The Washington herald., 1917-12-14
Vieus OF Interest the Women Readers Of The Herald %
SPEAKING Good ENGLISH.
By DOROTHY DIX,
The WORLDS Highest Paid Woman Writer.

! Indication of belonging to the FIRST
families than q dozen family trees II
Is said that q brilliant but self-made
man once said to Charles Sumner that
he would give o hundred thousand
dollars to be able to say "of whom. -
as Mr.. Summer said It. without stop
ping to think.
Therefore. It is all important that
children should hear nothing but good
English in>the home. Thus II becomes
an integral part Of them. Most par
ents are careful that their children
shall not hear profane or obscene
words. It is equally important that
they shall not hear Inaccurate and in
artistic words.
II is also vital that children shall be
taught q great number OF words, and
taught to difterentiate between
them, and to perceive that words are
like colors, the medium with which
we paint pictures. and that whether
the picture is vivid or dull and mean
hgless depends upon whether we. use
the word Of Just the proper shade Of
meaning or not.
Nothing Is more grostesquely pitiful
than the fact that with a dictionary
full Of words, just to be had for the
e1hih6s NdNCEdBO hiuANtadaA 6ONc
through life with only a handful Of
ill-assorted ones that he or she APP
plies to all sorts OF incongruous stu
ations. There are those, for instance,
who consider that the word swell
covers every possible variety of com-
mendation. They say that a beauti-
full woman Is swell" that Caruso Is
q swell singer, and Kipling a swell"
writer. e Anything they disapprove Is
punk" An ice cream soda that Is
too sweet Is punk" the sinking Of the
Lusitania was punk" this is
punk" war, and they had punk
time at the dance last night.
Still others lean their whole CONVEX
sational weight on 'the word "sure"
and would be speechless II It were
eliminated from our vocabulary. They
'sure" do everything, and are "sure%
certain about how things will turn
out. Still others depend upon "'cute"
to express the range OF their emo
tons. I once heard girl who was
standing on the rim OF the raging hell
OF the volcano Of Kileau exclaim, as
she looked down into its terrific
depths, "Oh, isn't 1t cute?' and moth
ing but the strongest effort at self
control prevented my pushing her in.
To permit children to grow UP with
vocabulary that is limited to sew
enty-five or a hundred words is to
dwarf them as much as IL you deprived
them OF the use of a leg or an arm.
You hamper their means OF express
ing themselves. You make them
dumb and inarticulate.
1t Is strange that we do not appre-
ciate what a handicap this is when
we are all victims to good takers, to
word artists. Among our friends the
ones that We are eager to have about
us are those who are entertaining
takers. those who have flexible vo-
cabularies, and know how to put things
before US in a humorous, vivid and en-
tertaining way. A good story teller or
good talker can pay his way with
his tongue and have the fat Of the
land for his sustenance.
And In business il is the man who
has a fluent command of language,
who can put his proposition graphi-
cally and alluringly before US, in
whose schemes We invest. Every
confidence man Is a glib talker. :
Mary Anderson onced asked the
poet Longfellow how she could ac-
quire a wide, beautiful and flexible
vocabulary, and he advised her TO
memorize a verse OF poetry every day
Of her life.
1t is a pity that We do not all follow
this sage advice.
Copyright, 1917. by the Wheeler syndicate Incl