Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-08
SOME LANGUAGES l.
IN THIS COUNTRY
Aspects of Profanity - Ball Park
Language-New Words in
Old Uses and Vice
Versa

versa
THERE'S an anecdote in Irving Cobb's plat
l. form "reminiscences that is most in
forming on the subject of language. 1t draws
an interesting distinction between profanity
and profanity. One can hardly help seeing
something in 1t. One may be wrong, but one
may tell the story in the words of Mr. Cobb.
This is the story:
"In one populous New England city had
concluded, as usual, with a short plea for
national preparedness on the part of own
country, and then I invited questions. on
the instant up there rose from where he sat
in the front row of the first balcony
elderly, excited, whiskered gentleman of an
exclusively Hibernan aspect; and, before he
spoke, he shook in my direction a large,
frecked fist, with what looked like hostile
intent
The house manager, who sat in a stage
box leaned forward.
"'Now you'll catch it, he said in a half
whisper That's the official Fenan of this
town.
1.-THE whiskered party opened his lips then
and spoke in a rich voice
"If so be it wasn't fur tn Atlantic Ocean
bechune an him. Jawnny Bull-blanlk-
blank hm!-would he comm over here wild
his blonketty.blanked sojers in red chutes
an KILN us in our beds, and thots no lie,
ayther!
"And he blanketty.blanked ]. Bull some
more.
Nobody hissed and a good many laughed
I guess they all knew the speaker by past
experiences. Besides, what he said was not
said with curses-if you get what 1 mean
He used profanity, but he was not profane
He didn't swear-it was merely his way of
expressing a sincere conviction.
"But you haven't asked me a question:
said when the laughter had died down.
"Question! he roared back at me, I've no
question to asst you. me boy. I'm wild you'll
And as 1 retired into the wings he was adj
dressing all those present upon the subject
of the Little Crane Isle in the Say and her
wrongs"
Whitewashing Profanity
A man may use profanity and yet not be
profane. Take 1t the other way around. Is
It possible to be profane without using pro-
fame language? Yes indeedy!
Pronounce the name of one of Wagners
operas in such tone as TO cause the neigh
boris windows to shake and you are profane.
Thus: "Gotterdammerung" Sunday school
superintendent relieves himself, in his own
mind of basphemy when he eXclaims, For
governments sake" And there lives man
with soul so caIloused that he swears by
shouting the name of Charles G. d. Roberts,
or sometimes for mildness' sake the name of
Josephine Dodge Dasllam. Conceallng thought
by means of language is not so easy as it
seems.
As persons sometimes seek responsibility
by climbing the family tree, so they sometimes
claim for their use of language the character
alogy. For instance. in a letter to the editor
a correspondent grieves over the ignorance of
those who assume that "tinker's dam" is a
"profane expression" A tinker's dam, says
he, was a chunk of dough or batter used before
the days of muriatic acid to keep the soder
from spreadingi and as the solder commonly
did spread nevertheless, the tinker's dam
as nearly worthless as the common expression
Of disesteem for 1t implies He differentates il
from the common or garden damn, and says,
There is no profanity about it,"
In the same apologetic connection consider
schoolboy slang, Sample of conversation:
"Oh, that guy?"
Yep. That guy"
"G'wan; you're kiddin u.s."
Nope I'm givin' it straight"
who gave you that dope?"
The Perkins kid"
The term guy" was formerly aplied TO an
effigy made OF rags and straw to represent
Guy Fawkes, an English eonspirator, who
sought to blow up the houses of Parliament
In the reign OF James l. 1906 From that the
word "guy" came to be applied to a person
oddly or badly dressed, but the high school
lad may even apply it TO a clergyman or
TO his best friends sister such is the elias
ticity and resiliency of the term. The INSULT
cheney OF the most stupendous dictionary is
shown when one seeks to obtain up-to-date in
formation as TO the substantive kid" and the
verb and other parts Of speech that have that
threelettered word as a basis. One may there
find that the kid is young goat or young
antelope, and that slang applies IL to a child
or an infant or even TO a half-grown boy.
More than this, the term kid may be used 10
aasfonate a clever young thief or an expert