The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-09-14
THE VICE OF QUOTATION MARKS.

| a Cheap Mode of Ridicule and Satire.
There are times, of course, when a
quotation mark is of great value in re-
moving ambiguity or disclaiming re-
| sponsibility, or acknowledging some I'M
usually unusual usage. But, too, there
are occasions when little strychnine Is
beneficial. And similarly quotation
marks should be put up in ground glass
bottles carrying skull and crossbones
and the word "Po.son!" and kept in a
cool, dark place, out of the reach of the
young, for quotation marks are very
dangerous Wrongly applied, they can
paralyze an otherwise beautiful phrase
distort and discolor subtle expression
and instantly kill the admiration and
interest of an intelligent and engaged
reader. There are certain almost Hit
crate writer's that use quotation marks
for almost every imaginable shade Of
emphasis or unusualness. The lliterate
and the too-timid lean heavily on quo
tation marks, and their frequent APP
pearance in any writing establishes at
once prejudice against the author a
feeling that he must be either uncul-
tured or afraid; and suspicion of
either quality is of great hurt to a writ
er's chances.
The English language is one In which
most of the words have more than one
meaning; and most of our words are de-
fined by their context. If, then. one
word carries two or more meanings of
equal authority, 1t is manfestly unjust
to let one use Of the word have all the
honor and put the other uses into the
convict stripes of quotation marks
Thus, If lawyers most common en-
ployment of the word case were in the
sense of legal action and he wished to
write that his watch had gold case,
he would have no authority to clap the
word into quotation handouts in the
latter sense. simply because it was not
the most common use he made of It,
Yet this seems to be the thought OF
many writer's who abuse the mark.
They either wish to emphasize the fact
they Themselves employ the word in
different sense, or they are afraid that
the reader will not have perspicuity
enough to put text and context to-
gether
Special and technical terms constant
ly have unmerited quotation marks
fosted on them. Some writers, with a
very subtle snobbishness, quote all col
loqualisms and familiar household
words. as If, being common they must
be apologized for Advertisement writ
ers ale particular heinous in their mis-
use of device. Unlettered. or only half
lettered novelists are equal sinners,
the following sentence from recent
book being not unfair example,
Antoinette had the gown made over"
for herself. the cloak she sold to mil
liner friend" who ALTERED and re-
it, and placed 1t in his stock,
from which it eventually vanished. be-
coming at length the property of an
actress-a piece Of stage wardrobe"
There is no need of pointing out the |
insults and the disgusting |
awkwardness of such sentence But |
it Is no worse than thousands of others |
in the daily press and occasionally in |
the works of well-cultivated writer's. I
Once it gets on a readers nerves he is
subject to an unceaSing torment, |
Everywhere he reads the little twin
quirks buzz up at him like mosquitoes.
Current Literature.