The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-04-24
ANDREW LANG ON GEORGE ADEl

The English tourist was holding his
head" This is quoted from a work in
two volumes, entitled Fables in
| Slang" by George AIDE. published by
| Messrs. Stone & Co. in that centre of
culture. Chicago. The book was pre-
/ sented to me by a scholar of more than
| European reputation, and was to fill
| a gap in my pathological knowledge
! Having read the Fables iii Slang" /
| do not wonder that the English tourist
held his head. For the volumes are al
most certainly written with a con-
scientious and Iaudable desire to be hui
mofous, and yet, in the English mind,
they produce a black melancholy. Is
humor, like morals, an affair Of climate.
and environment? Are things funny
in Chicago which are saddening in
Great Britain and Ireland? 1t may be
so.
Beginning with the adventure of the
English tourist, We learn that 1.-THE
clothes he wore evidently had been cut
from steamer rug by his mother. or
some other aged relative suffering from
astigmatism.'' The nature of a steam
er rug is not obvious for perhaps
! steamer is American for some entity
not know here by that name, just as
a commercial traveller is called a
/ drummer The clothes of Mr.. Mat
thew Arnold were severely criticised
when he lectured in America, yet on
this side of the water they seemed in
no way remarkable. Perhaps all our
clothes are fashioned out of what Mr.
AIDE calls steamer rugs, even our
..Tuxedos'' and Prince s.AIberts, .
whatever these vestments may be. But
we, too, have our peculiarities; we
usually wear evening dress at public
dinners, and we do not march down
Piccadilly in round felt hats and .frock-
coats. In the course of this humorous
narrative a native tells girl who
waits at table that 1.-THE blending under
the left ear is poor. and if you are not
careful some one vii sign you as a
spotted girl What is 'sthe blending
and why are spotted girls signed2 They
may know in Chicago. Presently boy
enters, and says, Feed me everything
with one in the light to come along
If any of the cockroaches ask for me-
tell them I'm for ali night with the
yellow rattlers, and laid out at sWino-
ma. Here the reader, if a native of
Chicago, may hold his sides, but it was |
CT SAAAS ROlf4N the E<ISs1lSn TOURIST
was holding his head. We need not |
pity him; Why did he go to Chicago
que diable allait-n faire dams cette T
galere? The next word of unknown /
connotation is 'sjosher.'' The term has
been applied to myself in a comic con-
temporary, and i have wondered what
it meant. In Mr.. AIDES book it is APP
piled to an advance agent Can 1 be
an advance agent, as Theophiie Gauti-
er is said to have been a Christian
without knowing it? The only way to
josher" is to compare the
various contexts in which it occurs.
Perhaps it is only a synonym for thu
man being" The final jest is the state
nent of the josher that the girl who
waited at table was his sister. Posi-
bly, she was; quite as possibly there
we're no ties of consanguinity between
he young woman and the josher.
The Englishman was deeply per- |
olexed-" Out of Chicago who is not +? {
And in Chicago perhaps the learned are {
puzzled by Wee Macgreegor, a book :
apparently couched in the Pictish Ian I
Suage. Among other pathological puz- \
les We note is the graft played out?" i
a rangy person. "a cinch,. "a one !
light stand "a rube town. "a jayi i
own, "a four-flush drummer "a root
r from the days of underhand pitch