The times., 1898-09-25
THINGS SEEN AND HEARD.

The electric fan philosopher felt him
self aggrieyed at the world as a whole
principally because the season of the
electric fan is passing and with the de-
sire and willingness-of other people-to
buy '.mashes' and hence it was that on
the eve of his leave-taking from the
paths of conviviality he paused TO dwell
upon what he termed the aching vacuum
Ca plagiarism of his from Bret Harte)
which has characterized the Summer just
passed.
Il have been waiting for months he
said. for some bright idiot to come along
with something really new and good in
! the way of popular slang, the kind that is
not offensive and furnishes an unfailing.
although eventually a monotonous, de-
! fense for repartee fiends. Let's go back
1 few years into history--Thanks. No, III
/ pour II out myself, please. AS was say
/ ing, lets go back into history. My hob
/ by. you know. is tracing the origin OF
slang. / never use slang myself, but the
| study of it amuses me. L started it sey-
eral years ago, beginning with There are
others Now, there was a bit of slang
that played star engagement and lived
longer, with subsequent variation, than
anything that has been coined within the
/ scope of my memory. AS nearly as j can
make out, There are others was used as
slang for the first time in The Umbrella.
a newspaper hangout in New York, and
/ the occasion for 1t was the fact that one
man in the row had been forgotten in the
round. AS / remarked. There are others (.
/ lived Tor long time, which was because
| 1t really meant something, and had
world of meaning at times. 1t has dis
appeared for good, though. in this part
nf ft,A astxs n II
| that it is just getting a hold in Texas.
There are others was succeeded by
/ You're not the only pebble on the
beach. which originated in a variety
theater at Coney Island with cheap
song and dance sketch. 1t was taken up
and popularized as slang. that is, the first
of it was. With You're not the only as
! foundation the original repartee fiends
twisted all sorts of things out OF this bit
| of slang, and it subsequently degenerated
| into every conceivable form, until it be-
came. oh, / don't know. you're not the
! only, with anything one wanted tackled
onto the end. Now, really. since those
1 have mentioned became obsolete, there
has been no clever bit of slang worth
( speaking of heard on the repartee mar
ket. They are all looking for something
| new this Fall and it's hard TO find. OF
course, there have been q lot of inane
! coinages which do not aspire TO the dig
nifty of being worth the living. 'Chesty
| is word that has been used up-to-date
for several months. but il is absolutely
! meaningless. That's funny thing about
| this kind of slang. A man seems TO know
what another man means when he says
Hello, my chesty friend or Now don't
| get chesty about a little thing like that
| and Yet there is not a man living who
could. If the life of him depended on 1t,
define the word or give you any very ac-
| curate idea of what IL means. But as ]
| remarked we are looking for something
! new, and il some clever Indian would only
| coin one he would relieve a great strain
on the mind OF the repartee fiend.'
A lieutenant of the Fourth United
States Immune Regiment, writing to a
| friend in this city says that it is remark
able how the climate of the tropics af-
fects the men of the volunteer army.
The officer In question is stationed at
Camp Cuba Libre, at Jacksonville. and
the immune regiment composes part of
the army of occupation, which. 1t is be-
lieved. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee will lead to Ha-
wanna possibly next month some time.
| The men under Gen. Lee have heretofore
| been proud of the fact that their camp
was more free from disease and infection
| than any other camp in the country, and
| that there We're fewer men lost through
these agencies. The men even of this fine
body are. some of them. however, Begin
| ming to feel the effects of the deadly heat
of the South, and particularly those who
| have been accustomed TO the temperate
| latitudes of the North. Those men who
are from the South and who are accus-
toned TO warmer weather, are not so
readily affected. and are apparently able
to endure the heat for greater length
of time. The letter from the lieutenant
| states that men of the best physical build
are breaking down constantly and going
| to pieces Nothing gets the matter with
them" he explains; they simply fade
away"
A member of the signal corps which re-
turned to this city on Friday evening. in
speaking 10 a reporter for The Times
says that he can vouch for the accuracy
of the latter statement. ''It is strange"
he said. "how the fever even malarial
fever, affects the soldiers of the army In
the South. In Cuba / could walk through
the hospital and pick out the men here
and there and tell just when they would
die almost to the day. They fade away by
degrees One could tell almost to a GER
tainty which man would live fortnight
which week, which two days and which
which would die the same day. 1t was
sad experience to have to watch a COM
rade's life thus ebbing away, and know
that he would never recover but would
die almost at a set time. ] have seen
sick men turn over and. after learning
that Private So-and-So had died, sigh, Tn