The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-10-16

error Oh statement that newspapers
are the great corrupters of the Eng
hsh language he merely convicts him
self of superficiality. 1t is always so
easy to make assertions, and to prove
them by an emphatic statement of facts
that are not so.
1t is true that newspapers frequently
refer to accidents" which result in
death, as tragedies" 1t is seldom,
however, that they refer to murders
as accidents" they have at least that
much regard for exactitude in the
meaning of words, even in headlines
where freedom Of dictation is as es-
sential as the breath of life.
Moreover, there is no dictionary, we
believe, which confines the meaning
Of tragedy" to form Of the drama.
They all sanction its use to express
"a fatal event or course of events"
Several include murder, especially one
involving dramatic incidents, such, we
might cite for an illustration as the
killing Of a wife and family by q
drunken husband and father.
1t only needs term of service in
newspaper office, to learn that the most
careless use of English is found in
manuscripts intended for oral delivery.
Unconsciously. the man who speaks
from platform. guides his pen by the
sound of his voice: his sentences are
formed for oral utterance and not for
the printed page. AS result they fire.
auently are not sentences.
The newspaper man has no such IL
cense. He must reach the mind
through the eye alone, with no trick
of voice, without the elements of de-
clamatory effect and without slurring
of words. He cannot trust to q rapid
and indistinct enunciation to hide his
crudities; he cannot leave blank space
for anticipated applause; he cannot
work upon the sympathy of his au-
dience to accord him the encourage
ment Of laugh for an inane pleasan
try, nor can he pass off common
place as an elegance by arraying it in
a dress suit.
But for the forceful use of English,
for clarity Of expression, for virility
and strength, for the ability to make
the English language express exactly
the idea intended and drive it home,
no one excels the modern newspaper
writer. More surely than any other, he
touches the human chord.
Take such an example as Henry
Watterson. He handles words with a
careless abandon and forms sentences
with disregard for grammatical con-
struction, that is often appalling to the
purist. But the man who reads the
will gain fullness of vision, an
amplitude of impression. and q joy in
the malleability and responsiveness Of
the language to- the immediate emotion
or purpose. which are most satisfying.
The newspaper writer is not an es-
sayist, nor does he pretend to be. He
is not manicuristS of the English
language. 1t is hisSbusiness primarily
to say something ~ immediate inter-
est in such form that it will impress
and arouse. He is never afraid nor is
he mincing in his sAtyle; he does not
sacrifice substance Is gloss, nor hesi-
tate to use the word$he needs where he
needs it, regardless fof the convention
CT didactic prudery.1
1t might we'll have been with him in
view that Richard Burton wrote: ut
follows that his language is delight
fully free from pedantic stiffness or
mawkish euphonism. 1t possesses tine
racy quality that is the very salt of
speech, a freedom that strikes prudes
as audacious at times, yet has facil-
ity recognizable even by those who
have neither the courage nor the ed
| ucation to go and do likewise