The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-22
THE NONPAREIL MAN

Miss Nellie Jacobs, who CALAMITY pilots
the Herman Enterprise, but who some-
times steers inadvertently into the shall
lows where libel suits abound, opposed
the gubernatorial aspirations Of a certain
candidate because she heard he looked
upon the hard cider when it giveth its
color ito the keg. The Long Prairie
Leader, in reply to this charge, said that
1'Bob'' Dunn, another alleged candidate,
sometimes "cussed.'' Thereupon Miss ia
cobs took up in her paper and ably treated
the subject Of "cussation" as follows:
It is very bad to swear. The Enterprise OBJ
jects to it on most every occasion, but circum-
and there times when If a man failed to
swear anyone would be surprised and puzzled.
For man to swear-at the proper time, of
course-indcates that he is neither dead nor
apathetic, but probably has a heart with room
for every joy" and won't suffer IL he can help
it.. But still it isr not at all polite to swear.
Ladies' never do; that is why some Of them weep
and have Mysteries.
The fact that man does not swear may DO
indication Of goodness on his part, for people
who are very degenerate indeed seldom swear.
As class the English speaking people are rec
ognized for their quick wit acute sensibilities,
and depth of feeling; and the English language
fairly throbs and yibrates with profanity, and
slang, which amounts to much the same thing.
No other language can be compared to 1t In this
tiously approve of this feature of it; still we
don't think man ought to be condemned for
swearing. Anyone who has great executive
ability might naturally be. expected to swear
some. The Enterprise would forgive most any
man for swearing occasionally, under stress Of
circumst ances.
1t is difficult to see why great exec
utive ability carries with it the neces-
sfty Of employing strenuous language.
Certainly the converse is not true. We
have known people with no executive abiI-
ity whatever whose language was varied,
picturesque and rich in all the 7embellish-
ments of forcible cuss words. Yet they
never seemed to amount to much.
1t is quite generally agreed upon that
a person who drives mules requires force
full language. But why do we SO gen.
orally concede this point? Certainly no
one has yet tried to drive the mule with
out stern language, and until the expert
ment is fairly tried we have no right to
assume that profanity and the mule are
natural concomitants: - e
I know man who came to this city
twenty-five years ago and who has sworn
but once in all these long and happy years.
He purchased a "doped" horse of a livery
man one day, and after the medicine
wore off, he tried to. drive the animal.
The horse could not be said to trot. It
went up and down, fore and aft, in a
poor imitation Of movement. When it
walked it drifted sideways as If it had
lost its rudder. When the man who had
not cussed for twenty years, saw that he
would have to get out and push on the
horse all the rest of his life If he ever
got anywhere he lifted up his voice. His
wife, who is woman of high aspirations
and who is locally prominent in womans
club work, told me that she sometimes
thought that her husband was almost JUS
titled. I attempted to show her the ex-
IRENE error Of her position. She listened
respectfully, but she went away uncen-
vinced. The argument was sound, she
admitted, but she insisted that I had
| not tried to drive the horse. There may
| be something in this point. Al. R.