South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-31

would not have you look to the school
teacher at the country roads school,
no not 10 them. bat TO the moderh COL
leges. But this is rapidly going
The high school curriculum Is no
longer sacred. II is the boy anu 5lrI
that is sacred. and the curriculum mas
been changed TO fit the boy and girl.
The high school must administer TO all
the bows and girls, for the son OF the
professional man. to the son OF the
tailoring man. the merchant and the
day worker.
Don't Use New Slang.
Don't use slang recently createq.
This was the advice sent out 10 the
county institute teachers by DR.. W. ID.
Henderson Tuesday. in his lecture on
standards of English " The reason
as explained by DR.. Henderson why
there is so much slano is that the
American people are time savers, and
corner cutters. which affects the ma
ture OF their langua~
The English language as used by
Americans is full of clipped words,
he said. I'VE now say varsity Tor
university phone for telephone ana
exam for examination. Slang comes
from temperamental folk. There are
three tendencies OF the American peO-
pie. They are time savers. imitators'
and they love the hyperbOle. The aV-
erage American likes TO say something
forceful, and to say something force
full he thinks he has 10 say something
startling Therefore he uses slang.
Take the word 'astonish.' It's etomol-
ogv shows that it has the meaning
similar 70 the word stun. But some
American women are astonished at
the setting of the sun, astonished at
h
hence, there has come about the loose
force of the word.
l. Iivcst Part.
slang is the livest p,rt Of a live
language Some one has said that
il is the quick lunch of literature.
There is the old slang which has be-
come respectable. Slang is a funny
creature Of our language. You can
never tell when it may be used in our
American society. American slang is
expressive, compact Take for in
stance in the old days the expression
TO cross swords Then il was slang.
Only recently l read in a university
magazine that professor said that
two debating teams would cross
swords this year The dictionaries
take up slang words when they come
into usage and after they become re-
specta BILE.
There is the word 'crestfallen.' Tt
came from the COCkpitS. In the old
days when one bird triumphed over
another. and that bird was torn and
bleeding its crest was literally fallen.
Now we use it in ordinary speech
Rock bottom comes from the old
pioneer days when the settlers actually
dug wells and came to rock before
they found water. stand pat an
other such phrase, has come to be
used extensively.
Some Meaningless.
But it is the meaningless slang,
some of ii so. attractive, so expressive
that we can hardly get away from it,
that 1 would warn you of. Take the
word fierce. Everything IS fierce
nOwaday. Some Of these terms are so
wrap themselves around YOU until YOU
actually find yourself using them. I
do not mean TO be purist nor a rad
zeal in the other sense. But there is
a slang that no society that has any
respect for good taste would use
heard a girl say to the other in re-
Spouse to whether or not she had had
a GOO time at a recent entertainment,
You bet your neck.
such slang is vulgar and the
coarseness of il cannot appeal to any
being created and il comes to infest
us, injecting our language at every
open pore. The use of slang, too. linn
it's our vocabulary / know a girl who
said immense to everything. 1t was
her one descriptive adjective. 1t was
immense with her no matter whether
it was grand opera or an ice cream
soda.
I'm laying down a set rule for the
use of slang / would have you remem-
Der this little quotation from Ben
Franklin
BE not the first by whom the new
is tried,
Nor yet the last TO cast the old
aside
Characterizing the artificial method
of begetting effort. rs the worst meth
od of getting school children 10 study
DR.. Van Ormer in his afternoon ad
dress scored the whole system EN-
ploye1 either in the church or schoO
rs one of the most prevalent and vita
faults found today in the pedagogical
! system. He declared that the joy o.
| learning. of increasing one owns vita
powers should reap its own reward
lCHlCAG0 ALDERMEN HERE