New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-03-25
Az OPPRESSED CONSON.fNT

The conqucring races apt to be cruel, and
Britain Is no exception. extending her seventies
not only over subject tribes and peoples. but
over her own. a tendency affirmed by the sur
vlval to comparatively recent times OF a statute
limiting To the size Of his thumb the stick with
which a Briton might beat his wife. 1t is not
only in these domestic and foreign directions
that the hard-hear,edness Of the race is shown:
it treats inanimatc things including the parts
and particles of It's own speech with equal
rigor sparlng not even the alphabetical unit.
Its habltual outrage of the unorendinG aspi-
rate is OF well-known atrocity, and has been
kept up since that suspiratory consonant first
appeared in the language. No Briton was found
To- do 1t justice during all the memorable his
toric periods. the IIcptarchy. the Norman In
vasion theWars Of the Roses the spacious times
Of Elizabeth the Cromwellian episode and the
Restoration. and the time Of Queen Anne 1t
WAS kicked and jostled about by gentle and
simple always put In the wrong place and
forced into Irregular relations and never by any
chance allowed to come fairly by its own. In
recent times some perception of the iniqulty OF
this treatment has dawncd upon section or
the British mind. and within the circle so pene-
trated there IS a pharisaica strictness In the
Justice which Is now measured out to 1t. Ii Is
the precision with which it's artlculative value
is given and the care with which 1t is kept away
from the places where 1t does not belong. 1t
may. perhaps. be said that the use OF this OBJ
scurc and unpretending spirant Is there determi-
nate Of social rank and Of the grade Of lndi-
vidual culture Perhaps II attests a remorseful
retrospect of the way in which 1t has been
treated for sc many generations, but at any rate
Il has now no just cause of complaint
II Is another letter of the alphabet which Is
now the subject Of its i'll treatment, the dulcet
and melllnuous sonant cultural known as e.;
a consonant OF unrivalled softness and sweet
mesa rounding a word to its end like n drop of
honey and dwelling upon the ear with faint,
lingering melody as Of the sweet South. that
brcathes upon bank OF vioets. or as the
note OF timld bird. just audible above the
rustic OF the foliage which shelters II. This
beautiful constituent atom of language Is en-
tirely suppressed and ignored in wide cate
CORY OF words in familiar use and not by the
mere ethnic and heather among the Islanders,
but among It's choicest and most pretentious
social circles. 1t Is there that the women are
charmn and bloomin' and possess the most ex-
traordinary range OF attributes and engage In
the most numerous pastimes and occupations.
none OF which have the sign or accent OF CO.
anywhere about them. 1t is as II the letter had
in some way outlawed itself in the estimation Of
these fashionable sectares and had been dropped
from polite society. Ii must be said, however.
that no countenance Is given to these heterodox
usages by the authorized magistrates OF Ian
guage. The lexicons keep the letter In It's proper
place and insist upon its normal value so that
the custom complained OF, and somewhat dis
cussed now as question OF orthoeplc propriety.
is only local and probably transient vulgarism.
Ike those which perpetually assail all vital
languages. and are thrown off like slight maa-
dies by its inward force Of health, and by that