AMERICAN NEWS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 February 1928, Page 10

AMERICAN NEWS

DRESS ANd’hEALTH. SAN FRANCISCO, February 2. Condemnation of purists who wish to preserve awkward phrases in the English language simply because' they are philologically correct was uttered by Professor George M. Bolling, of Ohio. State University, before the Linguis- • tic Society of America at Cincinnati, Ohio. Professor Bolling is' one of the most distinguished Home'ric scholars living. “The purist would have us saying ‘Somebody’s else , hat,’ instead of ‘Somebody else’s hat,’ ” Professor Bolling scorned. “He can’t parse the latter phrase, so he thinks it should not be allowed.” “I say ‘Aren’t I’ in preference to the awkward ‘Am I not,’ ” said Professor Samuel Moore, of the University of Michigan. “I can’t quite bring myself to say ‘Ain’t I,’ so I say ‘Aren’t I’ by way of compromise, and I don’t think it is going to hurt the English language.” Professor Moore believes usage should determine everything in speech. ' “No one can hurt the English language,” he said. “It is too big, too tremendous. It changes, but no one force means very much in the trend it takes.” “And if anyone would hurt it,” Professor Bolling interposed, “if he could that person is the purist.” “I would rather have a person talk naturally and endeavour to adapt his speech to the better speech of his equals than to attempt what is virtually impossible. If dialect is the speech of his world, why should he not speak its language?” Professor Bolling asked. A suggestion that the American newspapers are hurting the English language was met by a protest. “The purist may be so,” Professor Moore declared, “but that is absurd. The newspapers I read are not committing any grievous faults except by accident.” FLAPPER DEATH TOLL. Modern dress, “the insane desire” for a boyish appearance, and “trio much night life,” were held 1 . up by Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, of Nehv York, as causes for “the alarming .increase in mortality by tuberculosis among young women.” Speaking before the third. Race Betterment Conference, held in Battle Creek, Michigan, Dr Knopf, a major in the Medical Officers’ Reserve Corps of the United States Army, indicted the modern flapper* for what she did, what she wore, what she ate, and what she drank. “The filmy modern dress of thin material, low shoes and sUk stockings, worn in the coldest .weather,” constituted the first cause of disease among young women, in Di*. Knopf’s opinion. He recommended periodic examinations to discover incipient tuberculosis, and improvement in, the housing conditions where young women live and work. In Winnipeg many young women of the flapper type have been carried to hospitals suffering from frostbite in the knees owing to persisting in braving the rigid wintter weather clad only in filmy clotbtes cut to the extreme in height. In Chicago, where the wettther has been frightfully severe this winter, the secret of how girls .with short < skirts have been keeping their knees from freezing in zero tempeirature has just been explained by the statement that they wear two pairs of stockings. First come a pair of light, close knit, flesh-coloured woollen stockings, then a. pair of sheer silk drawn over them. The wind does not penetrate them. The deception is so complete that the drug-store cowboy cannot detect the deception, it is said.' This secret was given away by a department store manager, who said thousands of light woollen stockings had been sold, hut none seen on the ; streets. “FREE LOVE” FOR MARRIAGE. 1 . . ■- < The end- of the institution of mar- 1 riage. in America, to be supplanted i by forms of so-called “free love,” was < seen in the near future by John Hay- e

nes Holmes, New York city minister, who addressed an important gathering in Chicago. “It is entirely possible that marriage will disappear, but if so it will be in accordance with the laws of evolution,’’ Holmes asserted. “Evolution does not necessarily mean progress,” he pointed out. “There are two kinds of evolution, one of progress and one of retrogression, as it is sometimes called.” The marriage of the future, according to Dr. Holmes, must be founded upon three basic fundamentals.. He cited these as follows: —i'Sex relations must be more or less rpublic; secrecy is intolerable. The union must be bound by social sanction and a. policy similar to that of Russia may be adopted, which consists of a couple going before an official and declaring their intentions. of living together. Marriage must be monogamous. These basic factors can never change or serious results will follow.” Dr. Holmes scoffed at the idea of companionate marriages as being an innovation. Such marriage have taken place for years, he contended, but no particular name had heretofore been given them. “It is only something that has been practised for years by the .majority of intelligent people,” he said. BROKER’S GENEROUS ACT. A gracious chapter was written in the romance of financial life of the new year of 1928 when Reuben H. Donnelley, of Chicago, although his slate was cleard in. the Courts 22 years ago, assumed full moral obligation and returned with accrued interest the investments of all creditors who suffered in the failure of Knight, Donnelley and Co., brokers, on June 27, 1905. Between (>OO,OOO and 700,000 dollars, representing payment of 100 cents on the dollar and interest for the twenty--twe-year period, was returned. Nearly 300 accounts benefited. It was coincidence and not sentiment, Donnelley declared, that found the cheques in the mail on New Tear’s Day. “There is nothing sentimental about this procedure,” he .■said. “It is purely a business transaction.” With the resolution made at the time of the failure to make complete restitution, the laborious'work of locating the creditors or the heirs has been pushed during the last few months. “It has taken more than 22 years to complete the task,” Donnelley said, “but releases now have been taken on all accounts.”