THE ARGUS ON COLONIAL SWEARING.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2051, 29 August 1885, Page 4

THE ARGUS ON COLONIAL SWEARING.

Ax American re\ iewer hns recently animadverted, in language of justifiable seventy, U|.o.i th»- habits of lepulsixiprofanity wlni h an previlcnt among hi^ rouuti v men, and moie pirticularly among tlie lower stiati of soci. ty ' Fiom tinhouse of all tlit'S." (.lasso*. lie obseivcs "issue :i crowd of thildien that liave bte.itliod an atmo-tlieiu ot blasphenn fiom their bnth, who ,ni> piotiucnt in tin,- I ingnag" ot execration and mal- die tiou, li.ii ncd at the parental iicarth oi din, whose wry thud vvoid is an oath, who au idiiLiting thomselvcs in thxt fiom of svlf mltiiif uhicli may eviduitl) li rid then to t'lc penitential j oi tin gallows, md who, in tin- eniTgi'tic woids of .in old duiiK-. 'seem not .so nuuh t»>in as damned into tho woild.'" Unfortu niti'ly this is just as tiuo of the same closes in this colony as in the United States, anil as in the motlur countiy You cinnot walk along the stitcts, oi p.iss a knot of idlcis on tlic pavement, oi enter a ciowd, without luini; the un willing auditor of thy most revolting nbaldiy, mixed up with sacicd names in connection with emphatic curses or pas sionate appeals to the Supreme Being The employment of such language has be come so habitual, and is so geneial, that tnosc who use it fceem to have lost all spnse of its infamy and loathsomeness It is indulged in just as freely and vociferously when women and children are passing by as when the sweaicis have no other audience but associates steeped to the lips in verbal abomination, like thctnselves. Licentiousness of the tongue appears to be gloned in, as if there were some sort of honour in insolent blasphemy and conspicuous uleness. It is most no ticeable in the young, and if a boy's education has been neglected in every other icspect, he is suio to le a ptofiicnt in swearing Whether a systematic dibit should not be made in the t hind), in the hchoolroom, and in the police couit, foi , if not the suppression, at any rate the diminution, ot this disgusting piactire, is a question well woithy of consideiation. Who will pieach a cnuade against swcai ing? Of con ise the icfurm should com mence at home : but a good in Hi} of those who require refoimation have no homes, while otheis have learned their vocabulary of piofdiuty f i oni the lips of then pareuts. Yet the habit of sweating is by means confined to those who have beon " damned into the woild " Young ladicb whose nppaiel denotis that they aic above the i each of poveily, aie capable of beiii^; as foul-mouthed as the most luffianly lairikin that walks the sticets of Melbourne or its suburbs'' and wine of the foi inrr must be smely amenable to corrective influences. At any rate, society cannot safety continue to ac quiesce in the existence of an evil so infe :tions in its character, and so discredit able to our intelligence and civilisation, US th*t of profane speaking.