The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-02
Letters to Tne Editor
The PuhIic Grammar

Editor The Advertiser:
 The ball lingo. according to the game occupying the field. prevails in the afternoon most of the year. and seems to compromise if not in fact displace the rules of speech taught by the State prescribed grammar and all authority on the customs of cultured society In general uses.
 am not engaged at the moment in exhaustive criticism but am persua- ed Sa hn a Gns nSssss Sy Is ledSons nS f n So ball field, the cotton exchange. the race track and other adopted sources the topic We wish to discuss. The Chief Justice will not be apt to say for some time yet. the court below made bad 2 ereak,' sss when when he finds 1t in ds er- polite words as mistake. misappre- hension. pray pardon me. etc., etc., out of use in too many places.
 Recurring to the suggestion. that our thought is liable to be lost in our perversion of language, I am remind ed that sometime ago an official an- nouncement in high place ackrowledg- sarta,,,r ed the receipt ,sp ora. of verbal order by words or by signals. If verbal. 1t might have been-spoken or written, indifferently. In fact the order was ficient. in ' not using the Legitimate term to describe the method of con
 Nicknaming the parties involved. bama newspaper. % as fesssa0'' follows: A'a secretary. to first send copy of the e.. then to lCoioneD W. and saen to pr. L.' What is the real motion of "to first'. when the prescribed gins? How is the secretary "to first" his job? If he follows orders, he must limit the ito first" motion, if he eyer discovers and starts upon 1t, to onel w.. and pr. L.-- cant partici- pate in the enjoyment of ito first, for the editor consumes all there Is of 1t, whatever 1t may be.
 mar. the editors sentence would read: "We try to impress upon the secreta- " to send copy of the minutes. first to The Weekly Gazette. then to Es- The rhymth of the reading is better Preserved, the sense of the. writer is euage are protected by observing the rules of grammar in this and ali other corrections of abused speech.
 We will pass on to an instance of work of the first literary pretension. I quote the sentence complete:
 "In fact 1t may fairly (sic) be said that 1t is impossible to properly (sic) comprehend any structure of the hu- man body without considering it in relation to similar structures in other animals"
 Without losing a word or adding word. why not have the sentence and the grammar in harmony? Why not write thus: In fact it may be said fairly. that 1t is impossible to com prehend properly, etc.
 In the original form of expression the refinement of the thought Is sac rfficed 10 the split infinitiVe It is impossible to em2loy the split infini- tive. in justice to the language. Many years ago MT. Gladstone, writing the Queens speech, brought down upon himself the ridicule of many editors in his persistent splitting of the in- hnitive. Since that time, however. the same dtsfgurement of language has increased in practice, proving apace with the debasing lingo of the ball field. the exchange and the race track.
 The split infinitive is absent in Cic- ero. Addison. Calhoun, John T.. Nor gan. Col. J. W. A. Sanford and the classics universally, where thought is most clearly expressed. and the Tights of language allowed.
 Zeno.