The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-09-08
THE ENGLISH OF THE ENGLISH.
P~eculiarfties That Struck a Recent
American Visitor.
The Outlook

The Outlook. 70 ErN -
One of the first sermons the spectator
heard on landing in England. was preached
in Westminster Abbey: The mpressiveness
of the Abbey service is, by the way, some
crowd crowds the monumen the women
sitting on the pe9estals and the men hang
ing their hats en- the arms or n other
evening was the Very Rev. Dean of Ely.
He gave an excellent sermon on certain
problems of modern thought, but all the
way through he pronounced evolution
'e"-volution. eo7a - s t
The next evening the spectator was the
a graduate of Cambridge, who also used
the word evolution. pronouncing it also
"e.avolution 50 odd a pronunciatlon
of England clergyman, as one of those
pulpit peculiarities or affectations-at least
SO they sound-which those unaccustomed
to them cannot escape noticing. This
theory can hardly be stretched to apply to
a layman, and a newspaper man at that,
evolution was the ordinary English pro-
nunciation. The latter replied that he had
never heard any other.
The spectator thought that he had dis
covered a new AmeTicanism. Consulting
various dictionaries on his return. the spec
tator changed his mind. Not one of them
ternate PRONUNCIATION, not the Century,
nor the Standard, nor even Stormonth.
Indeed. the last authority went SO far the
| pronunciation OF evolve. The spectator was
| thus driven to the conclusion that the Eng
Iish are more independent of dictionaries
than the Americans, are not constantly
looking up words as we are here, and
accept the ordinary usage OF the people
with whom they associate as authoritative
which would be a typical British way of
settling almost any question.
An amusing bit of art slang came to the
spectators at~tention-was, in fact, thrust
upon him-at this years exhibit of the
ROYAL Academy. The one comment (wheth-
er of admiration or s1rprise) was the in
| variable phrase, How very extr' d'n'r
This was applied indiscriminately to. any
and every picture, from a bit of realistic
flesh painting-usually. in Paris and London
alike, thel back of some reclining woman
with the reddish hair, which must be the
latest fad'with the realists-to one OF Sar-
many figures. such as A~lma-Tadema's
Spring" 1t was extraordinary how tire
some the constant rspefation OF nat phrase
But IL was at the Royal News. the stables
of Buckingham Palace, that the spectator
had impressed upon him how much impor-
the use of English. The groom in attend
| ance was a most impressive person. so very
impressive from his cockace to his boots
as TO satisfy completely ones ideal OF state
And he Lived up to" his livery. His man.
ner was dignity itself. Referring to the
parade at Hyde Park the day before. at
which the spectator haa been present, ne
been tout riding there that afternoon.
"Oh. no. sir replied that fu~nctionary,
with freezing sarcasm; their Royal High
nesses and the ladies and gentlemen Of the
the afternoon There may have been pre-
vious occasions In the spectators expert
ence when he was equally crushed by the
sense of having used the wrong word in the
presence of a critical authority; but he
failed TO recall them then. and he has failed
to recall them since.