Show I GUESS AND I BECKON I I In his Literary London Twenty Years Ago in the current number of I the Atlantic Monthly Colonel Higgin I son says that his first duty in England was to ascertain his proper position I as an American and to know what I was thought of us One of the first I houses where he spent an evening was i I at the home of I a distinguished scholar the highest authority on the various dialects of the English language but he was led to think that his sweet and kindly wife had not profited by his learning for she said to him Is it not rather strange that you Americans who seem such a friendly and cordial I race should invariably address a newcomer new-comer as stranger while we English who are thought to be cold and distant j I are more likely to say my friend She would scarcely credit it when I 1 told her I had hardly ever in my life been greeted by the word she thought so universal and then she added I I was told that Americans began every sentence with Well stranger I I guess I was compelled to plead guilty to the national use of the first and last of these two words but still I demurred as to the stranger The Nashville American takes exception I excep-tion to this saying I It strikes us that the colonel was I doing some guessing on his own account ac-count when he was compelled to plead guilty to the national use of the word guess People south of Mason and Dixons line do not do much guessing I guess-ing A great many of them reckon A number dont know and then you find out they do know some I suspect while others expect but I none guess They leave that to their friends of New England The I genial Colonel Higginson should not criticise the ignorance of the English when he upon his own evidence is guilty of culpable ignorance as to a frequently commented upon arid widely wide-ly known characteristic of a section of his own people V What the genial colonel said and the comments of the American upon it go to show how great a country the United States are Undoubtedly Colonel Colo-nel Higginson was of the impression that the Yankeeism I guess is nationwide I na-tionwide in use and taking it east and west he was not far wrong but taking tak-ing it north and south he appears from what the American says and it is an authority on southern peculiarities peculiari-ties of speech to have erred In the far west I guess is so common that no one notices it unless special attention atten-tion is called to it Another thing that Colonel Higgin sons remark emphasizes and that is that each section of the country unwittingly un-wittingly regards itself as having more national characteristics than another an-other This is perhaps natural and not offensive if not disagreeably obtruded ob-truded on other sections Rnstnn hire Y I the Hub of the Universe how could > Colonel Higginson do otherwise than 1 regard Massachusetts any habit as a characteristically national habit I |