The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1897-06-10

oouuC tudL we ODIdlueu lue Wolu lloAh
England and with the meaning it has
always had in that country. 1t is a
significant fact that the English mean
ing is used and accepted in the oldest
parts OF our country and prevails in
parts of our country farthest and most
rapidly advanced in the circumstances
We express by the word civilization.
We can readily see how, in this
country, we came to change the mean
ing and why now we are gradually
going back to it's original significance.
In the early settlement of America,
and in the settlement of what we know
as the new portions of the United
States, it happened through the alb
sence of means to hire assistance that
the custom grew of neighbors helping
each other. 1t was a common thing
for a new settler to have a "house rails
ing From apple parings and bed
cuttings to harvest gatherings neigh
bors far and near came in and lent a
helping hand and made the occasion
social as we'll as industrial.
In the "help gatherings" those who
came in showed different degrees of
skill and also different degrees of
alacrity and willingness, for there was
no compensation beyond the social
enjoyment that accompanied the work
One would naturally imagine how the
helping neighbors became noted in
greater or less degree for ~"cleverness'
in the English sense.
1t is easy to see how the Clever
man more easily attended to his own
aHalrs and had more time to devote
to the assistance of his new neighbor
And this very "cl~everness'' which rave
him more leisure was naturally con
ducive to the cheerful and willing dis.
position that usually accompanies the
satisfactory condition of ones own af.
fairs. Then, too, there is the natura
disposition that makes persons more Of
less we'll disposed and kind and homes
in the sense of kindly and fair minded
ness. Under such conditions of life il
a new country just beginning to builC
itself up 1t might easily happen t,
come about hat such a word a,
clever" came to mean not only "dex
ferrous, skillful and ingenious" bu
also well disposed, kind and honest.
and When people under such primitiv'
conditions spoke of a Clever person
they referred to moral and social dual
tiles as we'll as to intellectual an,
manual ability.
But as parts of the country becam
older and more settled and there wa
an increase of population and wealth
there came means for securing assist
ance without calling on kind, wei
disposed and honest" neighbors TO
voluntary help and We can see tn
word "cleverness" as applied to neigh
borly qualities gradually going int
disuse.
And now it is noticeable that in Bos
ton, New York and other old easter
cities and throughout the older sci
Elements of the country the wor
CLEVER is Used in it's original Ems
fish sense, while the nearer we az
proach the newly settled parts of tn
country we find Clever used with il
mixed local meaning. 1t is not ur
usual to hear in these new places
man spoken of as Clever who
neither Intellectually nor mechanic
ally ingenious, but simply well dis
posed and obliging." And, on the col
! trary, in other and more advanced con
munities we hear of a nan who
neither kind nor willing spoken of E
CLEVER" because he is so "skillful an
ingenious"
Many English words that have
meaning in the United States differe1
from that commonly used in Englan
have been in the same way affecte
by local conditions and circumstance
but as these become more and MOI
like the conditions existing in the oldt
countries VIZ find the meaning in tt
seof the word going back to it's orig
nal significance. There are many ne,
sons who give little study to the use
meanings, and history of words an
often these new meanings are S,
down by them as a servile imitation
the English, but to the student
words the changes show the strengt
and pliability of our language, as we
as the steady progress of our own coul
try in the advancement of better an
more mature conditions.