The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-30
GROW OLD, P E R I s H, ARE FORGOTTEN so DO WORDS-THE DEAD WORDS IN THE DICTIONARY W HY HIGHLY EDUCATED M EN OFTEN MAKE IN E F F E C T W E $ P E E C H E s - BELLY" PHELPS AS AN AMBASSA- DOR OF THE LIV- ING TONGUE.

Into the world countless myriads Of men and women have been born in their time and have passed on. Cities are incalcuab1y ancient. Some are gone down in the dust of centuries But each city in it's time had it's men and women who were as famous to their people and as well known as Fred Atwater Is, say, to Bridgeport people; or William Jennings Bryan, or Theodore Roosevelt to the people of the United States. The Pharoah of Moses was famous in his day. So were countless kings and others
 
 These great dead are little known and little remembered, save by a few highly specialized individuals. Sup pose that here and there men should go about talking familiarity of those who so many centuries are passed away. Such persons would be thought demented. Nobody would under stand. What they said might be true and very intelligent, but it would sound foolish, because the facts and the meanings would not be in the minds of the rest of us.
 Words are like individuals. They are borns and they die The life of a word is usually longer than the life of a man. but no word has immortal ity. It is sure in time to go out of use. It will be substituted by some other word. Its name may be pre- served .r the dictionary. but it's mem ory will vanish from the minds of the anultttude. The word is dead. Some other word has taken its place.
 
 Take down the dictionary. If it ts a. fairly modern book, at the bottom of every age there will be many words which are listed as dead. or dying. Some of these are old and senile words. Some are young and infantileI words that were attempted. which had 8 brief existence and went then to the cemetery
 Living speech proceeds from the activities of Mvtng men. It is a pro duct of the things which men are do- ing The new words come from the activities of this day. They are born at a baseball game, in the laboratory of an Edison. or in the factory of the Locom obt1e comany, where auto- mobiles are made. which, in time, be- come autos Bridgeport has given birth pehTlaps to a number of new words, which have a fair chance of life
 The old words are in the old books, the moribund and the healthy. Edu- cated men, esecial1y of the bookish type. the more especially If they are highly educated" as the phrase is. know too many mori1bund words. in a world in which there are too many sick, too many ghosts.
 This is why the speech of such per sons delivered from pulpit, in essay or novel often bears fruit incommen- st,rate with the worth of the thought. If people are to understand they must be addressed in words familiar to them Their ears must receive the lar gest number of vivid. understandable words and the smallest number of sick. or gf.ostly visitors
 Dante wrote in the speech the peo- pie understood. Mccormack sings the music the people understand, and helps them to understand some that would otherwise remain beyond their comprehension. Prof William Lyon Phelps. whom >Bridgeporter's delight to call Billy performs for the Eng Iish tongue the delightful service of an ambassador between the old and tiIe new. In what he writes and in what he says, he is modern and vivid, | without being flippanJ or needless of | the past. He breaches the wisdom of | books. and leaves their Journalism be- hind. The wiSd doIn of books did not 1 end with Shakespeare, no more than | Newton gave the last word to science l
 This gentle and generous hearted | professor who has delivered to our | city some forty lectures and some sew | eral addresses of sorts and kinds, is a | welcome and a useful visitor who well 1 deserved the fine banquet which the l Business and Professional Women's | club gave to him, last night. Our city | hopes tc hear him many times yet, and ] to welcome him in many coming years !