Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1896-04-04
HOOYER DIALECT.
James WhitcOmb Riley, the Poet, Under.
stands It Thoroughly.

James whltcomb Riley, the Poet, Under.
stands 1t Thoroughly.
Hoosier dialect has become fea.
ture in polite literature. James Whit
comb Riley has constructed 4 ladder
out of it, clim bling as he built till,
at last, he has written his name up.
on the skies. Before his advent in
letters no attempt had been made to
systematically study it and reduce
it's printed uso to science. A lowly
dialect had been evolved out of the
necessities of humorous squibbists,
but it was spurious and Legitimate.
This bastard dialect is still used by
the average newspaper man and by
ambitious writer's who think that
dialect is dialect and that there is
nearly no right or wrong about it.
To one familiar with legitimate dia.
lect this Volapuk variety is very try,
ing. 1t falls as harshly upon his
taste as the unintentional bad gram.
mar of a literary pretender does up.
on that of q scholar. 1t shocks and
disgusts.
There are only half dozen per-
sons in tho world, besides Riley, who
can correctly write western dialect.
Perhaps Richard Lew Dawson ranks
next to him. Eugene Field, brilliant
and fascinating as he is, is not al
ways perfect in his dialect. His very
best dialect work, in the writer's
Judgment, is "Jim's Kids" The
conceit is original and noble, the
development of it naturally dra-
matio and the climax tragically pa
thetic. Its dialect is fawless. His
boy dialect is little faulty, as seen
in "Jes' Before Christmas. Still
the poem is a magnificent piece Of
verbal art.
If it is true that not more than
ono editor in 90 knows what true
poetry is, it is truer that not one in
100 knows what legitimate dialect
poetry is. Our magazines arc reject
ing better poetry than they publish
half the time. 1t is no little bit of a
task to learn Hoosier dialect. 1t is
an impossible one to most eastern.
ers and nearly so to any one who
has not been much in the social sub
stratum of the west.
Only those whose pursuits or hab-
its have thrown them much into the
society of the humber classes are
capable of reproducing their method
of speech. Even then, unless they
are close observers and arc pecul.
iarly endowed, they can never sue
coed in dialect writing. If you want
to write dialect tolerably, study Ri
Icy. He is the supreme authority in
this literary branch. Study his use
of words, his physiological meth
cd, his spelling. Learn first to avoi'
tho commoner errors of the bastard
lists, such as writing ter for to, mater
for hatcher, jest for jes, tibet for
that, etc. Spell correctly, not as the
rustic himself would. Don't write il!
tuff, but tough. Write it so that the
reader must pronounce it as the il.
literato westerner speaks it. Study
Riley, too, if you would correctly
write child dialect. This, of course,
varies according to the age of the
child supposed to be represented.
There is place in literature for
dialect. Some of the ultra literary
question it's right in the legitimate
domain of letters, regarding it as
intellectually cheapening and as be-.
ing concessionary to ignorance. The
fact is there are emotional shades
and spiritual sensations, intrinsic to
the essence of dialect, which are
found nowhere else, and they pos
sess all the highborn value of feel
ings dramatically evolved. What
light in scholarly purism. what at.
tic possibility in verbal jewelry Gun.
der grammatical control), could re-
produce the peculiar flavor left in
your consciousness after reading
Riley's "When the Frost Is on tho
Punkin and the Fodder In the
Shock?"-New Bohemian.