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Show HEARD ONLY IN AMERICA. English Newspaper Criticises Our Use of tho Phrass "Say" Its Ileal Meaning. An American story lu Offlco Window Win-dow began, as many American stories begin, with "say" Now, how many English readers know tho person and tho tenso of tho American "say"? Does It stand for "tell me" or for "I say"? For the first thcro Is tho familiar French analogy, tho 'MIb" of tho perpetual question of tho French child, and tho "dltes" of common talk lu later life But n correspondent who had for half a lifetime read the American story In this genso was obliged to change it for tho vulgar nnd exceedingly silly nnd qu!to superfluous su-perfluous phrase of our own streets. For ho put the matter to Americans In America, and they all assured him that "say" was nothing but "I say" further vulgarized. And yet "tell rao''aIs a beginning that has won a man more friends than any other opening In the customs of conversation. conversa-tion. Nothing in tho world makes a now acquaintance go moro favorably, 1 London Chronicle. |