Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1893-07-29
GIRLS WH0USE SLANG
"A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TWO
COLLEGE GRADUATES.

Slang In tho Mouths of Sion Is Had Enough,
but when Well Bred Young Women Are
Addicted 90 the Habi, II becomes Abso-
lutcly IntolsrabIe.
Dear girls, avoid slang. There are 30
many reasons why You should not use
II, and only one excuse in its favor that
have ever heard from any reliable an-
thority! Here il is:
Oliver Wendell Holmes. in one OF. his
racy breakfast table talks. says: Don't
think | undervalue the proper use and
application of cant word or phrase. 1t
adds piquancy TO conversation as
mushroom does TO a sauce" That tins
il the idea most young people have
when they first begin to use it all will
admit, but unfortunately ii Is like mod
crate drinking in its 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 % talk
ing who seemed to have an entire vo-
cabulary composed of slang which
would be as utterly nnintelligible to
well bred English or Scotch girl as
Chinese or Greek
Toquote the veteran philosopher again:
'These expressions come to be algebraic
symbols of minds which have grown too
weak or indolent TO discriminate They
are the blank checks of intellectual
bankruptcy. You may fill them up with
whatever idea you like. Ii makes 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 Fin
tellectual bank" empty.
wonder what DIR. Holmes would 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 il almost verbatim:
Say, Jen abbreviated form of Jennie;
life is too short to use the whole of q
HSiaph . hhLuNI, WIN 10 tiS ~ Aochile
'snide' in the yellow striped get up?"
"Oh, come off the roofr To pretend
you don't know Cob. &C. o. b. are the
young gentleman's initials wittily con-
verified into COBB After the way you
| went for him at the ball last weekl
You can't stuff me with that kind Of
gag. Miss Innocent"
"Oh. is that Cob? He must be of his
nut to rig himself in such a 'swagger
way"
"Oh, Jen. look at Cob nowl He is hor-
ribly ratified Mabe lshort for Mabel
'slung a glance at him. and he lost his
head rs well as his base"
''Is 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
needfur for ice cream, etc, but she likes
ALT Jones better all the same-ee' You
can bet your sweet life she won't marry
Coz"
Look at him now. 'You bet he's 'hus-
tlingr"
Get there, Eli" "Ruddigore!" THAT
was boss rum and so on ad finitum,
al nauseum. All this in perfectly audi
BILE voice. and they were seemingly I'M
aware that there was anything vulgar or
out Of the usual in their conversation.
| Probably there was not. and yet those two
young ladies were college graduates and
were possessed of more than average abil.
ity.
II you think this description exagger-
ated, listen critically to the next I'M
restrained conversation between two
young ladies whom you know to be
guilty of using slang freely. l fancy |
hear you say, 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 knowi'-and ended by
forming a vulgar and enslaving habit
which took great strength of mind and
firm perseverance to break. The worst
stage of slang deyotee 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 Ian
guage of the future" in great measure
depends. You are the coming mothers
and teachers and will have an all pow.
erful influence in molding the language
of the next generation to come and num-
berless generations after that. See TO I,
that it is a language Of intelligence.
grace and purity.-Miss Frank Davis in
Wives and Daughters.
/