New-York tribune., 1901-01-19
SLANG IN WONEN'.S COLLEGES
A TOUCH OF 1T OFTTI0dES GIVES PIQUAN-
CY TO CONVERSATION, SAYS
A PROFESSOR.

Nowadays" said professor in a woman's col
lege yesterday. slang is accepted as almost
necessary evil, inevitable means OF grace for
young people Of both Indeed. 1t must be
admitted in general that touch Of socalled slang
ofttimes gives piquancy to conversation, just
soupcon Of red pepper improves many dish
There are certain words that we almost have to
use to meet the emergencies which arise so rap
idly In American life We cannot take time
TO frame sentences in Adisonian style Every
one has felt the evaporation OF waiting for de-
lfberate. painstaking mortal to tell some trivial
thing in precise language.
Just how does slang creep into current use?
Much of it is from questionable sources and natu-
rally associated with just such semi-vtcious.
doubtful class of characters as Dickens could so
admirably portray. Every vocation, every walk
in life. has Its own peculiar short cuts TO ex-
preston. In college communities much of this off,
hand phraseology is natural outgrowth OF en-
vironment.
"One expects the college young to use
slang. but its by the young who is
following academic highways Is often startling.
Where a mother and father will laugh pass
over their sons expressions, they will be infn-
itely shocked to hear the thing from their
daughter. Not long ago Smith College girl
hibiting thirty or forty photographs OF college
friends to the woman whom she visiting. de-
scribed every individual without exception either
as hend' or dandy to the Mortified amazement
of her hostess
IF the question were asked, Does the college
girl originate her slang vocabulary, or is II
acquired by imitation? imitation would be the
Inevitable answer. In the first place womanknd
Is proverbiaily unorginal Moreover there is in
every woman's college class of girs-fortuna teIy
not often very large-who do Ike TO initiate their
brothers to be mannish; there is no begging the
fact And II s through this class of girls that the
slang habit grows
The woman's college student does such
fresh. l. e.. new slang. does her brother, which
also goes 10 prove the fact Of imitation. When
the Annapolis cadet asked the Vassar girl recently
! IT he might drag her to the hop. he had to explain
I that he requesting to escort her At a West
Point festv!ty the other day shy little freshman
! from womln's college not hundred miles away
| was horrihed on being asked by student II he
! might spoon with her-that is. to walk. While
The Princeton brother is using the expression hot
! air. the siangy Radcliffe girl-uuess she has seen
I him during The Christmas holidays-stili speaks Of
talking through your hat
Square and straight the college mans words
/ tor fellow student who is all right have no
synonymes in the college girls vocabulary, but she
uses 'chump idiot ana freak INTERCHANGEABLE.
/ The slangy girl, too has probably gene through
all the gradaton OF out Of sight the only pebble
came down the pike. TO signify something especial
the prettiest girl that ever happened has for her
DANDY '''' e'u''''e''' III lie d'SS OF Jim
( Certain authorizations run rife in both mems
III. 'math.' and chem That most dign!fed study.
! political economy. is dubbed by its deyotees pol
/ parlance FOR laboratory investigation The fac ;
college gfs %oclG9a%ty % as Of 'ReS Rer @5 OF '
/ To have crush or be- crushed is even better
! Bluff and 'squ"lch are not tnfrequently heard
/ from the self-assertve young woman. The more
the masculine BY George" or Thunder"
Yes, the use OF slang Il on the increase just
boys and girls the Increase said the
mother OF five children. recently. herself college
in college There IS no especial harm in boys using
boys slang, and girls using girls slang because It
Is American. But when the girl uses the boys slang
perfc"y Ioyai or ,r'' in TTi 80, KY say o ,tE ~ a
well let them have it out. for f. is a kind Of
fortunately She sooner outrrows H..
Yet even the use or slang Is apparently on
cate in those modern centres women's colleges
there Is counter current as with many another
extreme tendency. The Increased attention 10 the
study Of Engl.sh pure and unde1i"d' the lnssience
ance OF the fact itself that there is undue use OF
slang, all have strongly corrective effect. When
before a set Of students even the most thougRtleSs
stops 20 think. The dictionary defines slang
slung on their legs by string 10 prevent slipping
10 the ground; 60 vile, low or rbald language; the
The president OF prominent woman's college
in recent address on some college tendencies eN-
speech: II the sensible girl should be guarded in
her actions, she should be no less 50 In her speech
II Is capital exercise In English find equiva-
lents for slang phrases. The jarEon which creeps
into use is often picturesque and adds flavor to
We should often be shocked II We could trace the
origin of some Of the words which slip so lightly.
from our tongues Clean speech IL as essential 10
a pure woman as clean hands. have seen pretty
girls, VINO resemble the princess In the Iairy tale
who was lovely TO look upon; but the instant she
have often wondered II the old myth meant that
she spoke hOrrid things, spoke in croaking
aFortnnateiv" confin4ed the professor. lust as
by no means all girls use slang so neither do all
conspicuous few give the many. for in
stance. Is so often the case with Americans travel