The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-10-28
SLANG at THE BIENNIAL
MRS. sEwALL TOLD MILwAUKEE
WOMEN WHAT SHE HAD HEARD.
She Also Told Them wherein French
Women Excel Americans-Comple
Mastery OF Their Language.
Milwaukee Sentinel.


feted and made much of by the visiting
delegates Of the fourteen national councils
which she has organized, she heard Of it.
| and yesterday, with her snow-white hair
and silver gray dress-reform draperies
thrown into high relief against the crimson
| hangings of the Athenaeum, she looked
down into the faces Of the biennial hos
tesses and told them the awful thing she
| had heard.
1T was told me by a clubwoman whom 1
met in Paris and who had come almost di-
rect from the convention of the General
Federation" she said. cit was only one
| true but this clubwoman told me that she
had never heard so much slang as she
| heard at the convention
! When Mrs. Sewall said that the applause
| that had followed her plea for more ex-
tensive study of English in schools and
clubs had scarcely died away, but there
was no clapping of gloved hands for this
remark. Deep silence settled upon the
members Of the Milwaukee College Endow-
| ment Association who had come out to
| hear her talk about French education and
in deep silence they listened to the rest of
| her speech.
| Then Mrs. A. j. Eimermann arose. Mrs.
| Sewall had announced that she would
| answer any questions that might be asked,
| but Mrs. Eimermann had no query to put.
| She had a mistake to correct, and presi-
| dent of the International Council OF
| Women or not, she did not intend to let
such reflection on the biennial go un-
challenged. She had represented a Mil
| waukee club at the convention, she said,
sb b she n naf one %
| Sewall listened politely, but whether she
was convinced or not no one could tell.
Then she went on to tell of other things
| while the other women who had not dared
to contradict in the face of all that they
| had been hearing about French courtesy
| looked gratefully at the one brave woman
| sfped I'm whispers about the old, old quar-
| rel between the National Council of
| Women and the General Federation and
how even to-day 1t has not been decided
which is the stronger and which may most
| probably absorb the other.
But that was not the only unpleasant
| thing that Mrs. Sewan told the club women
| from what she had announced in the be-
| ginning would be a personal point of view.
She told in well-modulated tones of horror
| In progress In Earlscourt, London, under
the personal auspices of some of the most
distinguished English women of Paris.
AFFRONT TO AMERICAN WOMAN.
II have not seen this exhibit" said Mrs.
Sewell, "but over and over again in Paris
| I was told of it and over and over again
| have concealed my previous information
and listened in hopes of hearing differ
ent version. But it is always the same
story. The exhibit, perhaps you know,
| is for the express purpose of showing the
women of different countries at their fa-
vorite occupation, or perhaps one should
| say their national occupations. So we
| have the German woman darning by the
making lace, the Partisan women embroid-
ering. the Dutch women making cheese.
| But the American woman-I did not put
her there. If l had you ought to slay me
on the spot where 1 stand. There she is
| swinging in hammock and chewing gum.
You may laugh, but you are not glad: and
you are not glad, because you realize that
/ she would not be there, labeled as she Is
| The Sumemr Girl, the Latest Product of
| American Civilization If she was total
misrepresentation OF phases OF American
life most apparent to the foreigner IL
| our girls do not actually go to the ham,
mock-swinging -and-gum-chewing lengths
| of ideness and vulgarity, is 1T not true
| that in many ways we lend our influence
| to create a disrespect for labor and 90
make the desire for physical comfort so
much of force in our living that such girls;
| can be possible?"
EXTOLLED THE FRENCH WOMEN.
| But If Mrs. Sewall said unpleasant things
about the American woman, she extolled
| TO the skies the virtues, the intellect, the
culture and the breeding of the French
woman. She said that eleven years ago,
when she first began to make her semi
| periodical pilgrimages to Paris, she had
wondered why it was that In land where
comparatively little attention is paid to
| the education of the girls, and where they
| are left to the superficial sort of train
| ing usually given in converts" they had
been able to acquire the poise, the brillian-
| cy and the logic which they had. OF late
years she had found the heart of the mys-
terry in the French womans mastery of her
own language.
| sharpened TO perfection" Mrs. Sewell said.
You will often hear an American woman
| bemoan the fact that while she has a
| thought that would illuminate the whole
| world if it could find utterance, her COM
mand of her vocabulary is too limited to
| let her put it into words. She will tell you
| speaks the truth, but the French woman
| can clothe her thought in words, because
/ from her earliest childhood she is trained
| in the art of her language. l have heard
| they could take up. Here Ii lies at their
| hand. Let them rescue the American lam
] guage from the mouths OF its destroyers.
| Let them protest against the wholesale
Staying of English by the permitted use of
| slang. The General Federation of Women S
| Cubs, by it's constitution. stands for the
uplifting of letters, and 1t could do no
| greater patriotic service than in redeem
| ing the American speech from the inroads
1 of slang
| Mrs. Sewell went on to describe some of
/ the methods by which France is preserv-
| ing her language by making study Of It
| the chief thing, not only in the lower
| schools corresponding TO the grammar
! grades in America, but throughout college
/ and university training as well, and to
| illustrate her point she gave picturesque
| description of the annual school fete that
| comes on the Sunday preceding the French
! national holiday, when the greatest and
| wisest men of the land bestow prizes on
| and make speeches to school children who
have competed for government prizes Of
| Tered for literary work. Against this low
/ ing and reverential respect for the French
/ language she contrasted the American
methods, where at every teachers con-
| yentfon some enc Is sure TO propose the
! doing away with the teaching OF grammar
and where, cultured and uncuitured. liter
! ate and illiterate, the American people
| rush into print through book or magazine,
| or. most common Of ALL the newspaper.
When Mrs. Sewall said this the women
| i'm the front seats who had been making
] notes on her educational observations put
| away their pencils hastily. They were not
| going TO be mistaken for overambftious
newspaper workers in the face Of that.
TRIBUTE TO THEIR HOMES.
| One calumny on French life Mrs Sewcll
| said she wished to dissipate IL she could.