Girls and the Use of Slang.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 288, 6 December 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

Girls and the Use of Slang.

She was a very nice-looking girl, says the • Ladies' Homo Journal ;' sha had brighb eyes that glsamed alike with fun and determination. She had on a pretty brown dress, her glovss fitted her perfectly, and sho wore the dainfcesb of brown straw hats. She paid her fare in tho street car, and, as she closed her purse with a snap, she said, ' I'm getting very tired of it, and I don' 6 intend to allow myself to indulge in it any longer.' She was tired of hearing a girl say she was • dead struck ' on a young man, when she thought he was very pleasant)* Of hearing another one announce that she thought rose-coloured ribbons were very 'swagger , —that is, fashionable, Or, again, stigmatising an impertinent young man as 'too fresh, , or calling the grandmother an 'old girl.' It was all unladylike; and yeb these very girls wore ones who were in the habit of hearing good Eng-; Hah spoken, of reading good booke,, and who, after a little thought, knew exactly how abominably they were speaking. Bat it was a bad habit, and a bad habit is more easily gotten than gotten rid of. However, they are doing it; they, formed a little ' anti-slang band,' each time a slang word is used a penny ia dropped into the slob of an earthen ware savingsbox thab cost just a penny, and every girl; is put-on her honour to keep account wheaj she is away, and to duly attend to her, debts. 1.0.U.'s are accepted, though as. yet only one hae been offered. There is a seriousbelief that at the end' of 1890 there' will be enough money in the box to found a bed in the babies' hospital, but it is per-, feebly certain that as tho months go by the contributions will decrease until by January slang will be eliminated from the conversation of this group of girls; and not only will the cheery leader announce that she's tired of it, but that she has absolutely stopped using it. '