The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1893-06-23
OLD WORLD SKETCHES.

/ IN operation at the same Ulne, serve TO
regulate the yast sea of traffic in the
thoroughfares of London. The rule of
the road is, keep to the left; the rule of
the sidewalks, keep TO the right So you
will see that it is quite essential for the
ordinary man to be absolutely positive
as to whether he is ''a-foot or horse
back"
But what perplexes me most is to de-
termine just what is English as she is
spoke" had been under the impress
sion that an American spoke English, but
when became fairly accustomed to the
conversation of the Briton, the impress
sion was rudely dispelled, to be substi-
tuted by on honest doubt as to whether
the Englishman himself spoke the
mother tongue.
1t is hard to draw the line of demarca-
ton, and certainly do not feel author
| ity to say whether the ordinary Ian
guage of America or the ordinary speech
of England, is nearest to the pure Eng
fish tongue. 1 do know that an Ameri-
can will find it exceedingly hard, at
times, to understand what is said to him.
| The Londoners, beside the time-honored
| ignoring of the aspirate, have faculty
of biting off short with a peculiar
| twist, of giving them a strange enuncia-
ton, and of employing infections and
accents totally new to us, which are very
confusing. Possibly have already I'M
Intentionally suffered a natural prejudice
to bias my hitherto expressed opinions
of England and English customs, and it
may be wiser not to enter too deeply in
to this~as well rs other subjects that l
know little or nothing about. But will
not be fulfilling my purpose if do not
| give you my Impressions, and you will,
know. consider that these are born of SUI
pertcial observation merely, and are, by
no means, intended to pass for studied
conclusions, or for over-wise opinions
With this idea, then, do not hesitate
to express my belief that the ordinary,
everyday floating populating population
OF London uses poorer English than the
corresponding classes in America. AS
! an Offset to this l am inclined to believe
that the more pretentious people use
even better English, if anything, than
we do,a least they employ more care
full selection of words and phrases, and
adhere rather more closely to dignitied
and stately style. But when stranger
judges of a people, he must have his
opinion upon the kaleidoscope world
about him, and so, taking fair aver
age of all that he is likely to see and hear
and meet and speak with, however cas-
ually, believe it is really true that our
common speech is more nearly true Eng
lish that that of the average Briton.
In the first place, we have no such
radical faults as the ellison of the h, the
unnecessary preferring of that consonant,
or the substitution of ink for ing, as
anythink for anything. These are so
common here as to become in time I'M
noticed.
The Londoner, too, employs a strange
inconsistency in his tones; says cawnt
for can't with real broad a, and unin-
tentionally rounds out his sentence by
saying teown for town. Our proverbial
New England hatness of accent is com
pletely ovei balanced by the true Lon
doners, peound, ceow, meow, and the
like.
Then, too, he strings his words to-
gether much differently from our meth
DDS, and even uses words which to us
would have no meaning in the sense he
employs them; for instance Has it gone
twelve yet? Goods van, for freight car;
booking Office, for ticket office land many
other instances that are to be heard
daily, but of which recall no more at
present. And even these examples are
not fair samples of the peculiar use of
the language, but curiosity rather than
memory has been aroused at the sound
of these Englishisms, and am at loss
for better instances to cite you in conse-
quence.
But you we'll know without any re-
marks fIom me that there is consider
able and marked difference between the
common speech of the two countries. 7
leave it to some lingualistic Solomon to
determine who speaks nearest to the
mother-tongue. The natural inference
would be that the English, direct heirs
of the language, would use it with
greater propriety than we do, but 1 am
not inclined to believe that is the case.
OF course, beside all this, there is
very strong tendency on the part of the
ultra-swell Englishman to humble and
mouth his words in Lord Cholomon-
deley manner, which is also affected by
other noodles in our country. But L
have no reference to that as it is agreed
by both English and American of COM
mon sense, that such brainless eccentric
tiles are not test evidences of the country
at large, Still it is so common as to al
most seem like being the rule to hear
pretenrious English people drawl out
their words and slur their RS, and, if
anything it is marked of them as a peo-
pie, more than of our isolated snobs who
affect it.
All in all, l believe it is safe to say, by
placing each grade of labor and each de-
gree of social caste side by side with
corresponding scales in our own country
that, up to a certain point, you will OBJ
serve the balance of cultivated intelli-
geDce favoring America. l believe our
common people, the all embracing class
as we define it, speaks purer English
with fewer mannerisms, than correspond
ing classes in England.
And believe that, as a nation, making
a general average of all circumstances
and conditions, our people evince more
popular education and farther-reaching
intelligence than the Britons of the same
grade. l believe they know more about
England and English affairs than the
English know about America, and it
cannot be denied that more of them visit
this country and learn of it by such prac-
tical experiences, than there are British
who travel through America, and enjoy
the advantage of the more intimate
knowledge of our country, only thus to
be gained.
Let me say in concluding this
sketch and before trouble yon with
any more of my opinions that l am we'll
aware of the exceeding hazard court in
any attempt however modest, to intelli-