--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Wells, Junius F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 15 number: 9 published: 1912-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Junius F. Wells, "“A Talk on Language”," *Improvement Era* 15, no. 9 (July 1912): 832–836.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1509unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1509unse start_page: 832 end_page: 836 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1912-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1509unse publication_year: 1912 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1912, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # “A Talk on Language” A TALK ON LANGUAGE." "Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope, who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow — attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia." When I was a school boy I was told that this first paragraph of Dr. Johnson's celebrated little book was one of the seven most perfect sentences in English literature. I never learned the other six or who wrote them. I learned this, one, however, and have never forgotten it ; and it has had some influence upon my love of our glorious English language. It has been to me a sort of anchor, holding hard in the ideal sea of safe and sane and simple utterance, when the high and tumultuous winds of ever changing fashion might have blown my little literary craft, a derelict out in the vast ocean of commonplace verbiage, or a withering CONJOINT SESSIONS M. I. A. CONFERENCE. 833 hulk dry upon the desolate shores of big diction, or back to destruction upon the wrecking rocks of slang. In the short time allotted to me I shall try to make plain my meaning by a few illustrations. I remember once to have heard a speaker, a self-taught man, who greatly gloried in the grandiloquent, and knew and employed with dictionary exactitude more five-syllabled words than any other speaker I ever heard. He was speaking upon the evidence of divinity in the world today, and he meant mainly to say, "God is Love." Among his redundant sentences was this : "With what comfort we contemplate the multifarious, indisputable and indubitable evidences of the unfathomable benignity of the divine love, made known unto us by the modern revelation of His supreme will." Now I call that a wreck upon the desolate shores of big diction, with Webster's unabridged as the particular rock upon which the poor craft struck. There is fashion in language, and it has its changes as surely, and especially in its lighter forms, as there are changes in the style of dress. It is not fashion that we fear or should avoid, but its extremes. No doubt we should be glad of some changes, as we are of the everchanging fashions in dress, especially its lighter forms, if women's dress may be so alluded to. Who of us could view with patience the attenuated skirt of the present vogue, if it were to remain long with us ? It is tolerable for the time, for we know it will presently pass ; and we can better endure it for its little day, than to have had with us always its double-barreled ancestress, the great swelling bloomers of the period when the Young Ladies Mutual Improvement Association was called the Retrenchment Society. Fashion in the lighter forms of language is illustrated in what I shall call the refinement of slang. I trust you will bear with me, for the sake of the illustration, if I assemble several experiences into a forgiveable exaggeration as one. Meeting a young lady the other day, a near relative of mine, ( a good many call me uncle ) I greeted her with the usual, "Good morning, it's a beautiful day." "Fine," she said. "The air is so bracing." "Fine." "How are the folks?'" "Fine." "Did you like the play last night?" "Fine." "The tragic realism, almost agony of the heroine — " "It was fine." "Did you enjoy the music, the new orchestra?" "Fine." "That was a delicious supper after the play." "Fine." "Notice how soft and white the linen was?" "Fine." "And how fragrant and sweet the flowers?" 834 IMPROVEMENT ERA. . rine. "Now look here, young woman, listen to me," and I frowned upon her. "I have greeted you with civility, inquired of the health of your family, elicited from you an expression of your appreciation of the tragic, of the beautiful, and of the enjoyment of all your senses; sight and hearing, taste and touch and smell, and all this you have expressed in a single beautiful word, used as slang, for not once have you used it in its true sense ; but you have used and abused this poor little word 'fine,' " and I frowned upon her more severely, "and you have ignored and despised the multitude of words our comprehensive language so abounds in, by which every thought and every shade of thought and meaning can be perfectly expressed. Why have you done this ? Because you have fallen into the lazy — not lady — habit of slang, the idle folly of the thoughtless utterance, using a slang word or a slang phrase, where words that are words, and sentences that signify, should be used. Do you not know that in this habit you are dwarfing your intellect, giving no employment to your mind, prostituting your heavenly gift of language, and falling to the level of the birds and lower animals, who do their very best to express themselves in the simulation of speech with a single note or two, a bark, or grunt or bray ? Should you not be above these? Do you not think you should delight in your language, employ its beautiful words with some regard for their meaning; group and assemble them, with a little thought and love and care, to tell what you think and see and feel?" She hung her graceful head and apparently was giving heed. Presently she looked up, and two great, crystal tears rolled from her beautiful blue eyes and trembled upon her rosy cheeks. She held out her hand and sweetly said, "Thank you so much, I believe every word you have spoken — it's just fine." Well, "fine" will presently pass, and some other word take its place. A few years ago it was "cute." I remember taking a lady afflicted with its habitual use to the opera in New York. She observed as we ascended the grand stairs and sauntered through the foyer that the whole Metropolitan opera house was "too cute" for anything. And as the opera progressed I learned that the magnificent scenery had "real cute" effects, and the splendid bass of Van Rooy's tremendous voice was "cute," — to say nothing of the "cute" little trills of the mighty Melba. Upon going home we had to cross the Brooklyn bridge, and I started to tell her that the steel in its construction was more in weight than all the steel that had ever been used in arming, with swords and spears and guns and shields and armor, all the armies of the world, since the days of Alexander the Great ; but I stopped in time and directed her attention to the black-haired, great-eyed little baby, held by an Italian young woman in the corner of the car, and she said, "how cute" of it, rather than of the bridge. For this I felt thankful. Let us prize the privilege of pleasant speech, and hit hard, with hard knocks, the vulgar intruders that spoil it. Our language is threatened with fierceness from the slang of the bleachers. The low lingo of the fans and other sports is not left where it should be, with the "down-and-outs" at the ring-side or in the base-ball field. It is heard in every bank and railway office, in every shop and factory, and hotel, and restaurant, upon the street and in the fields, though I presume that CONJOINT SESSIONS M. I. A. CONFERENCE. 835 farmers are freer from it than others. It is heard in the political hustings. Have we not especial cause for concern at the present time in the persistent, impetuous employment of the vulgar expletive, "Bully," so commonly used by one who aspires to occupy the highest place among us in the government of men. In this, his example is pernicious. The great universities and colleges are taking alarm and sending out warning. The beauty and integrity of our language, our mother tongue, is in danger. Let us side with these, as an Association whose name and purpose is Improvement. We should be found aligned with the forces that fight against inanity, vulgarity, profanity, and every other improper use and abuse of language. Let us strip our language certainly of all profanity. Swearing is the most useless and pernicious of vices. My grandfather taught me a lesson on this, which he said was the most worthless and silly, sin. He said that some teamsters justified it in driving stubborn mules or stupid oxen, but that there was nothing in it. The only time he ever lost his temper and swore at his oxen, they broke his wagon, and he didn't swear very hard, either. He was hauling wood, things were going wrong in the canyon, and in anger he called out "Darn you, Buck, what are you pushing against Bright for?" Buck was so surprised at that awful swear word from his gentle driver that he gave another push and broke the wagon tongue, and, as grandpa said, taught him to control his own for ever after. Let us taboo vulgarity and clothe our thoughts in the modest garments of refined language. Ridicule slang out of its predominance in our common speech, and at least relegate most of it to the slums whence it came. We shall take on strength to do this by emulating the example, giving heed to the insistent instruction, of that painstaking, faithful, hard-worker, one of the most eminent and forever to be remembered and respected founders of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, Dr. Milton H. Hardy. He was so much a lover of his language, throughout his life, that he would no more pollute it by the use of a slang or vulgar word than he would take the name of God in vain. Language is indeed the distinguishing gift of God to man, which makes him most like his Creator. By it man has given names to all other created things of earth, and air and sea, and exercises dominion over them. We should value this gift above rubies, and with reverence and gratitude employ it as He who gave it does ; as need be, to command, entreat, to instruct and amuse instructively, to guide and help, to comfort and to pray. And now, in conclusion, perhaps you will follow me silently in a word or two of prayer, which is the sublimest form of speech : O Lord, God of our Fathers, draw near unto the youth of thy people, withhold not thou thy tender mercies from the children of Zion. Let thv loving kindness and thy truth preserve them continually, in pnritv of thought and feeling and utterance. Leave them not in temptation, but deliver them from evil, for thine is the power, and unto Thee shall we ascribe the praise, and the honor, and the glory, now and forever. Amen. Elder David Smith of Teton stake sang "King- of Eternity," after which Elder Thomas Hull expressed his appreciation of the very splendid meetings 836 IMPROVEMENT ERA. held during the conference. Throughout the conference he had listened to discussions on various things which if introduced into our Mutual Improvement Associations would tend to refine, to uplift and edify the members and make them strong and useful in the Church and in society. Mrs. Bessie Browning sang, "O Divine Redeemer, and Sister Sarah Eddington of the Young Ladies' Board spoke for a few moments on the beauties of Utah, and how the children and grandchildren of the Pioneers had been blessed in these valleys. In the Mutual Improvement Associations the study of Jesus Christ, his life, his teachings, and what he has done for us had been taken up and the Latter-day Saints more than any other people should love, and honor the name of our Savior. The Jordan stake choruses then sang, "Soldier's Chorus," by Gounod, and the benediction was pronounced by Sister Ann M. Cannon of the Young Ladies' Board. At 2 p. m. The Tabernacle Choir under the direction of Prof. Evan Stephens, sang, "Judge me, O God, and Plead My Cause," and prayer was offered by President Charles W. Penrose. The choir then sang "Christ is Risen." This was followed by three ten-minute talks: First, "Physical Development," by Elder B. H. Roberts. Elder B. S. Hinckley was to have spoken on this subject but was unavoidably detained. "Intellectual Development" was treated by Sister Ruth May Fox of the Young Ladies' Board. "Spiritual Development," By Sister Edith Hunter of the Primary Associations. She said that spiritual training should begin with the birth of the child, and that during its earliest months of life it should be surrounded by influences that tend to assist in spiritual development. Solo, "Shepherd of the Flock" — Miss Nora McPherson, of Los Angeles. The officers of the three associations were then presented, followed by an address by President Joseph F. Smith, which will be printed later. The Tabernacle Choir sang, "God is our Refuge," and the benediction was pronounced by Sister Margaret Hull of the Primary Association. Some one presented the organization with a boquet of Sego Lilies in the form of a great bee hive which adorned one of the stands during services. At the evening meeting at 7:30 o'clock, the Granite stake choruses, under direction of Prof. Robinson, sang, and prayer was offered by Elder B. S. Hinckley. The primary children of Ensign stake under the direction of Nellie Penrose Whitney, sang "Let the Little Children come." Sister Ann Nebeker gave an address on "The Relation of the Primary Association to the M. I. A." The Primary children sang, "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd." Sister Mary Connelly, editor of the Young Woman's Journal and member of the General Board, addressed the congregation on "