“BIG BILL’S” NEW LANGUAGE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 120, 18 February 1928, Page 22

“BIG BILL’S” NEW LANGUAGE

The announcement by “Big Bill” Thompson that Chicago, over which he presides as Mayor, no longer speaks English, but American, has led humourists in the Middle West to compile a glossary of the new language (writes Mr. W. F. Bullock, New York correspondent of the London “Daily Mail”). It appears from their compilation that vigorous expressions employed in the description of political opponents constitute the chief difference between the discarded English tongue and “American as she is spoke.” In the adaptation of Chicago-American to the uses of local controversy, Mayor 1 hompson himself is extolled by the humourists as the supreme master. Here is his classical description of one oi his opponents:—“l’m not descending to personalities, but let me tell you, if you want to see a nasty sight, you watch Doc Robertson eating in a restaurant. Eggs in his whiskers, soup on his vest —you’d think the Doc got his education driving a garbage wagon.” Equally famous is his allusion to the arguments of other opponents as the “cheap squawks of a lot of poor sports who are licked and don’t know it.” The Mavor has found manv emulators among the politically elect of Chicago who are engaged in enriching the vocabulary of the new language. To them we owe thanks for the sobriquet “Blue Nose” as applied to those who oppose the spoils system in the schools which Mayor Thompson is anxious to cleanse of all Anglophil taints. Variants of tin's are “an unspeakable insect” and “social vermin.” lhe glossarists report that it is the accepted usage under Mayor Thompson to refer to an official of the opposing party as “the biggest liar and the biggest crook who ever broke an oath of office.” The new language is also verv fertile in promises. I'o a person in particular disfavour with the city administration it promises, for instance, “to make things so hot for him that lie’ll ask for a furlough in hell ” To the pitifully few people who, though opposed to Mavor Thompson, still cling to their jobs, it applies the classification “fancy job holders,” and the advice given them is “to get some roller skates, because they’re going to take a long ride.” Others in the same category are officially known as “social derelicts” and “arrogant egotists,” who are about to be “bounced ” Hibernians who belong to the opposing political partv are stigmatised as “left-handed Irishmen.” The full forcefulness of the new language is withheld from them for the benefit of others more degraded, who are known, according to the taste of the castigator, as “a skunk and a crook,” as “the champion liar of tile world,” or as “Benedict Arnolds.” The word “rat” in the new language denotes exclusively political rodents opposed to Mavor Thompson The glossary compilers note that the j new tongue is of such recent origin tnat j it is necessarily more vigorous than I choice; but they add that improve- j meats are being introduced daily.