The Savannah morning news., 1900-08-12

scrit or the dialect of a Sioux Indian. Is
it because these sports are INDUCED in by
men who, having so little learning them
selves, have had to coin words to express
their various evoutions, one to another.
or are they so much in need of time that
they find it impossible to use plain Eng
fish phrases? Just think of il! The mod
ern reporter has to learn the ten different
languages used by men and women who
play golf and the other absorbing, time
killing games of the day; and when he
makes his report he is not allowed TO
translate it into sensible English, pro-
vided even that his English vocabulary is
large enough to ena BILE him to do So
A question that puzzles many good peo-
pie of to-day is whether in reality the
newspapers employ boys as reporters be-
cause they have but little knowledge of
the English language and can thus get
themselves quickly on a level with the
great mass of jargon speakers of the age
or because they can get their services for
a song.
1 saw in Golfers Weekly. a paper of
considerable pretentions, day or so ago,
the word ''cocksureness." Well, | will
say nothing about that lingual monstros-
ity. for the publication that would with
out the apology-I have no other word in
my cranial epostory-intrude the thing
upon modest and intelligent readers is in
the depths of literary degradation and
beyond help from salutary criticism. In
the self-styled great dailies' we see now
every morning the word "legationers.
Shades of Addison and Steele surround
us and preserve u.s. This is as dsreputa-
BILE as would be the clubbing of a mon
signor, parson. And what would these
same great dalies" do if the words
"anent," Just" and the term from start
to finish were lost to them forever?
am not prepared to say. Suspend indefi-
nitely, l suppose. An ''up-to-date' girl
che other day, in boasting of the accom-
plishments of her young man, saida HE
can speak five languages" Upon being
asked to name them, replied: Golf base
ball, football polo and tennis, and he can
read. Understandings. the yacht the
beach and the 'fstic.'" l heard two
lovely "up-to-date" girls talking 10 each
other yesterday. and you have no idea
how / was puzzled to know what one
meant when Sc said to the other: II do
not totter the tow-path with him any
longer; he did me dirt at the last shake
leg we had at the hail."
These two girls consider themselves Of
the upper crust, yet, why should they
complain at the indisposition of the young
men 20 marry. Who would want his chill
dren taught the slang Oh the 'up-tO-Qate'
woman.
A short while ago the blue and the
Gray" got on a smiling spree in Atlanta
Ga. the time the little Confederate flag
or button was fastened TO the lapel Of
McKinley's coat. A reporter from the
North wrote to his paper that when Sher-
man crossed little creek six or seven
miles from Atlanta, he found on the road
side a peach tree laden with luscious fruit
Guiding his horse up to Vt, he filled his
tired anatomy with the same, and from
thence forward the Federal soldiers called
the route Peachtree street. This sicken-
ing rot was inserted i'm the columns of the
foremost Atlanta paper without adverse
comment. The street has been known as
Peachtree ever since Atlanta ceased 10
be called Marthasville, and took its name
from the fact simply, that It
was a continuation of the Peach
tree creek road. A prominent
Florida paper published a little while
ago a bundle OF commercially selected
stuff in which there was an account CT
the origin of Dixie" Among other things
equally misleading the statement was
made that the song had been sung in the
North FIVE or six years before Il was heard
in the South, and that the Federal SOL
diers were the first TO bring It south of the
line. Well! Welt where was the proof
reader of the - born? Where edu-
Gated? In the Catskllls, in a normal? The
out of the Union and any old negro can
other story is going the rounds Of the