New-York tribune., 1902-07-07

1t is positively worse in novels because they
are Tor the most part written by persons of
weak intellect and small vocabulary who are
only too thankful to pick UP word here and
there they find II. We have lately been
reading an American novel which will illustrate
our meaning admirably. II is good story, full
OF life and strengthen fact, of the best
that we have from the other side of the
Atlantic This being the case II is safe to
assert that it will find initators over here be-
cause 1t deals with period and locality new
to the English public. AS to that will say
nothing, many novelists might do much
worse; but we should like to suggest to the pros
pective imitators that they should limit their
fidelity TO the matter and manner and not copy
too exactly the language in which II is written.
for from the point of view Of those who respect
the English tongue it is not in any way COM
mendable
abuse and invention Of words in this book, in
order to show what dangers lie before our little
novelists unless they are careful. On the second
page we md the alarming adverb "sizzlingly'
onomatopoically used in connection with cook
ing. The word itself defes comment; it is too
new too Aristophanic but 1t illustrates a vicious
tendency to make adYerbs out of present par
ticiples whenever riotous fancy dictates. We
may quote "pantingly," "fumblingly," half
flutteringly," as instances of what this may oc-
cason. Nor is the past participle immune. for
We find such odd adverbs 'scrriedly" and
"embarrassedly" set seriously out as words.
Indeed, 1t Is principally on adverbs and adjec-
tives that young America exerts it's inventive
powers Often the Of curious expressions
arises from a praiseworthy determination on
the part Of the writer to make scene
vivid, which blinds him to the possibility
that he might make il still more vivid by
being more simple THE we'll secured panks
glared whitley under the afternoon sum-"
says our author. Why not white? Again. "she
swung about heartsickly back to him; why not
well, we confess not sure what the
sentence means, except that, if it means any
thing at ALL 1T should, from the context mean
exactly the reverse to what 1t would mean in
English, so we will not suggest an emendation.
Her voice grew breathy with terror: if this
conveys anything TO ones mind, it is hardly
what the author intended A remarkable ad-
1ective is "swaggerish,' which should really
only have expected to find in a book Of nom
sense verses as a rhyme to ''Hquorish," and
which we should not have considered good even
then. "Albe" used for albeit also sounds
strangely, does so he" for 80 that he" The
use which has taken our fancy most, however
occurs in scene where the hero was being
kind TO horse and in the process fed it
apples" We cannot help wondering whether
the day Will come when the Lord Mayor will
iced his guests turtles" Or perhaps this ex-
preston is only used Of animals, and perhaps
in America a human being would be fed with
apples; we remember that the Germans use diff
ferent words for eating ESSEN and ''fressen
according to whether the eater is man or beast
Such are some of the oddities to be found in
even really good American novel From an
other book, Of the smart sensational kind we
have gathered some expressions from the first
few pages (as many as we could read, in facD
which are not so insidious because thev are
more obviously vile An adjective ''disgruntled"
is used two or three times. 1t is unknown to Js
and therefore. by itself, meaningless but from
the conteXts we gather that when a big man
walks hurriedly down crowded street pushing
all comers out of his way, the result on the
persons pushed is that they become ''disgrun-
tied There are in the story a ''silvered haired
old solon," and young gentleman who is mo
dabster at reading the ways of the mutable
woman heart, and who determines ito play
the queen for my whole stack of chips'' in con.
nection with the said heart. THE gates were
widely ajar, he sleekly smiled TO offset any
private researches, he refugees himself" are
all typical phrases from this alarming branch
Of literature, if 1t may so be called
Concerning American spelling we know with
Herodotus, what our opinion is. but would rather
not say We do not in the least care how
the Americans spell, but in these days Of
simultaneous editions on either side of the At
lantic we see danger TO own spelling bout
which we do care. What might save the situa-
ton yet would be the advent of a great Amer
lean photographer who should gather the scat
tered threads and put down once and for all
IN a book-what the American language is and
what II is not. so that our weaker heads NAV
know what avoid