Newspaper Page Text
April 7, 1909. T*
OUR BRIGHTSIDE LETTER.
Can We Make Good Use of Slang?
One of the trials of the Foot of the
Table who is not an Autocrat is the
freqi"3t eruption of slang. Just where
it cjmes from, the street, or the shop,
cr the school, it is hard to say. It is
hard to keep it out of our table debates,
when the late president leaves his seven
years in the White House saying he has
had "a bully time," and the superintendent
of home missions for the reverend,
the Synod of Virginia, prints it in red
display in his effective bulletins.
i ue >vora siang' lias an uncertain
origin, possibly gipsy. And it is uncertain
also in its meaning; an Unauthorized
word or. phrase; a weed in
speech because it is out of place, not
good iorm, belonging to the low and
vulgar in life, and striving to take a
place in language better than its
birth. It is often shocking to ears
polite. And when it breaks out in our
table talk, what can the Foot do but
mildly protest, seeing that he is not
a recognized Autocrat?
Hut our language is not dead. It
represents and expresses the life of those
thai use it. With the active, growing
life of a people, there is growth in
knowledge, in observatiou, in vision, and
therefore growth in words. We get
thoughts and facts and new ideas from
below ourselves as well as from above,
and words and phrases come with them.
It is a common thing in language that
words tend to degenerate and seek lower
levels. In the old book, "The Diversions
of Purley," by Horne Tooke, and in the
mier suiaies or Words," by Dean
Trench, are many examples of the
descent of words from high birth and
noble uses to meanings, narrow, low,
sometimes shameful, as if language
partook of the depravity of those who*
talk and write. Why should it not also
be true that words ascend and climb
from the ignoble and unworthy, on the
character and thought of people as on
a trellis, up into light and a better life
until their origin and low birth are
forgotten? Certainly some wcrds have
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they knew in their childhood, and some
slang phrases of a very worldly and
unsentimental beginning have been put
to better uses.
So Ihe Foot of the Table has been
discoursing, when a pause gives him
opportunity, on some of the phrases that
he hears. When some one spoke of
"things that matter," for example, he
used the chance to talk. It can scarcely
he Onllert eloncr Kn? H l? ? 11
_ ?ul. 11 10 a wen worn
phrase which it is very well to hold ou
to. He undertook to say that It
suggested distinctions that it is wise
to make and would be very useful
to some young people that he knew.
Manners are "things that matter," and
correct grammar and neatness in dress,
and habits of punctuality, and exact
dealings, and consideration, and reverence,
and such like things. They matter
in making the young person himself
what he ought to be, and they matter
In making the estimate held of him by
the world around him. It was soou
suggested, however that someone was
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preaching and public debate was resumed
with a rush.
When it was told that a friend was
"making good," the Foot of the Table
declared it was a fine phrase and a noble
thing to do, and there was a short
deliverance on what means to "makft
good," to use the opportunity to fulfil
the nromisB nf -l " ? *'
A ...?>, vi . f^ino auu Lilt? UUIlgcltlOll
of talents The boy who lives up to the
chance he has, who meets the hopes of
his friends, who fulfils the best things:
of his manhood, who wins the goal in
his manly race, who comes in from the
wide and perilous sea of life with a
rich cargo of worthy achievement,
that's the one who "makes good." And
the good he has made by his own
fidelity and energy is chiefly in himself.
He has not only woven a chaplet
for his own brow, but he has made himself
a better, atrnncop
MV. v..0w t itv/uici mail.
The last opportunity the Foot had to
preach at the Table was when one said
to another, about some trifling thing,
"It's up to you!" How could he fail,
though it was only about a challenge to
football or a foot race, how could he
fail to say,- "Yes, It's up to you," each
of you?
"It's up tc you!" to prove your manhood,
to make the best yourself, to win
success, to rescue the life entrusted to
you and make it a goodly heritage for
yourself and a splendid gift to the world.
But the "Table" called a halt on the
stolen preaching, and we heard the
slang again as they crowded out.
J. P. 8.
THE LEES-McRAE INSTITUTE.
This institution, which has, during its
nine years of existence, been a most
potent factor for good, will again open
its doors on the first of MnV
Situated as it is, among the majestic
mountains of North Carolina, where the
student bodjF live near to nature's heart
and drink into their hearts and minds
the purity and soul uplifting influences
of their natural environments, no one
could ask for a more ideal spot.
The young women who have been so
fortunate as to be received into thi3
home (for a home it is in every sense)
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have one by one gone out from its
walls to take their places in the world
and only God can know the influence
which through them it wields over the
surrounding country.
Lianner Elk, the little village, in
which the school is located, is about
4,000 feet above the sea level. It Is
easy of access and still so far removed
from the hum and stir of busy life that
the girls have little to take their minds
from their books.
When the school assembles In May
(it ruDs from May to Christmas), winter
is just beginning to abdicate, and spring
with its reviving life is beginning to
clothe the mountains in its garb of
fresh green. In a short time the
beautiful rhododendron is one great
mass of bloom, making the mountains
sides a perfect dream of beauty. Then
the daisies, the pure white daisies, with
their great colden hpnrta *w
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land. When these have passed away
and autumn comes with her royal purple
and scarlet, the sight is a magnificent
one.
The teachers come from some of the
most refined and cultured homes in our
land. The girl who is fortunate enough
to spend eight months under their influence
and instruction is not likely to
fall short of a high ideal in life.
The curriculum is equal to that of
any high school in the land. Besides
the ordinary branches of a good literary
course, including a thorough course in
the Bible. th? eriiia vmvo ? '
, w 0.. UM*? niv> uypui lUUliy
of careful instruction in art, music and
industrial work. In the last named
department they are taught to bottom
chairs, weave rugs, make baskets, sew
and cook.
By running the school during the
summer and without any servants' hire,
the prices for board and tuition are so
low that in many instances, it is
cheaper for parents to keep their
daughters here than it is to keep them
at home.
For further particulars write Rev.
Edgar Tufts, Banner Elk, N. C.
Mildred B. Watkins.
Moss Point, Miss.