ism is often correct in grammar and in words. Indeed, there is just one complaint to be made; it is like the coin of a small country, not acceptable outside of a narrow area. In ordinary speech, or in private writing, it is no more necessary to give up your native colloquialisms than to change the local accent by which you pronounce your words. But in public speaking and writing they must be dropped; for either they will be unintelligible, or they will attract attention which you wish kept upon your sense. The Maryland politician who appealed to an Oregon audience as "You all who reckon that you have found the finest climate in the world," raised a laugh when he wished applause.

Slang. Slang is language not yet in good use. A small part of it is good and will one day be adopted. A large part of it is temporary, local, and weak in its power of expression. The proper attitude toward slang in conversation is an attitude of discrimination. If you wish to decorate your language with a few flowers of slang, do not be afraid to do so; if you use much, your chances of good speech are lost. But in formal writing and formal speaking slang should be resolutely avoided.

Slang is dangerous for two reasons. In the first place, since it is new language, since it is not sanctioned by good use, it is almost sure to be local, and narrow in its application. Boston slang is not the same as San Francisco slang. College slang differs from the slang of the streets. Baseball slang is unintelligible except to the baseball enthusiast. Therefore, every bit of slang you use in writing or speaking intended to carry beyond a very small circle, imperils your chance of clearness. Slang in a business letter sent from one part of the country to another might result in a costly misunderstanding. "I've got you," the man wrote to his broker, using the phrase in its current meaning of "I understand you."

But his correspondent thought that he meant, “I've caught you"; and it took a dozen letters to patch up the quarrel which followed.

A still greater danger comes from the indefiniteness of slang. A slang word has not been cut and polished by usage until it denotes a definite thing. Take the word "hunch," or dope, if you are a slang lover, you use them with a dozen different meanings. You cannot misuse standard words like "particular" or "credit" in the same fashion. The fault, then, is, first, that your word in its dozen senses may convey the wrong meaning; next, and more important, that you will get the habit of using it when other words should be used. These will drop out from, or never come into, your vocabulary, and you will be so much the poorer in your speech. The boy who says, "This lesson is good dope; it's a cinch," is using picturesque language, and the friend of the family smiles at his quaintness. But when he continues, "I'm feeling dopy," and then, looking for a glass of water, asks "Where's the dope?" the family visitor is puzzled, and you yourself may wonder whether after a while he will not reduce his vocabulary to the level of the animals, who make a dozen sounds convey all their feelings and their wants.

Don't despise slang. It is language in the making. But remember that it is still half-baked, and poor food for the mind in comparison with the infinitely broader, infinitely more effective made language, with which you are as yet only partially acquainted.

EXERCISES

I. Rewrite the following in standard English:

1. It was the last inning of the deciding game between Boston and New York; the score was a goose egg for either side. New York had last lick and was now at bat. The first man up broke his

back trying to whack the pill, but hit the next one into center for a single. The next man died on the fast shoots of "Smoky Joe." The third man lifted a pop fly to center, but the fielder killed it. Two down! Now was the time for Jim Doyle to have his name pasted in the "Hall of Fame." He walked slowly to the plate, cracked the first ball square on the nose, and it went sailing on its lightning trip over the center field fence. "Some kid, eh!" croaked an over-enthusiastic spectator, and "believe muh," it was some wallop. Well, to end this season's baseball news, let us add that in the book of fame Jim Doyle's name leads all the rest.

2. Jim was the toughest mug on the East Side. He was a newsy and was known to every bloke in that vicinity. Consequently he made a lot of coin, sometimes even taking in two or three beans a day. Whenever the newsies had a row Jim was right there; and if the smaller kid was getting licked Jim pitched into the big guy. He only measured four foot nine, but he knew how to handle his lunch hooks. Jim was the main squeeze of the neighborhood and he was mighty proud of it.

3. Yes, I've cut out the slang stuff," Nell was telling her latest "gentleman friend." "Gee, but my talk was gettin' fierce! I'd worked up a line o' fable-material that had George Ade backed off the map and gasping for wind, but I've ditched all that now. I seen it was up to me to switch onto another track. Jammed on my emergency brakes one day and says to myself: 'You mutt, where you think you'll wind up if you don't slough this rough guff you're shovin' across on your unprotected friends? You never will land a Johnny-boy that's enough gray matter in his cupola to want a real, bang-up flossy lady for his kiddo instead of a skirt that palavers like a brain-storm with a busted steerin'-gear.' Any girl can talk like a lady, even if she never gets closer to one than to stretch her neck when some swell dame buzzes past in her gas-wagon. I says to yours truly, 'It's time to reformate your grammar, little sister,' and you betcher sweet life I've cut the mustard."-Satire.

II. (a) Define as accurately as possible the slang words in your vocabulary.

(b) Make a list of archaisms, provincialisms, barbarisms, improprieties, with which you come in contact or are fa

miliar. Write equivalents in standard English for each. (c) Collect all the foreign words you can find used in the books you are reading. Note those for which English provides perfect substitutes.

VARIETY IN WORDS

Feed words to your mind. Only so can you hope to give the thousand new thoughts forming there a chance to realize themselves, to formulate themselves in your consciousness, and become fitted to pass on to others. Some of this work is being done for you. Your teachers in Physics, in Chemistry, in Botany, in Geography, are daily feeding you words and trying to make you remember and use them. Indeed, all teaching from one point of view is the insertion of ideas which are to be pinned down in your brains by words. But much of the work you must do yourself. For one thing, find out the meaning of every new word you come across. If you can use it, adopt it for your vocabulary. If you cannot, let it go until you meet it on some more auspicious occasion.

Synonyms and Shades of Meaning. Again, learn the richness of your tongue; learn especially its word families: its synonyms which are those words which express with slight differences in connotation the same thing; and its groups of words which are not synonyms, and yet express with different shadings the same general idea. How pitiable is the speaker who cannot vary his expression by substituting volume for book, tumbler for glass, leap for jump, wild for savage, moan for groan, if need be. How weak the writer who must confine himself to he said " or she said " because he has not considered that he or she might have whispered, spoken, cried, groaned, urged, consented, demanded,

N

66

cooed, murmured, piped, thundered, sobbed, exploded, trembled, gurgled, triumphed, bleated, moaned, choked, or pleaded. Never descend to the level of the "local correspondent" of the country newspaper who writes by conventionalized phrases" a pleasant time was had," "last but not least,"

66

as pretty as a picture." The bloom has gone from these phrases; they have been used and re-used until they mean almost nothing. It is said that in the early days of the London Times certain phrases of this nature were cast entire so as to save the printer the trouble of picking out the type. "Dreadful robbery," "atrocious outrage," "fearful calamity," were among them. Have no solid blocks in your vocabulary. Be ready to apply fresh words and combinations of words whenever you need them. It is far better to follow the practice of the modern newspapers of the better kind, which post in their offices a list of hackneyed phrases and forbid their use.

Books of synonyms containing word families are accessible in every library, but you will find, ordinarily, that an unabridged dictionary will serve all your purposes. It is not the memorizing of groups of words that is being urged upon you, nor the artificial substitution of one word for another to save repetition, although that is well enough if not done too artificially. It is rather the attempt to express always your exact thought, cost what it may in trouble; and this means that when the first word will not do, you shall not stop until you find the right one.

EXERCISES

I. (a) In a special notebook, put down each day every new word you encounter, with its meaning, with the sentence in which it occurred, and with a new sentence of your own in which it is used.