Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1895-10-10
A. Ez4zdETleNs s
W. 80 aGo
ENGLISH OF The ENGLISH PEOPLE.
Some Peculiaritics That Struck q Recent
American Visitor

Some Peculiaritirs That Struck a Recent
American Visitor.
One of the first sermons the spectator
heard on landing in England was preach-
ed in Westminster abbey. The impress
iveness Of the abbey service is, by the
way, somewhat marred by the manner
in which the crowd "erowds" the r,on-
uments, the women sitting on the ped
estals and the men hanging their hats
ON the arms or any other projections in
sight. The preacher that evening was
the Very Rev. Dean of Ely. He gave an
excellent serm n on certain problems of
modern though. but all the way through
he pronounced evolution -volution
The next evening the spectator was
the guest of well known London jon
nalist, a graduate of Cambridge, who
also used the word evolution, pronounc-
ing il also ''e" volut.Gn. So odd a pro
nunciation might be set down, in the
case of Church Of England clergyman.
ss one Of those pulpit peculiari' Of
affectations-at least so they Sod
which those unaccustomed to the., i
not escape noticing This theo, a
hardly lie stretched to apply TO :: i.:y
man. and newspaper man at that; and
SO the spectator asked his he if
"e"-volution was the ordinary Ensl sin
pronunciation. The latter replied that
he had never heard any other.
The spectator thought that he had
discovered a new Americanism. Con-
sulting various dictionaries ON his re-
turn, the spectator changed his mind.
Not one of them gave "e"-volutiCn as
even a possible or alternate pronuncia-
tion, not the Century, nor the Stand
ard, nor even Stormonth. Indeed, the
last authority went so far the other way
as to give ev-o I've as the proper pronun-
citation of evolve. The spectator WAS
thus driven to the conclusion that the
English are more Independent of die
tionaries than the Americans, are not
constantly Cooking up words, us we
are here, and accept the ordinary usage
of the people with whom they associate
as authoritative, which would be Il
typical British way of settling almost
any question
An amusing bit of art slang came to
the spectator attention-was, III fact,
thrust upon him-;: this years exhibit
tion of the Royal academy. The one
comment, whether Of admiration or sur
prise, was the irvariable phrase, How
very extr tr'ord'n'ryl" This was applied
indiscriminately TO any and every pc
ture, from bit Of realistic flesh paint
ing-usually, in Paris and London
alike, the back Of some reclining woman
with the reddest hair, which must be
the latest fad with the realists-to one
of Sargent's portraits, or wonderful
setting Of many figures, such as Alma
Tadema's "Sping 1t was extraordi-
nary how tiresome the constant repe-
tition of that phrase became after sin
gle day at the academy.
But it was at the Royal news, the
stables Of Buckingham palace, that the
spectator had impressed upon him how
much Importance attaches to a proper
discrimination in the use of English.
The groom in attendance was u most
impressive person, SO very impressive
from his cockade to his boots as TO satis
fy completely ones ideal of stateliness
in even humber royal fiunky. And
he "lived up 10" his livery. His man
ner was dignity itself. Referring to tie
parade at Hyde park the day before, at
which the spectator had been present, Le
asked the groom whether any royalties
had been "out riding" there that after
noon. "Oh. no, sir, replied that func
tionary, with freezing sarcasm. "Their
royal highnesses and the ladies and gen
tlemon of the court ride i'll the mem
ing They drive III the afternoon.
There may have been previous occasions
in the spectators experience when he
was equally crushed by the sense of hav-
ing used tho vInng word i'll the presence
of critical authority, but he failed to
recall them then and he has failed to
recall them since. Outlook.