1927-07-28 — Page 10

10

GRAND CLEARANCE

SALE

Must be cleared to make room for NEW STOCK.

LADIES' DEPT.

RAIN COATS & CAPES $5.00 to $12.00 LADIES' PYJAMAS $1.50 to $2,00 NIGHT GOWNS $1.50

ENVELOPE CHEMISE & COMBINATIONS 50 cents

LADIES' WHITE SHOES

$1.00 per pair. LADIES SUMMER HATS

$4.00

ALSO

Remarkable Reductions in all

Departments.

YEE SANG FAT CO.

KAIPING COAL

FOR HOME, FACTORY & POWER HOUSE.

HOME,

FACTORY

AND

BUNKERS

For Price Apply to

POWER

HOUSE,

TUGS &

LOCOS.

THE KAILAN MINING ADMINISTRATION.

DODWELL & CO., LTD., Agents, Hongkong.

Hong Kong's Artistic Photographers

The

YING. MING STUDIO

Queen's Road Central

(Official Photographers of the "China Mail.")

FOR SALE.

Packets of Foreign

POSTAGE STAMPS

No two stamps the same In any packet.

Packets that will please you.

GRACA & CO.

Dealers in Postage Stamps, Gar- den Seeds, Pictorial Post Crade, Toys, etc.

No. 10, Wyndham Street. P. O. Box No. 620

Hong Kong.

BY GOLLY - WE ARE LOST - BUT I'M SURE WE CAME THIS

WAY!

THE CHINA MAIL.

THE WORLD OF BOOKS

SPOKEN ENGLISH,

IS THE LANGUAGE 1

STABILISED?

Those who have seen the Eigh teenth century plays which are still running in London may perhaps be surprised to find how little spoken English has changed in the last two hundred years (writes Sir G. Denison Ross, Director of the, London School of Oriental Studies, "John o' London's Weekly.")

in Here and there one hears an un- familiar sound such as "obleegéd," and perhaps some quaint obsolete ejaculation, but on the whole the language used is practically that of to-day.

ig

many

A PUBLISHER'S SENSIBLE

ADVICE.

Recently I read a newspaper BOOKS OF PROMISE. paragraph describing a woman's suicide which bore the headline "Shot Wife." This is but one ex- ample of the sort of thing one sees. Unlike some other langunges, such as German, which admits of endless! There is room to-day in the compounds, English does not lend publishing business for young girls itself to compression. That is why with vitality, enthusiasm, and the such and English is printed and power of erenting something, ac- spoken in America, a country with cording to Mr. C. S. E. Evans, of Mesars. Heinemann.' Addressing a a passion for abbreviation.

To go to the other extreme, large gathering of school girls at pedante object to liberties which a meeting at the Ministry of Labour we might quite legitimately take arranged by the Head Mistresses with our English tongue. I see no Employment Committee, he said infinitive if by so doing we can ex- enter this business, which made no renson why we should not split an that there was great competition ta

press a finer shade of meaning "To real distinction of sex. Rather a clearly state." for instance, has a high standard of general edlucn- slightly different meaning from "te tien was wanted in addition to State clearly." Nor should there something more than the usual be any objection to ending a sen- Interest in books an eagerness tence with a preposition. Pre- and enthusiasm which made a book positions are among the chief benu-the most marvellous thing in the ties of the English language, und world.

we should not hesitate to give them In the manufacturing depart

prominence.

ก

THURSDAY, JULY 28, 1927.

DAILY CROSS-WORD PUZZLE.

('oyya pun ‘moju Luoquay so your ‘sbuypods orjavond porn to pie your of ponudom dud spore in g (This cross-word puzzle has been made by an expert

2

भ

12

15

39

HO

45

146

55

HORIZONTAL

1-Free from excess 6-A customs duty 11-Conjunction 12-That color without

tine

13-Fish cri 14P:fix. Down 15-Small 18-Small (Beat.) 18-Place (abbr.) 19-Interjection 20-Far Western State

(abbr.)

22-Tc fence In 25-A blending of

yellow and red 27-Redent

28-A musical note 29-At hand

/80-To mies one's alm

31-Hall (Latin) 32-Centimeter (abbr.) 85-Above

37-A Turkleh governor 89-Shingly

156

18

19

FO

83

16

54

12.6

150

Šthe internaTIONAL BYNDICATE.

HORIZONTAL(Cont),|

44-A color 45-Interjection 47-Two (Spanish) |49-A town, Belgium (50-Flandera (abbr.}

61-Share 53-Any Imposing

personage 34-Prefix. In favor 55-A garden tool' 166-To confer as a

VERTICAL

VERTICAL (Cont.) 17-A constellation 10-Apposite

21-A point of compass

(abbr.) 234Delicate purpla

color

24-East Indies (abbr.) 25-Prefix Toward

of 26-A blending of

yellow and blue

gift|31-Mizzing

4-tore violent, 2-A number 8-A theological

degree (abbr) Melts and rune

down, we candle tallow

8-Article 6-Possessive pronoun 7-Recollection -Conjunction -A bribe

It is, of course, our English literature which is responsible for this ergstallisation of speech. Be-

As regards the pronunciation of meat there was a great deal of English, perversions are so num-cope for young people with the fore the days of Chaucer we had erous that it would be impossible to right sort of training. Preliminary no standard language. But from consider them in detail. Peculiar-training could only be got by going the time of Chaucer onwards our ities in pronunciation probably de.to London County Council classes. tongue was gradually moulded into bend a good deal on psychology. He recommended girls to go into mincing of vowels, as in "neo"the manufacturing section, because Its present form, so that to-day we for "se" and "AP" for "1" arises he would have dificulty in filling can say that the English of Lucas from misguided strivings after re- pince there, while there were the English of Lamp. Though finement, The lazy omission of the plenty of people to do the routine there may be many styles of writ- final g, as in "huntin', and the work of the publishing office. ing and speaking, there is but one substitution of "a" for "ér," as in Again, in the publishing depart- standard tongue.,

"dinnah," probably owe their ori-ment there was room for any young Of course, no language is so fos-gins to easy material circumstances. girl with brains and a flair for the sifised that it cannot absorb The use of superduous aspirates, as work. No particular training was steady trickle of new words and cx- "only" for only." must originate necessary, except that some sort of which from some peculiarly English trait. journalistic training was an advant- pressions. Of the come to us from various sources, af for although many nations in his age. Tow find a place in our dictionary. tory have dropped their aitches, no Apparently the editorial or rend- During the war a good many one but an Englishman has evering department was a very popular military phrases were in common used them where they were not re- one. Every month he got six or

We use by our soldiers abroad.

quired, :

eight letters from young men and now use such terms as "chmouinge"

There are movements afoot to and "barrage" in reference to sub simplify both the spoken and writ-down from the Universities shortly, women, many of whom were coming jects other thun warfare, while ten word, but it is unlikely that and all of whom said that they liked words like "windi-up" and "wangle" much headway will be made. In are half-way across the border-line Japanese there are four distinct and books. were well real, had a good command of English,, and good extremely complex modes of speech, education. of slang.

These qualifications But a more prolific lingual in- depending upon the relative status fuence than the war is that of of the speaker and the person for which there was considerable were too comman to secure post America. Not only Are we addressed, but no attempt has been invaded by American citizens. made to simplify the knguage ex-competition. His firm regarded the American literature, and American

unproductive department. songs, but there is an increasing t in regard to script. A nation reading of manuscripts as an en-

elings to its language with

tirely pas- tendeney among Englishmen to sionate conservatism and resents Only two out of about 1,300 books crass the Atlantic and become in the least attempt to tamper with it. that went through that department fected with the American language It is safe to assume that the Eng- last year were published. at first hand. It would almost lish of to-day will be spoken for editorial department in a top back seem that the Negro, after years of

room were people who sat and read cold-shouldering from the white many a century to come."

for ever and ever and ever. After raees, is getting some of his own

six months spent in reading this back by insidious and passive

heap of rubbish a sort of blight means. Negroid music in

settled on the soul. It was a kill- theatres and dance clubs is not the

ing kind of job. Nevertheless, it only evidence of his subtle influence on our social life. The American "Wit and Wisdom of Dean Inge," needed a flair to recognise a book vocabulary is full of such words as Selected and Arranged by Sir which would be a success. "bo," "mut," and gink," and the James Marchant, K.B.E. With Miss Margaret Kennedy's first book backwash of this lingual lotsam is Preface by William Ralph was sent to him, he had the report carried to our own shores. For

Inge, C.V.O. D.D. (Longmans, of four readers, each of whom con-

A BODLEY HEAD PAIR. demned it in stronger language.than tunately for us it is not many of

the Inst. The particular reader these ugly words which find a per-

The current literature about ten- manent place in our language. Religion. The Eternal Values, Engwho reversed this opinion saw the

nis grows rapidly, and the Bodley Most of the American slang which land, and Sociology, is n selection promise of the future which was comes to us is used by Englishmen from the writings of the Dean of fulfilled in "The Constant Nymph." Head has persuaded Senorita de Al- jestingly and soon forgotten.

If a young girl had this flair, the varez, the well-known Spanish play- Though the "King's English" is closely reasoned the full tider publisher was only too anxious to er, to add her quota to it. Her appearance at Wimbledon will give the only English which is recognis- the argument is thus necessarily discover her.

Mr. Evans said that he would the book interest, for, in effect, it ed as pure, it does not follow that interrupted, the method serves to

ย is a personal, revealing account of dialects are corruptions of the thrust Dr. Inge's leading principles rather a girl had average intelli- the Senorita's own game, although tongue. In order that people might into the high light of prominence. vitality.

gence

average it also falls wide enough to jus- That vital energy was tify the title, "Modern Lawn Ten- communicate casily with one an- other, it was found necessary to difficult thing well. So skilfully much more common in women than nia." Another volume nearly ready adopt some common language. The are the successive paragraphs on a in men.

with the Bodley Head is a reprint King's English happened to be the given topic dovetailed that

of "Saki's" "Westminster Alice." particular variety which was reader learns with aurprise,

It was illustrated in black and white chosen for this purpose. Seme dia- turning to the list of references at

by Sir Francis Carruthers Gould, lects are just as old as grammaticnt, the close, that they are taken, as

when it appeared originally as a and as rich in vocabulary. They may even have a literature of their often as not, not from one treatise,

brochure. His pictures are given in a better way, and Mr. J. A. own, such as the Scots of Burns or but from several.

Spender contributes a foreword and the Dorset of Barnes. Corrupt |

notes.

our

WIT AND WISDOM.

Dieta of Dean Inge.

3. 6d.).

Here, under auch headings ns

St. Paul's.

While in works so

Sir James Marchant has done a

the

on

A

and

more

than

In the

When

Alluding to the desirability of a business training, he said that just before leaving his office he had put the problem to his lady secretary, who had said, "Once a shorthand typist always a shorthand-typist, and the better you are the less English is something quite distinct AN IRISHMAN AND OTHERS.

chance you have of getting on." "Nevertheless," added Mr. Evans, from dialect," It involves faulty

"I consider it an extremely useful grammar, the mutilation, mis- Mr. Darrel Figgis, who was well

accomplishment, because it enables pronunciation, or misuse of words. known in literary Lendon and

Although such excellent speakers stormy figure in Irish politics, left a you to get a footing. I know one 18 Mr. Churchill and the late Mar manuscript in the nature of an au- case where a young woman went in- quesk Curzon have done much to tobiography. It does not cover his to the publishing business as a uphold the spoken word, there are whole life, though that was Bot shorthand-typist, and has become several reasons why it should have very long but his part in Irish the head of a very big organisation. of the Promise in only developed after en- suffered, particularly in regard to events before the arrival grammar. The war, with its Free State.

tering this particular business, so The work, which រ៉ slackening effects on the mental said to be full of colour and in that it is most important to get a habits of the nation, tended to make cident, will be published under the footing. It is more of atmos speech less precise. More impor War," by Sir Ernest Benn. He also

title, "Recollections of the Irish pheric business than any other.", tant than this. English grammar is seldom taught in schools. The announces a series of short books classics, too, have been overshadow on religion' to-day, the first three ed by the development of scientific writers, from as many standpoints,

A copy of the first edition of Kip- studies, so that many people to-day being Father Knox. Prof. Julian ling's "Schoolboy Lyrics," printed have never been taught the prin- Huxley, and Miss Maude Royden. in India in 1881. was sold by ciples of grammar. On the other A third Benn publication will be Messrs. Hodgson and Co., Chan- hand, in everyday life there are a facsimile of the whole manuscript cerv Lane. London, for £420. mand in print, and these are

examples of faulty grammar of Mr. Arnold Bennett's "Old Wives"

Tale."

bound to mislead anyone who does not understand the grammatical rules. Kinema captions are often very badly worded. Poster adver- tisements are not much better, and our newspapers, in their attempts! to compress the English language in their headlines beyond its elastic limit, frequently break some of the cardinal principles of grammar.

YOURE WRONG

AS USUAL WE CAME IN FROM THIS DIRECTION:

-

£420 FOR A KIPLING.

The copy was one of a brown- paper cover issue, of which there were only 25 published. The entire FEW CHILDREN ESCAPE IT.

edition was limited to 50 copier. Stomach aches, se inseparable from There are only 24 pages in the years of childhood, can become "Lyrics," and the price places it verfous bowel disorder if not prompt among the most valuable English Diarrhoea Remedy ly quieted. Chamberlain's Colic and pentable for bath children and grown years.

safe and de. books published during the last 100 people. It immediately relieves suvare A copy of this edition realised intestinal pain and stops weakening about £670 in New York last Nov- diatrhoea. For sale everywhere.

YOU ARCUE, AS IF YOU WERE RIGHT WHY DON'T YOU?

LISTEN TO ME

PER ONCE?

ember.

BRINGING UP FATHER.

I'D JUST AS SOON LISTEN TO MAGGIE IT'S LUCKY I BROUGHT A BALL OFSTRING-TAKE ONE END OF IT WE GO I OPPOSITE

DIRECTIONS!

AN IF YOU FIND THE WAY OUT- JERK THE

CORD!

41-Lying on the back 43-A distillation from

coal

| 10-A bank offfolal

18-Who (Scot)

12-To tako food 33-A yellow pigment 34-Possessive pronoun 35-Personal pronoun 36-A blending of red

and blue 37-Performed

35-A primary color 140-An il-bred fellaw

42-A vegetable 146-Posseiniva pronoun

48-The sun

49-Prefix

50-Away from

52-Into

Under

154-Four glim (abbr.)

SUGGESTIONS FOR SOLVING CROSSWORD PUZZLES

Start out by filling in the words of which you feel reasonably rure. These will give you a clue to other words crossing them, and they in turn to still others. A letter belongs in each white space, words starting at the numbered squares and running either horizontally or vertically or both

(The solution of the above cross-word puzzle will appear in to-morrow's issue along with a new cross-worà puzzle.)

now

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTION,

TEAPOT con ANV

LIS

HUB ÖB OUR MATEUR HEW NERO ÁN VS KOEL MO-KEY BIL S

E

wi JD-X PANG

ALIKE DAY

GRIM L GOLD

TOP · LED HE MEAN. PA UN POLL STAFF TEA MAXE ET TO TOL LA, AT TENOR

ERASE SACRED

THE MTERNATIONAL STRINGATE=

The Breatheable Cure For THROAT, CHEST

and LUNGS.

ALWAYS TAKE

PEPS

FOR COUGHS, COLDS & BRONCHITIS

PHPT are sold in ssaŭck alaco botter, with mashal little workawem. † ❤f nāk mediašnevandora.

Fali direcions anelserá in every podlagi.

FOR ONCE

WHO DO

YOUR IDEA

LOOK LIKE?

IS GOOD!

YOU

6.141

1927 by int% Frature Service. Înc: Come Brittin rights reserved.

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