Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-09-25
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRAcEWELL.

get a sitting of the news once q week. .
Those advertisements on the 'front.'
cover pages of such weeklies Will strike
the American reader squarely between
the eyes. Here are few square inches
devoted to an oil which is celebrated
IN English fiction. AS n matter OF TACT,
II was SO famous so many years ago
that doilies for the back Of chairs came
into being to keep it of the cloth when
men leaned their heads back.
The sense Of ancient of days is what
continually strikes the fresh American
reader of English magazines. There is
time sense, as it were, which contin-
ually impresses the hasty reader.
one cannot get away from that OLD
stolidity, as If the very men who were
responsible for these publications were
standing there, hat in hand, saying:
Take your time. We have been put
ting this thing out for two or three
hundred years, and we expect to be
doing 1t q thousand years from now"
y
There Is something else, too, which
Immediately inpresses the careful
reader OF English publications, espe-
cially those which deal with books.
1t Is the tremendous freedom with
which they handle English.
After all, 1t is their language, is 1t
not?
And they know how to use It,
Behind even the briefest book review
there peers forth great erudition.
But this knowledge is not of the d.
dactic Sort but almost solely that flne
freedom Of usage based on perfect I'M
Outstanding.
They know more words than we do,
nd
use word which an American is sem
Sible must be in the dictionary, but
with which he is not personally &C.
quainted, they do so in such a way as
to show Immediately by its context the
exact meaning
In other words, no reader Of an Eng
fish book review in an English maya
zine will be in the slightest doubt at
any point what the writer means.
Their handling Of words for words
sake is joy.
Words for words sakel
Yes, there Is such thing. It Is bet
ter than art for arts sake, however, for
it has an eminently practical value,
since it puts the mind of the writer and
the reader in harmony.
Mind, the English writer's are using
our language, too, but so many Of them
make it almost a new tongue by the
perfect familiarity which they have
with it.
Sometimes it seems as If American
writers of all degrees are afraid of their
own tongue. They are bound down by
rules and are fearful to talk in public
lest some critical wight take them to
task for dropping the "g."
The English, on the other hand. clip
their endings in an almost fearsome
manner. Some of their RECOMMENDATIONS
are tremendous, such as Tulliver for
Taliaferro. Beecham for Beauchamp
and KlaverS for Claverhouse.
y X X 4
The English have been using English
for SO much longer than we, as Ameri-
cans. have been using American Eng
lish that it is no wonder, perhaps, that
they tend to be more honest in their
uSageS.
AS fine as all this is, however, the
American reader will not find English
magazines to his liking after the first
interest Of something new has worn of.
What is it they lack?
Why, the American temper, of course
They lack get-up- and-go, the down.
right spirit of movement which our
magazines possess to the full-perhaps
to the too full sometimes This inter-
national business is mostly the bunk.
When you are an American you are an
American, thank God!