The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1914-02-20
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 the Lean
Lawyers Wit Came Into PLAYA
Blind Mans Criticism Of Irving.


Blind Mans Criticism Of Irving.
There are many words so habitually
mispronounced that the correct accent
q. e.. the accent favored by the die
tionaricsD would appear wrong II any
body used It 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 us 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 recog-
nizes as trisyllables. thus: cocaine.
pto-ma-ine.
Anyone familiar with French-a Ian
accented syllables-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 "a jest of matrimony
by pronOuncing 1t ma-trim-Ony.
Mark Lemon records u story about
Lord Chancellor EldOn and Sir Arthur
Pigott. The first always pronounced
the word 'lien" in two syllables. as If
1t was spelled lien: the latter pro-
rnnnooI ~ I'm npa cx,lInhIa liam ;,,ct
as 1t 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 chancellors 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 at one
time In America. Witness an anecd0te
about Lincoln. He once appeared IL
the supreme court in a case involving
lien upon piece Of property.
The presiding judge was noted alike
for obstinacy and pedantry. Lincoln.
referring to the lien. pronounced 1t
lean" This visibIy affected his
honor.
Lien. Mr.. Lincoln he gently re-
monstrated.
VERY WELL" said Lincoln. But q
little later he forgot himself and out
came the pronunciation lean"
Once more he was corrected by the
Judge
LAS you please" retorted Lincoln.
somewhat nettled.
Not 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. Bowling to
the court. he said: Certainly. your
honor. certainly | only desire to say
that IL my client had known there was
a lion on his farm for so long time.
am sure he would not have stayed
there even long enough to bring this
suit. and I should not have had the
pleasure Of appearing before this hon.
orable court"
or Henry Irving we are told that to
heroic perseverance and hard study he
added almost childlike eagerness to
adopt any suggested improvement In
his manner Of delivery. A blind man
once offered an Illuminating criticism
on his Shylock. The sensitive ear Of
the sightless auditor detected fault
in Irving's opening line:
Three thousand ducats-weil!
~ hear no sound Of the usurer in
that" was the blind mans subse-
quent comment to Irving himself. 1T
Is said with the reflective air Of u 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 I'm which he, now
saw that he had not been enough OF
the moneylender.
George Eliot In "Middlemarch' sup
plies n classic instance OF the value
VI Tue ucttnt. w heu LHuuSute, Sote
distressed at the failure Of all his pro
fessional and financial plans, comes 20
his wife for sympathy. she meets him
with the query:
What can do:"
Wherein the. author comments:
THAT little speech of -four words. like
so many others in AL languages. is On
pable of expressing all states of mind,
from helpless dinness 10 exhaustive
perception. from the
self dcvoting fellowship Ia
The most neutral aloofness. Rosa
mnd's thin uttcrance threw into the
words What can ! dor as much
neutrality as they could hold. They
fell like mortal chill ON Lyndgate's
reused tenderness
One of Du Maurier's best cartoons in
Punch shows n defcrential mdu az in
luiriDg mind propounding tUis question
10 II professional beauty:
"Ain't you tired OF bearing people
say THAT Is the beautiful Miss Bel
size?"
"Oh. no." the professional beauty re-