The Washington herald., 1911-11-02
TRY TO INCREASE
YOUR VOCABULARY
You Need Best Tools to Con
Vey Thoughts.
By FRANCES L. GARsIDE.

1t is related in the West that a ranch,
day in town, and seeing no signs of life
around the place, hurriedly dismounted
and rushed to the house. Opening the
kitchen door, he was Mortified by the
sight of his wife and children lying dead
on the floor. They had been scalped by
, the Indians.
Stupefied by the sight, he was at first
struck dumb; then, recovering his voice
he said in tones of dull amaze: How
ridiculous!'
The story may be true, or it may not
be true; but, true or not, it is not in
credible, for the tragedy is one that has
been told many times in the West, and
the inadequacy of the mans vocabulary
to meet the situation is not confined to
ranchmen. 1t is universal, on the plains
where books play a minor part in the
struggle for existence, and in the city,
where dictionaries, encyclopedias, refer
ence books and books OF synonyms nudge
man at every turn of the elbow.
Used Wrong Word.
The discovery of the bodies OF a mother
and children under such narrowing cir
cumstances was anything but ridiculous
to the husband and father He used the
wrong word, but can you say you never
do?
The knowledge of words, their uses
and abuses, is as free as the air and the
water, but not Cne man in a thousand
has a vocabulary that isn't limited TO
the narrowest confines, lie knows two or
three ways to express admiration, twice
as many to express hatred, and can't, to
save his life, command a word that ex-
presses a shade or degree of difference.
When he attempts a word with which
he has never gained a speaking acquaint-
ance, he founders and falters and gar
bIes it in sound and meaning. and says
what he didn't intend to say. and doesn
know he said it.
There is no aristocracy in words, but
he doesn't know it, and looks on those
he has never used as something above
and beyond him and an affectation to
attempt.
It is not a knowledge dependent on in
come, as the particularly limited vocabu-
larry of the millionaire proves; 1t is a
knowledge dependent only on personal
desire.
Have you that desire? II you haven't,
cultivate It, The command of a good
vocabulary will not provoke the wish TO
talk more You probably talk too much
already.
It only means that you will talk better,
and with the good sense that comes
with knowledge, you will talk to bet
ter purpose.
Learn a New Word Daily.
A new word a day means 800 in a
year. 1t means so many more planks
when one is about to drown in a con-
versational sea. The right word in the
right place has saved the day many
times, and may save the day for you.
Begin with the infants, the little simple
words, and never stray beyond them.
A word as long as a freight train
is not characteristic of Dickens, the best
of all English writers. He used the
plain little simple tools to convey his
thoughts, and the best writers, the
clearest thinkers, and the finest scholars
have always seen At to initiate him.
If you are a thinker, you want the
best tools to convey your thoughts, and
those tools are found in the simplest
words in the English language. Don't
be guilty of flirting with a word so
long the first syllable is out of sight
before the last has turned the corner,
and never drop into a foreign language
to find a means to express yourself un-
less you are willing to emerge with this
placard pasted on you: I'm a learned
fool"