The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-06-28
BILL ARP UPON NEW WORDS.
MANY CHANGES IN THESE DAYS


He Has {" Consult the Dictionary too
Df'cn--PcopIc are Continually Coin
ing Words.
When we were little school boys it
WAS Is big thing " spell L" Bak er. ~
When we rcachod cruciIix we
had visions Of expansion and susprn-
dCrs ana when "u progressed 10 un.
intelligibility and incOmpyeh ensl-
words to conquer. But there we're, for
away on near the last page was IL cat;,-
lOEuc OF OF JawDrcakers, such Is "uh-
th-is-ic," which we called "tisic," and
limack mae and " bOnny clab-
hcr," etc. We innoccntly supposed
that the old blue back srclling book
contained all the words in the world,
but by and by We found out that
we were only in the ru,i ,imentS. The
little dictionary and English: t2adcr
and Murrny's Grammar and Smiicy's
Arith mrtic were all ahead nf MS. In
course OF time, however, we learned TO
parse, which is a l.atin word taken
from "quac pars Orati0nc what part
Of speech. Then We mastered thcrulo
uf three, which is now called propor-
LiOu, and soon advanced to tarc and
treL, which we whispered WAS "enOugh
10 make the devil sweat" n bout this
year round and to brush our hair, and
had picked out Is sweetheart and held
her hand on the sly when we stood uD
10 recitc, and some times we used the
look ing glnss to see how the uOwny
beard was coming. When well up in
our teen we were promoted to the in
stitutc and introduced 10 Latin AID
Greek and Algebra anu History.
remember the first sentence in the old
isit IL
cnelum ct terrain intra sex dlpss"--GUd
created the Heavens and the earth in
aiX days. IT was like confession ui
faith and made more lasting impress
sion, for we had To study IL out and
parse IL. ! remember our history anu
how Thomas Allan, who hMu been por-
ing over AlcibiAdcs, i'crlcleS, Thuuyu-
ides, Sophocles and Demoathcncs, sud
denly came on H sentence bculnnng
with the word "besidus,' and he called
it bes-i-des and thereby got nick
name that stuck TO him through life.
l'ut we old men hnye long since for
gotten our Latin and Greek cXccDL the
small words that make up much Of our
modern English. Even a limited know
ledge OF Latin and Greek is II great ad.
vantage and great comfort in defining
our language. II is OF incstimable value
To professional men, to doctors ana
and those who cultivate h0wcrs. but
nobody can readily read Latin or Greek
nowadays except the professors and
teachers in Our schools. Not long ago
| DOndcrcd over Il Latin preface in Il
very old book and had to give il up.
turned it over 10 Professor Dawes anu
he rendered it very beautifully and NO
doubt correctly, but his good wife told
me ns Is secret that he worked on it.
every night till midnight tor Il whole.
week with his coat on and the pres.
piration oozing from his classic brow
! WAS Illuminating about these things
because | came across some words to-
day that ! never heard Of and had to
consult the big dictionary for a mean.
ing. OF course we have to make new
words all the time to keep up with in
ventiOns and science, but these words
are old, ..s old as John Calvin and they
seem to have created mighty discus
sion In making up tho i'rcsbyt ytcrinn
confession Of faith AT Westminster
Abbey 23O years ago. WAS perusinl,
an editorial in a New York paper in
which it was stated that over forty
prcsbyterics OF the Northern church
wero in favor Oi amending the cOnfcs-
sion OF faith and going back 10 su.
perlapsarlanIsm, which was the doc.
trine OF John Calvin. That the West
minister confession was sublapsinarian
and not CalVinistic. That was q rove.
latiOn to me, and 80 ! have been read
ing up on these abstruse things and
find that there was a long and bitter
discussion at Westminster as To whcth-
er Coo dccrccd tho doctrine OF election
before the creation Of man or after hc
fell. Calvin declared the former, which
he called ublapsinarianism, but tho
Westminster assembly declared. that
the decree Of election and repro Dation
WAS not determined on by God until
Adam had sinncd and fell. | tell YOU,
nv Christian friends, those two long
words arc to the COmmOn mind as un-
intelligiblc and incnmprehcnsiblc as
were " unintclligiblity and "incom-
prehensibility to me when q school
boy. | have got along without them
ali these years and am not going to
strain my mind with them now Thorc
is enough In the sermon ON tho mount
TO guide us and comfort rs in tho jour