Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1903-02-13
THE SLANG CENTER.
is IT CHICAGO OR NEW York;
FORMER TAKES THE BUN.

New York and Chi. Pull Off . Waser-The
Former Wins with Hands Literally
Gets there with Both feet-The West Never
Throws Up the Sponge till Down to Cases
She Straddles th- Buck Against the World
in the Use Of Flowers Of Rhetoric.
Chicago" said the New York man,
slowly" ais the slang center Of the
world"
"Back up!" exclaimed his Chicago
friend. "Not On your life, it isn't"
"But," insisted the New York visit
or, al AM sure my assertion is true.
My own experience since have been
here is proof enough"
"Your wires are twisted" said the
Chicago man, else you have been mix
ing with the wrong push"
"Of course, from what yeu say" went
on the Gotham visitor, al ought to
draw the conclusion that the language
used in your city is the purest English
undefiled, but yet I have heard much
that could only be called slang"
"Sure, Mike" said the Chicago
man. "But slang is spoken every
where; but not any more in Chi. than
elsewhere. In fact, little old New
York's got us beat off the block and
driven up an alley. used TO speak q
lot of code stuff myself, but I've cut it
all out"
$50 observe" said the New York
visitor. The discussion became quite
animated. The Chicago man insisted
that no greater amount Of slang was
spoken here than in other big cities OF
the country.
The New York man held that the
reverse of this is true and sought for
proof. The Chicago man wanted to
know why Chicagoans should be more
addicted to slang than the people of
other cities. The New York man said
that in the FIRST place Chicago was
q comparatively new community,
where the native dialects, the multi.
fold foreign tongues spoken here, and
the idioms and peculiarities of speech
OF every section and State in the
union warred against each other. A
greater reason, he said. was in the
great number of slang writer's that
Chicago had produced, and whose
products were given special promi.
nence by local newspapers and maga-
zines, and the public generally had
become 80 accustomed to seeing slang
in print and had read 90 much of it
that. consciously or consciously. it had
slipped into use and was now being
spoken as readily as the purer forms of
speech. He held that another reason
could be found in the extreme Democ.
racy Of the city. In London and New
York and other older cities society had
divided into we'll recognized classes,
each OF which had its own peculiarities
Of manners and speech, while in Chi
cago such . sharp division had not
taken place, and just as there was .
mixing OF the classes 90 was there a
mixing OF speech which was neither Of
the highest culture nor that of coarser
form, but half way sort which mani
tested itself mostly in the form called
slang.
The Chicago man was highly in.
censed by the conclusions drawn by
the New Yorker, and as the latter was
to be in Chicago for two weeks chal-
lenged him to take notes on what he
heard during his stay and then report
before he went away as to whether or
not he found slang abounding every
where in Chicago. The New York
man accepted the challenge, and just
before he went away presented the
following as the result OF his investiga-
tions:
EXHIBIT A.-POLICEMAN.
Asked a policeman in State street
where Banks street was, and he shook
his head said: "You can search me. "
As he did not look to me as though he