The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-08-13
HOW THEY TALK.
SILLY dIRL-ExPRESSIoNS
The Spread Of sianginess.

The Spread Of slanginess.
Phil. Record.
If the Vicar of Wakefield was shock
ed to hear the lady Wilhemina Carroll
ma Araminta Skeggs exclaim "Oh.
Jimini p and vow she was call in a
muck of sweat.!'' what would DIR.
Primrose have said or done could he
haye overheard the conversation of the
boardwalk or of the summer piazza ?
The boardwalk is an institution it is
the American Rialto. One can snatch
from it the current speech of 1896
and that shows the girl and the young
woman to be growing just as "s]angy'
as the boy. "Great Scott where is
that poodle?" comes from the lips OF
sweet sixteen, who has suddenly miss
ed her dog in the crowd yet she is a
modest and to all appearance a we'll
bred young girl. It is not necessary
to quote the argot with which the
young person of both sexes salutes the
morn and the rise of the moon, and all
the festive events between. The fact
Is that girls, with the new freedom OF
outdoor life which is their dowry in
these days, their bicycling and golfng,
their management of sailboat and skill
with the oars, their swimming and div
ing and driving, have borrowed the
speech of the men-which is no longer
much restrained in their presence. The
bluest profanity probably they do not
hear but they hear enough to frame
vocabulary of their own.
Woman is mans comrade now in so
many of the breezy atheletic outdoor
pleasures of life that either from lltera-
ture or from his own lips the once diff
dent maiden has learned the forms OF
speech by which he expresses his views
of the game of life. She sits by his
side at football and cricket games or
surveys the baseball diamond with
him, and is most intelligent as to the
outcome of each fray or inning OF
course, mothers and grandmothers and
all the aunts are shocked. The faith
ers hardly notice it when she phrases a
bit of slang-which shows how the
masculine ideal OF the exqulsitely re-
fined in woman is changing. The
young fellows themselvs have never
had this ideal, or, having taught the
culprits THIS new and dreadful express
siveness In speech, are so far partlceps
criminis as not to dislike it.
The school mistress and the college
professor will labor in vain; the con-
versation and chaff of these young peo-
pie will not be put into the same En-
glish which adorns their essay writ
ing.
Now, 1t is impossible to set the young
girl back into her former seclusion
from the robust enjoyments of outdoor
life. She has conquered this kingdom
in spite of all the doctors. She likes
it, and it likes her. Yet it has brought
to her adaptive ear the language of the
"bleachers" at ball game-the slang
with which roughs and toughs express
their emotions, vent their rage at the
umpire or cheer on their favorites
Far, far, indeed, from any ridiculous
form of daintlness and squeamishness
in speech has this modern revolution
carried her The English language
will be modified soon if we do not lool
to it. The slang of duchesses and o.
titled young "rosebuds" is only inter
mitted within earshot of Queen Vic
toria. Elsewhere it prevails, from ths
''Thanks, awfuIly!" to the newes
adornment of our common speech
Surveying the ground critically, there
appears only one bit of high ground
by which to escape from this rising
tide. It is, perhaps, for men to set thu
fashion of a curbed and careful speech
As they have latterly set up the stand
ard for all this new and ample and
praiseworthy open-air enjoyments o
the sex which furnishes them will
sisters and wives, so they will have t.
make pattern for the accompanying re
finements of the language if we ar
ever to have these again. It is &C;
large contract" not to be expressed t.
them forcibly without realistic bit Q
slang In the wording of it; but ther,
seems no other way.
Dig down to the cause of your sick
ness, if you want to get we'll and sta
we'll. Most likely it's indigestion. Th
Irritating poisons OF fermentlng, putri