The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-14

needs of rhetoric. Yes. but they are hardy
ana grow of their accord in common
speech, and anything surely is better than
what Lowell called ported literature
Phase of Development.
The uewness of slang gives it fascina-
uon-therd are such possibilities about
an untried piece of slang, Kipling. per
/ haps, has best realized lis pOtentialities
He seemed TO know just how far it would
carry and how much il would scatter into
connotatlon. IL is his natural speech; all
his writings are brimful of it. and even
the name of one of his volumes lies on
the debatable land between slang and
simile-'Lifes Handicap.
| when all is said slang is not so much
a kind of word as a phase in the develop
ment of words. Before il takes public
place among the people il is NOT slang
| after 1t keeps that pace for time II
ceases to be slang and passes into lido
matte English. Slang is language in the
| tadpole stage, and the best that we wish
for il is thai 1t will cease to he sang.
| And since it Is hard TO say just when this
comes to pass, we can only bid those who
| hesitate to bear in mind the words OF
| Bacon; 1T is as well TO create a good
| precedent as to follow it,
what Is Heard in Colleges.
Miss Mary Charlotte Crothers. 1901,
| Crothers, Pa. read a paper on college
| Slang Miss Crothers said it was diff
| cult TO select college from other slang, and
/ slang belonging particularly to the Wo-
/ mans College was an unknown quantity.
| u heard a junior bemoaning this fact the
| other day" she added Il believe she
thought special chair should he created
| for This purpose. II does seem lax that in
| this age of higher education We should be
| without our own college slang. Annapolis
! and West Point seemed famed in this line
! and should their lists increase to a much
/ greater degree 1t viii be necessary to pub
/ fish dictionaries to enlighteu visitors. Any
of you who have been TO Annapolis have
/ heard the remark that certain cadet
| 'bilged because he gagged; and who would
| guess the sentence translated runs the
/ cadet was expelled because he cheated.
| You would be puzzled if told that Cadet
/ Brown was "rateY.' and so could go out in
/ town after the femme he was to drag
| 10 the hop; but it means only that he has
privileges which enable him to go out of
| the yard for the girl he is to escort TO the
bah. The ship carpenter goes by the name
of chips and the dignihed chaplain is
dubbed the sky pilot
AT West Point modest little maiden
was greatly startled by cadets asking
her to spoon with him the next day at
four thirty. She drew herself up haught-
iiy and was about to administer re-
buke when the youth fastened to ex-
plain that at West Point to spoon meant
to take a girl walking. At Wesleyan the
boys call the goods quail, and their dor
mtory the quail roost.' To sport the
oak at oxford means that the outer door
is closed and the public excluded.
What the Dear Girl Said.
But If we have no slang peculiar to
our own college, we cannot fiatter our
,tyf1
any one who spends a half day within
our sacred portals will hear an appalling
amount of the jargon issuing from the lips
of our stately upper classmen. l don't
think girl has much right to set down
as rough and unpublished poor little
freshman's English when her own vocab-
uary consists IN the main of such ex-
grind tacky' waddy, woody simply
great, perfectly gorgeous proud TO
death l care for that, forget it, how
CHASTITY 'fustle, 'fiendish,' fierce and
that girl looks like a peanut The fresh
man soon adds to her list all our slang
ish authorizations as gym chem, ;
+ 'psych.. 'soch.,' quiz cram lab and
math These belong strictly TO a col
lege, and until she is fully versed in the
lore, she doesn't feel able to converse on
equal ground with an upper classman."
In Its Broadcast Sense
Miss Annette Brown Hopkins, 1901. Bal
tlmore, spoke on Slang In It's Broadest
Sense She said that slang was treacfer-
Gus, many persons using It who are I'M
conscious of the expressions being slang.
Miss Hopkins quoted @ number of slang
phrases. giving their derivations. 'Luddy
mussy" was once Lord have mercy;''
Lands sake" was Lords sake"
! THE exclamation BY George similar
to BY Jove' is older than is frequently
imagined" Miss Hopkins continued. re
ferrng either to st. George the patron
saint of England, or to the house of Han
over. BY lingo has no particular mean
| ing and no positive etymology though IL
| is believed that lingo is derived from the
Basque jinco,' the devil. Pnovincialisms
and technicalities constitute the most re-
! spectacle forms of slang. and in many
cases have been admitted into the lam
guages though still savoring of inelegancc.
"'Catspaw 'take-a-back spin a yarn
are metaphors derived from seafarlng life.
! Cut was originally a theaterical term.
meaning to omit portions of a play.
THE phrase mind your p's and as has
| an interesting origin According to some
| authorities the saying originated from the
similarity of the letters p and in the
| bornbook alphabet, and, therefore, the
warning of an old dame TO her pupils
! Others say it sprang from the order of a
dancing master to his pupils to mind their
pieds-feet-and &wigs-when bow
ing. Slang derived from proper names
! springs up and falls into dlsuse as quickly
as 1t arises. 'Hobsonize' is now the correct
| expression for kissing. few years ago
| 'Trilby was substituted for the good Eng
fish word foot The cockney term Bobby
or 'Peeler for policeman, originated from
the name of Sir Robert Peel. through
whose influence a police force was put up
| on the London streets.
| THE poetic expression the only People
on the beach has of late sadly degeneratel
| into such vulgar phrases as the only poo
die in the pound or the only tincan on
| the dump"
SHOOK JOUBERT"S HAND.