Year: 1865

If there is any one thing that especially
characterizes the society Of the present day. it


is the habit Of exaggeration. It is illustrated
more particularly in the general style of con.
versation among the rising generation. To
one who listens for moment to q conversation
Of young people on boat or car, or in draw
ing room, the truth of the above remark will
be at once apparent. 1t really seems difficult
for those conversing to express themselves in
q moderate way upon any topic, no matter how
trivial. At first thought this may appear as Of
not much moment; but the practice, continued,
becomes of serious Inconvenience in reference
to conveying facts correctly. A young lady,
seated in her parlor, hears Of friend who has
broken leg, or disocated collar bone, or
has cut his finger. She exclaims, "what an
awful cut!' or. chow perfectly horriblew If
her friend had tumbled down stairs and broken
his neck, in what possibly stronger terms could
she have expressed herself7 So, in picture
gallery. fair painting meeting her eye, having
some feature in it which she particularly fances,
she cries, "Splendid! most magnificent! but
casting her eye on the one next in order, she
sees "The Heart of the Andes," and having
no language to express q higher degree Of
comparison, she says "most magni6cent!'-
This picture is not too highly colored. Every
one who reads this will, we are sure, irnmedi.
ately recall many similar instances, per-
haps, too, OF more striking character than
even this.


Indeed, if We ., nation, 20 On in this direc-
ton, in the same ratio as we have for the last
few years, we shall become people celebrated
for dealing in hyperbolc and cxaggeration. If
it were an exaggeration in ideas simply, the
consequences would not be 80 pernicious.-
Eastern nations, like the Arabs and Pcrsians,
and barbaric nations in general, clothe their
ideas with poetry, oftentimes of the most glow
ing kind-as witness for example some Of the
beautiful creations of our own aborigines -
There is, however, a compensation in thus
accustoming the mind to images of picturesque
beauty, which does not exist in the prosaic tone
Of the present day; here it is simply naked
truth, unrelieved by a single pleasant tint.


How, then, it may be asked, can this be
remedied? The first antidote is in the press
the great organ for good or evil. especially in
the use of language. Nor, indeed, is it any
more than just if the entire labor of correcting
this evil is thrown upon the press, since to the
latter may be traced, in q great measure, the
source of all the trouble. 1t is, perhaps, not
too much to say that it does more to mould
society in its habits of thought and modes of
expression than any other known agency-cer.
tainly more than books or even the pulpit, for
they are cast aside or uIlheard when the news.
paper penetrateS the family circle ana forces
itself upon the privacy Of each individual
member. 1t has been q matter Of common re.
mark, more especially within the last year or
two, that new words, coined for a purpose,
have been taken from the paper in which they
were first used, to become part and parcel OF
daily conversation. The press adds new words
and new forms of expression to the language
daily, and its tone of excitement is given to
the community. The newspaper press teams
with continued exaggerations-as ridiculous as
they are injurious to readers, especially the
Young, who are led astray. A notable example
may be given, when the press, in speaking of
the murder of our late President places him on
a level with all the greatest men of the past
or present for purity and intellect, exhaustins
language to swell his praises The people fol.
low, and evene a minister Of the gospel, from
the desk. with shocking profanity, lkens him
to the Savior Of mankind. Such exaggera.
tons defeat their own object, and fail to live
as verities in history. These sweeping enco-
miums with very many, produce the very effect
which was not intended And it might be
shown that among journalists, as with individu.
ais, general looseness in writing and talking
produces IN time corresponding Ioosehess III
regard 10 the truth.-Journ0I of Commerce.