The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-14
Boodlerfzing the "Standard Diction-
ary.es

ary.c
A ~grievous complaint. comes to us from
Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls, the eminent
New York publishers. They have been
made the victims of a cowardly form of
attack by bushes rivals. they say, and
they appeal to the justice and good sense
of the American public to protect them
against injury.
It is necessary, as they very justly
point out, in all unabridged dictionaries.
to give the definitions of certain indeli-
cate words. Eighteen of these words,
selected out of a vocabulary of over
been collated and printed with their def
nitions by the printer of a certain rival
English dictionary, and circulars contain
ing them are being distributed among
eachers school trustees and .parents all
through this country. stirring up a filthy
agitation that will end, unless frowned
down by the public press and other lead
ers of public opinion. in setting people
of prurient minds and children every
where to ransacking dictionaries for this
class of words.
One of these publications contains such
p-utrageously unjust comments as the fol-
lowing
About two years ago the publishing
house of Funk & Wagnalls brought into
the world a monstrosity entitled the
STANDARD Dictionary of the English
Language"
obscene. filthy, blasphemous. slang and
profane words, it has no counterpart in
dictionaries of the English language.
1t is unnecessary to say hat this
blackguardly attack has no support from
scholars, or from decent persons of any
sort, either here or in England. Fifteen
out of the eighteen words (and others of
the same class are, and properly so, in
the Century Dictionary" n they are
to be found, with scarcely an exception,
In every other reputable unabridged die
tionary, and this class of words is in
variably recorded in the leading diction-
aries of all languages.
The motive of the attack is obviously
commercial; but the incident is -ilustra-
tive of a general type of abuse which
ds rife today. We have zone so far in
crying down all publications which were
not .lecture de jeune flle," as the French
say, that we have given justification for
almost any excess in that direction. We
have passed laws regarding the printing,
selling and mailing of books of such
amazing breadth and comprehensiveness
that half the classics ~antedating 1900 and
are eligible for places on Mr.. Anthony
Comstock's black list, if any accident
should direct his attention to them. It is
not a little amusing that Messrs. Funk
& Wagnalls, a firm of an extreme Puri-
tan tendency. should be made the victim
of this over-virtuous spirit of expurga-
ical to see them resort to exactly the
same arguments, unavailingly plead in
court, time and again, by printers and
booksellers who had fallen under Mr..
Comstock's ban. This we find in a cir
cuiar, which they have sent out to the
press, in a paragraph. which reads as
follows
To collect from such a work words of
the class referred to and publish them
is as great an outrage as to collect from
the Bible the many indicate words and
passages to be found there, or those from
words are found both in the Bible and
in Shakespeare), and then to print and
scatter abroad the collection. saying
"See what a foul book is the Bible; see
what an obscene and blasphemous work
is shakespeare"
Now we most heartily sympathize with
Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls in the out
rage which this rival is trying to perpe-
trate upon them. The STANDARD Die
is a credit to the country that such a
noble and enterprising work should have
been lone with such expenditure of pains
and at such monetary risk as attended
this publication. We have no words
strong enough to condemn the hypocrit-
deal and malicious attack on their repu-
tation n their property, and we have
very cordial pleasure in giving their
work the most unreserved endorsement
as one of the best dictionaries that has
ever been prepared in n language
AS for the eighteen bad words, those
who do not want to see them will hard
~ be offended by their obtrusiveness
among 300, 900 other terms.
The OLD story will be remembered of a
woman accosting Samuel johnson short
ly after his dictionary had been pub
lished, with:-"Doctor Johnson, I am
so sorry that you put in your dictionary
the naughty words" Madam" retort-
ed the Doctor, II am sorry that you
have been looking for them"
The Change In she High school
That Mr.. Thompson is a high grade
taeoretic educator is ~indisputable. His
noSsfn, tta state examination at Tfeu-