EN CASSEROLE
Tobacco and Alcohol
As to tobacco, since reading the article on it in this number, this Review has really thought more seriously than ever before about (not of) giving up smoking. But many doctors here and in Europe have told us to keep on, and but one has told us to stop. How is it with you? We wonder whether life with tobacco can seem to those who know only life without it, as bad as life without it seems to those who have known life with it! Perhaps each class should experiment in the other's field.
As to the outlay for mere pleasure, and the destruction of life involved, we wonder how those caused by tobacco would compare with those caused by travel—short trips as well as long, by carriage, automobile, vessel—and aeroplane? Our contributor has seen these paragraphs, and he says, very much to our edification and entertainment:
"It is a relief to know that the tobacco article is not going to interfere with the pleasure which 'This Review' derives from smoking. But the writer confesses to a little surprise at the precocity of an infant which in its first year has acquired the nicotine habit to such an extent as to lead it to consult several physicians on the subject."
[It is many years since, but we remember that in at least two cases, the prescription was volunteered. Ed.]
"As for the expense caused by driving for pleasure, our statistics do not give us a conclusive answer, but they at least supply us with an outside figure, for Uncle Sam in counting his horses at the time of the last census distinguished between those on farms and those elsewhere. It is fair to assume that the great bulk of the horses used for pleasure are in the second class, and that they constitute a comparatively small fraction of that class. Now horses not on farms numbered 3,182,789 in 1910, and were valued at $422,204,393. In other words, a third of what smokers spend for tobacco would enable them to buy up all of the horses in a big class, only a fraction of which is used for pleasure, and an equal amount would probably suffice for their keep.
"In the case of automobiles, it is still more difficult to distinguish between those used for pleasure and those used for directly productive or public purposes. However, the object of the article was to call attention not so much to gross figures of expenditure, as to the indirect burden imposed by smokers upon the community at large. The automobilist who is willing to run down innocent wayfarers rather than curb his craze for speed is in the same class with the smoker who so smokes as to destroy property and life. Indeed the two are often identical, and it was no mere accident that led the Massachusetts Forestry Association to depict upon its poster designed to stop forest fires, a party of smoking automobilists bowling along and leaving a trail of fire behind them. If the 'Review' can devise some painless way of eliminating both the reckless smoker and the reckless joy-rider from the landscape, it will kill two undesirable birds with one stone."
And as to alcohol. Well! There's Horace and Schiller and the feast of Cana, and the whiskey Lincoln wanted for his other generals, and lots of other people and facts.
But as to bar-maids, we are bound to say that since the graceful tribute to them on earlier pages was in type, there has been placed in our hands evidence of a crusade against their employment in England, and of its abolition by law in South Australia. See the Memoir of Margaret Ethel Macdonald. London, 1913.
For all we know, the preponderance of argument may be against the substitution of women for men as barkeepers; but we suspect that at least it would diminish the shooting at and by barkeepers, in New York.
And another thing we think we do know—that in these progressive days, it would be hard to find any pursuit in which women are engaged, where there is not agitation to improve it off the face of the earth. Their old-fashioned pursuits of wife and mother have lately been specially honored by such agitation.
Answering Big Questions
A contemporary that we have always very highly "esteemed" (we believe that is the correct term, but we are new in the profession) is now proceeding to fill us with awe. It announces that it is going to circulate privately among its friends, a series of brochures that "will answer big questions." We wish we could do that; but our cotemporary has already engaged the only editor we know of who can. For our poor part, we are apt to encounter in any country grocery some question too big for us to answer. But the answers our esteemed cotemporary is going to send out may occasionally help us in telling how a big question that we don't profess to be able to answer, looks to us. We have already had some help of this kind from the editor in question: on many subjects his glowing imagination has thrown such high lights that we have found places of shadow before unsuspected.
The matter reminds us of Horace Greeley's proposition to issue "for the people," a series of pamphlets for five cents each, to contain only "the pure truth." He did not say where he was going to get it.
Decency and the Stage
In the present agitation regarding decency on the stage, it is probably safe to assume that the proponents for license or liberty or freedom or whatever they call it, admit that there are some necessary acts and places which should not be represented on the stage. Now would it not clarify discussion if the said proponents were to draw the line between such inadmissible matters and those that should be admitted? We have never happened to see such a line drawn.
What Is the Matter with the American Colleges
Everybody in every one of them seems to know that something is the matter, but nobody in any seems to know just what, much less, then, a remedy for whatever it is.
Some say it is the suppression of the individual, the glorification of the average. Others say it is college yelling and athletics. Yet others, that it is vocationalizing and the deadly practical. Still others call it the proletariat of the doctorate, the fad of the faculties for immature or imitation research.
Can it be that it is all these things and several more, particularly all those that exist in contrasted pairs, such as discipline and required work according to the standard of the mean, and at the same time, elective studies and the freedom of the city? Or simultaneous college yells and doctor's dissertations. And can it be that all these grow out of a single actual condition which is common to all American higher education, and which compels it to be "lower" at the same time that it is "higher"? For in the present organization of practically every American college and university that condition actually does exist.
It exists by virtue of the fact of the housing in the same dormitories and fraternity houses, and mixing in the same class rooms and laboratories, and providing with the same teachers and deans, and ruling by the same regulations and gum-shoe committees, of dependent preparatory students and independent advanced students.
Our high schools stop short of finishing the preparation of students for University work. Our universities assume part of the high school function along with their own. The German Gymnasium and French lycée include the equivalents of the American college Freshmen and part of the Sophomores. They finish up the drill and discipline stage of education. The Continental university begins and carries on the stage of intelligent and self-chosen and independent work. But in the American universities there must be discipline, college yells, drill in routine and elementary work, classes handled on the basis of averages, and teachers of the Gymnasium and lycée type, existing side by side with recognition and encouragement of the individual freedom of bent, disregard of credit hours and assigned tasks, and scholarly professors and investigators of real university type.
The outcome is that the drill teachers are made pseudo-investigators; the investigators made unwilling drill teachers. The students are invited to soar, and at the same time ordered to march in ranks. Preparatory school rules are made for the sake of the Freshmen, which the Seniors have to obey. Freedom of choice in study is offered because of the Seniors and graduates, to the utter demoralization of the Freshmen.
Because of this impossible juxtaposition of discipline and freedom, drill and inspiration, the American university feels sick. It knows very well that something is the matter with it. It has to be all things to all students, and is, in fact, too little of a real thing to any of them.
Wanted: Proportionate News
The most noteworthy difference between European and American Journalism, as regards news, is the prominence we give to what is technically called the news of the day. Let a great liner be sunk or saved and all the newspapers, even the most conservative, print page on page of repetitious story or comment, playing on the emotions from every point of view. No European paper would feature even the most affecting news on any such scale. Doubtless our American practice is a natural enough tribute from the editors to the mobility of our sympathies, not to say the flightiness of our minds. What the enthralled reader does not realize is that to provide him with the completely modulated thrill of the day scores of important items of routine news have been curtailed to meaningless epitome or wholly suppressed. For several days that duty of daily chronicle which a good newspaper ordinarily performs is intermitted. The most important debates of a congressional year will receive bare notice so long as a heroic Marconi operator is in the public eye. The greatest of foreign statesmen or authors might die in the glorious interim and receive the barest notice; a revolution in Persia would yield to a factory fire on the East Side.
Now something of this disproportion is necessary. No paper could live in America which scrupulously treated news according to its abstract importance regardless of the reader's cravings. Yet a journal that respects itself has a function of daily chronicle that should under no circumstances be suspended. A really good newspaper ought to be valuable material for the historian, and our best newspaper will several times in every twelvemonth leave him badly in the lurch. For a week he will find admirable reports of say the discussion of a very important measure like the currency bill, and then suddenly the Volturno und kein Ende. Just about the time when mail letters were beginning to tell a certain amount of truth about the Messina earthquake, the telegraphic reports of which were egregious inventions of distant improvisers, The Republic was saved through the intrepidity of Jack Binns. A correspondent who had been on the ground at Messina and remained in close touch with the rescuers and refugees received the sufficient answer with regard to additional earthquake facts "Jack Binns has killed Messina." Here is obviously both a good and a bad reason. There was every reason for celebrating at length the pluck and loyalty of Jack Binns, and no reason for curtailing the record of one of the greatest disasters registered in history.
The first duty of a good newspaper is to the more important routine news. It is a duty that every American journal neglects at times quite scandalously. The old fashion of relegating striking news of the day to an extra had much to commend it. Abuse of the extra by the yellow press has pretty well killed the practice among the conservative papers. Possibly a discreet revival of the legitimate extra might help matters. But what is really needed is a juster sense of proportion and a clearer conception of duty among editors. With a little insight and much courage a managing editor might make himself the controller of the "news of the day," rather than its mere conduit. In the long run his paper would more than gain in steady prestige what it lost in occasional flurries of sensational success.
Simplified Spelling
Rather than bother our readers and distract their attention from what we have to say, we print in the orthographic forms we are all accustomed to. But we realize that many of these forms are inconsistent and irrational—more so in English than in any other civilized language—and that the difficulty of learning them wastes the time and tissue of our children, and obstructs among foreigners the spread of English to its natural position of a world language, with the blessings that its attaining that position would bring in peace and commerce.
Our orthography is, of course, an evolution. It began with picture symbols, and some of these were gradually changed into the letters of our alphabet. But the signs have always been later than the sounds, and we never had enough of the former to express the niceties of the latter. Therefore imperfections and inconsistencies in any new system proposed should not be fatal against it, if it is enough of an advance on the existing system, and a better advance than any other proposed. The orthography of the future will undoubtedly be eclectic from many proposals, and probably, like the present orthography, from many involuntary and unreasoned practices.
The English Simplified Spelling Society, which contains the leading British authorities, has gone on the principle that it is not worth while to recommend any changes short of a comprehensive scheme for the whole language, and has recommended an approximate one. Nothing more than approximation is possible.
The American Simplified Spelling Board, sustained by Mr. Carnegie, which corresponds in authority with the English society, has not attempted a comprehensive system, but for the worst extravagances and inconsistencies has simply recommended a number of remedies, especially such forms as tho, thru, and the following changes in final syllables—saving all silent e's, including the one in ed; the me in gramme, and programme; the ue in final gue; the te in final ette; also the substitution of t for d final, when so pronounced.
As is well known, several of the remedial forms are already in considerable use, especially in advertising and other writing where no appreciable demands are made on the understanding or emotions.
From here until we giv notis on a later page, we wil uze som of those forms and a few more—all of which may be not too radical for present use in informal riting, as abuv mentioned, and may be regarded as transitional toward an ideal system. It woud undoutedly be easier to teach children a comprehensiv and consistent sistem than the existing caos minus varius uncorrected partial remedies, as illustrated in the present riting. The authoritys ar agreed that children woud lern a consistent sistem years qicker than the present lac of sistem, and having lernd the consistent sistem, woud pic up the forms they find in newspapers and existing bouks without conscius effort. Then of course a generation familiar with a goud sistem woud soon be suppleid with literature in it. But a rising generation cannot be taut such a sistem before the elders ar convinst of its utility.
We wish to promote such a conviction as far as we can, but no won without experience can begin to realize the difficultys, in fact the impossibility, of presenting new forms with absolute consistency. Words really sound differently in som connections than in others; and habit asserts itself in spite of reson. In half a dozen revisions of these paragrafs, inconsistencys hav bin found every time, and som undoutedly remain. But such inconsistencys ar not permanently inherent in the reform, and shoud not prejudis it. Habits of pronunciation disagree, and even if they did not, perfect discrimination coud not be attaind even with an alfabet twice as large as our present one; and if absolute discrimination wer attaind, it woud sune be nullified by an accent in som new popular song, or from som new popular orator. The only way to keep spelling abrest of language is for lexicografers to cut luse from precedent, and closely follo the actual pronunciation of their own times. William D. Whitney used to say that if they had always don that, filological sience woud be much farther advanst.
A special cause of inconsistency is the tendency to preserv what is not very bad, and to make changes as slight as reson wil permit, but when no slight change wil do the tric, to make the change as goud as possibl. But see what somtimes coms. The w in write is utterly useless. Take it off, and we have a fairly good word rite. But the gh in right is also useless—not pronounst, as is the ch in the cognate German recht. If we get rid of it, however, we have rit, which rimes with fit. Now take it all in all, the best way to lengthen that i is to dubl it, just as in silabls closed with a consonant we alreddy somtimes dubl the vowel—the e in seen, the o in door. This is not necessary in open silabls. The S. S. S. proposes we shal dubl the a in faather, and the u in tuun (tune). Then if we dubl the i, we hav a uniform sistem with the long vowels. This givs us riit. But then the processes we hav just been thru land us with rite and riit for the same sound.
Of course to represent a sound in more than won way brings perplexity to spellers. Yet several ways are resonabl to let stand until a new generation can be educated to the best. This is a not unresonabl concession to habit, and is not nearly so bad as to let a simbol represent more than one sound, as in the two sounds for tear, and the vowel sounds in door and poor.
But we must also take into account what Skeat rightly says—that the simbol for a sound should not be distributed in two places; and therefore rite is not so good as riit. But the e at the end of a closed silabl to lengthen the vowel, is so intrencht in the language that it woud be doutful policy to attack it yet in words fairly fit to stand, e. g., fate, mate, bite, mote, lute. So the transition policy we recommend is to let all fairly goud forms stand, but where a form is to bad to stand, change it into the best possibl, as right into riit, even at the price of such an inconsistency as leaving rite from write, because rite is more workabl, tho riit woud be theoretically better. Som such inconsistencys ar inevitabl, as we cannot start fresh, but must evolv from an existing inconsistent—very inconsistent—orthografy.
In spelling, as in matters perhaps more important (tho the importance of rational spelling is vastly grater than generally realized), it is wel to recognize the ideal, but to try to advocate at any time only what is workabl at that time.
Now we proceed tu a much clooser approximashon tu an ideal for owr children, so far az it appeerz practicabl with the prezzent alfabet. It wil at first seem a very funny ideal. All such approximashonz wil differ, and wil hav tu fiit it owt, and this wun wil seem at first tu be caos and oold niit, but allmoost enny wun ov them, tu a miind withowt an alien training—tu a chiild's miind, woud be moor orderly and luminus than owr prezzent sistem, or rathther lac ov sistem.
The rezonz for the niu formz which ar not obvius wil be explaind alfabetically after the text.
Moost ov the formz we giv ar recommended by the S. S. B. and the S. S. S. But thair ar itemz on which theze bodyz ar not yet agreed, even among themselvz; yet thair laborz hav reecht the point whair individualz shoud taak hoold and subject the formz thay beleev in tu the strugl for existens and the survival ov the fittest.
The grait difficultyz ar in indicating the vowelz with owr prezzent alfabet, which givz, for instans, oonly the wun simbol a for at leest ait sowndz, and probably moor not generaly discriminated, and the wun simbol e for at leest fiiv, i for three, o for foor, and dubld for foor moor, and u for fiiv.
The short vowelz ar dispoozd ov with comparativ eez: for in a silabl cloozd with a consonant, the vowel iz uzualy short, e. g., bad, bed, did, cod, cub, but unfortunaitly not all short vowelz hav thair silablz cloozd. In Saxon dissilablz, owr ancestorz generaly did clooz the first silabl when it woz short, by repeeting the vowel beginning the folloing silabl, e. g., gabble, filling, fizzle. But the practis ov cloozing in this way woz generaly restricted tu dissilabls, az the pronunsiashon ov polisilabls iz apt tu indicait itself, and economy iz wurth considering. In wurdz directly from the Latin, az thair iz les differens ov axent between the silabls, the clozing ov the first silabl az abuv descriibd, iz not yuzual. It woud probably be wel tu introduus it, however. If, for instans, the first silabl wer cloozd in viggor, we shoud not hav such contradicshonz az vigor and vizor siid by siid.
Az tu the long sowndz, the oonly way tu reprezent them, whair thay ar not determind by pozishon at the end ov an oopen silabl, iz (az allreddy illustrated) by combining the letrz with different letrz, az we now combiin in gain, real, mine, soar, rule: evidently gan, rel, min, sor, rul, woud not anser the purpus. We hav tu maik theez combinashonz becawz the genius ov owr rais duz not seem tu favor adding letrz tu owr alfabet, inazmuch az we hav allreddy dropt tu valuabl wunz reprezenting respectivly th and dh.
It certanly woud be best, az allreddy propoozd, tu dubl eech vowel for its long sownd, az we allreddy du in deem and door. But we hav no exampl ov dubl a, i, or u (except in tu or three forren wurdz liik bazaar, and ov coors, owr utterly exentric w), but the S. S. S. recommendz uu insted ov the oo in coon, and dubl a in faather, which we accept. We do not need to dubl the a befoor r final in monosilabls becawz it haz the ah sownd befoor r exept when the a follooz a w sownd, iither in w itself or in cw exprest az q, e. g. in war (wawr) or quart (qawrt). The foorgoing givz dubl vowelz for all but i, and we propooz them thair. This iz a compleet sistem baasd on a principl.
Now for sum explanashonz.
abuv = above. The e final propperly maiks the o long, and iz entirely owt ov plais heer and in love, shove, etc. The sownd ov the o iz propperly a u sownd, az in but, and iz wun ov several cases whair we absurdly yuuz o tu express u sowndz.
allreddy = already. The silabl al propperly riims with gal, Hal, pal, Sal—rather a riotus set ov silabls, but thay ar whot running down the alfabet givz. And the silabl read propperly riims with bead, and shoud be spelt here red, but redy shoud riim with needy, so we proviid an addishonal consonant, in the mood ov owr ancestorz, az allreddy explaind. This iz at the sacrifis ov economy, but the reformd sistemz hav uthther economyz, espeshally in the terminal ed, tu compensait. See allso prezzent and confiuzd.
allso = also. See allreddy.
allwaiz = always. The S. S. S. recommendz ai for the long a sownd az in pair. See allreddy.
bin = been, which propperly riimz with seen.
confiuuzd = confused. Withowt the i, propperly pronownst confoozd. Moorover we wawnt tu get rid ov the apparent silabl at the end ov such wurdz, not oonly tu economiiz the yuusles e, but allso becawz forrenerz tend to pronowns the ed az a silabl.
coors = course and coarse. oo az in door iz the best simbol for long o, az ee iz the best simbol for long e. The ou simbol we reserv for such wurdz az coud, shoud, woud. The temptashon tu maik coors riim with Boors, iz ov the devvil: for Boors iz abominably spelt. It shoud be Buurz; and furze shoud be spelt withowt the e. Thair iz no serius objecshon tu making coors serv for both course and coarse: thair ar allreddy menny cases whaar wun wurd meenz several thingz.
determind = determined. Mined can propperly be pronownst oonly with a long i, and the silabl or wurd mind, with a short i. Allso see confiuuzd.
devvil = devil, which with dubl propriety riimz with evil.
duz = does, which propperly riimz with goes.
grait = great, which propperly riimz with beat.
havving = having, which propperly riimz with saving.
impruuvd = improved. Tu reprezent a u sownd with o iz absurd. Allso see confiuuzd.
litl = little. Thair iz so litl vowel sownd in the last silabl ov this and menny uthther wurdz as tu be hardly wurth expressing, and thair ar menny difficultyz in duing it.
maid = made. Thair iz no objecshun to this from owr allreddy havving a wurd maid. See allwaiz, also coors.
menny = many, which propperly and suggestivly riimz with zany.
no = know: the S. S. B. touk off the w, but after chainging knock into noc, bawkt at this k. We ar a litl moor venchursum. The o iz long by pozishon at the end ov an oopen silabl.
nu = knew. See no.
oonly = only, which woud propperly riim with sonly if thair wer such a wurd for filial. The S. S. S. recommendz oe for the long o sownd, but oo iz betr, and we rigl it in az an inishal after the manner of eels.
owr = our, which propperly riimz with iither pour or tour. The vowel sownd in our iz that in owl.
practis = practice. In practiced we pronowns the ed az t, and thairfor shoud spel it so. But if we maid it practict, the c woud be hard. Chainging the c to s in the parent wurd givs us practist, which iz wel simboliizd.
prezzent = present, which propperly riimz with decent.
pronowns = pronounce. See practis.
pronownst = pronounced. See practis.
propper = proper, which propperly riimz with toper. See allreddy, allso litl.
purpus = purpose. Pose propperly riimz with nose.
reecht = reached. See practis.
riit = right. The gh wurdz hav that simbol cognait with the German guttural ch az in recht, tho we du not pronowns it. But rit woud riim with bit.
scollar = scholar. Booth Societyz omit the h in ch hard. But that woud leev scolar, riiming with molar. See allreddy, allso litl.
scuul = school. Dubl o iz abiuuzd in being maid tu reprezent a u sownd. See oonly.
silabl = syllable. We du not keep the dubl l, becawz this iz a polisilabl: see [p. 221] neer bottom. In spelling, children and forrenerz, and not thay aloon, ar puzzld between i and y. The S. S. B. haz wiizly reservd y for terminals, and we beleev in it for inishals allso whair thay ar combiind with uthther vowelz. See yuse and yuzed. Also see litl.
simbol = symbol. See silabl.
simboliizd = symbolized. See silabl. Moorover, if we wer tu drop the e from simbolized tu prevent forrenerz pronownsing the apparent last silabl, thay woud be in dainger of maiking the ending riim with whot we hav spelt az fizzed and woud now spel az fizd. For this rezon we need the iizd simbols. See simplifiid.
simplifiid = simplified. The ie freequently in English and allwaiz in German haz the long e sownd, and in English iz alwaiz confiuuzd with the long e sownd in receiv, etc. Rezerving ii for the long i duz away with that confiuzhon. Tu du away with the confiuzhon between such wurdz az believe and receive, the S. S. B. allreddy reservz ie, and the S. S. S., ee, which we follo.
sownd = sound. See coors and owr.
thair = their, see allwaiz.
thay = they. Not thai becawz y iz betr than i booth az inishal and terminal.
tu = too, to and two. The absurdity of reprezenting a u sownd by o is obvius. We don't need tu dubl the u, becauz the silabl iz oopen.
uthther = other. This iz a stumper. The inishal sownd iz the u in but. The th propperly reprezents a singl consonant sownd. Owr Saxon ancestorz had a singl letr for it which we did badly in throing away. That letr the Anglo-Saxons freqently yuuzd tu clooz a silabl (see p. 221) az in siððan, since, and after thay began tu yuuz th insted ov the ð, thay freqently yuuzd th for the saam purpus, until its cumbrusnes thru it owt. We stil yuuz the ð in filological publicashonz, tho often allso the Greek θ. If we must yuuz th, for consistency's saak it shoud be repeeted in uthther, bruthther, muthther, etc.
Fortunaitly thair ar oonly a scoor ov such wurdz. We riit of thair spelling partly az a curiosity that may be interesting, and partly tu sho the dezirability ov getting bac owr oold letrz. Macaulay's scuulboy nu, if owrz duzn't, that the Greeks wer ahed ov us over tu thowzand yeerz ago, in havving not oonly a singl simbol for th, but a long e and a short e, and a long o and a short o.
whot = what, which propperly riimz with bat.
woz or wuz = was, which propperly riimz with gas.
wun = one, which propperly riimz with tone.
wurd = word, which propperly riimz with cord. Its vowel is pronownst with a u sownd, which it iz absurd tu reprezent by o.
wurs = worse, which propperly riimz with horse. We woud hardly pronowns horse az we pronowns hearse, tho the latter iz allso abominabl: for ea propperly reprezents the sownd in dear. The riit way tu spel hearse iz hurs, and the riit way tu spel her's iz hur'z.
wuz or woz = was, which propperly riimz with gas.
yuus or yuuz = use. See confiuuzd. Use iz pronownst both uze and use. Uze iz a betr way to spel the wurd which we rongly spel ooze. Tu yuuz an o for a u sownd iz bad enuf, and tu yuuz tu ov them iz wurs—dubly fit for fools.
We may venture upon another (annuthther?) spelling lesson in the next number, especially if owr reederz giv enny siin ov wawnting it; and it may anser sum qeschonz raazd in this lesson. And we may even go so far az tu prezent a fiu miild innovashonz in owr text, az haz bin heroically don by the Educational Review, The Independent and sum uthther periodicalz ov standing.
We woud liik to hieer from owr reedrz on the subject.
Press of T. Morey & Son, Greenfield, Mass.
| The Unpopular Review | ||
| VOL. 1 | APRIL-JUNE, 1914 | NO. 2 |