REMEMBER THE LANGUAGE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9339, 7 January 1909, Page 6

REMEMBER THE LANGUAGE.

In making allowances for the Kaiser’s uttered indiscretions, we must remember the German language (says the Hew York Evening Post). Ordinary German prose suffers from a dreadful excess of metaphor. The ‘‘mailed fist” and the ‘‘loosened sabre” are not altogether rhetorical sparks struck out on the hot anvii of Imperial excitement, but examples of that poetic exaggeration so easy to a German. It is a fault most com* mon among the most learned. Professor Jones of Yale or Harvard would probably begin his volume on The Geology of Yucatan ; “By Yucatan, in the present work, I mean the Central American peninsula known by that name as well as the ad jacent coasts,” etc. But Professor Hammersoblag of Leipsio must begin by saying: ‘ • The convulsive continentsplitting efforts of Terra to put forth* her imprisoned, vital forces brought forth in the . dim Triassio ages, the torrid landmass which lolls like a sleeping monster between the warm waters of the Oarribean and the torrid waves of the Gulf of Mexico, in 87 toJ|93 deg. west longitude. ” An English politician, speaking in England, says: “This country —er — welcomes the —er friendly rivalry of a Kgreat Power like Germany under its—er —honoured sovereign as—er —conducive to the interests of both nations, ” etc. But when a German statesman rises to speak, the genins of his language demands that he shall say: “Germania wants peace, but she will continue to stare defiantly into the bloodshot eyes of ravening naval Powers who, with eager claws,” etc.