THE NEW ENGLISH.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 16724, 6 January 1920, Page 5

THE NEW ENGLISH.

TUBE MAN BRIGHTENS UP THE liANGTTAGE. An Englishman returning to his homeland after several years spent abroad, when asked for his impressions of tho now London, did not hesitate to say that tho most striking thing to liiin was tho extraordinary chango both in tho tone and choice of the Londoner's speech. Ho had discerned a new language for tho Tubo, another for the. escalator, and another for the trams and 'buses. Some public servants had ixjeome more vulgar, others more polite. Chorus girls and tcashop girls spoko the Oxford drawl. The word "Sir'' was seldom usod by waiters, and never by bootblacks. The Cockney had developed a love lor "hV' jn the right, place, and railway porters wero substituting new plutlorui cries lor old. There is a good deal to bo said in support of this impression. A "Daily News" representative who was sent out on a roving commission in search of tho new .language struck the ILr.-a example at Charing Cross Station, where the 'J üb« conductor hustled on a crowd of sol-emn-looking business men with the startling phrase: "Jump to it, rr.y lucky lads, and got aboard Ixjforo there is :i collision." At Oxford Circus an official standing at the bottom of tlie escalator warnoil passengers to how you glide," and at Victoria Station a working man asKcd for a "pass to the Dogs' Jioine," meaning a singfc> ticket to Hattersea Park. The growing flippancy of tho tram and bus conductors is another n»;w trait. •'Any more fares. Anyone paid twice?'' is original and insinuating. "Outside onlv" is a joke cracked daily by the, conductor of the lorribus. which, ot course, is a single decker.