The Arguson Colonial Swearing

Manawatu Standard, Volume X, Issue 1471, 3 October 1885, Page 5 (Supplement)

The Arguson Colonial Swearing

•',« An American reviewer has recently -animadverted,* m language of just^-.itiable-sevei'ity, npim the habits: of repulsive profanity whiph" are pre--;Vfi,lent among his countrymen, and v more particnjarly iamning the lower strata of society^" From the .house of all • these classe''." he observes, "issue a^ioiwd of children who -liaye^bipea.theft'an^fatmos^ere' of blasphemy from their birth, who : are" 5 proficient m theTJanguage of exeqraI tiou. and walediction, : learned .at ihe parental heSrth or den, whose every third word 1 is an oath,' wlnr>\ are educHtin"' themselves, m that from of self-cult'ire which may evidently lead them to the penitentiary oi* the gallows, and Avhp,;,in the emirgefcic words of an old divine, •seem n>t «o mnch born ns ;ilanin«d° m to I;he wiirld.' • ' Unfortunately this is just as triie of the same classes m this colony as m the.TTnited States, and aa m the mother country. You cannot walk along/the streets, op pass » knot <of idlers. i on tho pavement, or enter a croWdi without^^ beini^ theiinwilling auditor of the mostreyblting rihaldry, mixed -up with namißsih con ; rieotioii with emphatic curses or "passionate appeals to the Sitpreme Being. The employment of such langnasu has become so habitual, and is so general, that those who use it seem to hwve lost iall sense of i< s in fn my and loath^--BPmeneßß. It is indulged m just a^s free!}' and vociforpusly" when women and children are passing by as when the swearers have no other audience but associates steeped to the' lips m verbal abomination, like themselves. Licentiousness of the tongue appears to be gloried m, as if there were' some sort of honour m insolent blasphemy .and conspicuon^ vilen ess. It , is most noticeable m the young, and if a boy's education has been neglected m every other respect, Ke is sure to be a proficient in- swearing. "Whether a i systematic eflfbrt should not be made m the church, m the schoolroom, and m the police court, ■■fop, if nob the sup. presßion, at any rate iho diminution, oi this disusting pracfeice, m a question Well worthy of consideration. Who will preabh a crusade against sw^ariiig ? Of boiii'se the reform should oommence at home ; but a good many of those who require reformation-have-no homes, while others have learn od their vocabulary of profanity from Hshe '..lips-of t\e\r parents. Yet the habit :.'of swearing is by means confined to those who have been into the world. " Younp; ladies whose ajilparel denotes that they ar« above the reach of poverty, are capable of being as foul-mouthed as the most ruffianly larrikin that walks the streets of Melbourne or its suburbs ? and spue of the former must be surely amenable to corrective influences. At any rate, society cannot safely continue to acquiesce m the existence of an evil so infpctious m it- chaiacter, and so discreditable tq our intelligence and civilisation, as that of piofane speaking.