Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-21


chump if he tried He could never err
through oyerkndness through misplaced
confidence. Methinks that in the angel
choirs there will be made quartets whose
voices will ring clear and sweet who on
earth were known only to their intimate
enemies chumps!
English slang, of course, is not so grand
ours. and English slang is different for
the reason that its birthplace was in jails
and the dens of thieves. In England they
have fashionable slang which serves but
which to means nothing. Our own
dioms can always be traced to their source
by the merest infant.
Take the English "spooting," which stands
for the same as our "joShng ''jollying'
do not the American words clearly express
sound is indeterminate, foolish and unrea-
sonable as "bally" and Jolly well?''
OF course, the "bounder" the "mucker''
and the "blghter" are in class by them
selves-good enough to be American words
indicating the superlative degrees of So
cial undesirab ility
Our slang comes largely from our poker
games and our race tracks It's up to
that quite as well. That is beautiful and
simple statement, and you can try 1t on a
curate as well as card player and he will
understand you.
VI CouISe, HOtllllS can quite approach he
Deyery school of slang, for 1t is so dewy
and fresh. 1t has produced a new and
charming expression. lemon" as the APP
pellation for a young, rich and generous
Mr.. Devery, in fact excels in the produc-
ton of daintily scornful yet expressive
terms OF reproach and epithetS of criticism.
He has not merely juggled with slang, he
has invented It; creating 1t unconsciously
and without any visible effort-the method
of all true artists.
x
Those who rail at the constant use OF
slang in the mouths of the young should
bear in mind that it Is never heard on the
lips of the old. 1t is the talk of here and
now. Woman has ceased to tat tides as
a recreation. We have twenty-.,tory houses
and sextets. Socially we have begun to
gibber and give monkey dinners. The push
Is on its way-the F1atiron building Is its
temple
New architecture, new inventions. new
thought and of a surety new language AMI
a new philosophy. Slang Is not literary re-
fnement-it is g. natural pulsation. heart
beat. and 1t marks time to the rapid pace
at which we travel. Some of 1t comes to
us from Shakespeare, from Emerson and
others whom we have on our library
shelves but never read-which is one of the
reasons why we consider slang vulgar for
some of us have a great respect for any
thing In quotation marks.
Slang is true poetry. and Kipling had to
prove 1t in English before we began TO
understand 1t in Americanese.s The strenu-
GUS sge Is upon and there Is no longer
any ambition among us to speak 1--WE lam
guages without even suspecting anything
In one
k*
Every era-so the long-haired ones saw
has Its music. its accompaniment The
pianoette and the graphophone tinkle to-
day instead of the lutte. but the honk of
the automobile and the click of the ticker
have more harmony in their sounds.
Then there are the typewriters' tapping.
the whir of machinery and the thousand
and one bells that nowadays punctuate orr
lives They are all expressive of what rs
going on around US.
OF course. there are some who call II
noise, but we-each of US wearing his own
bell--are aware that is the song of the push
we hear when the pie counter rattles and
the bargain table crunches fiereeIy
It Is all Wagnerian In its blendings and
to such tune no language goes so well ais
the crisp phrasings that college professors
hate so sincerely. Luckily we have little
time to listen to thems We are very busy
Step lively Is our anthem. Lunch day
and night is the startling II kindly an