslaving habit
which took great strength of mind and
firm perseverance to break. The worst
stage of slang devotee is when she
grows utterly unconscious of or indif-
ferent to the habit. There is very little
hope Of improvement for her. The only
safe way is never to form the habit at
all.
Dear young girls, on you the clan
guage of the future" in great measure
depends. You are the coming mothers
and teachers and will have an all pow
9rful influence in molding the language
If the next generation to come and num-
oerless generations after that. See to it
hat it is a language of intelligence.
grace and purity.-Miss Frank Davis in
Wives and Daughters.