Evening capital., 1899-08-30
THE MAN ABOUT TOWN.
What He Sees and Hears In . Day s
Walk.

Wakk.
An indignant correspondence has been
going on in smart paper on the subject
OF slang" The writers have dealt some
severe raps TO us modern folk OF the $50
called upper classes. accusing US of
numbering the Queens English" and
pretending to be vulgar" for the mere
pleasure of the thing. Now do not
know that we are worse in the nineteenth
century than our progenitors were in any
century you like TO name certainly.
"Zounds!' "Zooksl'' .sGad' "Gossy
met" "My faithl' ''On my Efei" and
many other antiquated expletives were
as worthy OF condemnation as our "By
Jove" or Bother! but modern slang
has committed one sin peculiar to itself.
the wrestling of words from their proper
and perfectly innocent meanings. TO serve
the end OF attracting attention by their
very appropriateness For instance,
if certain people want to express con-
demnation, they use such words as "sim-
ply" perfectly intensely" and call
their aversions perfectly beastly." or
"simply beastly." or simply vile, ;"
whereas. on the contrary. the expression
Of praise seems to require the worst
epithets that the dictionary can provide.
TOO dreadful NICE" "frightfully love-
ly." are phrases that one often hears.
now that lawfully" has become TOO COM
mon to be impressive. ! am speaking
now of the people who have an eye 10
effect in their speech. The lazy ones
conine themselves 10 a very limited
vocabulary. Don't we know the young
person who makes lawfully sweet do
duty for the description OF everything
that pleases her-be it new kind of
trinket. dog, or a man? She, however.
is preferable TO her sister, who uses
"riPpin," as synonym Tor .'good.
pleasant "beautilul." or sublime.
Some folks are who divide the inhabi-
tants of this world and all the inanimate
objects which it contains into two classes
labelled "jolly" and "vile." One can
only judge ly the infection of their
voices as to the amount OF praise or blame
implied, since they speak of murder in
exactly similar terms. once knew a
man who invariably replied. "You
don't say sol to any observation address
ed to him. This perhaps. was more
tricky than slangy; but. if slang is to be
defined as the misuse of words. think
his peculiar habit deserves mention here.
However. let US not throw stones it
--as is probable live in glass houses.
| suspect that few OF US would be pro-
nounced absolutely guiltless BY jury OF
our peers. Does any one, by the way
know game called "The Anti-Slang
Society" 1t is not bad one for the
long evenings. One Of the party is
chosen as "Querist," the rest sit around
and she asks question of each in turn.
Anyo one who usos slang word, or one
OF inappropriate meaning. pays 4 forfeit;
and the one who answers most correctly
becomes "Querist" in her turn. Any
disputed points are settled by appeal to
a jury OF the other players, IL will be
found that this game is most efectnal
in "taking the conceit out out OF per-
sons who pride themselves upon their
avoidance Of slang. But let me. before
we dismiss the subject, say word in de-
fence Of our much-abused "slangy"
young people. would submit that they
are not half as trying as is the precise
person who always selects the right word
One of studied moderaiion-and seems
to lay out before you deliberately, her
carefully chosen vocabulary. in order
that you may listen and profit. One feels
SO incapable OF living up 10 her.