Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1914-07-21
(By Lee McCrae, in Christian Advo- I
cate)

Remember there is only one way
in which you can reveal your educa-
ton or lack of education to a casual
acquaintance" once said a teacher Of
rhetoric to her class, "and that is by
what you say and how you say it. In
ordinary conversation the range Of
themes, is small; but the choice of
words, their arrangement and the
enunciation invariably stamp you as
educated or uneducated Only in bus
mess matters can you show your
knowledge of arithmetic. You may be
fine scholar in Latin, geology, as
t'onomy, and like subjects, and nobody
be aware Of it; but every person you
meet is impressed, favorably or I'M
favorably, by your English"
1t was forceful teaching and les
son that has been driven home" many
times in the years since then.
A correct language is of peculiar i'm
.portance in meeting and dealing with
men. To know how to do things is,
of course, fundamental; but second to
that, and specifically seeming first,
is knowledge of how to say what we
know.
Very often in these careless, hur-
ried days people know more than their
speech would indicate; and very many
are given to slovenly habits in talking
who would quickly and gladly cor
rect them if only a tactful bit of
teaching were done by those that love
them and dare to do it.
How well l remember the kindly les
son an elderly neighbor gave me
when I used not once, but frequently
the phrase "he don't! HE do not ?"
she repeated with quiet emphasis and
in the sweetest of tones. My dear, be-
careful. That does not sound like
college-bred girl"
Of course I knew better, but at that
moment I realized that people would
not know l knew unless l made use of
the knowledge. 1t has been a perpet-
ual lesson; for now, years after, am
still hearing her say it and blessing
her for it.
Recently l have been much with a
lady of high education, one who was
a successful teacher and who is a
woman of inward refinement. But she
has fallen into habits of speech that
are distressing-slurring her words,
jumbling them together, dropping their
final letters, using slang terms, abbre-
viations, and even roughisms that ut
terly belle her education. In fact,
you would have to tell people that she
is a college graduate; they would not
guess it.
The result is a poverty of express
sion, a limited vocabulary; and when
she wants to talk correctly and ele-
gantly she halts, get nervous, blurs
out expressions she is ashamed Of. or
stops short in pitiful inability to say
what she means. This is one of the
penalties we pay for the misuse of
any faculty, the disuse of any ability.
The power itself leaves us.
Why then these slovely habits at all?
How do We come by them after being
educated in better way?
Carelessness and a growing disre-
gard for others opinions of us, per-
haps, among grown people; and among
the young, the desire to appear in
formal, vivacious, unaffected, smart,
"up-to-date," college folks alawys
talk slang" we are told. This and the
anxiety not to be "priggish" are at the
bottom of it. They go at once to the
other extreme. A certain extravaganza
Of speech, coupled with the newest
slang (never the old! Horrors, noD, IS
felt to be indispensable in young soci-
ETY..
"She can go into such frivolous
ecstasies over just nothing at all"
was the coment I heard recently con
corning a girl whom l knew to be
"ecstasying" in order to be considered