The New York herald., 1921-03-17
Start, Friend of Man.
The Word People Turn To OH All
Possible Occasions.

To THE New YoRK HERALD: / do not
blame the reporters. ! was once re-
porter and my sympathies are always
with them. Besides. they are not the
only offenders. Novelists, essayists, adj
vertisement writer's, correspondents, ora
tors, takers Of every grade, all arc
equally involved in this matter. The
fault Is primarily with the dictionaries
For many years the editors and pub
fishers of these presumably useful tones
have been striving TO render them al
most useless by making them larger and
larger, heavier and heavier. so that the
weary task OF lifting and consulting all
that avoirdupois is undertaken not more
than once when II would be repeated ten
times were It not that a derrick Of steel
or Of muscle is required. Advantage is
taken, commercially. of that large class
OF persons who do not feel entirely COM
Portable unless they have In the house
large family Bible and an unabridged
quarto dictionary, however infrequently
either may be consulted Looking over
one OF the great and boastfrl diction-
aries-Daniel Lambert cdition-ther
newly published. Charles A. Dana said
to me 1T Is too much for a dictionary
and not enough for cyclopadia."
III the publishers were wise enough to
make the dictionaries as small as they
can be and yet contain MI that is neces-
sary instead OF stufing them with all
sorts of unpertinent matter they would
make more money; for then the books
would be used constantly and rapidly
worn out to be replaced by new copies.
II Is true that there are small diction-
aries, but do not know of one that Is
constructed with any high degree Of edi-
torial skill.
Now, as a venturesome traveller pene-
trates a dark continent and comes out
with information as TO his discoveries
which few others ever will venture 10
seek for themselves, so / have pene-
trated the jungles Of those imposing lex
icons and have brought out some dis
coverics that hardly anybody appears to
have known about. Let me mention
here some OF the most important.
/ discovered the words prepare" "at-
ten1pt." 'begin," 'make ready" and 'set
out" I give you my solemn assurance
that these are all there, all good English.
All waiting patiently TO be recognized,
and you are at liberty to use them.
know this IS news to you because
Won haAs.ually make start" do duty on
All occaylons for every one OF them
You do not say that Major Putnam at
tempted 70 speak before prejudiced and
IN hammered audience. You say he
started to speak" You do not say the
tenant prepared 70 move. You say he
"sta rted TO move" You never say the
merchant has begun 20 reduce his prices
You say he has started reducing prices"
You never say that Uncle John set out
for Mexico. You say he Started for
Mexico"
Some months ago when one OF our
great papers was about 10 publish an
interesting serial story we were con-
fronted by a great poster on which
conspicuous line advised us TO start
reading II next Sunday" Some persons
start In" 10 do a thing while others
"start out" TO do the same thing And
IN a certain tale wfsn the hero "started
10 find fault the heroine started 20
sob" while In a new novel the lady
started walking rapidly"
Humpty Dumpty told Alice that when
he made q word do extra work he gave
n extra pay If we were as honest as
Humpty Dumpty what an enormous bill
that little overloaded faototum start"
nlsht present
There are other inexcusable solecisms