The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1916-10-05
THE ONLOOKER
Word Sketches of Topical Events
BY 'Ham


mate foreign language phrases and
welve-cylinder words from their col
| umns. Time was when writer's We'd
with each other in producing matter in
a great part unintelligible to-the aver
| age reader. That this movement will
result in great good no one will deny
except a few benighted pedants
whose fossilzed products will no long
er find a market in the newspapers.
i There is a market for heavy"
reading in class magazines, scientific
periodicals. text booke, etc., where
each little word, and each big word, is
carefully examined and classified be-
fore being allotted space. These period
icals make a specially of interfering
foreign phrases. Their writer's are ex-
perts in the subtle art of sticking to-
gether tantaliZing combinations of
words for the edfication and instruc-
ton of their readers. The Babylonian
examples of building intricate phrases
on foundation of class culture"
| learning are in their proper place when
printed in periodicals devoted to the
sport of phrase-analysis.
The newspaper reader, however,
wants his reading presented in form
in which it may be easily understood.
Novellsts, most of them, follow the
rule Of simple word construction be-
cause they realize the necessity. The
men whose writings are couched in
plain everyday language are the sue
cessful writer's. They reach the ulti-
mate source of human power-the
masses
A brief comparison in the style of
writing for the general public, of even
as recent period as fifteen years ago,
with the present day writing for the
masses, will speedily convince one of
the ever increasing demands for easily
read literature.
True, the technique of the art of
letters may suffer in The struggle for
greater and speedier production. But
then there will always be the noble
few who prefer starving in a garnet
with the masterpieces of their own
oil
honor writing for the average person.
-
Baseball must be a perplexing
game as 1t is played in Australia. In
recent game while making second
base at fast clip, fielder belonging
to the opposing team yelled "foul!''
Straightway the runner quit the job
and went IN. Now the runners team
claims their man should not be
counted out as the opposing teams
rielder used unfair play in yelling
foul!' The other team says the sub
terfuge is part of the game.
The strangest part of the story is
that the umpire did not know what
decision to make, claiming he could
find no rule covering the case. The
entire question is therefore to be made
matter of debate at the next meeting
of the Umpire's Association.
We know what The decision of an
American umpire would be in a like
case without having any debate.
-
According to Postmaster General
Burleson we may be given a one-cent
postage rate Thin year. Taking 1t
for granted that this is not merely a
campaign story, we hasten to give
thanks for this evidence that the high
cost of living is about to begin to
commence to start" dropping, as the
creator of Philo Grubb would say.
Now that the tax on documents
has been eliminated. and the tax on
cosmetics abolished, we may confident
ly look forward to big reduction in
the import duties on such every .dav
commodities as silk stockings and i'm
ported laces, genuine Asiatic rugs and
Italian statuary. Naturally, the sell
ing price of all these articles would
have to be reduced. Just think! the