The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-19

son, are heard from every lip, are in the
next completely abandoned. 1t OCCASION
ally happens that a sudden emergency
or an event of importnce, gives rise to a
word which is Immediately seized upon by
everyone as exactly expressing the idea
This was the history of the slang word
"skedaddle," which, used to describe the
rapid and disorderly retreat of a body of
men from battle field, was first employ
ed by an irish soldier in the union army
after the battle of Bull Run The
word proved instantly popular and in a
otherwise, by men all over the country.
At the close of the war, being no longer
needed, is passed out of use. and it is now
rarely seen or heard. 1t served its pur-
pose, and in a generation or more it will
be found in the dictionaries of archaic
expressions marked Obsolete" Like
some others already mentioned, it was
once a good word, and is found in the
Celtic Bible, Matthew, 26, 81. Il will
smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the
flock shall be skedad-ol, i. e., skedaddled"
that is, scattered here and there in every
direction, In the widest panic. without a
leader, rallying point or a purpose. The
Irish soldier probably heard the word
among elderly Celtic-speaking people, and
used IL as the best at his command to
serve the purpose he had in mind.
The universaulity of slang is attested
by the literature of every language hav-
ing a literature. II is often found in the
most unexpected quarters. The word
shibboleth, used in the sense of a party
test or watchword, had a slang origin
away back in the days when the Jews
were ruled by a judge. The word means
IAN ear of grain" but in little row
between the Ephraimites and the Gilead-
ties it was used as a method Of identi-
flying the men of a whole tribe. Jeph-
thah and the Gileadites had won great
victory of the Ammonites, and the Eph-
raimites were Jealous, so they took up
arms against the tribe of Ephraim, re-
ceived a terrible defeat and ran away.
But the Gileadtes, knowing that the
fugitives must all pass the Jordan to
get home, seized the fords. land it was
so that when the Epnraimites which
were escaped, said: Let me go over
that the men of Gilead said, Art thou
an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay then
said they unto him. Say now Shib-
boleth. And he said 'Shibboleth,' for
he could not frame to pronounce it
right" Their inability to pronounce IL
right" cost the poor Ephraimites very
dearly, for, as we are told in the 18th
chapter of Judges, forty and two thous-
and of them persisted at the fords of
the Jordan from their inability to get
rid of, all of a sudden, or their provin-
cial pronunciation. Cases of slang pro-
nunciation do not always turn out as
seriously, but the slang itself has always
existed, and no doubt always will. 1t is
said by the Assyriologists and Egyptol-
ogists that there are words on the mon
uments of both nations that were un-,
doubted slang at the time they were
used. The Greek language was full of
it. The works of Aristopnanes and other
comic writers of the palmy days of
Greece so abound in it that the meaning
of scores of passages is quite obscure.
A tough Roman of the time of the en-
pire had as much slang as a tough Bow
cry boy of the present day; the walls of
Herculaneum and Pompeii are covered
with it; the pages of Plautus and Ter
renee and Martial are fun of it. Shakes
peare and Moliere abound with it. Dante
has any number of slang words in his
great poem, and from end to end Don
Quixote is riddled with it. 1t is found
in the works of every great author, in
the writings of every great literary age.
So extensive a use, covering every age
and country, suggests that slang must
be- in some sort, a necessity of speech,
and however. we may deprecate it, at
tempts TO abolish it are and always will
be quite futile.