The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-12
GIVE Us MORE ENGLISH.

49,
schools, in a recent report, severe
ly criticises inattention to the Eng
lish language in the schools, and the
superior Importance attached to the
dead languages. This is a Western re-
verberation of the complaint from
Eastern colleges of the fearful English
of the papers submitted in the exam
nations, especially those giving trans
lations from the classics. This feeling
has been growing for several years and
has at last forced courses in the cur
riculum of nearly all the colleges and
universities which drop Latin and
Greek and substitute modern Ian
guages instead. This feeling has been
growing for years, and an indication of
it's strength is that course, now allowed
in most colleges, where modern Ian
guages are substituted for the ancient.
1t is a recognition of the supreme fact
that, for us of the English tongue. the
words that compose it are the imple-
ments with which we must express the
thought in our minds, and that in
speech, as in the handicrafts. he is best
equipped for work who has the larsest
and most varied assortment of nipple
ments, united with skill in the use Of
them. Whatever may be The merits Of
the contention relative to the BENEFITS to
be derived in gaining a command of
ITpc 1;el, 10
of the classics, it is indUbftable that
they alone will not suffice and that they
must be supplemented by quite as thor
ough a drill in the mother tongue.
While there has been this greater value
given to modern languages, there re-
mains yet enough of traditional YER
GRAFTON for the ancient tongues with
many teachers to lead them to
subordinate the English and merit
the Iebuke administered by Mr..
Alton We do not overlook the
vast difference in the aptitude of
individuals; the fact that language
and its use in expression is a matter
of great difficulty to some and of as
great ease to others. We frequently
meet unlettered persons who speak
with remarkable accuracy and fluency,
as we also meet their counterpart in
others who have had the drill of the
schools, but whose speech is slovenly
While it is true that the thought is
ever the main and the words in which
it is clothed the secondary thing, still
the thought will be ever clearer if the
words are apt and their arrangement
conformed to the accepted rules of con-
struction. No one, for instance, could
have misunderstood Gov. Rusk's mean
ing when he said, 81 seen my duty and
done it," but Jerry had had the bene-
fit of drill in neither the ancient nor
his mother tongue But George Eliot
had, and neither the Latin nor Greek
saved her from saying, "She disentan-
gled her foot from her netting and
wound it up" nor did they prevent
Thrackeray from writing neither Of
the sisters were very much displeased,'
or again, saving the grammar, but
numbering the English, "He had his
top boots in his room in which he used
to hunt in the holidays" If something
is to be excused in the mere student
of the classical languages for his slips
in his neglected mother tongue, as
much cannot be extended to the uni
versity president, stepped in ancient
lore, who slaughtered the language as
did President Jowett, OF Oxford. He
always sent a plural verb after such
words as politics, says correspond
ent of the Evening Post From his
translation Of Plato he quotes: No one
will love him if he does them no good"
and neither of them are known to
me- From his letters he quotes these
phrases and sentences: These kind of
pursuits; those sort of things; neither
of them have; man or woman who
sacrifice themselves" and Sc on, for
a number Of Illustrations. 1t makes
those Of us who have fallen into slip
shod ways. of speech; whose ears have
become dulled to the discords- by their
frequent iteration. feel consoled when
these masters also slip, but they offer