The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-07-13
SOME SUCC|NCT SLANGY PHRASES ] How Immigrants Have lnfuenc- ed Language OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRY
 The Representatives of Many Different Nationalities Pouring Into the Land Add a Charm to Our Lingo.
From the Pacific Monthly.

From the Pacific Monthly.
 The representatives of so many differ ent nationalities landing in America In hordes vaster than those of the barba- rians who from the north crossed the | Alps into Italy, have accepted the Anglo Saxon with a celerity and avidity which
 makes almost a complete reversal of the confusion of tongues. And incidentally every immigrant has tended to influence | the language of the country of his adop- ton and peculiar strains are thus daily | being interwoven with the national web. In traversing the prairies flor which the speech of England has not name, one finds in the language permanent foot prints of Spanish, Mexican, Indian-Cree and French Canadian. And they are beautiful words. The Spanish "messa' is a high plain or table land, and mu- lada" is a drove of mules-then happens along" the irreverent American ana haits the driver of the mulada as Hi, there, you blamed mule skinner!
 A muskeg is northwest for marsh or swamp. A coulee is a dried-up creek or ravine in the west; in Mexico and Cali fornia it is an arroyo; Hawaiians call it the perilous pail, and in Arabia 1t IS uadv motte is the Texas term for d clump of trees in the prairie, really an island of trees, while to the clusters or scrub oak in the poor soil of the prairies Is given the suggestive term or oak par rens.
 A cargador is the man who has charge of a pack team; sometimes ne IS the patron. A pipe among the voyagers means two leagues-i. e., the time to smoke one pipeful of tobacco-and this is no pipe dream. In urban usage a pointer Is a valuable hint; in the language Of the plains the pointer is the herdsman, who rides at the head of struggling herd or cattle on the march, sort Of cowpoy John the Baptist. He has to be as pop eyed as lightnin' bug, keep hisself well posted and put on no curieycues.
 Long-Tom, be 1t known, is an apparatus used in placers for washing gold In pay dirt any day of the year the prospector Ia ant to make ten-strike. Pay-dirt in mining phraseology is earth whlcn makes if worth while to the prospector. Siml- larly. we have poor-dirt, rich dirt, top dirt. Hence, Ion top of dirt is this side | of the grave, and below dirt Is the | miners last resting place
 From the rural press of a jay town we eather that a mess of milk Is the quantity ohtained at a single milking; that mur- nhies. Irish apples or whoppatoes are apt to he mighty scurse this time next year. Jim's mighty picayunish with his pen nies. and pernickety, pesky kind of critter if you come agin him slantendic- ularly. He's an authority on the peanut ,olitics of his precinct-and jaw? Why, I,no,d jaw the leg off'n an iron pot; hes no great shakes on his think-tank, but ha.s Molly-cottontail to talk; he kno WIS every nlank of the Presidents platform. By the way, this use of the word plank to designate one of the principles of which political platform IS constructed a,tadates the history of Americanisms. 1t is no less an authority than Lord Bacon. who speaks forcefuly of "the Ex- emplar or Platform of God"
 In the realm of the flower world the
 slang term or folklore word is sweeter
 and infinitely to be preferred to the stiff
 pedantc and coldly scientific, though cor
 rect, form of the botanist' And With