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Show uu A BRIEF FOR BREVITY. A public speaker was once asked how much time he would need tn pre-paro pre-paro an addross on a certain subject He replied. "If I am to speak only half an hour, 1 shall nood a week; If an hour, threo daya; If as long as I please I am ready now." A message ot thirty-flvo words, written by a woman In answer to a telegram, was reducod by an expert to one without loss of efficiency Who doubts that tho average man could put his written writ-ten or spoken thoughts into fewer words that ho uses or that the aver-ago aver-ago woman ought to? Most modern writers uso too many words and too long ones. A common com-mon offense Is tho superfluous out In watch out, win out, try out, otc. To read of a candidate being tried out Hiiggests lard rendering, Qr "some-, thing humorous, llko death by boiling oil." In most cafeos up need not follow fol-low open, back, fill, cover, etc. Forward, For-ward, backward, toward, approve, of, equally as, nood pruning Why use tho longer a6 thought for as If, or during for In? ? Why say you arc aggraated or provoked when tou aro morely vexed? Why anticipate what you expocL or expect what you simply think? Way commence, conclude, remit, re-mit, settle, or donate, when you can much better begin, close, sond. pay and give? Why prefer longtbv to long avocation to vocation, widow woman to widow, or Individual to person. It might be supposed that tho Illiterate Illit-erate would find It easier to use short words, jet we hear from them such elongations na attacted, telegraphted, preventative, agriculturalist and cas-uallty. cas-uallty. It would seem that there is a form of meutal laziness which pro-fers pro-fers tho long wny around to the trouble of finding a ehort cut. "Time is money,' Is a business maxim, and railway companies no longer name, but m'oro simply number num-ber their locomotives; and the old-timo old-timo gontlcmon's room and ladies' room have gien way to men and women In their stations. On the other hand, street rnllwajs havo displaced dis-placed the eminently fit driver for the longer motorman, a monstrosity H which never should have been ad- H mltted to tho language. Men who ' drive aro drivers why not? The automobile has folsed on us that foolish word chauffeur. Whoever Who-ever first called an automobile driver J a chauffeur committed a crime'. At least he might havo unmasked his villainy vil-lainy and made him a stoker, which, is a good English translation and shows Its lnaptness frankly. Needless words, which apply for positions not vacant and get them are impudent r parasites, drones in the hive. Foreign words of this class, which seek to supplant better one3 already here ' should be ruthlessly turned back, like pauper Immigrants. Frank M. Bio's-nell Bio's-nell in May Upplncott's. |