The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-01-26
Style and the Hour
(H. w. Boynton in The Nation.)


Style. something to be deliberately cultivated
painfully mastered-the style Of the ''stylist -
has very little meaning for our generation. We are
all for speaking straight out. in such accents as
Providence may have bestowed upon US ard our next
door neighbors. Stevenson is already marked as a
back number by his over-sedulous pursuit Of the
just word. For writer like Hean. with his mig
Cling effort at verbal perfection. we feel something
very much like contempt. We think ourselves well
rid Of the elegance and articles Of the ninees. and
take pride in our own robust and fortnight way
and wholesome in its way. Tusitala might have
been bigger man without his affectons-or is it that
bigger man would not have been guilty Of them?
1t is pleasant to think that the Yellow Books Of
day appeal to small and unrepresentative constit-
uency. 1t well that the writing man can no longer
afford to mince his words or speak PRETTY.
But what, then are we to expect Of him? What.
for that matter. getting from him? If he has
thrown overheard his books, and his models, and his
finckng ways what remains for him to work with
Why. we answer, he mas all that anybody needs. he
has the honest tongue the Lord has given him. 1t
is good answer-so far as it goes There is. for
local purposes, such tongue. which the whole
neighborhood wags in common 1t is handy for max
ing wants known. it asks for an egg and it calls
Tor policeman. 1t Can express opinions. it believes
that the Republican party is the right stuff. and that
it is going to rain tomorrow But. by itself. it can
not get US very much farther When we say.
here, now is man who speaks simply and natur-
ally the chances not paying tribute to
| h,c ~ 1D,Et, &k,tk l.,
makes things easy for us, uses the current legalten-
der. We think he speaks like himself. because he
speaks like He is using the style Of the spoken
word more narrowly the style Of his community,
class, or nation 1t does very well in Speech am
suffers much from reduction to cold print. There
something is lacking. The plat,udcs Of the cam.
paigner. SO effective on the stump, are quickly
shown up by the test Of type. The truth is. ar
honest tongue is OF use except for talking. Tc
make our ideas. our stories. or our argument ef
fectivc in print. we have to dress them in something
different from the vernacular your speech anc
my speech as it falls from u.s. crude and fragmcntary
in the course Of days journey. We have to Civ,
them the advantages Of another kind of style, con
vey them by means of another kind Of legal-tender
that Of the printed word.
For the printed word has its own literary" fash
ions and standards and models, whether it is con
scious Of them not Stevenson and others Of hi
generation were strongly conscious Of them and uset
to look Tor them in books. the great books of tn
world. They initiated. they tried effects. the
abored toward the perfection Of vehicle for thei
thoughts their inventions. Greater writers hav
come by their practice Of style more smply and MOI
maly, by association and instinct. But until recen,
ly the standards Of style have been, on the whole
literary in the narrower sense. Writing men hay
looked to their elders and their betters for somcthn
to go by. if not to pattern after. But the style
our own hour. the style that gets across" in the ger
eral estimation, prides itself upon having turne
away from bookishness and shaped itself upon III
u vernacular. The process has been auded in une,
pected quarters. Scholars have risen to state tn;
rules and precedents are as dust and ashes, and thu
whatever is said is right. Purism thing Of noel
cry. subjunctives have gone by the board, shall an
will no longer take the trouble to sidestcp each ohe
i he once coy infinitive does the split without en-
IS barrassment. And yet the sources Of current sty
are not in the vernacular they are still in the prne
It word only it is the newspaper word, the maeazir
o word, instead Of the book word British letter
Tor halt a generation. have been in the hands of
n group trained in journalism. who brought many
the tricks Of journalism to their business Of autho
ship" 1t was as writers Of timely COPY III
J. Messrs Shaw. Wells Bennett. Chesterton, Belle
e contracted the brusque, clever whimsical joltiu