The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-03-16
CONVERSATIONAL FLAWS.
Some of tho More Common Ones Which
We should Be Careful to Avoid.

Some of the More Common Ones Which
We Should Be Careful to Avoid.
There is no slight way in which ono
| may make oneself more offensive to
others than through careless, slipshod
| English. 1t sets our mental teeth on
| edge to here comm and "wallxin' 3"
buzzing about us
Some common mistakes, which must
frequently be utter carelessness-as the
educated are quite as likely to fall into
them-are: First and foremost, the
ugliest pitfall of authors, and we very
occasionally run across it in our best
periodicals. Rudyard Kipling's and
Wolcott Balestier's story, 'The Nau-
lahka," published in the Century, fairly
bristles with it ''She dashed among
the women swiftly-her own women
whom she thought had grown to love
her." etc, etc.
Next to this in Importance is don't
for doesn't Sight seems to be lost of
the fact that this word is contraction
of do not; so that "He doesn't" is as in
correct as You am" would be.
The confounding of can and may is
also a universal error. Can expresses
ability and may possibility; as when n
small son asked, Mamma, can | wash
my hands in your ROOM" The material
emphasizinr of his mistake is the an
swer; 81 think you can; try and see. +"
He now says May T. when max ing n
simple request
The old favorite, an objective case
after a ncuter verb. as: 1t is me, In the
present fierce struggle of all classes
after elegance, is almost entirely super
seeded by such pretentious wrong as the
nominative case after propositions: HE
lived at one time with mother and l."
or "She is very kind to Mary and l."
These sort, instead of this sort or
these sorts, collective nouns with plural
verbs, and the use of pleonasms such
as, They both did it together''-as
though one could possibly do anything
together-are other evil spirits of our
daily conversation.
Do not even whisper alone to your
self in the dark that abominable alb
breviation, pants" 1t is, as the
mother said in correcting her youthful
heir for saying devil, worse than
wicked, my dear; it is vulgar" OF
course, one doesn't care to turn his
tongue loose very often in the syllable
labyrinth of pantaloons; but trousers
is a concise and easy way out of the di-
lemma. Gents" is too bad to speak OF,
and 'jelr' deserves capital punishment.
There are other words that are not in
themselves inelegant but that are so
entirely out of vogue that censure
follows their use Genteel is one of
them.
A serious effort is being made among
cultured people toward speaking more
as they write, avoiding the tiresome
repetition of any one word in a single
sentence, and eliminating all that is
superf1uous The less ornate and the
more concise our speech is to-day the
higher our conversational record. The
old-time ambiguity of expression is
destined to disappear. 1t is now con-
sidered much more elegent to say.
when father died" and when the
baby was born" than "When father
lClI US anu WHICH UdUy CAME.
Talk clearly. Make yourself under
stood Do not, after the fashion of
many, begin sentences and then let
them trail off into vagueness without
any definite ending.
A late grievance of Oliver Wendell
Holmes is that in one of the many
speeches he is reported to have made,
| of which he is entirely innocent, he is
quoted as saying: IAN ills that flesh is
heir to-" He Indignantly remarks that
he believes he has heard that expression
before. Almost without knowing it.
however, one may fall into the habit of
using hackneyed phrases. Some of
these that are most familiar were once
| sprightly; but they are now, through
active service, worn quite meaningless.
| When lamp is produced in darkened
room, how many tired souls daily recoil
from, Suppose we have a little more
| light on the subiect?" When articles
of dress are mentioned by certain peo-
| pie one never fails to hear them say
| something or other will be becoming to
their style of beauty" At picnics, as
sure as there are ants in the butter, in
our ears is the gay retort, Fingers
were made before forks" And in apol-
| ogizing for stepping upon the foot of
any one whatever, he is a very young
wag indeed who does not fling back
fippantly, You must put your feet
| somewhere. Detroit Free Press