Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-10-02
SLIPS OF THE TONGUE.
Some of the Common Errors of Con-
versation, Which Should be
Avoided.

words IN the best way, and we should
not permit ourselves to slip into in
correct usage or slang or vulgarity
Through mere carelessness. There are
people who know, perfectly the rules
of grammar, who might even teach a
class how to speak and write cor
rectly, and who could pounce unerr-
ingly on false syntaX on the printed
page or in a school composition,
while yet in ordinary conversation
they make woeful blunders. The
temptation to drop into slang assails
us for the same reason that We occa-
sionally or often make slips that are
inelegant when talking with our
friends. We are all apt to initiate
what we hear, and if in the family
circle we are accustomed to false
usages, we adopt them ourselves
without so much as being aware that
we are in fault. When slang express
sions are heard in the street, in the
shop and on the platform, when they
even creep into sermons and empha-
size public addresses, it is a little
difficult to avoid them in our common
talk. There is scarcely a school boy
in the land who does not exclaim,
Gee" or "Gee-WhiZ,' when excited,
surprised and vehement. Il boys only
use this absurd and unjustifiable eX-
preston, we might pass it over, but,
unfortunately, girls and women use
1t, too. In order to attract atten
ton, many women introduce a sent
ence by the word, Say" There is
no apology when one wishes to talk
with Sarah, Joana or Mildred, for not
calling her by name, without an in
troductory tag in the shape of Say.
Many of us permit ourselves the
use of guess" when we are thinking
of guessing, and we eXclaim, you
know" when that is not at all what
we mean. One should not tell an
other that she knows something of
which she may not possess the faint
est information, nor is Il guess al
iowable when what one should say is
Il think"
A strong fight has been made
against the use of "ain't" for
aren't" Still, not long ago an Eng
.ish author whose style was in other
particulars good, several times made
the head master of an excellent
school for boys address a pupil after
this fashion, Il amt going to pun
ISL you tHlS Time. ain Suic CuoI
you understand etc. Amt is a
vulgar colloquallism, never on the
lips of a really well-bred person.
A common error is the substitution
of real as an adverb for very"
II am real glad to see you. ! am
real angry with James" The state
of mind is no doubt indicated by the
word real in the case, but gra-
matically it is entirely wrong. An
excellent woman noted for benevol
ence and thoroughly conscientious in
| her doings, one, too, who possessed
ordinary advantages in her youth,
habitually abuses her mother tongue
and treats it with brutality that
makes one SILVER. She always speaks
| OF a married friend as Miss Smith"
or Miss Jones' instead of Mrs"
She drops into double negatives, tells
| q child that she "handn't ought" to
break a flower, or read in the fading
| light says that she run" for car
yesterday, when she means to say
that she ran for one. In her case,
the explanation is that she seldom
reads, as books DO not interest her,
and that in early life, although able
to attend a good school, her associ-
atoms were with illiterate people
who knew nothing about correct
language.
You have perhaps heard an anec-
oote familiar to me in my girlhood.
A party of young people were taking
supper in a restaurant. Near them
at a table by himself sat dignified
man with the bearing of a statesman
hn ai r nf m a m Ri
There was something about him so
distinguished that they speculated as
to whether he might be Senator This
or Admiral That, a visiting official
from a foreign land, or the president
of a university. Finally. he ordered
| his desert, which proved to be a dish
OF homely apple dumplings. When
| they were set before him he eXclaim-
ed with enthusiasm, 'Thems the
! :ockies for me-" Down toppled the
whole pyramid Of conjectures. The
| good man was neither admiral nor
m-chief, nor president OF
an institution of learning. He was
evidently only good and plain per-
son whose education had been very
much neglected.
Neither dress nor equippage, style
of living, household furniture or any
other attribute that is external and
accidental sets upon woman the
stamp of culture and the hallmark
of breeding as does infallibily her
customary language and her ease in
conversation. Words should be ut
tered with nice precision. By the
way, the little word mice" which
means fastidious, delicate and exact,
is very often used in mistaken
sense Amy is a nice girl, Mrs.
Fitzgerald is a nice neighbor.' The
persons thus testifying to Mrs. Fitz-
gerald and Amy do not mean to tell
their friends that Amy is daintily
clean and scrupulously neat, nor do
they intend to convey an idea of deli
cacy when abiding to the good Mrs.
Fitzgerald. In both instances what
they mean is that the person OF
whom they are speaking is amiable,
obliging and pleasant.
! was once sOjOurning N south
ern city. One morning the pavements
all over town were conspicuous at in
tervals by a sentence boldly written
in chalk, and the whole town was
presently discussing in most ami
mated and puzzled condition OF mind.
The sentence was Jack can fix It,.
Later it transpired that the Jack in
question was clever fellow with an
original bent of mind and a talent