THE DECAY OF MANNERS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 74, 27 November 1913, Page 4

THE DECAY OF MANNERS.

When Lord Rosebery a short time ago raised the question of the decay of manners, someone hastened into print to express his, grief that youngi people of the present day frequently say "Sorry" instead of ''l beg yottl pardon." We sympathise intensely with these pessimists who see the firmament of the graces collapsing about their ears, says the "New Statesman," and we sympathise all the more sincerely since the day. a few years ago, when a young monkey in a house-agent's office observed thai he supposed we should like to get into our new house "as soon as poss." We ; never recognised the full indignity of i all contractions, abbreviations, and modernisms till that moment. "As soor] as poss." was not merely a personal] affront to ourselves : it was an outrage upon the language of Shakespeare. Milton, and Mr Masefield. It was a phrase to bring thrones tottering. One was surprised to find the evening papers coming out as usual, cheerfully retailing the news of a cricketing and horse-racing world just as if nothing had happened. One expected at least an eclipse of the moon that night to signify .Nature's disapproval of the vile phrase that had been bom. And yet Swift seems to us nowadays rather ridiculous because lie objected to the word "mob" as a vulgar contraction. Similarly, not so very long ago iadies and gentlemen with the graces of an earlier generation used obtrusively to speak of "omnibuses" where we in ■ these clipping years content ourselves with 'busses." This makes us fore-

see the possibility that in a century or so oven the lips of scholars and lovers will be saying ''as soon as pbss." as naturally as they now split infinitives And the world will survive.