The herald., 1893-07-09
OUR EVENING CONTEMPORARY AS A
CENSOR.


it has done the HERALD the honor of
making it the subject of the following
remarks:
Our esteemed contemporary the
HERALD, in the course of some rather
ungracious criticisms OF the Stanford
university, made these noteworthy OBJ
eervations:
After all this fanfare and muldtudinous clet-
ter-dash and proegoa ens, [sic] we find that 1t
costs student in the Stanford university just
$22 mouth to enjoy the benefits of that insti-
tuition Bypaying this sum he IL able to listen
to number of professors discoursing upon re-
condite topics. He will even have the supreme
delight OF hearing ex- President Hayes maunder
about International law. and meander through
platitudes respecting law in general.
Now, without regard to the fanfare"
the "multitudinous clatter-dash" and
the 'prolegomena" (any one Of which
terms is worth years subscription to
the HERALD 1t seems to US that to hear
ex-President Hayes talk about law or
anything else would be cheap at much
more than $22 month. There is GER
tainly no other institution OF learning
that includes among it's professors an
ex-president from "the other shore"
Anything that Mr.. Hayes might say to
the students would no doubt be listened
to with rapt attention. We might VEN
ture to say that mere prolegomenon
from the distinguished gentleman would
command profound respect in any
quarter.
There is in rhetoric figure Of speech
known as onomatopeia which the HERALD
has as good right to use as has any
writer or talker. In order that our con-
temporary may not become befogged as
to the Office of this word, we beg to in
form it that Webster defines it as fol-
lows: "The formation of words in i'm
citation of sounds; figure of speech in
(which the sound of the word is indi-
"cative of the thing which it is intended
"to represent"
Now the HERALD, bearing in mind the
neyer-ending jargon which has attended
the Stanford, jr.. University-a thing
characterized by "a large cry and very
little woop'-tried, and we think success
fully, in the phrase "all this fanfare and
chatter dash and proleg-
omena" to initiate in sound the pre-
tentious game of which the people
Of California have been the vic.
Tins, and the ever recurring twad-
ile to which they have been
subjected. "Fanfare" is an excellenr
word. 1t is defined by Webster as
flourish of trumpets, as in coming into
the lists, etc." As to nrolegomena. it
is the plural of prologoi lenon, and we
used it in the plural be sause we have
been tired to death by the preliminary
remarks and observations that have at
tended this so-called Stamford bequest,
none Of which appear to have material
lied. From its psrenthasis (sic) our
erudite contemporary INDUCES IN the
foolish Imagination that it has caught
as in a mistaken use OF word in pro-
legomena. Every word employed by us
has been used with the felicitous grace
and correctness which characterize
every literary effort of the HERALD. As
to the obvious typographical error by
which the name of Hayes crept in
where we intended to say Harrison,
those political nonetities, whether dead
or alive, are of equal signifcance-tha
ls;to say, none at all.
We should not have INDUCED in the
disquisition had it not been
our purpose to point a moral as to style.
1t is too much the fashion of people of
calibsr to issue ukases as
to how any one should write. One fel.
low will make peremptory demand for
short words, and he erroneously assumes
that Eo word is admissible unless it is as
close-clipped as Gen. Grants or Gen.
Shermsn's whiskers, while another will
be content with nothing but the sesquipe-
1alin uerba. AS a matter of fact, Ian
guage has been made diversified, ryth-
mical and flexible to suit a high state Of
civilization. Language in it's highest
uses is synchronous-that is to say, it is
to the occasion and to the
Of the man who uses it.
In poetry, when the iambic is used, the
short and tripping words come naturally
into play, as in the mastery effusions of
Pope and Scott. Macaulay, who was him
self one of the most captivating and
masters of the English Ian
guage that ever lived, and many of whose
own efforts are already classic. in
his history of England says that the
English language reached its highest
flights in the poetry of Milton and the
prose of Edmund Burke. Both of these
Illuetrious men availed themselves OF
every resource OF the English language
which, like Roman triumphal pro.
cesaion of old, has been enriched from
every people on the globe. Charles
James Fox would use no word intro
iuced into the English language after
The age of Anne, and few people have
stopped to think how opulent it was in
words of Latin and Greek derivation be-
lore Anne. Shakespeare himself fur
nNhed the best illustrations of the syn
chronous collocation OF the rich and vari-
1us elements that enter into our COM
plete English speech.
OF course, those who prefer simplicity
above all things have their recourse. In
! note in one of his novels Charles
Dickens tells us that the average vocab.
llary of the Yorkshire Yokel does not
over two hundred words. We
.leo know that the official dictionary
.or,niled for the Chinooks containe ex-