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Show In a recent work on abuses of tje English language, a number of instances in-stances are given where ludicrous blunders have been caused by t:ie misuse and misplacing tho words. Among others are the following: A furrier, lamenting in an advertisement adver-tisement the. tricks played on the public by unprincipled men in . his own trade, "Earnestly requests ladies to bring to him their akiua, which he promiries shall be converted into muffs nd boivs." Another advertisement ran thus: "Two Bisters want washing." Here must have been a itrange sight: "He rode to town, and drove twelve cows on horseback." A gentleman advertised for a horse, "For a lady of a dark color, a good trotter, high stepper, and having a long tail." Better, more amusing, more instructive, in-structive, and more credible is (be following fol-lowing illustration of the inevitable ambiguities involved in accuraLo language. lan-guage. One gentleman observed to another: "1 have a wife and six children in New York and I never .saw one of them." "Were you ever blind?" "O! no," replied the other. A further lapne of time, and then the interrogator resumed the subject. "Did I understand you to say that you had a wife and six children living in New York, and you had never seen one of them?" "Yes, such is the fact." Here followed a etill longer pause in tho conversntion, when tho interrogator, inter-rogator, fairly puzzli d, said: "How can it be that you never saw one of them?" "Why," was the answer, "one of them was born after I left." |