The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-06-08
Hall Caine Sixty

all Caine was so few days ago and
English publisher tells me, got some
gg like 100 congratulatory kilograms
5a8 other messages. He is at home in
srri Isle of Man, 1t seems, and hard at
!, Tx on a new play about which, how
essr, nothing may be told yet His
4rly income now is said to be at least
& C00 Meanwhile his great rival, Ma
riel Coreli, has been protesting with her
1al vigor against what she describes
as "acts of vandalism" at Stratford-on-
Avon which is, of course. her home. She
told the Stratford-on-Ayon guild last
night that when she first came to live
there she foresaw many of the dangers
threatening the historic town, and did
her best to warn as we'll as save. Since
then, she said, she has been un-
willing witness of the destruction of much
that was valuable and beautiful, notably
the "wanton havoc" inflicted on the
nearby village of Shottery. At the end
of her address she urged her hearers not
to let Shakespeare's birthplace degene-
rate into a mere suburb of Birming-
ham.
Take Ragtime Seriously
Over here they take ragtme-still a
popular craze-with deadly seriousness
and analyze it as painstakngly as if 1t
were a new serum. The latest to put
the syncopated melodies the dssect-
ing table is Mrs. Maude Egerton King,
whose husband is an intensely earnest
member of parliament and who. herself,
has written several thoughtful books II
is almost pathetic to read this serious
little ladys estimate of "Hitchy-k koo"
and the other all conquering melodies in
1.-The Vineyard" this month. Here is a
sample paragraph:
''It is impossible to believe that rag
time-or the post-impressionism and flu
turism which it resembles in it's conscien-
tious preference for hideousness-is what
some claim for it, the aboriginal first
effort at utterance, and as such to be
welcomed and watched; it is too like
the drivel of racial senility. It is fright
fully old. cold, and decrepit, not young.
passionate, and gigantic, and that is why
1t is surely a disastrous fashion for young
blood to submit to-"
Poor little Mrs. King She does take
It SO hard.
Put "A" in COcOanut
You know how to spell "cocoanut' of
course, but do you know why you spell
1t that ways Probably you. in common
with lot of other people, have paused
pen in hand and wondered what that
superfluous "a was doing In the mid
die of the word, and how it came there.
and now, at last, an explanation is
vouchsafed. Sir Everard i'm Thurn, the
traveller and administrator, cleared up
the mystery in an address which he de-
1ivered to the members OF the Royal Hor-
ticultural society this week, and Incl
dentally told how this nut got its name
to begin with.
Tt had been noticed he said, that In
the course of its growth, the nut which
was now known as the cocoanut was
similar to the face of a monkey. and
so the Spanish or Portuguese word.
coco" meaning a grin or grimace was
alta ched to it. Thus was it known when
DR.. johnson wrote his famout dictionary
and the great photographer duly had an
article on the coco nut But COM
positor bundered many compositor
has since, and inserted an "a into the
word and an even more careless proof
reader passed the bunder, and so the
word appeared in Johnson's dictionary as
'cocoanut' and set the fashion of spelling
the word in England for all time. That
1s unless the American "nu spoilers" cast
out the "a forthwith. lsupposng that
they haven't done so already now that
they know how it comes to he there.