The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-09-22
ON SECOND THOUGHT
By JAY =. HOUSE.
tFron Philadslphia Public Lsdess.l

Herewith writes the esteemed
editor of the American Boy. "is the
beginning of our campaign to make
American boys politicians" 1t is d
grand work. Itiwon't affect the boys
ONE way or another, but 1t viii pro-
vide an ADDITIONAL outlet for the voiun-
tary advisers of the human race who
fancy they have q message, to deliver
to it. -s ~.
We regret that we shall be unable
to join Or contribute to the movement.
We are at the moment committed to
the founding Of a great schoo.Ndevotee
to intoxicating in the rising generation
the rudiments of good taste.> Better
taste is this, country's crying need. Il
is the solution of virtually all of its
social and most OF its political Ills.
Three Letters Already Yet.
-Sir-"My off is an is easy. but did
it ever BATTLE?
The other day we stopped to watch
a crowd coming away from q county
fair. A large family came along and
filed into q French Ford-all except
the father. He looked at me, then
walked over and said: Here's a sea-
son ticket that is not all. Do you
want it?"
Later on we discussed it. I volubly
praised the hospitality and friendliness
member of my party dumfounded my
ardor with an expressed opinion that,
instead of friendliness, 1t was a case of
Dutch thrift that would not counte-
nance the wasting of a ticket that was
not already "an. Nevertheless.
they're a great people.
In spite of common opinion to the
contrary, the queer colloQuialisms do
not impress me as being the most dis
tinctive features of rural Pennsyl-
vania speech. Consider their manner
of asking question. When q west
erner asks, did you get it2" he lets
his voice reach it's highest pitch at
the end of the question, leaving il
poised there, expectantly waiting an
answer. (Did you get IT?) A Penn
sylvanian will reach his highest pitch
on the next to the last word and then
let his voice suddenly fall. (Did you
GET IT'D This seems to me more
distinctive.
Go to MiIlheim's and ask Peter
Scheirer to ask, Cant you carry it.
Harry?" and hear how he does it,,
"A. r. W.
Sir-Your correspondent, N. j.. ask.
ing for an Interpretation of His Off
is ALL" doesn't give the complete sem
tence. which is, It'll Saturday still his
off is ALL"
Here is another: A young lady
from Allentown goes to an up-to-date
college and in due time comes home
with classical education. one morn
ing she was taking breakfast with her
father and mother. Her brother,
Jake, was late, so she went to the
stair door and called: Jake, come
down and eat yourself; MONS on the
table and Pops half et." J. II. F.
- Sir--I am not exactly a LititZian
CHow do you pronounce ito, but was
born in and for twenty-five years lived
within ten miles of the famous pretzel
town. and that should give me some
qualifications. My guess is that HIS
off Is air means, His vacation has
ended."-
However. want to say I never
heard the expression used in the vi
cinity OF Eititz, and would. consider il
found only in the dictionary used by
such writer's as Helen r. Martin.
very much overgrown. Pennsylvania
Dutch is not usually as bad "as she is
told" or "as she is printed" -
Our own notion is that Louie Halls
version of the experience of the Phila-
delphia travelling man who spent a
Saturday night upstate is the best
story on the Pennsylvania Dutch. But
1t is too precious for PRONUNCIATION in
newspaper. II you wish to hear IL
from US, you must ask for a private
sitting.
AS we have hitherto observed. the
Yankee dialect Is the most graceful,
scholarly and grammatical of the
native idioms. That OF the Pennsyl-
Sania Dutch is the quaintest. The
most atrociotIs was that of the middle
west Of thirty or forty years ago. The
speech of the middle west. Is more
nearly correct and moresfiuent, now:
the fresh-water college is doing its
work. But in the time OF which we
write 1t made gentle women weep and,
strong men shudder. 1T was COM
pounded Of ignorance and all of the
various dialects that had swept west
ward across the Alleghenies and risen
above Mason and Dixons line. The
final "g' was an unknown quantity;
the result of combat between popular
tongue and the most ordinary words
of everyday speech was unspeakabiS
hideous