Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-19

Amos n Andy, like Fritz Kreisler
and Charlie Sing, cannot be advertised,
although the fame of the Chinese
laundryman is confined to his street,
that of the blackface pair to the United
States, and that Of the great violinist
to the world.
Hence the tremendous amount OF
writing that is being done about A g. A.
as they are coming to be known for
short. Dignifed college professors are
penning learned articles upon them.
Parents of little children are beginning
to worry about them.
During the past week three fathers Of
small boys have signified their increaS-
ing perturbation at the grammar which
their little ones are learning from their
nightly sessions with Amos n Andy
over the radio.
They should not worry.
One of the reasons why children
like A g. A is the sublime indifference
of that pair to grammar, as such, and
no doubt they are right.
Grammar is a necessary bore in the
learning of ones so-called mother
tongue. There never was boy or girl
WHO liked bIlS STUDY VI SldlHuAdA
is a pretty big statement, but we believe
II is true-and there never will be one
who will-that is an even bigger one,
but boys and girls are pretty much
alike, age after age.
Children like A g. A for all of the
reasons that thsir elders do, but be-
meath them, we are convinced, lies the
healthy fact that they resent grammar,
and are doubly delighted to find two
grown-ups, who are so obviously ar-
proved of by their parents, nightly
making the most outrageous grammatI-
cal blunders uncorrected.
A & A say requested" for disguised.
"sho" for sure, "sitchiation" for situe-
ton, "incorpulated" for incorporated,
'recuse me" for excuse me- pro
trudin'" for intruding, remission" for
commission, '..propalition" for PROPOSE
ton, "repologize" for apologize, "unre-
ployment' for unemployment. dose
kind" for that kind, Il is" for l am,
"recountant" for accountant. COM
pilition" for competition, etc.
An examination shows that while
there are here some substitutions of
similar sounding words for the ones
meant, an old sage device much In use
in slap-stick comedy, the majority of
the novel forms used by A g. A are
strikingly original or based upon the
ordinary grammatical mistakes made
by poorly educated persons the world
over.
We will grant the eSthetic shock
which plain bad grammar gives to the
average person who has received the
average education, or better than aver
age schooling as such is conceived liz
these United States.
As a general thing poor grammi..
must be sugar-coated to make it ac-
csptable to such people. If a person
OF ones acquaintance suddenly asks,
Don't you want nothin' else?" there
comes over the one questioned a sort Of
mental shrinking comparable only tC
that experienced when hair IS found
in the soup
If the same question is put by Amos
to Andy, however, it becomes funny,
such is the force of comedy, backed by
the subtle mob psychology, which oper-
ates as surely over the air as any place
else. No person listening in the QuleC
of his living room to national hook.
up" but remembers, although he mey
not be exactly conscious of 1t, the mil
lions of other listeners out there in the
great "out there" which constitutes our
far-f1ung country.
We laugh at A & A in part. when We
are not being serious with them, for
the same reason that we laugh at the
black-face pair on the stage. What they
say Is funny in and of the situation !:
when we attempt to tell it later to a
friend, we all know how fiat it falls.
Thus the queer words, which to many
lis eners seem utterly unlike any Negro
dialect they ever heard, so different as