RECREATIONS

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 138, 20 October 1871, Page 6

RECREATIONS

No. lII.—A CHAPTER OF BLVNDEItS ANI) MISTAKES (Continued from our last.) BLUNDEBING- USE OF WORDS. Another class of mistakes arises from the misuse of words. Mrs, Maiaprop and Mrs. Partington have furnished many illustrations, but none of them more comical than are constantly to be met with in real life.

I remember a small boy coming to ask, for a friend, if I had a book called " The Pleurisy of Worlds !" Another little by son of a Glasgow merchant, on b-.-ingask d one day how they all were at home, replied that they were all well exempt his father, who had been confined to his house by "an allegory in his leg." The mistakes made by foreigners speaking our language are often very amusing, as our mistakes in reversed circumstances must be to them.

Every one has heard of the eminent Continental divine who prayed that Dr. Chalmers might long be " kippered " to his congregation. Pastor John Bost oi' Laforce told me of a somewhat similar mistake which he made in addressing the Free Assembly. In travelling through Scotland he had heard the word "barren" Continually applied to hill-tops where there was no vegetation. Accordingly, on rising to address the Assembly, in which there happened to be an unusual numbr-r of venerable and bald-headed divines, he said his nervousness was increased when he looked round and savy so many barren heads. The ' Scotsman ' remarked next day that for once the Free Assembly had got the truth told about it.

The negroes in America are entitled to more indulgence than foreigners even, and they need it, owing to the peculiar craz they have for the use of big-soundino-words. In their desire to "get larnin',' and be like the white man, they clutch a, a big word, whether they understand its meaning or not, much as a hungry boy would clutch at, a piece of bread. I remember once, at a negro prayer meeting, referring to this life as a state " of probation." The black gentleman who followed me " improved " my remarks by earnestly reminding the audience that, "as outWhite brudder says, we is all in a state of j "prohibition !" Dr. M'Cosh (now President of Princeton Seminary) tells the story of a negro who prayed earnestly that he and his colored brethren might be preserved from what he called their " upsettin' sins." " Brudder," said one of his friends at the close of the meeting, " you ain't got de hang ob dat ar word. It's ' fosettiu',' not ' upsettin'.'"

" Brudder," replied the other, " if dat's so, it s so. But I was a prayin* de Lord to save us from the sin of intoxification, and if dat ar ain t an upsettin' sin, I dunuo what am."

During an exciting discussion in the Victorian Parliament, a member, with this same craze for magnificent phraseology, denounced the opposite party for indulging " in diatribes."

Thereupon another member, who suspected that the speaker did not know the meaning of his own word, rose with a great show of indignation, and demanded, in reference to the alleged " diatribes,"

that the honorable member should either retract or explain.

The honorable member was caught, and, being unable to explain the expression, withdrew it.

Pity that circumstances did not allow of some one calling upon the preacuer to explaiu who sp"ke of Death '' mowing down his catacopibs of victims !"

01 all the blunders which people fall into from this fondness for words that convey an impression of scholarship, there are none that call for less compassion than blunders in the use of Latin, French, or other unassimilated words in the place of good plain English. ] remember a divinity student, at a written examination, finding himself left with tt.o little time to finish a particu'ar exetcise, breaking off abruptly with a dns!i of the pen and the highly classical cxplanati',n, V.n iem pus ! , An equally lea ned speaker at a public meeting concluded his appeal by the remarkable waning—" fiemember, the eyes of i.he vox f opufi a:'e upon y u !" J

Wlu-n the Queen visi.ed Dundee in 1341. tlii« T \ui C unci) provided a piece <>( ri d cloch for her Majesty to walk up< n.

in passing from the s'earner to the Royal carriage. At a subsequent. rneciing, a discussion. arose as to what sli-.-uid he d< ne with the cloth, when a learned Councillor p-'oposi (1 to preserve. it as a memento moi'i of the R:>yal visit." A story is told of two shoemakers, whose shops faced each other from opposite sides of the street, and who carri> d on a ke> n competition, advertising in their windows a!l the newest fashions ol'boots and slioi s. One ot theiii lwid a son at college, who p.'ovided his father with the motto "Mens Conscja Recti, which was immediately 'displayed in the window. The rival bookmaker saw it. Ho had never heard of any boots of that name before, but he was not to be ou'd >ne. isfext day, accordingly, there flamed in his window the announce. menc ''Mens and Wum'.-ris Coa'scia. Recii."

(To he rontinv?<l.)