Garland Globe | 1906-07-28 | Page 7 | The Virtue of Abbreviation

1 The Virtue of Abbreviation. A writer in tho Evening Standard, complaining of tho London habit ol abbreviation, says ho would llko to hang the "fiend who christened tha Baker Btrcct and Waterloo railway tho 'Iiakerloo Tubo.' " We think b should cnnpnlzo htm. This column speaks with a certain anxiety for It at least gave currency to both thosa abbreviations. On the opening day of tho Shepherd's Bush and Mansion House line a forgotten omnibus driver fired the gibe, "It ain't nothing but a twopenny tube," at tho people who turned from his omnibus and took to f the bowels of tho earth. Tho official! who could build a railway could not namu It. Tho driver's glbo fixed tha word. In tho same way tho London public, though quite ready to travel by tho Bakor street and Waterloo rnllway, wanted to save its breath, and for the economy of hurried speech tho suggestion was hero mado Ba-kcrloo. Ba-kcrloo. The two words have been taken to tho heart of travelers, and received official snnctlon; for at Trafalgar square you aro directed to tho "Bakcrloo Tube." Tho phraHO Is Hwlft, convenient, ns a matter of speech, nnd hns Just as much rolatlon to literary language as a bill of lading. lad-ing. London Chronicle.