For the Ladies.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 65, 7 October 1875, Page 7

For the Ladies.

■ V AAA „., ■■■; ;y -+J< b _ T i.-"r 7 , ; .-,' TRICKS OF SPEECH. ! >• Nothing is easier to acquire, nothing more difficult to lose,, than a, trick of spekchjand manner; and.riothing is more I universal... .If we 100k __ around among our friends and 1 acquaintance's, we shall find scarcely one who has not his favorite word, his perpetual formula, "his "■- automatic action, his unmeaning , gesture;— all tricks caught probably when young, and, by no being corrected ►then,, next .to impossible to abolish now. Who , does not know the familiar " I iky "as : the preface to every remark ? — and the still more familiar " you know" as the middle term" of every sentence ? Who too, in these latter times, has not suffered from the infliction of " awful " j and "jolly V — milestones in the path of speech interspersed with even uglier and more obtrusive signs of folly and corrupt diction ; milestones that are for ever turning up, showing the successive distances to which good taste and true refinement have receded in this hideous race after slang to which our youth is given. Then there are the people who r perpetrate ejaculations ; who say "Goodness !"' as a mark of surprise, and " Good gracious !" when surprise is a' little mixed with reprobation ; lower in the social scale is "My word !"' -" Patience !" " Did I ever !" and indifferent to all stations, "You don't say so !" or in a voice of deprecation, •A< /No !" and " Surely not !" To judge by voice and word, these ejaculatory people are alwaysin a state of surprise. They go through tha word in a state of astonishment; and their appeals to their Goodness and that indeterminate quantity called Goodness Gracious are incessant. In the generation that died with the Fourth George ' the favorite ejaculations were "By Jove .!" and "By George !" with excursions into the " regions of "Gad!" and "By Jingo !" Before then we had the bluff ancf lusty squires who rejoiced in " Osbodikins '!" " Zounds !". and other strange and uncouth, oaths that .were, not meant to offend the hearers, but were simply tricks of speech caught by the speakers. It is emphatically a habit, a trick of speech, meaning for the most part no more than than the " Goodness !" and li Patience !". of the milder folly. Then there are people )vho think it necessary, to. adopt, and in a sense apologise for, any expression which has the' faintest color or pictorial power in it. They will say ot the twilight "It is what I" call between the lights," as if no one ever called the twilight between the lights before. If they speak of a brave action, they will appropriate in the same manner the word heroic — "It is what I call heroic ;" not meaning their estimate of heroism, but their originality in adopting _ the word. Sometimes the form is varied to " as I say;" "as I say, I am quite in 'the--1 dark as to the future of France ;" "as !i say, no man can possibly understand the German Chancellor."' People who liave this trick give one the impression -of -mental isolation- to a singular extent. They are like those experimentalists, sometimes met with in lonely places, who know nothing of what has been done in the science to which they have devoted themselves, who never read scientific records, have no scientific friends, and who thus stiim hie on in the dark unaided, when, if they choose, they might have all • the help and illumination as yet granted to the world. " What-I-call" uses words and phrases that- are in every person's mouth ; and " As-I-say." .never , constructed an original example nor created a parallel in the whole of his commonplace conversation, echo as it is of the general conversation of the world at lar'ffe. • • There is again the trick of repetition; the. last two or three words of the speech always said twice ; perhaps, if the disease is severe, more than twice. " He is going down to-day, going down to-day," says the repeater, not meaning any special emphasis. " When do you -talk- of leaving, when do you talk of leaving ?" if" lam off to Germany toiriorrow, off to Germany to-morrow." This trick has a variation, which we may call the variation of . emphasis. '•' I am very sorry to hear it, very sorry indeed." "It was such a lovely, sight, such a lovely sight!'' "~1-am-.milch 'obliged to you, so much obliged !" .And so on; the emphatic addendum ..pronounced in italics, and always with more effusiveness -than the ' occasion demands. The trick of asking you, to .'repeat ! yptor'*' words is also one that tries the good breeding of the sufferer. Your companion is not. in the/smallest degree ctehf, perhaps indeed he has "an ex- j c'eptionalty; acute; sense of hearing ; but lie 'has the trick of asking what, you have said before -he .; begins his reply. Sometimes it is badly " 'What ?" sometimes a 3ofter a more muffled "M ?" with closed lips ; at. times the trick is elaborated, and " I beg. your 'pardon ?" said'interrogatively, turns you back :on yourself and forces" you; to. repeat what; you have already said. A 1 ovv« order ' ''flf'm'anrie'rs* substitutes "What say?" for the usual " M ?" or bald unvar&isljed ix ~W-hat ?" and in-the -same order,- siipplenYeriteiJ with pbliteness,/it is do you say, please V This is the br^er too which 1 repeats' ymit name. " No, Mr Smith;" "Yes, Mr Smith ;" 'I. don^M^"MF"Sifiith«'. ? i \'AT>hank y.xip, Mr Smith, no .more, ;" "If you please, Mr Smith, ' Wo^hef l slice jMr Smith,

,MrLSimth,7^ you, are half. frantic, " aMjfeelinpnijed ;to .repudiate' the 1 * father who fed " andothe .mQther who bore you, arid, to call yourself anything :inahe world, from Tomkins to Plantage.net, rather than that accursed .monosyllable of Smith ! .Again, a trick by no ba9a.ns unusual ; your, friend.is telling you of some event, or making you the participator in some feeling. He invariably rounds off his narration with "In all my life." "I never saw such a thing in all • my life," he says, if he is telling you how his cab horse slipped on the asphalt and fell, exactly as all cab horses always fall. (t I never remember such a sultry day in all my life," he cries, mopping his flushed face. Whatever happens to him .is the supreme of that order of events, and nothing equal to it has been experienced by him in all.his life before He never had such a" cold before in all his life as this not very formidable catarrh ; never enjoyed himself so much in all his life as at this not very jocund afternoon tea j his life is perpetually at its highest point, and by hi 3 trick ot speech, you might imagine him for ever at the zen-th of human experience. It is nothing of the kind. He is a good, commonplace, moderate kind of person, whose path lies in an equable, not to say humble, level, both, of fact and feeling j but he has suffered his speech to be pitted with this peculiarity, to be stamped with this trick of exaggeration, and the false registering of a fancy 2enth means nothing in the world but- the simplest affirmation of the most ordinary circumstance. - Stammering and stuttering are only .•tricks when there is not, as. there very seldom 7is, any organic defect in the mouth. This is proved by their varying intensity in varying circumstances ; sometimes excitement of one kind curing the defect complete^*, if sometimes excitement of another kind makes it worse. Lisping too is a trick, and so is ,the imperfect pronounciation of certain letters, the baby utterance continued into maturity. It is a trick throughout, a habit acquired in early life and easily removable then, if too firmly grounded now to be rooted out without great and laborious effort. Still it can be rooted out if the mind turns that way — resolution, . patience, and perseverance being" the three-fold prongs- of the fork by which all moral and personal weeds can be dug up in time. — ' The Queen.' GOOD ENOUGH' FOR HOME. '" Why do you put on that forlorn old dress T asked Emily Manners '■ of her cousin Lydia, one morning after she had spent the night at Lydia's house. The dress in question was a spotted, faded old snmmer silk, which only looked the more forlorn for : its once fashionable trimmings, now crumpled and frayed. " Qh, anything is good enough for home/ said Lydia, hastily pinning on a solid collar, and twisting up her hair in a knot, she went down to 'breakfast. A" Your hair is coming down," said Emily. : '' Oh, never mind. It's goodienpugh for ho.ne,'.' saidLy'din, carelessly. Lydia had been visiting atEmily's home, and had, always appeared in the. prettiest of morning dresses, and with neat hair and dainty collars and cuffs ;. but now that, she was back again among her brothers and sisters, and with her parents, she seemed to think anything would answer, and went about untidy and rough in solid finery., .At her uncle's she had.beeri pleasant and polite, and had won golden opinions fronrall ; but with her own family her manners were, .as careless as her dress,; she seemed to think' that courtesy 7 and kindness were too. expensive for home wear. :. and that anything was good enough for home. , . . ' ' There are too many people who, like Lydia, seem to -think that anything will do, for home." Young men who are polite' 'and' pleasant in outside" society are rude to. their rii'pthers, and snarl at their sisters;., and -girls \vho_ among strano'ers are all, gaiety and animation, never make an exertion to please their "own "family, "It" is" -"a wretched 7 way: to "turn" always'"' the smoothest side, to.- the world, and the .roughest and coarsest; to One*s nearest and dearest' friends. ' ' SUNNY FACES. ■" Plow sWe'et'in in fancy, 1 how lovelyl in youth, how; saintly, in age!. Thf re are a few noble natures vvhose' very' presence carries sunshine with them wherever they go \ a sunshine which means pity for the poor, sympathy for ,the ; suffering, help for: the unfortunate, and. benignity towards all. How such' a face enlivens every. other face . it. meets, and carries into every, company vivacity and joy and gladdness ! , But the„.scqwl and frownjbeg^tten in a selfish heart, and manifesting;77teeJf-'Tn"^ hourly ,' fretfulness, complaining,! 7faul t4 finding, angry criticism, spiteful comments bri -the motives and actions; of others, how - thin' the cheek, Shrivel the face, sour and sadden -the f c'o ; untenancel • No joy 'iii -the heart, no nobility in th r e r soril, rib generosity" in themature ;" the wbole character as cold ..as /an "-.iceberg, as hard as Alpinerock/'as' arid as the wastes- of .Sahara;! .Reader, jW.hich of these countenances are yourcul'tivatiug^T If you find yourself losing all, your cbnL nderiWin''_uu^ ing an ololprge of vinegar, ", of, .worm-: 7w6b'dV7&«B^or:g'&ll ; and not a'thourrier : will (fQllja^yicur, v golita^y bter tear-drop shalNever fall on your fob( gotton grave. — Dr Hall. cr Aa^