Central High School - Mirror Yearbook (Birmingham, AL)

Page 19 text:

The Misuse and Abuse of Modern English Sonic one lias -aid that the English language E the most expressive, the most beautiful of the modern languages; yet how sadly di.-t aud it is to-day. T his E especially true in schools, the places where tut purest English should he spoken. liy girls, the most gushing expressions arc used. Listen, some day, to a conversation on the car. or in the school halls, and you will hear, 1 am simply crazy about it. I low pc le tly dread til« r aw id. 1 ,11st ;.dore that.' ' Lis.eir aiigel-iace.” After a series of such expressions, one might advisedly explain '‘how dreadful, for such expressions arc dreadful, coming as they do. from some of the most representative people in school. If we, when we are talking in such a manner, could only hear ourselves as others hear us. we would sure • ly cease to speak in such an incorrect ami exaggerated way. Hut girls are, by no means, the only ones who misuse and abuse our language. The tendency is still more pronounced among the boys. Have you ever heard such remarks as these being made by an. apparently, perfect gentleman: Bully. Gee! Whiz!” “1 get cher. Steve. “'l ake it from muh. let the hook. Believe me.” Good-night! ? Such speech as this is slowly but surely degrading our language, this most wonderful language, yet we stand passively b and allow it to be butclK ered by thoughtless hoys and girls. Good, clean, athletic slang is not so bad, but sttcli expressions as I have enumerated, and which arc very prevalent among most pupils, do not reflect the cultured homes from which most of the users come. They suggest that type of shop-girl, who, by habitual carelessness in manner and speech, has come to be recognized as a class w hich is displeasing, to say the least, to the most of us. Have you not heard such expressions as those I have named used by the careless girl of the department store: At the present day it is almost impossible for a lady, while shopping to avoid being addressed as Honey, Dear. nr Child ': such terms should be carefully used. On the other hand, the boys or young men. have surely heard their Bullies.” and Gee! Whizes. employed by the street urchin. Bv the English we use. wo shall be judged. By the language which some of us use we are not only lowering ourselves in the estimation of outsiders but arc gradually decreasing our own store of self-respect. With the use of so much slang we are irreparably injuring our vocabularies. In a few more years wc will not he able to express a single thought without the aid of slang. It is w'C of the High School who have the opportunity of improving these conditions. We are the men and women of to-morrow. Wo shall fix the standard for our citv. What will it he? LUCIE E. BUG I N N. T3.

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Vacations 7 A vacation means a great ileal more to some people than to others.) To us, for instance, it means bliss, freedom from books, long hours and study; for often as we have been told that our school days are our happiest, that we will never be so free from responsibility, etcetera, etcetera, still we are not above accepting a three months’ vacation during the warmest part of the year. To a teacher it means freedom too. 1 imagine, but from some twenty or thirty very active young Americans in various attitudes of attention or inattention as the case may be. Now this is freedom indeed! We think we have a very hard lot to have to come to school, some of tis. But what of the lot of the teachers, who need a gimlet or crowbar or megaphone to get the inkling of an idea into our stupid heads? The best things of this world and of the next should be reserved for them, I think. What different notions people have of vacations. A girl’s idea of a good »ime is a round of parties and balls, interspersed with flowers, candy, buggv rirles and summer flirtations, just about as serious as summer showers. To a boy. all this would be boring in the extreme, sillv, bosh. To him, a camp is the place for sure enough fun. A fellow can take oft his collar, and do as he chooses there. The tiresome etiquette of life is dispensed with, and, oh, the good things to eat! P.iscuits. which on his mother’s table would insult him. are eaten with a relish: then there is coffee and corn bread and molasses and pork and beans and fish, cooked in the most extraordinary wavs. Then there is the pleasure of sleeping with only a thin blanket between himself and Mother Earth, the great fun of making a fire and cooking over it. and other similar delights. But isn’t it strange that if he had to sleep on a hard bed he would think he was treated like a stepchild: and if asked to make a fire, he would consider it a terrible hardship: and as for cooking a meal- ! And what about the stay-at-home? Ob. of course, they plan a course in reading or cooking, and lay bv a lot of sewing or something of the sort. Sometimes they do it. but more often they don’t. The summer slips by so quickly, you know. But still if they do not.go away and have a good time, they have the comfort of feeling that, at least, thev certainly will make good wives with all their knowledge of the domestic arts. So when the middle of September comes around again, of course it finds everyone eager and anxious to return to school and fully recovered from the spring fever. 16 nF.r.T TOHXSTON. n

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Flower Stories “WISTARIA (A Japanese Fantasy.) Sleep little piget » an I fold your wings,- Little blue pigeon with velvet eyes; Sleep to the singing oi mother bird swinging. Swinging the nest where her little one li A-a-ah. He sleep. He v r’ happy now. Sleep, Otakara, sleep. The dainty little wisp of a mother leaned lovingly over the unconscious child and caressed his soft brown check a delicately as the south wind kissed the cherry blossoms outside. “Away out yonder I see a star,— Silvery star with a tinkling song; To the soft dew falling. I hear it calling. Calling and tinkling the night along. A-a-ah, he mos beau'ful star, Otakara. Mebc you see him in your dream. Dream ver' hard, t )takara. See the robin how he mak he nest an' speak to he mate, lie ver happy, Otakara. An we - we ver’ happy too.” In through the window a nioonbcun comes.— Little gold moonbeam with misty wings; All silently creeping it asks. ‘Is he sleeping— Sleeping and dreaming while mother sings? I IF AXDOX was lighted hut the mother rose anti extinguished it. She drew the shoji and lay dow n on her strange bed that he. too, might dream of the silver star. Still was the night, except for the sighs of a perfumed breeze. At the foot of the hill there were lighted lanterns, all daintily painted in w ist iria and there were many nourishes of parasols of the same d sign bv lavender-gowned Geisha girls who added to the gaiety with their dancing. There was much merry-making at the consulate tonight, celebrating the ar rival of a girl from over the sea. The silver beams of the moon glimmered across the bay and the great black hulk of a steamer rose in sharp outline against theVhmdless horizon. And there was light on the clusters of bushes that bordered the narrow path on the side «»f the hill and on the single robin nest in the cherry tree. The wistaria lanterns continued to burn and so did the silver star while the little lantern-maker in her nest on the hill sang her lullaby. 18