The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1914-02-27
ALL IN The ACCENT
Words on Which Common Usage
and Dictionaries Disagree.
LINCOLN AND LIEN AND LION.
An Amusing Verbal Duel In the Su-
preme Court In Which tho Lean
Lawyers Wit Came Into Playa
Blind Mans Criticism Of Irving.

4. e., the accent favored by the die
honaries) would appear wrong If any
body used il in current conversation.
This, of course, means that common
usages have overriden the dictionary
and established new standard which
the dictionary Of the future Will have
to respect. just as those OF today
respect the pronunciation OF "lien"
that they rejected in the past. Such
words are cocaine and ptomaine. which
the dictionary Of the present rec0g-
nizes as trisyllables, thus: cocaine.
pto-ma-ine.
Anyone familiar with French-a Ian
guage that may be said to possess no
accented sylabes-will understand
Taine's complaint about London res
taurants that whenever he ordered
potatoes the waiter invariably served
him with buttered toast.
And of course it was another French
man who made jest of matrimony
by pronouncing 1t ma-trim-ony.
Mark Lemon records a story about
Lord Chancellor EldOn and Sir Arthur
Plgott. The first always pronounced
the word Lien" in two syllables. as III
it was spelled lien; the latter pro-
nounced it in one syllable, lean, just
as it would be pronounced In ordinary
conversation. On this difference Jekyll
wrote an epigram:
Sir Arthur, Sir Arthur why. what do you
mean
BY saying the chancellor's lion is lean?
Do you think that his kitchens so bad as
all that.
That nothing within 1t will ever get fat?
Lord Eldon's pronunciation Of this
legal term was not unknown ut one
time in America. Witness in anecdote
about Lincoln. He once appeared III
the supreme court in II case involving
a lien upon piece of property
The presiding judge was noted alike
for obstinacy and pedantry. Lincoln.
referring to the lien, pronounced IL
lean This visibly affected his
honor.
Lien. Mr. Lincoln" he gently re
monstrated.
VERY WELL" said Lincoln. But a
little later he forgot himself and out
came the pronunciation lean"
Once more he was corrected by the
Judge.
"As you please" retorted Lincoln,
somewhat nettled.
mot as | please" came from the
bench THAT is the pronunciation
favored by Webster and by Worcester.
1t so obtains at Westminster hall and
also at our own supreme court In
Washington"
Lincoln had now recovered his con
stitutional good humor. Bowing 70
the court, he said: Certainly, your
honor. certainly. | only desire to say
that If my client had known there was
q lion on his farm for SO long time
I am sure he would not have stayed
there even long enough to bring this
suit, and | should not have had the
pleasure OF appearing before this hon
orabe court"
or Henry Irving we are told that &c
! heroic perseverance and hard study h'
| 0uupu ullllOSl NullullhC tdSNih'oS ~
adopt any suggested improvement II
his manner of delivery. A blind mar
once offered an Illuminating criticism
on his Shylock. The sensitive ear o
the sightless auditor detected faui
in Irving's opening line:
Three thousand ducats-well!
"I hear no sound of the usurer In
that" was the blind mans subse
quent comment to Irving himself. III
is said with the reflective air OF man
TO whom money means very little
The Justice of the criticism was
acknowledged by Irving. He revised
his reading. not only of the first line
but of several others in which he now
saw that he had not been enough OF
the moneylender.
George Eliot in "Middlemarch' sup
plies classic instance of the value
of the accent. When Lyndgate. sore
distressed at the failure of all his pro
fessional and financial plans, comes t'
his wife for sympathy, she meets hin
with the query:
"What can | doY
Whereon the author com ments
THAT little speech OF four words, lik'
so many others i'm all languages. is ca
pable of expressing all states OF mind
from helpless dimness 10 exhaustive
urgumentative perception. from tn
completest self devoting fellowship Z
the most neutral aloofnesS. Rosa
mund's thin utterance threw into tn
words What can doT as mucI
neutrality as they could hold. The,
fell like n mortal chill on Lyndgate'
, reused tenderness"
One of Du Maurier's best cartoons u
z Punch shows n deferential man OF In
quiring mind propounding this questio
Z TO a professional beauty:
"Ain't you tired of hearing peopl
say That is the beautiful Miss BE
sizeT"
"Oh. no." the professional beauty r.
= plies. 81 am getting Sired of hearin
a people say is THAT the beautiful Mis-
BelsizeT - william =. Walsh I'm Ch
cago Record. Herald