The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-02-25

b:t :, i,ot !. FL -.s.t .nuaa. E.nasel Sc.
Addicted 81 tie i...h:l = becomes .,b.n.
Inteis sa:"Iera,.r.
Ee.r gir!-. Hyei! lang. There are =.
Many reasons Why y"ti ailuttiu MOI us
il. and only ne = ~ in ius fave" tina,
| Lave eyer ats-i FROM any rsliiltie an.
taority.. I.orr il Is:
Oliver Wendell Holmes. in one os hi.
race b-pa'.f table talks. says: Don't
think Ut,!pEF2!He the proper No. 4...l
n pfcat.an of i cant worior phrase. it
adds li!uatcr 10 conversation ts Ii
mushroom do. Il sauce. That this
is the idea most young people have
when they first begin 10 use i. all VIII
admit. mt unfortunately it is like mol
crate tr.n:.its "a is tendency, So ilsin-
uatlng IA is frowth as u habit. and they
becnl.le 50 addicted TO it, 30 follow
Il The SINH j. that it seems impossible
to make themselves intelligihle without
it. | have hearl young ladies @ talk
ing who seemed to have an entire va
cabulary composed of slang which
wonll he as utterly unintelligible to a
well bred English or Scotch girl as
Chinese or Greek.
Toquote the veteran philosopher again:
"Ihese expressions come to be al.ebraic
symbols IF minds which have grown too
weak or indolent to discriminate. The
are the blank checks of intellectual
bankruptcy. You may fill them up with
whatever idea you like. 1t makes no dif-
ference, for there are no funds in the
treasury upon which they are drawn"
That of cour1e is very severe. but !
have ofren heard quite clever and well
educated young ladies' using those odiois
blank checks" to such an extent that
any one not knowing them intimately
might readily have supposed their Tin
tellectual bank empty.
woider what DR.. Holmes world have
thought of an actual conversation be-
tween two young ladies in good society.
SO called. who sat behind me in the grand
stand at a baseball match last summer.
! can give it almost verbatim:
Say, Jen abbreviated form of Jennie:
life is too short to use the whole of a
persons nance. who is the 'hy' looking
'snide' in the yellow striped get up"
"Oh. come off the roof To pretend
yon don't know Cob. C. o. b. are the
young .entleman's initials wittily con-
verted into COBB After the way yoa
went for him at the ball Ia It weel.
You can't stuff me with that kind of
gag. Miss lanocent."
"Oh. is that Cob: He mnst he off his
nut to rig himself in such a .swagyer'
way"
"Oh, Jen, look at Cob now. He is hor-
ribly ratified Made lshort for Mabel,
'slnng a glance at him. and he lost his
head as we'll as his base"
rs she mashed on Cob"
"Ha. ha: Pull down your vest- Do
you think Mabe is off her base::' She likes
him TO trot her round and stump up the
needfuf for ice cream. etc. but she likes
Aft 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.
tling.'"
Get there. Eli..' '.Rsadi.ore.." That
was a boss run and SO Oh ad inituun,
ad na1isenm. All this in "A perfectly audi
bic voice. and they We're seemingly UNI.
aware that there was anything vulgar or
of the usual III their conversation.
Probably there was moi. and yet those two
ladies We're college graduates and
were possessed of more than average abil-
ity.
II You think this description exagger-
ated. listen critically to the next mn
conversation between two
vOung ladies' whom Won know, ia lao
guilty OF using slang freely. fancy |
hear You Say. But | never could talk |
ike that Take care! Just as conf
e AS yon have begun by using u
slang words-''they are SO cute and
expressive, You know."-and ended by
a vulgar and enslaving habit
which took great strength Of mind and
irm perseverance to break. The worst
'tage of a slang devotee is when she
yrows utterly unconscious of or indif-
erent to the habit. There is very little
rope Of Improvement for her. The only
afe way Is never to form the habit al
II.
Dear young girls, on you the ''lan-
mage of the future" in great measure
You are the coming mothers
nd teachers and will have an all pow-
rful influence n molding the language
I the next generation to come and num-
erless generations after that. See to it
it is = language Of intelligence.
race and purity Miss Frank Davis in +;
Wives and Daughters. ]
The Value Of y Good Address, l