The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-27
WOMAN'S
WORLD.

Any suggestion that women need to &C
quire more words-considering the reputa-
ton the sex bears for fiusncy of speech
Is bound to SAVIOR Of sarcasm to certain
extent, yet, nevertheless. 1t is AIMING how
poverty-stricken the majority Of women
are ia the matter of vocabulary. Take
note of the ordinary conversation that you
hear about you every day. and you shall
be divided between wonder at the incred-
IDLY small number of words actually in
use, and admiration that with such limited
facilities for expression they still should
be abla to express themselves so volumi-
uously and so continuously. 1t is not num-
Der of words they lack, but variety
Unfortunately. says Dorothy Dix in the
New Orleans Picayune, the average wo-
man seems to be as stone deaf when 1t
comes to using words. as Trilby was about
music. She has no nice discrimination,
no subtle shading, no fine values In her
employment of them 1t is a case of "all
coons look alike" to her, and the word
that comes handiest serves her purpose.
She has only few at her command and
these she makes do yeoman's service new
remorselessly and outraging them most
lbominably
This reliance on a few words, and the
yuileless belief that they can, upon occa-
sion. be made to mean anything, and to
adapt themselves to any situation. is not
confined to the uneducated and iliterate,
either. Many otherwise intelligent peo-
pie are guilty of the offense, simply be-
cause they have been too lazy and too
careless to provide themselves with fex-
ibe vocabulary that was varied enough
to meet the emergencies of life. The re-
suit in conversation Is precisely awk-
ward and inadequate as II one had only
one frock in her wardrobe, and must come
down to breakfast in a decollette gown be-
cause she only possessed a ball dress,
or must appear at a ball in her mother
hubbard, because she had nothing to wear
but dressing gown.
No woman would be guilty of such a
solecism in dress. Rather than come down
to breakfast in a trailing, low cut gown,
she would stay in bed all day and she
would forswear balls for the balance of
her natural life rather than not be suit
ably attired when she did go, but she has
no such fine sense of the fitness of things
when IL comes to the use of words She
hasn't the slightest computations about
dr9sssing up her ideas in any sort of mis-
flt clothes, and sees nothing ludicrous in
the teeuits Just now RIDICULOUS, as wen
as exasperating, this Is I had impressed
upon me not long ago in the street car
when / sat behind two young girls and
listened, perforce, to their edifying con-
versation. They were pretty and intelll-
gent looking and beautifully dressed and
they greeted each other with enthusiasm.
'Oh, Mamep said one, Il have lust had
such a perfectly lovely time / went to
Edith's 70 lunch. and we Just had the love-
Hest things to eat-lobster Newberg that
was the loveliest thing I ever tasted, and
perfectly lovely chocolate cream and
cakes. Then Edith and / went to the mat
inee. Say. you ought TO see that play.
It's Just too lovely for anything. / cried
all the time It's perfectly lovely to cry
at a play, isn't it? And the leading man,
IN that lovely scene you know. where he
kills the heroine because he thinks she
is In love with somebody else he's Just
too lovely for words. just love the the
ater don't your" Indeed, l do" responded
the other girl, 81 think it's just perfectly
lovely" and as l listened / could only
grosn and. paraphrasing the words of the
poet, wonder has the language PLAYED
out, and is education a failure?"
II 1t was only schoolgirls who so mis-
us words. and harped upon a single ad-
ctive until they had worn il threadbare
we might live in the faith and hone that
time end exreri nee would bring enlight-
emmett end discretion, but the fault il
just as common with their elders Who Tor
Instance, has been so fortunate as not to
know the woman whose whole descriptive
capital was comprised in the one word
awful She never meets any one who
isn't 'awfully" sweet, or ''awfullv'' good
or awfuly' bad The storms Of heaven.
ana Inc pie at dinner are equally awful
ana htr entire conyersstiCn is one awful
assault on her mother tongue or. IL NAV
Dc ana thst Is the prop and stay of her
Necaoolary' The new paint on her front
renee is perfectly grand" The baby is
grand" Niagara is grand" The comic
actcr was just grand" m that scene
wnere he turns a somersault and sits in
the CID woman's lap. and she cars the
climax of her efforts to make herself
agreeable to you by telling you that your
new basque fits you 'iust somethinr
grand in the back I have often trems
bied to 'hirk what would happen II some
catastrophe should occur to these words,
so tnat they would be invalidated for fur
tner use. ! am persuaded that in
tnat event large proportion of my most
Ioquacious sisters would be smitten with
SUDDEN dumbness, and a silence OF desc
latieu VIC uld rel n over the land
ferhars IL we realized more fully what
distinguished charm and grace a good
vocabulary gives woman we should nav
this SUBJECT the attentizn it deserves For
enc ming, 1t would enable us to avoid
@NN"s VI thtsr bocldl plumbers that Dar-
take on the nature OF crimes because thew
cause us TO neediessly wound the sslf-love
or innocent peope Most of us have suf-
feted this in our own experience and
know the deadly chill OF disappointment
win which well-meaning people have
CANNED us not with infant praise. but
with wrong praise. Did you ever-now
honestly-read aloud before your club a
piper in VIII CHI you poured out your whole
heait IN passionate protest against
some wrong. without hav ng some woman
VINO meant TO pay you a forid compli-
meut, hustle up and tell you how sweep
your essay was? Didn't you long to throt-
tie her? II only she had said II was
strong, or that you had struck some note
or truth, how pleased you would have
been. But 'sweet'-when you meant to
blisteri Faughl The word is an abornina-
lion 10 you. and you show II, and she
goes on huffy, and tells other people that
sne didn't see anything In your ola oaper
anyway. so remarkable you need give
yourself airs about Il.
The following marriapa rna~to,s -.