The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-01-29
PLEASE DON'T SWEAR

/ FOR JANUARY SAYS THAT.
APART FROM RELIGIOUS CON.
sIDERATIoNs, SWEARING Is lR.
| RATIONAL.
II Officers of an organization known
as the Society of the Holy Name have
sent me some cards bearing the i'm
ploration. please. Do Not Swear"
The society is conducting crusade
againt profanity 1t is a good cru
SADIE. / myself swear like the army
in Flanders upon occasion; indeed,
upon too slight occasion; but don't
believe in profanity. 1t is bad
habit. 1t is indicative of lack of
intellectual coordination. 1t exhibits
| a lack of vocabulary. A man sWears
for lack of thought He puts in swear
words just to fill up gaps in his speech
while there are dropped stitches in
/ his thinking. One ought to be able to
sburn up anybody or express his
opinion condemnatory Of any situa-
ton without the use of the trite oaths
that come trippingly to the tongue.
One would be, if one would just hold
back the "cuss" words. The men who
do not swear do not miss the accom-
plishment. They are at no disadvan-
tage whatever in acerbitous dispute
or i'll explanatory emphasis. Swear
ling is no sign of strength, not even
| strength of feeling; especially when it
| is too profuse. Cursing is perfume
tory. 1t doesn't mean what it says.
Now when Ernulphus formulated his
sublimely inclusive malediction, as
you find it in "Tristram Shandy," he
meant it and therefore it meant some
thing, but since Laurence Sterne
| played it up in that aposiopesic tale
and since Barham worked it over in
The Jackdaw of Rheims" in "The
Ingoldsby Legends it has been joke.
Indeed, a much greater curse is The
Curse of O'Kelly" against the town
of Doneraile, because he was robbed
of his watch there; but his watch was
recovered for him and he withdrew
the curse in general and in all itsl
multitudinous particulars. When you
come to think of it, how absurd it is
to call on God to witness for you in
every trifling incident, to ask God to
damn someone or something, or to
use the name of the Saviour as an ex-
clamation over unimportant surprises
or disappointments. We laugh at the
Frenchman's Mon Dieu!" If one use
in English its equivalent it is some
what unmasculine and certainly less
musical No one wants God to damn
any body these days. No one needs
to swear by God because it does not
strengthen any hearers faith i'll the
swearer. in the least. TO tell man
to Go to hell means nothing at all.
Swearing by Godfrey or by Crininy or
such eyasions is only a compromise
s1nacking of hypocrisy. So with
oaths by the Great Horn Spoon or the
Toe-Nail of Moses or by Heck, that
vile decentralization of a classic oath.
How silly it is to curse things, like a
child, who beats chair against which
he has hurt himself The Society of
the Holy Name has good sense, to say
nothing of good morals and to say
less of good taste, on it's side. One
should not swear, as a matter of
aesthetics. 1t weakens expression. 1t
| is verbal supererogation 1t is little
better than meaningless babble. Note
how we giggle, when anyone says
damn in stage-play, or tells some
one to "go to hell" Our oaths and
curses are cheapened by oVeruse.
They are over-emphasis and, there
| fore, weakness. 1t may not be easy
for a fellow who's been swearing all
his life to break off the habit at once.
| 1t might be we'll to begin by withhold
ling ones flow of objurgation, impreca-
| ton, observation, malediction and
Tartarean consignment on small oc-
casions and reserying it for situations
that plainly call for more than or
binary language can convey. Like
lO'Connell, one might cultivate such
vocabulary as he used in his debate
with the fishwoman when he paralyzed
her by calling her a hypothenuse and
a parallelopipedon. Or one might store
1 up q low GlCphChnLlID 1lhG LIZ
Johnson's overwhelming reply to the
abusive bargeman, to crush someone
utterly in acrimonious debate. A
man should not swear or curse until
nothing else will fit the case, and then
probably he will not swear at all. As
for the ladies-Well, do like to hear
pretty woman say damn it, say,
when her corset hooks and eyes don't
connect when she's hurrying to dress
for the theater. Or when she foozles
at golf. But it is irreverent to take
the name of God in vain if you believe
in God, and it is silly if you don't be-
lieye. So, please don't swear, or curse
either. When a reckless chauffeur Just
takes a button of your vest with his
car, in turning corner, just restrain
yourself moment, turn back to the
sidewalk and bite a piece out of the
lamp-post 1t is just as rational.
ARFIfnIIO nAuFnMAn