The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-11-03
D NOV. 8, 1911.
TOO MUCH

TOO MUCH sCRIBBilNG.
Nobody who writes on the subject
Of English is more virulent against
in writing than Professor
Of Connecticut. He stands
FOR slang and denounces arbitrary
rules and yet at the same time when
It comes to practice nobody writes a
.urer English than he does Mighty
of what he defends gets into
he writes. In the current Har-
per's, those who. not satisfied with the
advertisements, whose leaves come
all cut, proceed to the annoying and
disagreeable task Of tearing open the
reading matter section, from which
the publishers shut them out, will find
there a most entertaining paper by
L%ounsbury on Compulsory
in College," He is down
on 1t from way back" He is full
Of sympathy for ''the unfortuntes who
are asked to write not because they
have something to say but because
they have to say something" He sees
no danger Of the volume Of writing
to meet the demand. He says:
It must be confessed that uni
versities the world YER are not
merely turning put men now who
are incapable Of using the Ian
guage with perfect correctness,
but they have been turning them
out for centuries past, and are
pretty sure to continue turning
them out for centuries to come.
To a mind not properly consti-
tuted, such as is my own, this
inability of men to express them
selves with propriety, If 1t con
tribute to %taciturnity. is some-
thing to be contemplated with a
chastened spirit Of resignation.
1t is a benefit that has been pro-
duced and not a harm. There Is
but one way of keeping certain
persons from writing wretchedly.
and that is by keeping them from
writing at all. Anything which
brings about such q result IL to
be welcomed, not deplored.
But they will write just the same.
He says:
The mighty Mississippi Of
gable will steadily continue to
pour throug hthe land. even II 1t
be deprived of an uncomfortable
number Of petty affluents which
under existing methods are
coaxed or compelled to contribute
to it's ever-swelling stream. In
fact, the notion that every man
should seek to become a writer
is a notion born Of modern con-
ditions. There Is no more reason
or necessity for it than there IL
for every man to become q math-
ematician or a musician or an
architect or an engineer or a
painter.
While knowledge is one Of the es-
sential factors Of satisfactory writing
It alone will not suffice. Read this
wicked bit Of irreverence:
This fact has often been un-
happily illustrated in the history
Of learning. Scholarship has be-
como, in truth, SO associated
with dullness in the common
mind that any treatise which
makes interesting a subject ordi-
narily embarrassing begets the
suspicion that it's author must be
superficial and inaccurate. There
IL apt to be doubt Of If not act
ual disbelief in the trustworthi-
ness Of the writer's knowledge
who does not bore his reader in
the communication of 1t. This
feeling has been largely fostered
by the frequent inability Of men
Of great learning to state lucidly
what they know fully. The con-
sequence Is that they exhaust the
reader wen more than they ex-
haust the subject. With many
nothing contributes more to the
acceptance Of a writer as an au-
thority than the impossibility Of
reading with pleasure what he
says.
Clear thinking is just as necessary
sometimes this effects fine result,
without the accompaniment Of grea
study. Look at the clearness and sim
plicity that make General Grant,
Memoirs so attractive.
We have only t,ken a few extract
to indicate what the reader will fin,
Of suggestion and interest in thi
charming and destructive paper. TIL,
professor is a delightfully."- sunshin,
and optimistic old i%conoclast.