The Red Cloud chief., 1895-10-11
THE ENGLISH OF THE ENGLISH.
P~ecuiiarit. That struck u Recent
American Visitor.

fe~cuitarit.c That struck 70 Eeceus
American visitor.
One Of the first sermons the specta-
tor heard on landing in England was
preached in Westminster Abbey. The
impressiveness of the Abbey service Is,
by the way, somewhat married by the
manner in which the crowd crowds"
the monuments. the women sitting on
the pedestals and the men hanging their
hats ON the arms or any other projoc-
tions in sight. The preacher that even
ing 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 evolu-
ton 'e'-volution. The next evening
| the spectator was the guest of a we'll
known London journalist, a graduate
OF Cambridge. who also used the word
evolution, %pronouncing II also ~"e'-volu-
ton. So odd a pronunciation might be
set down, in the case Of a Church OF
England clergyman, as one of those pull
pit peculiarities or Alterations at least
so they sound-which those unaccus-
toned to them cannOt escape noticing,
This theory can hardly be stretched II
apply to a layman. and a newspaper,
man at that, and so the spectator asked
his host IL "e"-volution was the ordl.
nary English pronunciation. The latter
replied that he had never heard any
other. The spectator thought 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"-volution as
even a possible or alternate pronuncia.
ton, not the Century, nor the Standard,
nor even StOrmonth. Indeed, the last
authority went SO far the other way az
to give evolve 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" as we
are here and accept the ordinary usage
of the people with whom they associatee
as authoritative, which would be n typi.
cal British way Of settling almost any
question. An amusing bit of art slang
came to the spectators attention-was,
In fact, thrust upon hlm-at this years
exhibit Of the Royal Academy. The
n comment whether Of admiration
J or surprise) was the i%nvariable phrase
How very extr'ord'n'ry!" This was
applied indiscriminately to any and
every picture, from a bit Of realistic
flesh painting-usually, in Paris ant
=, London alike. the back of some reclln,
? inc y.prnan tvtth tho rnIlfsh hot. ,,,htok
must be the latest fad with the realist.
to n Of Sargent's portraits, or {
wonderful setting Of many figures, sucl
. as Alma-Tadema's Spring" 1t wa,
= extraordinary how tiresome the con
: slant repetition Of that phrase becam,
. after a single day at the Academy. Blu
: 1t was at the Royal News, the stable
: OF buckingham Palace, that the spec
e tator had impressed upon him how
much Importance attaches to n prope
discrimination in the use of English
The groom In attendance was a mos
impressive person, SO very impressiv
e from his cockade to his boots as to ga.
e isfy completely ones ideal of stateli
ness in even an humber royal Turnkey
nav Nv i'Su uP " liz llNcTy. II
: { manner was dignity itself. Referriu
to the parade at Hyde Park the day be
. fore, at which the spectator had bee
present, he asked the groom whethe
8 any royalties had been "out riding
there that afternoon. ooh, no, sir" RI
piled that functionary. with freezin
e sarcasm; their Royal Highnesses an
= the ladies and gentlemen Of the coul
y ride in the morning. They drive |
- the afternoon" There may have bee
- previous occasions in the spectators e,
e perlence when he was equally crushe
~ by the sense of having used the wron
word in the presence of a critical a,
thority; but he failed to recall the
- then, and he has failed to recall the
since.