The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-03-15

Andrew Lang IN London MORNING IOSt.
NE UGH. OF the corruption of our English
IVE is due TO mental incidence. We do not
pick our phrases, we do not select a
clean cut expression fresh from the mint.
We throw down the old smooth obterated
phrase such 'is cminontly calculated to-"
'curious to say or, If we are noyelists, 'herc
n strange thing occurred" They all use that
cchc; would he grateful to a novelist who,
if he can invest nothing fresher would leave the
old ''Strange thing alone. Another bore is "a
glance at the map will show" Nothing short of
torture shall force me to write that glance at
the map will show anything But what else are
you to say? "rhe student who consuts the chart
Will discover THE map when consulted, will
reveal "l you have map, and can find the
place on it, you Will observe" None of these is
satisactory-we must not write ''nonc of thcac
are satisfactory'-lut ! cannot endure "a glance
at the map" Perhaps we ara not so much worse
than our ancestors. TlackcrHy and Scott both
abound in the abuse Of ''and which," and think
that | once found five "whichcs' in one sen.
tcncc of Sir Waltrr's Moreover, we do not speak
OF member OF the sex as Il "fcmalC" any
longer; IAN elegant anHlc." for example No
body even then would have written ''lIclgy V
was a male of military genius" but Scott does
write OF Jeanne d'Alr as IAN unfortunate fc-
male" The words elegant" and 'gcntcel" were
oycrworkcd in the early nineteenth century as
ingenious WAS in the eighteenth. The in
gcniOus Mr. Milton" critics used to say, but
never write about ''th2 ingeniou, Mr.. Swinbwnc."
Tho adverb "Va.tly" was also ovcrlone, people
enjoyed themselves vastly, or pu2zcd somebody
vastly. Perhaps 'cminonty calculated to- will
follow elegant" and "genteel," aud the vastly
ingenious female, into tho limbo OF the obsolete
At present | think ''yirc" and ''passionnte" aud
"powcruF' show signs Of distress they are so
constantly trOtcd out by admiling reviewers of
indecent novels. You cannot call them man
ly," they are called virilc. Lately, in n liter
AIRY Journal read that something "arided"
somebody The contest showed that the writer
Ga lady, no doubD thought that to 'arrde"
meant to irrtate, eNasperatc, or (as the fair
reviewer would probably put iO to "agglava;c."
And this WAS in Journal devoted to bellies let.
tres! Perhaps a lady not the sinner; it was
male author who wrote about furnishing lit
tie data"
OF course, the diffusion Of education is the cause
of these horrors. Everybody can write, and many
have never read anything written in good Eng
lish The study of a few of the works Of Dean
swift and abitcntion from ephemcral rubbish
might check the rapid corruption of English ii
that large, Increasing, and respectable majority
which does not know Latin would wholly abstain
from the use Of Latin words and of unfamiliar
words Of Latin origin, like "awilc" something
would be gained. The phrase 'his bona idcg are
unimpcachlbc" would not paralyZc the reader.
Danish betc noir chapcronc and a loutrance
But the worst of these is happenings" Can
we not say "evnts," "occurenccs" ''cXpCri-
cnces" or anything except "hlppcningsY On the
bacl; ot a new novel Is hll2unci The Happenings
Of Elizabeth" or some other heroinci about her
name | am uncertain, "lappcnings' is as bad
as 'bclong with" "hclung there "belong on
the upper shelf" all the wrong "helongs," 1t
Is wonderful to see how really odiuus needless
rulgalsm attracts many writer's. There is lcr'
fcctly good English phrase for what they intend
10 say, but thoy prefer the new bad phrases be,
held by them in "Snappy Snippngs," The otey
nal use Of the word big in plrlce Of great"
is very annoying Mere Mr., Gladstone still alive
he would probably hocllled 'The Big Old Man"
Dr, johnson, / think, opposed "hg" from the
first, but the Big Doctor failed. OF course, some
words get kind Of breyet rank. Mr., Lytielton
write, about '0r,t rate scholar" FIRST rate
was thought a5 much a piepc Of slang as 'stun-
ming" "a stunning scholar" not 80 very long
ago. But nov IL Is n first rate expression, To
"rush" things has come in; novel BY a very
much esteemed feJuae--to relapse into an older
mamer-is full Of rushing this or that abolt,
rushing bills through, and Sc on. l do not mind
this The earliest use Of "rush' in this sense
known 10 me is ef 1909: I'VE rushed ladder 9t
door" and the speaker was a duke, That is a
respectable lineage for the word in this active
sensc.
Oar ENGLISH Is corrupted, of course, not only
by the inChlcpt use Of stale phrases but by the
almost ferocious effort to avoid them by saying
This llbonou5 exercise, if perseyerngly prac-