PLAIN MISTER

New Zealand Times, Volume LIV, Issue 12651, 11 January 1927, Page 3

PLAIN MISTER

ITS CORRECT USAGE COMPLICATED RULES. Though many of us would no doubt be willing to confess to a certain diffidence as to the correct usage of “Your Grace,” “the Right Honourable,” and so forth, few would admit to any uncertainty as to when and where plain Mister should be employed. Yet there is hardly any title which can lead one more easily into trouble (writes Admiral Chambers in, the “Daily Mail”). Should any doubt this let him pen a letter to a touchy person whose status lies just on the border-line, addressing him as “Master” instead of the “Esquire” to which the acquaintance considers himself entitled. Though the title of Mister is of ancient lineage, deriving through Master from the Latin Magister (master) and Magnus (great), and defined as one who governs or directs, yet, strangely enough, the employment of the world conveys often a distinct suggestion of inferiority. I was told recently of a case in which a works manager was much hurt when the chairman a.t a board meeting addressed him as Mister Smith. Under the new order of things, as one among equals, lie knew he had the right to be plain Smith. Had he been a porter or an office boy in the same firm he would equally have been plain Smith. The use of the name without the Mister bespeaks either social equality or a difference so far removed that there can be no suggestion of familiarity in so unbending. In naval and military oircles the use of Mister generally denotes strict service. Commissioned officers will be Dakins or Jones when off duty, but Mr Dakins or Mr Jones when oil duty. The warrant officer will always be Mister Tomkins to his chief unless he be given official rank. Wives, even in the most intimate moments, were wont to address husbands as Mister in Georgian’ and even early Victorian days. Even now the master of the house will always be Mr So-and-so when the senior partner speaks to the maids. With workmen and farm labourers the foreman will always be Mister, while the squire will be “old Carey,” if the reference be not even less respectful. The village schoolmaster will always be Mister. The petty tradesmen who meet at large never forget to Mister one another (should there be any unbending it will take the form of George and William) and the upper household servants never will omit the Mister in speaking of the butler. With rules so complicated, Heaven help the foreigner who attempts to master the title’s right usel