The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1913-03-20
THE POINT OF VIEW OF A
THINKER

Dear Sir: This will await your
full leisure in the same spirit Of
humility and Difference as would its
aged writer, who is little known be-
yOnd "the smoke of his own chin
ney." No apology we're needed, had
you seen and read in their full mean
ing Of admiration and appreciation,
the tears of JOY flooding my cheeks,
this morning as on feeble footstep
from mail box I read your comment
on Indictment, in The Jefferso-
nian.
The common people whom you
love and for SO many years have sue
cessfully taught by wise selections
Of subject matter and unequalled i'm
pressiveness of method, have studied
and are still studying, that indict-
ment from standpoints of common
sense. In their closest, unbiased in
vestigations they find more Of per-
sOnal than Of moral aim. If there
ever. was a time when such attack
was justifiable it was many, many
centuries ago. Not less ludicrous in
aspect are it's instigators and promo
ters than we're the prosecutors of
Wycliff when exhuming and placing
in transit to the sea the dust of that
refOrmer. For purposes of science
and the preservation of the race it
was absolutely necessary that names
be given to the various parts-nOt
one made to dishonor-Of the hui
man organism, male and female,
their functions, eXcretions, secTe-
lions and Examinations. Latin, be-
ing a classical language, and for
other reasons, was assigned to this
important, holy task. Then was the
time, if ever, to protest. But in
stead Of protest came the consent to
and Joyful acceptation Of this lift
ing of human language above the
plane of Obscenity; and, ever since,
these names are found in books Of
medicine, Of surgery; books of civil
law; and have been handed down
from generation to generation in
Latin dictionaries, fostered and
taught in our colleges, male and fe-
male. If obscene in clipping, they
are by the Laws Of Thought obscene
everywhere. But they are obscene
only when translated into the often
sive language Of the masses; for in
order to be obscene, words must be
offensive and in every day use, by
the vulgar, the crowd. No scholar
will gainsay this. No MAI or wo-
man can take offense at a Latin
name designating any Of the things
above mentioned, if he or she find
in it's definition a filthy word; for
the Offense even in that case comes
not through the Latin word, but
from the offended persons having
previously learned the filthy word
from the lips Of the vulgar and his
holding it in memory. But what
right has any man or body of men
WhOsoever or whatsoever he or they
may me, to translate chaste Latin
into filthy English; to make unclean
that which scholarship has made
clean. Who can endorse or extend
sympathy to the private or public
man, who for any aim would throw
off garments of purity to wallOw in
slOughs Of filth? 1t will ever be
source of pride and comfort to know
that our Leader, r E. W., has never
translated the '"clipping," and con-
dennis those who do. Only those
who have spent years in the study
of Latin and can boast Of success,
have the ability to read with liberal
refinement that 'clipping," and
surely, they have not been offended
by it. To the masses it has no
meaning. Who then has been
offended? Earth and the heavens