The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-06-15
SLANG THAT OBTAINS
 IN THE BASEBALL WORLD
Grammarians Do Not Promulgate the Technique OI the Game-Its Peculiar PhraSeology, HoweVer,
 Appropriately Covers Situation
New York Times.

New York Times.
 of an important baseball game played in Western city to a New York paper. Here Is the story of one inning taken from his account which appeared next morning in print:
 '.In the eighth. with one out, Jones dropped McBride's fly, ana then Cos coran tripled. McJames walked. Smisn and Dahlen threw low on Beckieys bounder, scoring Corcoran. Smith then stole third and scored while Beckiey was being put out"
 These three sentences would make Lind ley Murray cover his face and N0an Webster gasp; but neither grammarian nor the Photographer knew ana Ioveu the game of baseball. To one faminas with the national sport of the Umtea States they unroll a panorama of that eighth inning, vivid and satisfying to the last detail. Although they may deiy tne rules of grammar. aithough they seem ~ he carelessly thrown together, every Word was chosen with pains and witn nxeo object in view. Fifteen minutes or in- tense activity-and epitomized in twice as many words. To secure some condensa- | ton without a sacrifice of clearness, the writer had to call to his aid that tersest | and subtlest medium of expression-siaMns M | Not the ordinary. familiar slang or tne streets but the peculiar language or the | baseball field; and he made 1t serve him well.
 l Every line of activity has its own mode l of expression. Every kind of work stuoy'
 
 l ulary The terms of science are Laun I and TGreek compounds. called techn1cai. The language of everyday life, of our | common tasks and pleasures, IS Engiish; I and when a new expression is born out of its restless activity, 1t takes place III
 the wide vocabulary of slang. The woras I employed by the electrician. the matne, | matician. and the logfcian are invented deliberately to meet the exigencies o1 new discoveries: and they are rooted deep l in classical etymoiogy. when mankino I plays. he forgets his learning ana reneni- I bers only his race, His expressions arc | short sharp and vivid. Old games nave I a rich Saxon vocabulary which was ripe generations ago and seldom changes. | When new sports grow in favor, we do not thumb the classical dictionaries to nick out new terminology for them. We play the game; and when terms are need cd to describe its novel situations they I are not wanting A word here and word there-and in an incredibly snort timo the new sport is fully clothed with I crisp, vigorous language of its own; | Tn no tongue does slang enjoy Wlder use than Gin the English spoken on this side of the Atlantic. In its effort to keep I pace with the swift development o1 the race 1t serves. our ianugage throws out II running tendrills of popular speech which
 sometimes live to become stout brancnes lof the present stem. but more often w1tner and drop off as the fad which gave them birth is forgotten. Baseball is purely an American sport, and 1t is not surprising that its vocabulary is unusually rich In the
 racy idioms of the language. In the at- ] l mosrShere of the national game the rank , l plant of language buds into hundred Il strange forms--words which catch the | significance of a sentence. expressions un . intelfigible to the layman until explained in the light of their plctuiesaue oits,n tsni. compositions: and to comprenend Ihelr iuii u l significance one must be steeped m tne
 spirit of the ''bleaehers," as well as the knowledge of the diamond.
 The lover of baseball. the genuine en-
 thusiast. Is described by a word which Is one of the most typical of his own
 terss vocabulsry He is s ta9, t,r rah a a term whidh applies truly to the man. wo-
 man or child who is wrapped up Tn the
 Vaccinations of the game. The fans are the faithful sportsmen who know no
 greater jov chan may be gained by spend ing an August afternoon drinking deep
 draughts of delirium at the baseball
 grounds. To see him standlng coatless
 and hatless, and waving both garments
 aloft while the air pulsates with ms
 paean of victory or defiance. is to realize that he is a fan" in more ways than
 one. The name was unknown few years
 aqo. hut it has taken a firm hold, and
 if it stays until a better supplants it. its life will be long.
 "Bieachers is much older sda word; l seats where the fans sit during the long. glaring afternoons in blissfui fren- zy? The effect, perhaps. is anything but
 bleaching. and 'the tann " WouIu pe nearer the strict truth for the city man
 who stays at home and spends his sum mer afternoons at the ball grounds meets
 his friends returning from mountain and
 shore with a face as brown as theirs;
 But "bleachers'' they have been. and
 "bleachers" they will be in all probabil-
 ity as long as the game is played.
 The ''fan's'' vocabulary is not a stiff.
 unwieIdy one like that of his more aris- tocrauc brother, the golfer. He need not
 always call the same thing by the same name. He has a pleasing variety. a
 wealth of expression from which he may | choose to his taste. Yet he is conserva- tive, and no word finds entrance into his