USE GOOD ENGLISH
Use Good English This is Lesson XV in a series of short, simple lessons in English, by C. R. Rounds, Inspector of English, Wisconsin State Normal Schools.) LISTEN How many who are now reading...
...There are many such expressions...
...but through being used too much, they stimulate no interest whatevei...
...but now it is used by many people so commonly that it no longer arouses the slightest curiosity...
...If that should happen, we should all soon get so that we would pay no attention even though an alarm for a real fire might be sounded...
...They once had a good, clear, useful of-fice...
...that you utter...
...It adds no emphasis whatever...
...The result would be no coal lands would be leased at all except to these various claimants...
...I know it is...
...Copyright, 1914, by C. R. Rounds * * * GIVING away Alaska...
...LISTEN How many who are now reading this, always say "Listen...
...Lenroot said: "The bill provides that all leases shall be subject to 'valid existing rights,' and then throws open the doors of the district court of Alaska for suits against the United States to determine their rights after it has leased the coal...
...before they make any statement to their friends...
...Suppose you were to fine yourself for every useless "Listen...
...The worst of it is, when careful users of English desire to use these words where they belong, scarcely anyone gets their real force...
...You will be frightened, maybe, to see how difficult it is to hold yourself to a clean, clear, chaste, honest statement of exactly what you mean...
...Wombat...
...Then suppose you start in at once to set a watch upon your tongue, to make it say just what you mean, no more and no less, for one day...
...Finally, the bill fixes a maximum royalty upon the coal mined of five cents a ton...
...In the meantime, suppose you study your own speech and see how many silly, useless, harmful exaggerations have crept into your speech and become fixed habits with you...
...several times a day without meaning it at all...
...When it is remembered the Guggenheim syndicate actually made a contract with the Cunningham claimants for a royalty equal to 50 cents a ton, we see how little regard the Democratic senate has for the public interest" * * * The Cure "Doctor," said the druggist, "this is a bitter mess you have ordered for Mr...
...This expression, which had a very worthy object at the start, has degenerated until, in most instances, it means absolutely nothing...
...would it not be a good thing...
...In a recent statement, Mr...
...Next week we shall note some of these words that we use so extravagantly...
...It is as though people got the habit of yelling "Fire...
...When it first came into use, about twelve years ago, it gave a touch of intimacy and interest to one's conversation, and was, on the whole, rather attractive...
...Trying to cure him of calling me out in the middle of the night when there's nothing the matter with him...
...That is the way Representative Irvine Len-root of Wisconsin, characterized the Alaska coal bill as passed by the United States Senate...
...What are you trying to cure him of...
...Louisville Courier-Journal...
Vol. 6 • October 1914 • No. 42
