INTRODUCING A NEW VERB: "TO SLACK."

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 72

INTRODUCING A NEW VERB: "TO SLACK."

At the telephone: "Hullo, that you Carrie?" : "Very much me. What are you doing off the chain this morning? You sound ; : veiry Black." '".', "Feel it, too—half-yearly balance in full swing: I say, the chief's out of town for the day—will you come and have morning tea?" . gt "Dofn't know; I feel pretty slack -my£&els this, -morning.'' • •'••'- V; 'J-Welli look here, such a hit of news—f;|rue!■ Can't tell'it on the 'phone. Say ifche Kia>ora at 11—are you coming?" § "Eight." . "Ah, how 'do! Haven't seen you for ttijrite a long time, old man. How are things Up your way?" ''Slnnk —dammed slack t'fc

"No business doing, eh? Not got rid of the depression yet?'' "Not in my line. Only the confounded millionaires, who are selling and raking in the shekels for closer settlement, and the auctioneers, who are netting their commission, are flourishing—not a look in, for any one else." "Yet that's a smart motor you're driving. How are you living?" "On my reputation, old man, and it's wearing thin in these slack times." The daughter: "I say mum, I do wish you'd get rid of that girl, she's- a regular slacker. The jugs are never filled in the bedrooms, the filter's always grimy, and half the bread goes into the rubbish tins. Her cap's crooked, her apron's pinned together—l never saw such a slacker! I'd sooner be without one." "Perhaps yon would Susie, but you don't do the work when there isn't one." The head of the firm : "Well, Johnson, how does Eggleton get on? Do you think he'll do?" The .confidential clerk: "I'd rather not give any opinion, sir. You see, Eggleton is really under Mr Percy." "I would rather you would answer for yourself, and leave Mr Percy to answer for himself. How does Eggleton - get on, I ask you again?" "A deal too well, sir, in my opinion. I'd sooner his work got on faster and himself slower." "What's the fault with his work?" "Slackness, sir—slack right through. No heart in it; just put it through an' get to the end o' the day, and the end o' the week, an' pay day. What he's set on is being a popular man all round, an' from what I hear the whole of his department is gettin', out of hand because he's slack, and wants to be popular." "That's quite enough, Johnson—to be slack ,is bad enough, but to slack and 'ont' for popularity, too, is the devil. Ha must go!" All these are ordinary enough instances of the curious new verb whfch we, as a people, are doing our best to' construe. Personally I could not construe it either in theory or in practice. I never learnt grammar—in our family we were not permitted to learn grammar —and suffered accordingly in the esteem, of our various teachers, who resented such an eccentricity almost as if it were an immorality. "Not.learn grammar? Your parent don't wish you to learn it! How extraordinary' You poor child, what will become of you!" ~ ; Well, I don't know that we have, as a family, fared any worse than our schoolfellows who did Learn grammar —but that by the way. What concerns me at the present moment is the' enormous number of people in all classes of life whose misfortune it is to construe this new verb, "to slack" either actively by slacking, or passively by being slackers. So closely' are we following the example of the Mother Country (see Sir Robert Stout's' recently expressed' opinion concerning English workers—that "slackness seemed to "prevail among the people, who were given over to aimusement"), that if I were asked to name the most provoking, disheartening, and prevalent everyday evil of our time, I should say in the ''favourite phrase of our. time 'slackness.' " There are pleasanter names for the malady, I own, and a moment's thought will give one a whole vocabulary from which tc choose a fitting ipbrase for each aspect of life in which the quality of slackness makes itself felt. In business we call it "easy going,' m morals we dub it "charity," in home-life we call it "contentment," in religion we christen i A "catholicity," or if we are minded to adopt a superior tone, we speak patronisingly of. "singulai broadmindedness." We have a score, a' hundred pleasant social and domestic euphemisms in which to clothe cloak that ugly truth of "slackness," that dis-, like to encountering physical, mental, or moral unpleaeantness which makes us let wrong things slide sooner than trouble to stoo them or set them straight. Let us take for' example the "slackness' - in moral tone which we find it so much pleasanter to classify as "charity" in'this smooth-speaking age. There is a growing gossip which already- among those plain-spoken folk, the maids and the tradespeople, is referred to as "the goingson" of certain of our ■acquaintances. Tf we believed it, wo must for decency's sake face quite a number of unpleasant problems. We must relinquish those fascinating little dinners of Dora's, say "no" to the tickets for" this and that which she always has to spare for orchestral and Liedertafel concerts, races, etc. and perhaps even fitop asking young Blank to our dinners and dances —and there are so few dancing men ! Beside, who is- going to do it? It is an occasion on which no one desires to claim social precedence—with unwanted grace of humility each is willing to give way to her neighbour. Then' we are all fond of Dora's husband, and don't you really think that if _ he doesn't object to his wife's little vagaries, it is not oui place to make a fuss? Then conies the smooth counsel of Mrs Worldly Wiseman, and as she sips her

afternoon tea and shows a liberal appreciation for cunning sandwiches and ambrosial cakes she 6ays —"Yes, yes, my dear. I diaresay there are stories —in fact I've heard them myself, but we must rememberthat things have changed wonderfully, even during the last few yeara. People are so much more slack about the conventioinalities than they used to be—and dear Dora never was conventional, you know. We muet be charitable, you know, dear—'Charity thinketh no evil' is a very true saying. What? Yes. We are going to ■ Dora's bridge-party on Thursday. See you there?"