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Show "ENGLISH AS SHE'S WRIT." Dr. F. N, Scott of the University of Michigan is dcoply grioved and not a little alarm od. at tho devastating intluenco of the daily newspaper upon the king's English. In despair, Dr. Scott exclaims: "Of what use is it to drill pupils in grammar, to sweat over compositions, to spend month nftor month in tho reading and study of English masterpieces, if steadily, day by day, somo powerful disintegrating agency nullifies all that wo have accomplished?" ac-complished?" Not ovon tho Bible, adds Dr. Scott, can compete with tho daily newspaper as the most powerful and persuasive Influence of oar day and nation. It is a carious coincidence that on tho very day that Dr. Scott Inveighed so stcntoriously against newspaper English, another eminent scholar, Dr. F. W. Beckman of tho Iowa 8tate col-lego, col-lego, aroso in defenso of that selfsame self-same kind of English. "The" nowspa-por nowspa-por style." said Dr. Beckman, "which is becoming moro and more essential in the equipment of every successful writer, Is the clearest, most complete, and most interesting style In which things can be writton. The news sense, the ability to sco what is new and its new meaning to the great mass of humanity, Is necessary to men in every field of endeavor, but especially to men who writo. It is tho news sense which enables the writer to see through a mass of non-essentials to the essential, essen-tial, through doad rubbish to living facts, through husks and shells to the kernels of truth, I believe in the news stTlepas the most efficient style of this modern day for presenting information through the writton word. There is a vital, living quality in news writing that demands attention and grips interest." in-terest." The purpose of tho written or spoken word is to convey a thought. The more directly that Thought is carried ho more deeply will it penetrato tho mind and illumlno the understanding. Dr. Scott's brand of English does not meet that requirement; Dr. Beckman 's does. Every oditor of a nowspaper knows that almost without exception mon who hold ahalrs in colleges and univoraitlos cannot writo for nowspaper nowspa-per roadors moro's the D7- na flr tides from tho pons of Bcholastio lu-tmnarioB lu-tmnarioB are, as a rule, inordinately long, academic and ofttimes pedantic. No 'ono of them, perhaps, could writo acceptable accounts, for example, of tho Lopez ense. Wero Dr. Scott required re-quired to collect tho thousand and one datails Incident to a- day's "story" about Lopez, and, having gathered thorn, marshal them iu such ordor that, beginning be-ginning his tusk at 1 tf'elock in tho morning, he must proparo a five-column article for the morniug paper could ho do it? It is unlikely. Would his bond with classical English allow him to do itt Hardly. On tho othor hand, we think that Dr. Bookman could do it, and do it right well. Dr. Scott stands horrified bocauso newspapers permit thn use of slang. As a matter of fa't, thore is only ono departuifiit of a newspaper whero slang is toloratod, and not much of it thero. Thafia tho sporting pago. It is found thero because slang offers a means of cxprossing a thought torsoly and con-cisoly con-cisoly slang Is used becauBO classical English fails. In other department of tho nowBpapor tho English is not only passable, but in innumerable Instances, elogant. It is not often recognisod as such bocauso it appeals in a newspapor and not in a book with gilt edges. If Dr. Seott docs not understand slang, he 1h missing much in lifo that is worth knowing. A study of newspaper news-paper slang is commended to him. It will not hurt him, nor will it mako inroads upon hia chorishod classical ideals. A thorough newepapor man is master of slang as well as of English, and it is not of record that any newspapor news-papor man ovor was tho worse for his familiarity with tho doublo tongue. Again, Dr. Scott lifts a great cry against what ho terms "violations of grammar." Occasionally, no doubt, tho cleft infiuitivo creeps into tho nowspaper; nows-paper; no doubt, also, thero are times when tho preposition, liko a prohonsilo tall, swings frantically over the precipice preci-pice But it must bo borne in miud that thero are journalistic apprentices, even as there are embryonic Dr. Scotts. |