Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-28

The gingham dog and the calico cat
Side by side on a grammar sat;
Twas half past IL, and (what do you
think?)
Not one or the other had slept a
wink!
The bottle of ink and the fountain
Declared the two would fight again
And waited for a terrible spat.
(Of course. I wasn't there just then,
Twas told to me by the fountain
pen.)
1t seems the two had fought before,
And carried on a terrible war,
And this is how the fight began:
The gingham dog was called II Can"
And the calico cat, though twas a
sin,
Always went by the name, "I Kin"
So Can killed Kin forevermore.
(And this tale is true, think,
For it came to me from the bottle of
ink.)
DY parodies of child rhymes, OF
X which the quoted adaptation of
Eugene Fields The Duel" is
typical, Detroit teachers will drill
their pupils in pure English during
Better Speech Week." November
to s.
Better Speech Week" originated
in the Eastern District High School
of Brooklyn, n. Y, in 1915, and in
the four years since it has spread to
almost every state of the Union. In
Detroit, for example, plans for the
week this year are especially lavish
inspired by Miss Claudia E. Crump-
ton, secretary of the committee on
American speech of the National
Council of Teachers of English, who
is teacher in Detroit high school,
A few of the features of the pro-
posed program have been described
in the Detroit News.
In the beginning, every school
child will be required to make the
following pledge, prepared by Mrs
Howard l.. Willett, of the Chicago
Woman's Club:
The Better Speech Pledge
/ love the United States of Amer
lea. L love my country's flag; l love
my country's language. l promise:
That l will not dishonor my coun-
try's speech by leaving off the last
syllables of words;
That / will say a good American
yes and mo" in place of an Indian
grunt, "Umhum" and "Humum," OF
a foreign va" or ''yeh" and nope;
That l will do my best to improve
American speech by enunciating dis
tinctly and by speaking pleasantly
and sincerely;
That l will try to make my coun-
try's language beautiful for the many
nd rirIc Of hr
come here to live;
That will learn to articulate cor.
rectly one word a day for one year
From this point the pupils will
carry on their propaganda for pure
speech with parodies of poems and
songs. posters, tableaux and allegori-
cal plays.
They now are drilling in tableau1
and pageants picturing the fight anc
victory of good English over bad
An adaptation of st. George and the
Dragon is one of these. st. George
represents the knights of Coco
English. bad English" is the
dragon he must overcome. a dragon
scaled with language errors emilia
zoned on bits of paper.
The English Truants
In another tableaux, the meddle
SOIIlG HdnuOTd DOA ana re
leases a great cloud of speech error.
to harass the words till they are
gathered up again and locked il
their chest
The elementary grades have 6
M ore ambitious program. of which
an allegorical play, English Tru
ants" an adaptation of Frank Stock
tons Christmas Truants," is one o.
the most interesting features.
Grown weary of teachers who in
sist on pure speech, little band o.
children runs away from school. Blu
| they have not gone far when the!
are captured by the Robbers o
Good English" who carry then
! off to their lair, Ignorance Castle.
There the children have a dream
in which the great men of their lane
come before them, Benjamin Frank
| lin, Abraham Lincoln and Theodor,
Roosevelt appear before them IL
! their vision, each in some scene from
I his life depicting his struggle TO
| better English. Awaking they lister
| in terror to their captors planning
raids on the alphabet and conjur
! ing up slang phrases as weapon
against the pure words of the Ian
! guage.
| "Do Without Clubs
| Then it is that the children plaI
their escape. Selling their captors
! who are intent on plans for furthe