Misused Words.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 926, 22 November 1933, Page 6

Misused Words.

JTOR a dainty writer on current topics, it would be hard to beat the New York correspondent of London “Truth.” The following paragraph from a letter of August 17 is submitted as an example of how slang may be effectively employed in a humorous setting:— At the dawn of each New Day, breakfast, as a harmless formality, is served the President on a tray. Like J. B. S. Haldane, the British scientist, Roosevelt holds that, in the “ genetic heaven,” there is no “ perfect man,” but that all kinds of people are “ best at something or other.” He summons, therefore, what is known, under the Constitution of the United States* as “the Bedside Cabinet” or, as they used to say at Rome, the Triumvirate, with whom he chats as long as the toast stays crisp. During the Levee, General Johnson as Royal Falconer is received, with the Blue Eagle clinging to the boxing glove that protects his mailed fist. The General warns all who may be concerned, as some are, over the position, that if they “ fool with that bird ” they will be brought, as they say in Whitechapel, before the beak and receive “ a sock on the jaw ” or, more politely, a peck' of “ trouble.” Everyone, like Roosevelt himself, has to swallow his allotted egg, and eggs are tastiest if accepted before they are hard-boiled. TOUCHSTONE.