The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-04-19
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

nave neard II 80 pronounced by hunters
IN the north woods, by a salesman In a
folk who know how to use words--and
ski. But recently q friend has been pill
Ing authority upon authority to prove
that II Ia ''skee." and ''skee" only. And
now. when after much practice can
"skee" with the best OF them. along comes
the April Century declaring that the only
way to pronounce that word IL she"
DO settle It for me, for at present the
conversation has to be kept strictly to
snowshoes. MARY c. RUSSELL
The dictionaries, and be II understood
mere dictionaries do not create but regis
ter authority. agree upon the pronunc!a-
ton Of Ok. - IN skid. the italian sound Of
the vowel not being In dispute In fact
the Century Dictionary. the hrst TO deal
With this Scandinavian immigrant. sought
to establish the spelling skee. Against this
dictionary pronunciation one may set the
pronunciation chi and derive Joy from
two excellent reasons. the forme- that shi
n right, the latter that II Is the best usage
Of English speakers at 81. Mortz. In
Canada and In this country. The double
consonant ok before and In Scandi-
navian speech 10 pronounced as sh in Eng
iish. II Ii not merely that We are to fol-
low the Morse pronunciation Of ski we
and that We are conforming to an ancient
custom OF our own speech. This is wen
instanced In the word shilling, which in
the Scandinavian 10 spelled SHILLING, but
pronounced n In English; In Ango-Saxon
the word was written selling and I'M
doubleday had the true sound OF X. In
course Of the growth Of our speech the &c
was at nrst sounded and finally spelled
sh; In the Norwegian the sound has under
gone the same evolution. but the spelling
lass unreformed. Ski is In The same plight.
and every argument bespeaks the pro-
uunciation shes.
Can any Of your readers remember for
me q song with a clean humor and very
pretty air. johnny Sands" popular in
the eos or earlierT C. T.. NJ.
A memory not altogether tenacious OF
scales recalls the air - that groanlng
fuEue effect There were two crows sat
o-o-on a tree" This version OF tho lay
10 an act OF memory:
A man whose name was Johnny Sands
He married Betty Hague;
And though she brought him gold and
lands
She proved a terrible plague
For. oh, abe was a scold!ng wifa
Full OF caprice and whim--
She said that she was tired OF life.
And she was tired of him.
Says he. Then will drown myself
The river runs below"
Says she. pray do. you silly Off
wished It long ago"
Says he, Upon the brink I'll stand.
Do you run down the hill
And push me in with all your might"
Says she. My love. WILL"
"For fear that / should courage lack
And try to save my life.
Pray tie my hands behind my back"
II will" replied his wife.
She tied them fast. as you may think.
And when securely done,
"Now stand" says she. upon tho brink
While prepare to run"
All down the hill his loving bride
Now ran with all her force.
To push him in--he stepped aside.
And she fell In. OF course.
Now splashing. dashlng like fish
"Oh. save me. Johnny Sandsr'
FL can't. my dear. though much ! wish.
For you have tied my hands"
| Harking back to childhood days memory
J pictures the boy with Barlow knife and
/ the inspection and tests OF his mates, one
of the latter placing two fingers across
! the blade and breathing upon it, the rate
/ OF disappearance OF the moisture beins ac-
cepted as a test OF the quality Of the steel.
or whether II was steel. Was the test
empirical or had It n scientific explana-
ton? "OLp 3d.
The test does have n physical explana-
ton. Evaporation proceeds more rapidly
from a smooth surface than from rough
one, more rapidly from clean than from
dirty one. Steel takes higher pol sh
than !ron hard steel than soft. There
fore the knife test has some little value
quite sufficient to satisfy the not very
rigorous needs OF Juvenile physics. Blu,
was II necessary TO place two fingers
across the blade and what was the pur.
pose' II may have been to create lee
| by cutting of the air currents, bu,
memory tenacious OF the test IN gross re-
fuses to remember that detail. And dIdn'
the knife have a crinkly black handle sup,
posed 70 be buckhorn7
Suggested by tho problem OF the Barlow
there comes to mind one OF its uses Top,
always used to be made with n neat it'll,
bail on top, just like the Great Panjandrun
himself But before the top was spun II
the ring 1t was incumbent on the owner
to chop OF the knob, no easy task with
the best Of knives when the top was o
that expensive timber dearly beloved a,
ligselumvity. Now why this taboo of tn,
tops top?
| When addressing a single person Shout,
say You was or You were?
w.Rs.
Because our friend signs an un- Engllsl
name and addresses the query from one o
our newer dependencies the question call
for consideration. The correct usage OF tn
present 10 to say You were whether tn
reference be 10 one or 10 many. This is
matter Of idiom. ard when idiom Is ac
} cepted by the hest speakers Il override
the mere formal!tles OF grammar, One o
two centuries ago You was" was custo
mary; despite its history this would nov
IN raV a rl aA a