SWEARING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18879, 29 November 1924, Page 1 (Supplement)

SWEARING.

INTEMPERANCE OF WORDS.

BT GRAHAM HA?.

" Dammit! " I said, as the hammer descended on tho thumbward side of the nail.

An old lady who was passing held up her hands in horror.

But that was many years ago, before we had modernised old huties. A person of any age or sex nowadays who would be scandalised by so mild an expletive must have led a very sheltered life indeed. Because there can be no question that swearing is on the increase. No, no, we can't blame the war—it was responsible for profiteers and second lieutenants, but there is no justification for putting every untoward happening of recent years to its discredit. All competent authorities agree that,, they heard language of a higher voltage in the troop train which took them to Trentham than ever afterwards. Besides, the war is becoming a little passe and old-fashioned. One remembers it, of course; it was a thing that elder brothers, now inclining to baldness, came back from, received a gratuity, bought a motor-car, married a wife, settled down to middle-age, and ceased to count. A new generation has come into its own since then, and Germany is becoming fashionable again. No, no, to blame a five-year-old war for causes and effects is to make imputations against the pace of modern youth, which can change the pattern of the globe in less time than that. Far better impeach the state of the roads and the popularity of golf. But I prefer to regard it as an effect without a cause, one of those irresponsible cycles of affliction like ragtime, shingled hair and measles, which descend on us from Mars or the madness of the moon, damned unpleasant—there! that's not what I mean at all—very unpleasant while it lasts, but a transitory thing, which carries its own damnation with it. Of course, as long as there are politicians, waterside workers and law-clerks, swearing will always be with us, but it will recede to the dead level of the commonplace, after its giddy flight on the wings of universality; which means that it will once more become a useful and necessary instrument.

The incidence of swearing presents some curious anomalies. A jovial giant may roll out full-bodied oaths with merely a rich flavour added to his talk, but the same words in the mouth of a weakling, or a man of spare habit, make one squirm with distaste. There are men who can make the most ordinary damns sound a noisome thing. The words drop forth all cloyed with filth and crookedness, and serve to emphasise anything sinister in the man himself. Beware! you thin men, you men of ill-health, nobody loves to hear you swear; it never adds an inch to your stature, nor an ounce to your esteem. It seems as though swearing, which is itself a cankerous and extraneous growth, seeks out anything cankerous or morbid in the man, holds it up to the light, and reveals its ugliness.

Feminine Swearing. I speak with bated breath of feminine swearing— one word in its favour and I shall be overwhelmed. I will content myself with remarking on one curious phenomenon it presents, and then pass on. It is always unpleasant to hear a barmaid swear, there is a jaded eight-hours-a-day note about it, as though it is one of the things she is paid for, and so must be got through as. part of the day's work. I think we. may take it that beneath the outer mask a barmaid is pretty much the same as any other woman, and as such she has*a more sensitive mind than the average man, a mind which until habit stales it, has an aversion from the ruthlessness of swearing. The forced emptiness of her words is even more unpleasant than the casual emptiness of masculine oaths. I wonder what goes on beneath that smiling mask of hers. I wish some of the gross, self-sufficient, heavy-stom-ached men, who cut such a figure in our public bars could read the real feelings with which she receives their pleasantries, it might be so tremendously chastening. But I cannot even guess at it. In her presence I become utterly abashed. Set a princess before me, and I'll bear me as blithely as I may—she hasn't seen much and is bound to be interested in things. But a barmaid knows everything there is to know about men, so I bury my face in my glass and sh.-ivel. But when a pretty girl says a naughty word, tangled up among whatever other feelinj<;s are provoked is a, slight sense of gratification that she should single us out for this little sign of friendship. We feel a slight glow of intimacy. And then she does it so prettily. Does she wish to prove that she is a woman of the world ? It's fatal!—there never was such a giveaway as an unaccustomed swear word—we know her at once for the dear girl she is. To carry it off, she must needs practise it each day along with her music, •and then she would become a time-server, and the word wfeuld lose all its charm. I fear it's as shy a thing as a fairy and cannot be cultivated.

Why Swearing is Objectionable. The reasons which make swearing objectionable are somewhat hard to crystalise. There is scarcely a word in the language which, taken out of its context, or used in its proper context, is not in itself innocent of offence. Probably the most disagreeable words are those which stand for rottenness and decay, yet in a scientific treatise these arouse no disgust whatever. The more usual swear-words (supply them yourself) may be turned over in the hand, or put under a microscope, and the more you look the more you wonder whence comes the offence. It seems that the sensitive ear, which in music is set a-jangle by sounds played off the note, is likewise in language shocked by words used so far out of their meaning. It is an offence against taste rather than against morals. It causes a shiver of distaste to hear a word of deep or sacred meaning lightly used to mean nothing whatever. Immediately the offending words gather to themselves some meaning or reason for existence, they are stripped of half their unpleasantness. Even the most estimable of old ladies would not severely upbraid me for the word at the head of this column (even though it was not a very hard blow). Hold up her hands she might, but that's one of the functions of old ladies, just as one expects a lawyer to quibble and a Scotchman to have only one sixpence after proposing a drink —no one holds it against them, or thinks any the less of them for it. But because the need of relief was there, and in the absence of cocaine 1 used the readiest method, I feel suro that in the old lady's hsart I stand forgiven. It is the inconsequential prattle of blasphemy and obscenity which is' distasteful to the sensitive mind, the careless use of words of deep or intimate meaning, an intemperance of words, which, like every other intemperance, is an offence against taste. The classic instance of a picturesque swearer is Bob Acres. With him swearing was by no means careless; he uses it to lend a dignity and a colour to his talk, to gain the right atmosphere. " ' Odds bullets and blades," he exclaims to provoke the martial air fitting to a discussion on duelling; and being a mercurial little man, he follows it up the next moment with " ' odds blushes and blooms " to pave the way for a sudden lapse into sentiment. There's a method in his swearing, and thus it acquires a grace which not only excuses it but endears him to us.

Maybe there are people who will deny that swearing is on the increa—l had been writing this articlo in the Public Library. At the same table were a Socialist, two sch 1-boys, a clergyman, a young girl j.-vu .an old lady. Right in the middle of that word " increase,' 1 my pen, which had been misbehaving for some time, gave one final splutter and lout its identity. " Dammit," I t>aid. And not even the old lady took the slightest notice.