Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-31
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

reluctant world. We would guarantee
that there isn't book in print in which
discerning grammarian could not IND
one or more-mostly more-mistakes,
ranging all the way from the forgiv-
able to the unforgivable.
Always there are these two sorts but
no one man can be in position to
judge surely into which classification
an error goes, because no man can
know all the circumstances in given
case. There are men who speak and
write we'll, and yet who have favorite
grammatical mistakes Ca misnomer in
sense. for mistake cannot be gram
maticaD, just as they use certain pro-
nounciationS which strike others as
queer.
The nearly half million words in the
great dictionaries are so replete with
curious twists of language that he would
be a bold man indeed who would set
himself up as master of them all.
We have never heard any one, no
matter how we'll educated, who did not
have at least one wrong pronunciation
in his repertoire. A curious fact in
human nature is that sometimes he who
makes the most mistakes himself is the
first to call attention to other peoples
errors. often the man who puts
thought first is too busy to worry about
perfection, either in grammar or speech.
He knows that grammar is, after all, the
mechanics of language. 1t is possible
for his publisher to see to such things
if necessary. Some men are gifted with
positive genius when 1t comes to de-
tecting errors in diction, choice of words.
grammar, punctuation, and so on.
There has Just come on the market an
interesting book in which the author
shows a complete lack OF knowledge OF
what the mark known as the dash Is
for. 1t is used between 10 and 20 times
on every page. Scarcely once in a hun
bred times is it used correctly, for the
dash is one of the most misused marks
of punctuation, and its proper use re-
quires intuition, rather than knowl-
edge, unless one cares to call intuition
superknowledge, which perhaps 1t is.
X * x
Our point is that this needless mis-
| take, as heavy as it is, in no sense takes
away from the suspense of the nara
| tive, although one finds 1t rather both
ersome at times. This points to the
plain truth, as we see it, that grammar
must never be taken too seriously; and
we believe it never WILL so long as a
reader or fellow human being is willing
| to admit acknowledge is the province
| of God alone. and that even faulty
human beings may make mistakes with
calm disregard of error, since in the
eternal width of things it is small, after
all.
One cannot look upon the funda-
mentals, however, in any such tolerant
light. A young man who has come to
the dignity of studying law should pos
sess the basis of grammatical speech. If
he does not have it, his teachers should
be the first to make him retrace his
| educational steps and catch up with his
own procession.
Would not judge and jury. and even
! his client, laugh him to scorn If he
| addressed the bar In any such terms
as he used to his companion in the bus
| that beautiful Spring day Of the year
of our Lord 1890?
! All of them would be suspicious OF his
| legal knowledge if he could set 1t forth
| in no better terms. They would feel
/ that a man who could be so faulty IN
! his grammar might be equally in error
| in his citations. And what would he
/ do to the classic Latin tongue, whose
terms still form so large a part OF legal
I lore?
We hope we have said enough to show
the desirability of the application OF
common sense and the golden mean to
speech, grammar, law and whatnot
| Without the one, we may frown toe
| heavily on errors or excuse them toe
freely; without the other. we run the
great danger of speaking either out OF
! the book or from the gutter.