The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1909-07-29

these two vOcabularies must be ac-
qulied by conversation, by reading or
by instruction, and 1t is evident that,
granted an absorbing interest in q vo-
cation, the opportunities Of adding to
these fundamentally vocabularies will
be limited. Thus, to take an example,
a conscientious student Of art will have
at his fingers ends jargon of terms
like "bas-relief," ,""pre-Raphaelite, e, "acar-
yatid," "impressiOnistic," and so forth
which will convey very haZy ideas to
man who can discuss paral.eiograms,
tWo-sackers, debentures or diamond
drills, as the case may be, and these
terms may be, if not absolutely inc0m.
prehensible to the art-student, at least
scarcely present to him in full thsfr
meaning.
That absorbing interest in vocation
tends to restrict mans vocabulary is
increasingly true. The usual charge
against the American business man
that he has no time for culture is not
only accurate but conversely true Of
the writer or artist, who cannot or does
not wish to comprehend the ordinary
terms used in business. 1t is q tenden-
cy not to be bewailed but to be recog-
nized and even approved. The old fic-
tion that it is necessary to man to
improve his mind, by which was meant
that he should make cursory study of
subjects in which he felt no interest, is
already giving way and is destined to
disappear entirely. What is necessary
is that he should be taught the element
ary lessons of civilization, SO that he
may be sufficiently in harmony with
his environment, not to prove menace
to it.
In every field of human activity the
specialist is at the front, and the rank
and file are rapidly realizing that 1t is
no longer possible to be successful
jack-of-all-trades. Among the signifi-
cant developments of this tendency is
the extraordinary increase in trade and
professional periodicals, which are Of
interest only to members of specific
trades and professions, and frequently
only TO further subdivisions. For In
stance, there are musical publications
which cover the whole field Of music;
there are band journals, orchestra jour-
mails, choir journals, even Journals for
separate instruments. In the medical
world there are similar divisions, even
to periodicals which appeal to those
who care for q single portion of the
anatomy.
1t is thus evident that the successor
to dialect based on locality, which
has been shown to be destined to dis
appear, is dialect based OH occupation
and supplemented by a Fundamental
general vocabulary. That this change
is already taking place can be ascer-
tanned by glance at newspaper, or
comparison between present-day pa
per and one of half-a-century ago. It
is certain that there are very few who
would claim to thoroughly understand
all the following sentences, taken at
random from the same paper: "In 1903
our pulp mills consumed nearly 1,5OO,-
600 cords of domestic spruce and more
than $4,000 cords Of imported spruce,
making the imports OF spruce forty
five per cent of the domestic supply"
"Above all this fustian of either deny
ing or asserting u e personality and
presence of Mary Baker Eddy stands
the eternal fact of Christian Science
and the honest history of its discoyerer
and founder 1t is self-evident that
the discoverer OF an eternal truth cam
not be temporal fraud Reports of
bullish conditions in the drygo0ds trade
seemed to be the sustaining influence
during the early trading, but during tho
afternoon the market became very
weak under liquidation, particularly Of
| July, and local bear pressure GA
briel Fauri himself was one of the vir-
tuosi, aud on the program were some
of his own songs and chamber music
| with a piece or two from other innOvat-
| ing Frenchmen." "The New York
Giants have been coming along at q
fast clip, and their twirlers are the
goods" l forbear from adding one
concerning "long applique sleeves" and
| "chic Dutch neckband." in cOnsidera-
tion of your feelings.
These examples were not carefully
hunted out, but chosen at random and
| it would be possible to multiply them
indefinitely. If this is the case in q
newspaper intended for general reading
the conversation or the writing OF 9
man devoted to one special interest will
certainly bristle with technical terms
of an absolutely unknown meaning to
those outside that interest. The man
of wide culture, embracing many In
terests, must inevitably use expressions
which are unfamiliar, and we thus gain
q clue to the strange circumstance that
the greatest names in literature have
not belonged to the men most initiated
into the minuti8 Of knowledge, the
mere technical side of their art. Indeed
the combination of thought with style
is rare, and their dissertation frequent.
In the late George Meredith the world
lost an author whose every sentence
was pregnant with ideas. but whose
style was more irritating than Brown