The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-09-14
From the Baltimore Sun.

P. by name, recently caused sen
sation in London by notifying the
constabulary that he would entertain
no more charges against persons
taken in the act of public swearing
unless it could be shown by direct
evidence that their remarks had civ
en- actual pain to citizens within
hearing.
Every Englishman," said Cluer,
j. P, has a perfect right to swear
all he pleases, so long as he does
not break the public peace. Swear
ing. in itself, is a crime unknown
to the laws of England. The offense,
if they exist at all, lies in the an
noyance. In order to convict it is
necessary to produce witnesses of
good repute who are willing to
make oath that they have been an
moved. SO long as no one COM
plains a man may swear, and swear,
and swear, The police have no right
to modest him until definite complaint
has been made"
This prOnunciamentO, when it was
printed in the newspapers, caused
good deal of establishment, and emil
nent juri-cOnsults were appealed to
for their views One and all they
decided that Cluer, J. P, was right.
1t was true, as he had said, that the
mere act of swearing was not pun
ishable offense under the laws OF
England Then the interviewers
sought other authorities, and here
they met with fresh surprises, for
some Of those authorities were ply
sicians, and all of them argued that
swearing was a habit as necessary
and beneficial to the average man
as bathing. The suppression of the
emotions said one of them, is eX-
ceedingly dangerous. In barbarous
society a man eases his rage by she'd /
ding blood. In civilized societies he |
is forbidden to do so, and in conse- |
quenCe he must get relief by swear
ing TO make swearing costly or !
impossible would be TO fill the luna |
tic asylums with babbling maniacs. " /
Here we have made statements so /
obviously true that they sweep the !
frontiers of platitude. Among saw /
ages there is no development Of tbs |
are of swearing, for the simple Tea,
son that saVGges commonly relieve !
their emotions by homicide OF may
hem A South African ZU,u. |
strained by his British nes-~-- f~-
dischargino his faelin in that man |
neT, presents a ritiful spectacle !
Having as yet evolved no ADEQUATE |
vocabulary Of profanity he is con- |
PEELED to call his enemy a cow or a !
woman -pathos which aggravates |
rather than eases his rage. If he |
can speak a few words of English |
he swears in that language. but if i
he is entirely untotored he can only |
suffer.
The English LANGUAGE being the !
tongue of most civilized races is no. |
tably pre-eminent in profanity. It's |
vocabulary of cuss words, in fact, |
is so enormous that no single man |
can ever hope to master it. 1t has
special phrases to meet all possible
emergencies and exigencies; idioms |
to fit every conceivable mood and |
passion. A man might swear in !
English from now until the crack |
of doom and still never repeat an
oath, for each year sees the inven-
ton and acceptance of large num-
Der of new ones. II has been esti-
mated in fact that fully 100000
have been invented since the year
1880. Many old ones, of course, fall
into deSuetude each year, but the
general store must be constantly in
ereasing. When the New York Sun,
half a dozen years ago, essayed to
compile complete dictionary of pro-
family the enterprise had to be aband-
0ned as beyond the capacity of mere
Iy mortal man.
In GA Tramp Abroad" the late
Samuel L. Clements mark Twain
pointed out the comparative poverty
of the German language in effective
and satisfactory swear words. 1t
was impossible, said Dr. Clements,
for a german to swear with any
fiuency, for the pTofane vocabulary
of his native tongue was meager and
childish. Upon this ground, per-
haps, the survival of dueling among
the Germans may be explained
They are a civilized and humane peo-
pie, and dueling must outrage their
SCAoC VI QCCClIN, DIS II uOCS OuI -,
but in the absence of the facilities
for cooling by swearing they are
compelled to relieve their RACES by
butchery Those Germans who speak
English swear in that language, and
so do all other foreigners who are
sufficiently cultured. The Slavonic
or Ruthenian immigrant, landing up
on our shores, learn how to swear
in English even before he learns how
20 vote. English cuss words, like
English gold, are current in all parts
of the world.
Mark Twain was of the opinion
and used to maintain with great elo-
quence that the English word
damn" was the most effective single
word ever devised by human beings
He was fond of contrasting it with
its puny German equivalent ever
dammit" A man might say "ver-
dammit" he would argue, 1000
shines and still attain to no feeling
OF ease and relief, but half a dozen
do ,s,Js