^\^.
 
 BY ALFRED AYRES. 
 
 Some Ill-used Words. 
 
 A Manual for the use of those who desire to 
 Write and Speak Correctly. i8mo. Cloth, 
 |;i.03. 
 
 The Orthoepist. 
 
 A I'ronouncinK Manual, containing about Four 
 Thousand I'ive Hundred Words, including a 
 considerable number of the Names of Foreign 
 Authors, Artists, etc., that are often mispro- 
 nounced. Revised and enlarged. i8nio. 
 Cloth, $1.25. 
 
 The Verbalist. 
 
 A .Manual devoted to Brief Discussions of the 
 Right and the Wrong Use of Words, and to 
 some Other Matters of Interest to those who 
 would Speak and Write witli Propriety. iSmo. 
 Cloth, ^1.25. 
 
 The Mentor. 
 
 A Little Book for the Guidance of such Men 
 and Boys as would .Appear to Advantage in 
 the Society of Persons of the Better Sort. 
 iSmo. Cloth, si.oo. 
 
 Acting and Actors; 
 
 Elocution and Elocutionists. With Pref- 
 ace by Harrison Grey Fiske ; Introduction by 
 Edgar S. Werner ; Prologue by James A. 
 Waldron. 
 
 Grammar ivithoiit a Master. 
 
 The English Grammar 
 
 OF WiLLi.\M COBBETT. Carefully Revised 
 and Annotated. i8mo. Cloth, $1.00, 
 
 New York: D. APPLETON & CO., 72 Fifth Avenue.
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED AYRES 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE ORTHOiiPIST, THE VERBALIST, ACTING AND ACTORS, 
 
 THE MENTOR, THE ESSENTIALS OF ELOCUTION, ETC. 
 
 As there is never but one best way, so there is never but one best word 
 
 NEW YORK 
 n. APPLHTON AND COMPANY 
 
 1901
 
 Copyright, 1901, 
 Bv D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
 
 
 Every writer should aim to preserve the 
 individuality of the words he uses; he shoidd 
 not allow any word to trench on the domain 
 of any other word. This he shoidd do in the 
 interest of clearness; in this way only can he 
 avoid ambiguity. The so-called " new mean- 
 ings" are the product either of a restricted 
 vocabidary or of a lack of painstaking. 
 
 Familiarity with the examples here gath- 
 ered should do something, it would seem, 
 toward mending the ways of the careless. 
 
 1001 495i
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book is levelled, specially, at some 
 half dozen errors that are made by wellnigh 
 every one that uses the English language. 
 
 Who, for example, does not misuse the 
 auxiliary verbs, and the words anticipate, 
 anxious, financial, and hurry; and who does 
 not over-use the words former and latter"^ 
 Then who does not use a certain ponderous 
 locution in which a noun is made to do 
 duty as a verb? And then there are not 
 a few that persist in using that repulsive 
 construction in which there are two nomi- 
 natives and only one verb? 
 
 Something about these words and 
 phrases, and some little besides, is what 
 herein will be found. 
 
 A. A. 
 
 New Yov.k, January, igoi.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The auxiliaries 
 
 
 9 
 
 The noun construction 
 
 
 30 
 
 The New York Sun's special abhorrenci 
 
 
 58 
 
 Former and latter .... 
 
 
 66 
 
 The antecedent construction . 
 
 
 77 
 
 Anticipate 
 
 
 
 94 
 
 Errors in tense 
 
 
 
 107 
 
 Anxious . 
 
 
 
 123 
 
 Financial 
 
 
 
 133 
 
 Hurry 
 
 
 
 139 
 
 The possessive 
 
 
 
 144 
 
 Capable— susceptible 
 
 
 
 152 
 
 Proposition — proposal 
 
 
 
 157 
 
 Previous to . 
 
 
 
 163 
 
 Generally 
 
 
 
 i6g 
 
 Appreciate 
 
 
 
 174 
 
 Diction . 
 
 
 
 178 
 
 None. 
 
 
 
 181 
 
 Individual 
 
 
 
 . 185 
 
 In respect of . 
 
 
 
 i8q 
 
 Feels badly . 
 
 
 
 192
 
 S0.)/£ ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Of the name of 
 
 Commence 
 
 .•/ or as, which ? 
 
 Miscellaneous 
 
 Why use tha t to introduce restrictive 
 clauses ? 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I9S 
 200 
 202 
 
 227
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 THE AUXILL^RIES 
 
 The misuse of the auxiliary verbs is 
 wellnigh universal. 
 
 The errors are made in using zvill for 
 shall and would for should. 
 
 The auxiliaries are most misused in in- 
 direct discourse; there, they are more fre- 
 quently used incorrectly than correctly. 
 Properly, thus: '' He said he should be glad 
 to see you." " They think they shall be 
 here to-morrow." " He thinks he shall 
 soon be well." " They are confident they 
 shall get it." We see zvill more frequently 
 in sentences like these than sJiall. 
 
 In The Verbalist, page 252, the auxil- 
 iaries are treated with tolerable fulness. 
 
 The book was just then published and was 
 very badly printed. When I got through I 
 
 9
 
 ,0 SOME ILL-VSED WORDS 
 
 tlioui^lu 1 would [slioulilj never sec again. — 
 Cliiirl iS A. Ihiim. 
 
 Before leaving^ City Hall the chief marshal 
 said he wotilii | shonhlj write the Mayor a letter 
 explaining the whole matter. 
 
 Governor Roosevelt said that he zvoiild 
 [should] be very glad to have the honor of shak- 
 ing hands with the members of the congrega- 
 tion. 
 
 If that were all that he meant he would not 
 be supporting it, and I zvould [should] not be 
 taking the trouble to oppose it. If everything 
 in the world be increased lo per cent in value, 
 why we would [should] pay lo per cent in ad- 
 dition for what we wotdd [should] buy and we 
 zvould [should] get lo per cent more for w-hat 
 we would [should] sell, and we zvould [should] 
 be exactly in the same place we occupied [were 
 in] before. — Bourke Cockran as reported in the 
 New York Sun. 
 
 Chairman Hanna of the National Republican 
 Committee said he woidd [should] have nothing 
 to add to the statement issued last night. 
 
 When I come back to New York City, after 
 my trip through the State, I will [shall] be able
 
 THE A UXILIARIES \ i 
 
 to judge better what the New York vote will be. 
 The Democratic leaders of this State have as- 
 sured me that I zvill [shall] carry New York by 
 a comfortable majority. 
 
 The morning after this dinner Minister Tay- 
 lor sent to the Spanish Foreign Office a peremp- 
 tory notification that unless the communication to 
 the Ambassadors was instantly withdrawn he 
 would [should] demand his passports and return 
 to Washington. — New York Sun. 
 
 If he were [should be] elected we would 
 [should] have a President with all a President's 
 influence in the Senate and in the House, deter- 
 mined by every means in his power to throw the 
 exchanges of the country into chaos. 
 
 Archbishop Cranmer, the first primate of the 
 English Church, said in his Catechism : " If we 
 should have heathen parents and die without bap- 
 tism, we would [should] be damned everlast- 
 ingly." 
 
 "Let me see," said Mrs. Dobley, reflectively; 
 " I have promised to give up sugar, sweets and 
 pastries of all sorts, cream, jellies — really every- 
 thing I like best. It's dreadful, isn't it? We zvill 
 [shall] not be so happy, but we will [shall] grow 
 thin."
 
 12 SO.UF. II.I.-rSKD irOA'PS 
 
 \\\- Ti'i// |sliall] sweep the coiuitry from one 
 end to the other aiui the Repuhlicans will not be 
 able to carry eight States in the Union. — John P. 
 Altgcld. 
 
 She would not say to-night whether she would 
 [should] or -u'oiiUi [should] not comply with the 
 provisions of the will. The Sister Superior 
 thought Miss Jewell would enter the sisterhood 
 regardless of family opposition. 
 
 '■ I don't see, just at present, that I will [shall] 
 need to resort to force to keep me [myself] in 
 office." If this be not the language of revolt, we 
 would [should] like to know what it is. 
 
 I believe it should be allowed to carry out any 
 reasonable tariff policy without obstruction. If it 
 brings prosperity we zvill [shall] all be content. 
 If it does not we will [shall] all know that some 
 other remedy is required, and by the process of 
 elimination [we] zi'ill [shall] come down to the 
 only radical cure. Let tariff legislation be en- 
 acted immediately and we zvill [shall] have a 
 chance to test the sentiments of the country on 
 the silver question alone, unembarrassed by tariff. 
 — New York Evening Sun. 
 
 With this accomplished the Chicago scientist 
 believes that he zvill [shall] have a fairly accurate 
 idea of how many years it took the whole lime- 
 stone stratum to accumulate.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 13 
 
 I assert that aggregated capital is the neces- 
 sary and natural handmaid of advancing com- 
 merce ; that we zuoiild [should] never have 
 reached the colossal developed condition in which 
 we find ourselves if the instrumentalities of ag- 
 gregated wealth had not aided it. 
 
 Mr. Bryan is just as resolute and uncom- 
 promising an advocate of free silver to-day as 
 [he was] in the days immediately following his 
 defeat in 1896, when he said that if everybody 
 else abandoned the cause he would [should] be 
 found fighting for it with his last breath. 
 
 Neither a promise nor determination, 
 simply future action. 
 
 Chairman Jones serves notice on the support- 
 ers of President McKinley that " we have won 
 the fight, and, by Heaven, we will not be de- 
 frauded out of our victory by the chicanery of 
 election judges." 
 
 Determination, hence correct. 
 
 President Eliot's mind made up. He says he 
 won't support McKinley, but doesn't know how 
 he will [shall] vote. 
 
 He added that, although he believed that he 
 zvould [should] carry his own State by 20,000, he 
 had been informed that his plurality in Nebraska 
 would be 50,000.
 
 14 
 
 SOME ILL- USED WORDS 
 
 Sonic three sunimers at^o Chailes Dudley 
 Warner was silting on llie balcony of a club over- 
 looking Madison S(juare taking his afternoon 
 coffee; there had been some talk of the club 
 [club's] moving uptown. Mr. Warner said, in 
 his quiet way: " Ten years from now they will be 
 sorry they moved uptown. I imll [shall] be sorry, 
 too. Hold on, no I won't, for I zvill [shall] be 
 dead. Yes, but I «'/// [shall] be sorry any way." 
 
 \\'hen the two men were arrested, Frederick 
 B. House, their attorney, said that he zvould 
 [should] have no difficulty in getting bail for 
 them. 
 
 Second, what prosperity we have came in 
 spite of the Republican party. If the Republican 
 party had had its way we zvould [should] have 
 had no prosperity. 
 
 He said to-day that he luould [should] remain 
 in Lincoln and devote his time to magazine and 
 special writing and to lecturing. He said he had 
 not the least idea of retiring from politics, and 
 that whether as a leader or [as] a private he 
 proposed to continue his labors on [in?] behalf 
 of Democracy. 
 
 An engineer working for the market may find 
 means to make a fortune. Of course, in the vast 
 majority of cases he does not, but he always hopes 
 he will [shall].
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 15 
 
 I have a lot of very important business to 
 attend to that requires all my time at present 
 and for several weeks to come, and I should be 
 obliged to neglect it if I should go to Chicago. 
 Besides, my presence at the Convention would 
 really do no good. The free-silver people seem 
 to have about everything their own way, and, as 
 I shoidd stand by the resolutions of our State 
 Convention and vote for a sound-money platform 
 and sound-money candidates, I shoidd stand with 
 the minority in a hopeless and embarrassing posi- 
 tion. 
 
 It would seem from this paragraph, that 
 the Bahimore correspondent of the New- 
 York Sun knows how to use his auxiliaries. 
 He's one in a thousand. 
 
 We will [shall] have the finger of scorn 
 pointed at us by all other nations, and justly, too, 
 for we will [shall] be dishonest and dishonorable. 
 
 Mr. House was asked if he tvonld [should] 
 begin habeas corpus proceedings to-day for his 
 clients and he replied : 
 
 "I don't think I ivill [shall]. Probably our 
 only work to-day will be to get the prisoners out 
 on bail." 
 
 Young Vickery was placed hors du [de] com- 
 bat. Mrs. Vickery declared that she would never
 
 J 6 soMF /rr-csEP iroRDS 
 
 !»«.■ driven hv a roostor — so sallied forth to meet 
 her adversary. 
 
 Determination, hence correct. 
 
 \\'e have broken up his alibi, we ivill [shall] 
 connect him with the bloody finger marks on the 
 door, and we ivill [shall] tell one other thing that 
 will absolutely convince a jury of his guilt. 
 
 According to report President Marroquin has 
 decided not to accept the Atalanta. Senor Isaza 
 said he zvonld [should] not act in this regard 
 until he had received full instructions from Presi- 
 dent Marroquin. 
 
 \\^e zvould [should] simply take our present 
 North Atlantic fleet and drive them from Cuban 
 waters. We would [should] still require the 
 other squadrons in foreign ports. — New York 
 Evening Sun. 
 
 I zvill [shall] remain with my family in the 
 city a couple of days, then I will [shall] go on to 
 Washington. 
 
 Israel Ludlow, a lawyer, who represents the 
 negroes who [that] have filed claims, said this 
 morning that he would [should] file four addi- 
 tional claims against the city to-day.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 17 
 
 " No, my lord," was the reply of the aged 
 prisoner; "this is getting a trifle monotonous. 
 I would [should] like to know how a fellow can 
 manage to please you judges. When I was only 
 seventeen I got three years, and the judge said 
 I ought to be ashamed of myself stealing at my 
 age. When I was forty I got five years, and the 
 judge said it was a shame that a man in his very 
 best years should steal. And now, when I am 
 seventy years of age, here you come and tell me 
 the same old story. Now, I would [should] like 
 to know what year of a man's life is the right 
 one, according to your notion ? " 
 
 There were several men in different parts of 
 the audience who suggested that they would 
 [should] like to hear about free silver, but there 
 was no opportunity to ask the speaker questions. 
 
 If we assert sovereignty over the Filipinos we 
 zvtll [shall] have to defend that sovereignty by 
 force, and the Filipinos will be our enemies. 
 
 " A paper," said the Senator, growing per- 
 sonal, " said that I was interested in steel trusts. 
 I would [should] like to know where the informa- 
 tion was obtained. I want to know what steel 
 trust I am in." 
 
 What am I going to do? Why, try and [to] 
 cure the rheumatism, of course. Oh, you mean in 
 2
 
 iS SOME If./.-L'SF.D irOA'DS 
 
 a professional way! Why. I'm under contract to 
 Mr. Daniel I-'rolnnan. I zvill [shall] he a perma- 
 nent nieml)cr of his stock company at Daly's 
 Theatre and ivill [shall] open there on Novemher 
 j6tli in The Man of Forty. I xvill \ shall] go to 
 Baltimore next week to hegin rehearsals with the 
 company. 
 
 I won't say that I wouldn't like to have mar- 
 ried him [should not have liked to marry him] 
 because I would [should], but you see there was 
 no way out of the Gray marriage. 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor Woodruff finally de- 
 clines a renomination. He tells Mr. Piatt that 
 he can not accept, but zvoidd [should] like to be 
 chairman of the State committee. Mr. Piatt says 
 that he [Woodruff] will not be chairman of the 
 committee, and that Horace White will probably 
 be nominated for Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 Send your reader hunting antecedents 
 only when you can not well avoid it. 
 
 My husband was determined that I should ac- 
 cept his offer, and I — well, I was crazy to go, but 
 I weighed what I would [should] gain against 
 what I zvould [should] lose. — A. E. B. in the 
 Dramatic Mirror. 
 
 I thought j'ou said a short time ago that you 
 would [should] not recover the use of your voice 
 until a certain person had been elected.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 19 
 
 Presumably, this was not a case of de- 
 termination. 
 
 Without any desire to bring politics into the 
 church, he said that he zvould [should] like to 
 have Governor Roosevelt make an address to the 
 people. 
 
 We will [shall] have headquarters in the 
 future at 246 West Fifty-third Street, where we 
 will [shall] meet every Thursday evening. 
 
 Mrs. Leslie said that although she had given 
 up part of her stock without consideration and 
 was a minority holder, she did not intend to be 
 frozen out altogether, and that she zvould [should] 
 call on Mr. Colver for an explanation. 
 
 What will Cleveland say when Mrs. Dominis 
 remarks [says] to him : " But for your encour- 
 agement I woidd [should] have accepted the 
 revolution as an accomplished fact, and zvould 
 [should] be now in the enjoyment of [enjoying] 
 a substantial pension " ? — New York Sun. 
 
 Better re-use say than to use remark as 
 it is here used. 
 
 The fact of the matter is, that instead of us 
 [our] owing either of them, they have quite a 
 little of our money, which we zvould [should] be 
 very happy to get back. — New York Sun.
 
 20 SOAf/-: ILI.-rSF.D WORDS 
 
 WluTt.' would |shiuil(l| \vi' !>(.■ without a nav)'? 
 If \vc hail no navy \vc niij^ht i)rcscntly find the 
 Powers of luiropc consider! nc;- ns as they arc at 
 present consiilerint;' the lunpire of Cliina. 
 
 /[■/// [shall] you hold any important confer- 
 ences ? 
 
 I lalll [shall] have several consultations with 
 leading Republicans. Will [shall] likely meet 
 Senators Sherman, Quay, Proctor, and others. 
 Can not say who the others will probably be. — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 So far as this committee is concerned, we 
 feel something like the Methodist minister who 
 shouted downstairs to the burglar to go ahead 
 and see if he could find anything, and if so [he 
 could] he zcould [should] be glad to divvy with 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Croker's gaze sank to the floor as he said : 
 " I am disappointed. I never [have] had a greater 
 disappointment. I felt sure that we ivould 
 [should] win — that Bryan would win. But it 
 can't be helped. You can never tell." 
 
 Flossie is six years old. " Mamma," she asked 
 one day, " if I get married zvill [shall] I have a 
 husband like papa?" 
 
 " Yes," replied the mother, with an amused 
 smile.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 2 1 
 
 " And if I don't get married, will [shall] I 
 have to be an old maid like Aunt Kate ? " 
 
 " Yes, Flossie." 
 
 " Mamma," she said, after a short pause, " it's 
 a tough world for us women, ain't it ? " 
 
 I believe that we are now in a better posi- 
 tion to wage a successful contest against imperial- 
 ism than we zvoiild [should] have been had the 
 treaty been rejected. 
 
 Mr. Van Wyckle says in case of a strike he 
 will [shall] abandon his collieries. 
 
 I have been for long years a Democrat, but 
 at the last presidential election [I] voted for 
 McKinley. I zvill [shall] vote for him [McKin- 
 ley] again. Mr. Bryan is the incarnation of eco- 
 nomic heresies. 
 
 The diction is strengthened by re-tising 
 McKinley. 
 
 A Democrat zuho [that] had learned the 
 lesson of experience in the last three years and 
 a half asked a friend of his how he was going 
 to vote this year. He said: "I'm going to vote 
 for Bryan, of course." The Democrat asked 
 "Why?" Then the friend said: "They told me 
 four years ago that if I would vote for Bryan 
 we would [should] have four years of good times; 
 and haven't we had it?"
 
 22 SOMJ'. Il./.-i'S/:/) IVOA'DS 
 
 lie li:ul adopted the idea tliat ho would 
 [sliDuldJ like to work outdoors. — Charles A. 
 Dana. 
 
 Judge John A. Grow, who has heretofore been 
 a Democrat, informed National Repubhcan Com- 
 mitteeman Frederick S. Gibbs yesterday in a letter 
 that he could no longer act with that party, but 
 i<.'OHld [should] vote the straight Republican 
 ticket this fall. 
 
 If we follow down the official chronologies to 
 499 A. D. we ivill [shall] find an account of one 
 Hw^ui Shan, w^ho in that year returned to China. 
 
 Colonel Gardiner and General Burnett told 
 Magistrate Flammer that they woidd [should] 
 like to have his examination postponed until an 
 agreement had been reached about the jurisdic- 
 tion. 
 
 I zvill [shall] have it so arranged that it can 
 be flooded with water, making a stagecraft vessel 
 look mighty realistic. If necessary I zvill [shall] 
 be able to run a locomotive on that stage. 
 
 It was said that he had expressed the ojjinion 
 that he could not take a senatorship during the 
 coming four years because he would [should] 
 " be a very busy man."
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 23 
 
 There will be no change in the theatre's plans 
 for the season. Miss Irwin will stay there as 
 long as it is profitable to do so [stay]. Then 
 Amelia Bingham will come in with her proposed 
 dramatic stock company. Miss Irwin said last 
 night, in reference to the future policy of the 
 house : " I will [shall] form a stock company of 
 well-known actors and zvill [shall] play all or the 
 greater part of each year at my theatre. I zvill 
 [shall] open next September for a preliminary 
 season of revivals. I zvill [shall] get as many 
 of the original casts as possible. I zvill [shall] 
 then produce one or two new plays." 
 
 The story of the defendant is different. 
 Speaking of the action of the other, he said: " If 
 he had touched me on the shoulder and asked me 
 to move, I zvoiild [should] have done so [moved]. 
 
 " JVill [shall] you be able to convince the 
 public," it was asked, " that this crusade of Tam- 
 many's is not a mere bluff, set on foot to offset 
 the Bishop Potter crusade?" 
 
 The chief says he zuill [shall] be able to show 
 that a four-seat carriage was hired from Stow- 
 croft, and that he drove the men to the Goffle 
 Road. 
 
 We conrluded that if we could organize our- 
 selves on his system, we zi'otdd [should] be sure
 
 24 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 (if making- | to make] a greater iniprcssiuii on iti- 
 uUiycnt pcoplo. — Charles A. Dana. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Colonel Bryan, siiiiliir^lx 
 [smiling], "if I were superstitious I ^coiild 
 [should] look upon the breaking of this looking- 
 glass as an ill omen." 
 
 Miss Bacon herself laughingly remarked that 
 she thought it likely that she zvoitld [should] 
 marry an American. 
 
 I shall bring a suit for damages against the 
 city and in all probability will [shall] file a com- 
 plaint with the police cominissioners. 
 
 Tliis speaker — or reporter — evidently 
 thinks shall and icill are interchano-eable. 
 
 Keenly aware, as we are, of the serious re- 
 sponsibilities zvhich [that] a political party owes 
 to the State, we zvill [shall] strive to shape our 
 action in accordance with the recjuirements of 
 puljlic interest. 
 
 " Unfortunately while money talks all that 
 talks is not money." 
 
 " Why do you say ' unfortunately ' ? " she 
 asked. 
 
 " Because if that were so," he answered, " I 
 xvould [should] be married to a fabulous fortune."
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 25 
 
 Personally I would [should] like at least once 
 a week to get out from under the incubus of 
 ordinary obligation and to yield myself up intel- 
 lectually and emotionally to the domination of 
 dramatic power. — The Rev. Dr. Parkhurst. 
 
 He said he would [should] prefer State banks 
 founded on a specie basis to national banks, no 
 matter how good the system, founded on the 
 credit of the Government. 
 
 He intimated, however, that he had been to 
 Police Headquarters about the case, and would 
 [should] probably go there again. 
 
 You know that with the slightest prospect of 
 a foreign war we woidd [should] suspend gold 
 payments and go either to a silver or [to] a paper 
 basis at once. 
 
 I would [should] like to see them try it. I 
 woidd [should] like to see the Police Board sub- 
 poena me to give testimony against accused 
 policemen. I zvoidd [should] simply refuse to 
 honor the summons. — Bishop Potter as reported 
 by the New York Herald. 
 
 After he had plead [pleaded] guilty he thought 
 mercy woidd be shown him — went into the court- 
 room full of confidence that he would [should] 
 be leniently dealt with. — New York Evening Sun.
 
 26 SOME ILL- USED WORDS 
 
 A larj^^o corporation is or<jani7.c(l l)y cliaiicr to 
 conduct business and not politics, and wc xv'ill 
 I shall] try to see to it that they attend to their 
 own business and allow their employees to do the 
 same [attend to theirs]. , 
 
 I would [should] like to have Bryan distin- 
 guish between the trusts. Whenever trusts 
 amenable to law have encountered the law they 
 have suffered. Trusts contrary to the law can not 
 stand. 
 
 We will [shall] export no goods and we will 
 [shall] import from foreign lands all the goods 
 we use ; thus will ruin, want and misery be 
 with us. 
 
 They deny that there is any possibility that 
 they zvill [shall] receive such treatment if once 
 they receive the consent of the Sultan to settle in 
 Palestine. 
 
 All the contest now, apparently, is to show not 
 that the Filipinos will be injured by annexation 
 to our country, but that we ourselves zvill [shall] 
 thereby lose our liberties. Even if we intended to 
 hold the Philii)pines in subjection would it follow 
 that we would [should] be slaves? 
 
 Will [shall] I do any speaking here? Well, 
 I may make a few remarks at noonday meetings, 
 but I have no speaking engagements.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 27 
 
 But at the bottom of it all was confidence, pro- 
 duced by the assurarjce that we zvould [should] 
 be spared the degradation of a debased currency 
 and that the gold standard would be maintained. 
 
 He said he ruould [should] rather have, at the 
 beginning of a campaign, the wife than the hus- 
 band on his side. — Nczv York Sim. 
 
 He said that if I did so, I zvould [should] be 
 doing him an everlasting favor, for he hoped to 
 secure a place with the company when it was 
 formed. 
 
 The chief shifted the responsibility by saying 
 that if the State Superintendent of Elections had 
 any evidence he would [should] be glad to re- 
 ceive it and to act upon it. 
 
 We zvill [shall] continue on to control our 
 schools and teach our children the history of that 
 period as it was, not as these partisans who still 
 hate us have it. 
 
 A few minutes after this conversation the 
 young woman came out, entered a brougham that 
 was standing in front of the house and drove 
 away. She left word with her servant that she 
 zvould [should] not be back until evening.
 
 28 SOME ILL-USED irOKDS 
 
 Ilo rcUiscd to take an active part in the cam- 
 paign, but ho announced that he zcuuUi [ should j 
 vote for Bryan. — Nczo York Snu. 
 
 E. L. iMordecai, a broker, of 52 Broadway, 
 said that he had $9,750 that he would [shouldj 
 hke to bet on the election. 
 
 I think I zvill [shall] make it as near [nearly] 
 like the Drury Lane Theatre in London as pos- 
 sible, but of course everything will be upon a 
 much larger scale. 
 
 I am glad I came to-night, although I felt, 
 after hearing two such speakers as l\Ir. Dalzcll 
 and Air. Barrett, that I i^'oidd [should] be out 
 of place. 
 
 I expected to give her, and would [should] be 
 compelled to do so [give her] by the terms of our 
 contract, the forty performances during the sea- 
 son. — New York Sun. 
 
 If getting up public subscription zi'dl [shall] 
 be glad to give $1,000. — Lipton. 
 
 I wotdd [should] not be surprised if McKinley 
 carried Kentucky by 30,000 majority. 
 
 Queen Victoria fears she will [shall] not out- 
 live 1896. — Headline New York Sun.
 
 THE AUXILIARIES 
 
 29 
 
 If a man wearing a shirt waist entered the 
 dining car and ladies objected to his garb, we 
 would [should] ask him to put on his coat. If 
 he refused to do so [to put it on] we would 
 [should] request him to wait for his dinner until 
 the ladies left the car. 
 
 We have grown so accustomed to the ubiqui- 
 tous speculators that we would [should] not be 
 surprised to find them grouped around the gate 
 of heaven waiting for their prey. 
 
 If these examples do nothing else, they 
 will go a long way toward making it appear 
 that will and zvoiild have good reason to 
 complain of being imconscionably ill-used, 
 since they show that zvill and ivoiild are 
 continually made to do duty not only for 
 themselves but also for their kinsmen sliall 
 and should.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 This is a construction that is wellnigh 
 universally employed, and yet, in strictness, 
 it is commonly, perhaps invariably, ungram- 
 matical. Wordy it certainly always is. 
 
 By Noun Construction I would desig- 
 nate that construction that expresses action, 
 doing, without employing a verb in any 
 form soever; as, for example, " It tends to 
 tJic elimination of the weak and the preserva- 
 tion of the strong." — Neiv York Sun, March 
 3, J895. 
 
 This sentence is weak, the result of hav- 
 ing fifty per cent more syllables than are 
 necessary, and, to my thinking, it is un- 
 grammatical. Its grammar is mended by 
 changing the nouns elimination and preser- 
 vation to the verbal nouns eliminating and 
 presei'ving, and both grammar and rhetoric 
 are mended by employing infinitives, which 
 would give us, " It tends to eliminate the 
 weak and to preserv^e the strong " — thirteen 
 syllables against twenty-one. 
 30
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 31 
 
 Economics is the science that treats of the 
 development [developing] of material resources, 
 or of the production [producing], preservation 
 [preserving], and distribution [distributing] of 
 Avealth and of the means and methods of living 
 well. — Standard Dictionary. 
 
 The science of the developing and the 
 producing; the Jiistory of the development 
 and the production. It is always desirable 
 to express the thought absolutely. 
 
 At the present stage of the canvass no occupa- 
 tion is less profitable than the construction [con- 
 structing] of tables of the electoral vote showing 
 the probable results in November. — N. Y. Sun. 
 
 The act of constructing a table, which 
 is what is here meant, is one thing; the con- 
 struction, the make-up, of a table, after it 
 has been constructed, is quite another thing. 
 The same word should not be used to ex- 
 press the thought in both cases. In strict- 
 ness, we must employ a verb in some form 
 properly to express a doing. The using of 
 nouns where verbs are required — or, I 
 should say, perhaps, the making of noims 
 do verbal service — is wellnigh universal. Is 
 it, or can it ever become, good grammar? 
 I think, not.
 
 32 
 
 SOMI-: ILL-USED irORDS 
 
 The special order for the oiieniiig day of tlie 
 session is for the erection [erecting] of a bridge 
 across the Detroit River at Detroit. Among 
 other special orders are the house bills to prevent 
 the extermination of the fur-bearing seals of 
 Alaska and to reduce [to lessen the number of] 
 cases in which the death penalty may be inflicted. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 In the first sentence, the writer uses a 
 noun in precisely the same manner that he 
 uses verbs in in the second. " To reduce 
 the cases" seems to me too elliptical. Lessen 
 the number is more idiomatic than reduce 
 the number. 
 
 The scheme for the retirement of [to retire] 
 the greenbacks, therefore, can not furnish an issue 
 for the Democratic party. — Nezv York Sun. 
 
 Why use six syllables when three will 
 suffice? Then, with three syllables the sen- 
 tence is «rraiumatical, which with six it is 
 not. 
 
 During the past year rapid progress has been 
 made toward the completion of [completing] the 
 scheme adopted for the erection [erecting] and 
 ar;Ha;n^»^ [arming] of fortifications along our sea- 
 coast, while equal progress has been made in pro- 
 viding the material for submarine defence in con- 
 nection with these works. — President Cleveland.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 33 
 
 The Republican party claimed protection and 
 the Democratic party silver to be the paramount 
 issue. The people have declared in favor of pro- 
 tection and have given the Republican party a 
 contract for the restoration of [to restore] pros- 
 perity. 
 
 The dukes were to receive compensation for 
 the resignation of [resigning] their claims. 
 
 Most of the provinces were pays d'clcction, 
 i. e., they were divided into districts in which the 
 assessment [assessing] and collection [collecting] 
 of taxes were vested in royal officials. 
 
 The arrangements for diffusing education and 
 the establishment of newspapers. — Nezv York 
 Sun. 
 
 Why two forms of expression in the 
 same sentence? Why not estabhshing 
 newspapers? 
 
 In the consideration of [considering] Hamlet's 
 case, nothing should be. — Richard Grant White. 
 
 Education that is not centred on the refine- 
 ment [refining] and ennoblement [ennobling] of 
 the mind ... is worse than the shadow. — 
 Dawson.
 
 34 SO.UF. I LI. -USED WORDS 
 
 Chief Byrnes puts at the disposal of Mayor 
 Strong his services for the rcformalion [reform- 
 ing] and reorganization [reorganizing] of tlic 
 police force. — New York Sun. 
 
 Better : in reforming and reorganizing. 
 
 Statistics is the science that deals with the 
 collection [collecting], classification [classifying], 
 and tabulation [tabulating] of facts. — Standard 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Mr. Iselin is giving unremitting personal care 
 and labor to the supervision [supervising] and 
 development [developing] of the Defender. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 It is merely a matter of police regulation; it 
 v\'ill also be serviceable in the imposition and col- 
 lection [imposing and collecting] of taxes. — Nezv 
 York Sun. 
 
 The policy of the Administration has resulted 
 in the establishment of [establishing] a precedent. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 The determination [determining] of distances 
 with a telemeter .—S t a nd ard Dictionary. 
 
 The preparation [preparing] of tobacco for 
 use is called curing. It has for its purpose
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 35 
 
 the drying and preservation [preserving] of the 
 leaf as well as the development [developing] of 
 the peculiar aroma. 
 
 The Legislature may provide by-laws for the 
 supervision [supervising], registration [register- 
 ing], control [controlling], and identification 
 [identifying] of all persons. 
 
 The slowness in the collection [collecting] and 
 circulation [circulating] of news. [Better: in 
 collecting and circulating news.] 
 
 It is not by the consolidation or the concentra- 
 tion of powers, but by their distribution, that 
 good government is effected. [It is not by con- 
 solidating or concentrating powers, but by dis- 
 tributing them, that ] 
 
 The indication of an infinitive by to without 
 the actual expression of the verb to which it be- 
 longs is a colloquialism. Rewritten : The indicat- 
 ing of an infinitive with to without the verb it 
 belongs to is a colloquialism. 
 
 The imposition [imposing] of a duty on wool 
 will help the wool business by giving it incidental 
 protection. — Nezv York Sun. 
 
 For above all the grievances of the miners 
 has been pushed a greater question, the question
 
 36 so.\fK n.i.-vsr.n words 
 
 of wIiolluM- might or right shall rule in the scillc- 
 iiiciit I settling] of lahor disputes, and on this 
 question the operators have put themselves un- 
 qualifiedly in the wrong. 
 
 If this be so. it is plain that the time is by no 
 means yet ripe for the evacuation of [to evacuate] 
 Pekin. 
 
 The Washington Star calls for the dethrone- 
 ment [dethroning] of the Empress Dowager. 
 
 For our own part we wish Mr. Allen would re- 
 dedicate his rare talents to the production [pro- 
 ducing] of books in his earlier manner. 
 
 No doubt IVIr. Allen knows; but if there is 
 anything to make him imagine that the propaga- 
 tion [propagating] of his dry and dreary agnosti- 
 cism will make men either better or happier, he 
 keeps that secret very closely to himself. 
 
 And Mr. McKinlcy declares that this would 
 be the immediate effect of the election [electing] 
 of Bryan. 
 
 That is, the effect of doing something. 
 
 Taking the city and county of Xew York as 
 an example, it is found that over [more than]
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 37 
 
 $20,000,000 was spent during 1899 in the repres- 
 sion [repressing] and correction [correcting] of 
 crime, out of a total expenditure of about $90,- 
 000,000. This means a crime taxation of $6 per 
 capita. An analysis of San Francisco's budget 
 shows an average of $5 per capita. In smaller 
 cities, the average is about $3.50 per capita. With 
 these averages as a basis, Mr. Smith calculates 
 that $1 per [an or the] inhabitant in the " open 
 country " is a conservative estimate. 
 
 The Latin preposition per is a good deal 
 used in such phrases as per day, per man, 
 per pound, per ton, and so on. In all such 
 cases it is better to use plain English, and 
 say a day, a man, a pound, etc. Per is cor- 
 rect before Latin nouns. only; as per annum, 
 per diem, per cent. In short: Never mix 
 languages, if you can well avoid it. — llie 
 Verbalist, page 20^. 
 
 No department offered less encouragement to 
 the spirit of monopoly than the production [pro- 
 ducing], refinement [refining], and distribution 
 [distributing] of this natural oil. 
 
 It is possible, however, that, if Germany and 
 Great Britain persist in retaining possession of 
 the Chinese capital pending negotiations for the 
 restoration [restoring] of order and the settle-
 
 -8 SO.U/: II. I. -USED WORDS 
 
 iiii'iit [settling I of questions in dispute. Russia 
 antl ['"ranee may deem it advisable to keep a part 
 of their forces also in Pekin. 
 
 The dissolution [dissolving] of Parliament 
 was therefore an absolute necessity. The Gov- 
 ernment hopes that the people will send men 
 willing to assist in the development of [develop- 
 ing] the country. The Government, by dissolving 
 a Parliament zi'hich [that] did no positive work, 
 carries out a constitutional principle. 
 
 I""r()m tlie days of the Revival of Learning 
 authors appear to have exercised a large amount 
 of ingenuity in the selection of [selecting] titles 
 for their works. 
 
 In 131 1 Pope Clement had ordered the estab- 
 lishuicnt of professorships for the study of the 
 Sacred Word; and Pius VI, in 1778, congratu- 
 lated the Archbishop of Florence on his success 
 in placing the Scriptures in the hands of the 
 people. 
 
 Here is the very acme of awkwardness. 
 Ordered professorships to be estabhshed; 
 or, elHptically, estabhshed. 
 
 These results tended to a restoration of [to 
 restore] confidence, but it was not until the defeat
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 39 
 
 of Bryan and [the] success of the party of sound 
 money in 1896 that confidence was fully restored. 
 
 Every patriotic American, and every Demo- 
 crat in particular, should favor expansion. 
 
 Jefferson was an expansionist, otherwise he 
 would not have favored the acquisition [acquir- 
 ing] of Louisiana with its foreign population 
 which in Jefferson's time was quite as remote as 
 the Philippines. 
 
 The acquiring of Louisiana was a mag- 
 nificent acquisition. 
 
 The Liberal press of Great Britain have been 
 quickest in the recognition of [to recognize] this 
 fact and strongest in deploring it. 
 
 The malaria problem is not yet entirely solved, 
 but these experiments certainly afford very strong 
 confirmation of the theory that makes mosquitoes 
 chiefly responsible for the conveyance [convey- 
 ing] of the poison to man. 
 
 The mosqtiito is the conveyance that does 
 the conveying? 
 
 In the application of [applying] that definition 
 to religious matters it at once becomes evident 
 that there must be a large exercise of reason be- 
 fore there can be any such thing as an act of 
 faith.
 
 40 SOME II.L-l SEP WORDS 
 
 People in the West can scarcely imagine how 
 much attention is paid in Persia and elsewhere 
 in the Orient to the production [producing] of a 
 iiiicly finished niaiuiscript. 
 
 Richard H. Adams, chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on Buildings, Board of Education, adver- 
 tised to-day for bids- for the erection [erecting] 
 of a building for the High School of Commerce. 
 
 By the treaty of Shimonoseki, May, 1895, 
 China renounced her claim of suzerainty, and 
 Japan began to institute reforms, such as the divi- 
 sion [dividing] of the country into districts, the 
 raising of revenue by taxation, the establishment 
 [establishing] of Government departments, and 
 the regular payment [paying] of officials. 
 
 If raising, why not paying? 
 
 The collection [collecting] of rubber, how- 
 ever, presents many features of interest, and de- 
 serves more extended treatment. 
 
 It was argued that enough laxity or careless 
 irregularity in the conduct of [conducting] the 
 office had been shown to justify the removal of 
 the prosecuting officer of this county, and, fur- 
 ther, that whether such were [was] the case or 
 not, it would be excellent politics to assume the 
 guilt of the defendant.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 41 
 
 We do not need the subjunctive here; 
 and if we did, zvcrc would not serve. Were 
 can never, properly, be employed as a past 
 or as a future subjunctive. 
 
 Secretary Hay to-day transmitted to the Ger- 
 man Government the answer of the United States 
 to the recent communications of Germany, in 
 which modifications are made of the proposals for 
 the punishment [punishing] of the Boxer leaders 
 by the Powers as a condition precedent of peace 
 negotiations. This first proposal of Germany did 
 not meet with the approval of the United States. 
 
 Better: Proposals to punisJi the Boxer 
 leaders. Note the circumstance that the 
 writer says proposal, and not proposition. 
 Proposition is a much misused word. 
 
 Special attention given to the management 
 [managing] of real estate and the collection [col- 
 lecting] and remittance [remitting] of rents. 
 
 What was left of the Democratic organization, 
 however, assembled at Chicago in August, 1864, 
 for the nomination of [to nominate] a candidate 
 for President, and it adopted a platform denounc- 
 ing the war as a " failure." 
 
 To the great shame of the city of New York, 
 it is now represented in Congress by a delegation
 
 42 
 
 SO.U£ ILL-USED WOI^DS 
 
 elected in iS()S. no diie of the sixteen members of 
 whicli conld l)e indnced to declare himself in 
 favor of the preservation of [preserving] the gold 
 standard. 
 
 He leaves to Congress the decision [deciding] 
 of the question of the future government of the 
 islands. 
 
 The trades unions had given notice that in 
 the celebration of [celebrating] Labor Day there 
 vi^as to be no politics. If the speeches of Mr. 
 Bryan and Governor Roosevelt are read it will 
 be found that the latter [Governor Roosevelt] 
 scrupulously respected the wishes of his hosts, 
 while j\Ir. Bryan violated the luiderstanding. The 
 Governor's address was a manly, thoughtful, dis- 
 interested treatment of the condition of labor. 
 Mr. Bryan's address was an [a] harangue for 
 
 They like him personally, but they are afraid 
 to trust him in the management of [to manage] 
 their governmental affairs. It is like the relations 
 of a good many business men with those they 
 meet socially. The men they enjoy playing bil- 
 liards with at the club may not be the ones [men] 
 they would want to put in charge of their busi- 
 ness afTairs. 
 
 That was bound to be a condition, but a seri- 
 ous problem will confront the Allies when it be- 
 comes necessary to agree upon a plan for the 
 collection of [collecting] the money.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 43 
 
 These documents constitute the first definite 
 step whicli [that] has been taken toward the solu- 
 tion [solving] of the Chinese problem since the 
 rescue of the legations. 
 
 They exist for the accomplishment [accom- 
 plishing] of public objects. They should have for 
 their ideals the maintenance [maintaining] of 
 good government, the application [applying] of 
 right principles to public affairs, the ascertain- 
 ment [ascertaining] of the will of the people 
 touching public policies, and the embodiment [em- 
 bodying] of that will in prompt and effective 
 legislation. The Republican party is the giant in- 
 strument for the attainment [attaining] of these 
 ideals. 
 
 The success of the law for the taxation [tax- 
 ing] of franchises recently enacted in New York 
 State, a measure which [that] has resulted in 
 putting upon the assessment books nearly $200,- 
 000,000 worth of property which [that] had there- 
 tofore escaped taxation, is an illustration of 
 
 The effort for the adoption by the Powers of 
 [by the Powers to adopt] a programme for har- 
 monious action in China has resulted in expres- 
 sions from all the Powers to the effect that only 
 by unity can the Allies successfully negotiate for 
 peace.
 
 44 
 
 SOME ILL-VSEl) WORDS 
 
 It imist 1)0 uiuk-rstood thai the (Ulrj^ates do not 
 know tlic ilctails of the phiii /or ihc liberation of 
 [to Hl)ci-atc. or for liberating] their race. 
 
 An officer of prominence said that the rules of 
 common sense would prevail in the settlement 
 [settling] of the future of China and he was evi- 
 dently hopeful of a favorable outcome. 
 
 Later he assisted in the bombardment [bom- 
 barding, i. e., to bombard] of Fort Anderson. 
 
 So far, then, from the reviled " trusts " offer- 
 ing injury to labor, they [the trusts] are destined 
 to offer to it [labor] an opportunity for combina- 
 tion in production [to combine in producing] 
 which will settle the " labor question " by making 
 labor itself the capital. 
 
 Trusts should be in the possessive case. 
 
 These two advisory bodies have recommended 
 the building of battle ships and armored cruisers. 
 It is understood that Mr. Long is opposed to the 
 construction [constructing] of any armorclads, 
 and in this he is supported by several naval offi- 
 cers, members of the boards. 
 
 If biiUdiiig is correct — which it certainly 
 is — then construction must be incorrect; if 
 the one is good grammar, the other is bad 
 grammar.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 45 
 
 The inventor discards tall poles in the opera- 
 tion of [operating] his system and uses cylinders 
 of moderate heig-ht. 
 
 The hackney taught the value of type in the 
 heavy harness horse, and through breeding on and 
 more often [oftener] by " hackneyizing " the 
 made trotter, the efifect of the introduction of [in- 
 troducing] the breed has been clearly apparent. 
 
 Should it be proved that the girl came to her 
 death through acts leading up to and in the com- 
 mission [committing] of a felony, the law classi- 
 fies the crime as murder in the first degree. 
 
 For two weeks fifty or more persons, some 
 connected with the Police Department, and others 
 privately employed, all of them experienced in 
 detective work, have directed all their energies to 
 the solution [solving] of the problem. 
 
 Wherever Nietzsche's teachings reach, wher- 
 ever men become acquainted with his great and 
 peculiar personality, it will attract strongly, as 
 well as repel, but everywhere it will contribute to 
 the development [developing] and formation 
 [forming] of each individuality. 
 
 It will help to develop and form each in- 
 dividuality.
 
 46 SOME /I. I. -USED WORDS 
 
 Since the (loath of Brahms, a struggle has 
 been going on bctiijccn [among] his relatives and 
 several musical societies with regard to the dis- 
 position [disposing] of his possessions. 
 
 Counsel for Miss W'cndLl said he zvoiild 
 [should] fight the confiruiation [confirming] of 
 the report of the commissioners based on the ver- 
 dict of the sherifY's jury, and if he lost he would 
 [should] appeal. 
 
 He shotild flight against the report's 
 being" conl'irmed. 
 
 Protestants were even obliged to complain 
 that Catholic countries were in advance of them 
 in the printing and circulation [circulating] of 
 the Scriptures. 
 
 The details relating to the organisation [or- 
 ganizing] of the Relief Committee were perfected 
 by tlic selection of [selecting] the following as 
 officers. 
 
 I have deposited $50,000 in marketable rail- 
 road bonds, to be used as a fund for defraying 
 expenses incident to the investigation [investigat- 
 ing] and prosecution [prosecuting] of frauds of 
 the election to be held next Tuesday and in Feb- 
 ruary.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 47 
 
 Whatever, then, the Republican party has al- 
 ready done for the establishment [to establish] 
 and preservation of [and preserve] the gold 
 standard and whatever further law it might pass 
 at the coming second session of Congress for its 
 protection [to protect it] against Bryan could be 
 repealed by his Congress at once, if it was 
 [should be?] so disposed. 
 
 In case of another Pozuer [Power's] making 
 use of the complications in China in order to ob- 
 tain, under any form whatever, such territorial 
 advantages, the two contracting parties reserve to 
 themselves the right to come to a preliminary 
 understanding regarding the eventual step to be 
 taken for the protection of [to protect] their own 
 interests in China. 
 
 It was not a question of the imposition [im- 
 posing] upon the people of South America of any 
 system of government devised in Europe, but 
 simply the determination [determining] of the 
 frontier of a British possession. 
 
 The commission is to begin at once orgam::a- 
 tion of [to organize] native municipalities on the 
 model of General Otis and to build from these to 
 provincial governments. 
 
 Telegraphic advices from Minister Conger re- 
 ceived at the State Department to-day show that
 
 48 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 tlic diplomatic body at Pckin is making progress 
 in its (ictcnnination of [determining] the pro- 
 gramme to be submitted to the Chinese peace 
 plenipotentiaries as a basis for the settlement 
 [settling] of the existing troubles. 
 
 Basis on wliicli to settle cxistinj^ troubles. 
 In matters graniniatical. the thou^iil deter- 
 mines. 
 
 A survey of the past [last] twenty or twenty- 
 five years reveals nothing more striking than the 
 progress labor has made. This is seen in the 
 numerous [many] laws that have been passed 
 for the protection of [to protect] employees' 
 rights and the betterment of [better] their con- 
 dition. 
 
 For the first time in our history the world has 
 seen, during Mr. McKinley's administration, the 
 army and navy promptly and effectively used for 
 the protection [to protect] and relief of [relieve] 
 American citizens suffering from violation of 
 treaty rights in a foreign country. 
 
 The Kansas City Convention was adverse to 
 reaffirmation of [reaffirming] the Chicago plat- 
 form, and a majority of its delegates honestly 
 hoped to purge the party of the vicious heresies 
 zvhich [that] had lost it the respect and confi- 
 dence of the country.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 49 
 
 Another magazine, in high standing among the 
 Catholics, the Ave Maria, said : " In Father 
 O'Conor's version the work of editing has con- 
 sisted in the omission [omitting] of certain genu- 
 ine passages and the insertion [inserting] of other 
 brief ones [passages] zuhich [that] are commonly 
 supposed to be innocent interpolations." 
 
 As the telegrams from Shanghai zvhich [that] 
 we printed on Sunday have been confirmed by 
 subsequent despatches to London newspapers, we 
 are justified in assuming that the first step has 
 been taken toward the solution [solving] of the 
 Chinese problem. 
 
 Put them all through; but let the legislation 
 for the absolutely necessary re-enforcement [re- 
 enforcing] of the army have the right of way 
 over them all. 
 
 The dates for the beginning and termination 
 [terminating] of relations were precisely fixed. 
 
 The right of a man to make a fool of himself 
 is probably inalienable. Equally so [inalienable] 
 is the right of any two men to agree that under 
 [in?] certain circumstances one shall do some- 
 thing for the amusement of [to amuse] the other. 
 
 On all sides complaints loud and deep are 
 heard as to the scarcity of servants, and various 
 4
 
 50 
 
 SOME ILL-USED ll'OKDS 
 
 I many] remedies, more or less practical, have 
 been suggested for the alleviation of \ to alleviate] 
 the housewife's trouble. 
 
 The deposition [deposing] of the Empress 
 Dowager is, indeed, believed by many papers to 
 be a necessary precaution for the future. 
 
 The plan calls for the construction [construct- 
 ing] of three battle ships, three armored cruisers, 
 and twelve gunboats ; the exact number of the 
 latter class of vessels [gunboats], however, has 
 not been fixed. 
 
 It is very likely, however, as was indicated in 
 a Washington despatch to the Sun yesterday, that 
 the Government will not agree to the proposition 
 [proposal] to prohibit the importation \ import- 
 ing] of firearms and ammunition into China. 
 
 He reminded the board that out of sixty-eight 
 ordinances for the betterment [bettering] of the 
 water supply in the city, it had only passed 
 [passed only] fifteen. 
 
 I have been so busily engaged in the construc- 
 tion of [constructing] my steel plant during these 
 prosperous times that I have given hardly a 
 thought to politics.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 51 
 
 I certainly think that the drazuing up and the 
 passage [passing] of this bill will be the first and 
 primary business of the State Legislature when 
 it assembles. 
 
 Yesterday was the first day for the collection 
 [collecting] of taxes, and between $10,000,000 
 and $12,000,000 was taken in at the Tax Re- 
 ceiver's office. 
 
 He has had a stormy career, but in the main 
 [he] has been successful, as far as the attainment 
 [attaining] of political honors at the hands of his 
 party is concerned. 
 
 Does the Constitution authorize any one to 
 commit the United States to the maintenance 
 [maintaining] and support [supporting] of the 
 ambitions or [the] pretensions of any foreign 
 ruler or usurper? 
 
 His conduct in the enforcement [enforcing] 
 and collection of [collecting] forfeited bail bonds 
 was claimed to have been improper. 
 
 Engineers started this morning making a sur- 
 vey and running lines preparatory to the resump- 
 tion [resuming] of work. 
 
 But the Chinese have special grievances: the 
 opening of ports and the imposition [imposing]
 
 52 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 of obnoxious treaties on tlieni hy force, the can- 
 struction [constructing] of railways and tele- 
 graphs, and the zi.'orkiiig of mines in such a way 
 as to disturb the graves of ancestors. 
 
 If " opening of ports " and " working of 
 mines," why not " imposing of treaties " 
 and " constructing of railways " ? 
 
 The judiciary department of this Government, 
 aided by the Minister of Commerce, is reported 
 to be working on a general law governing the 
 formation [forming] and conduct [conducting] of 
 trusts. 
 
 The embroidery [embroidering] of robes is 
 also done by men, and is in very great demand. 
 
 Another decree is to be issued in regard to the 
 selection [selecting] of judges of first instance 
 and judges of the Audencia. 
 
 If the selecting was judiciously done, it 
 resulted in their having a good selection. 
 
 It would hardly be surprising to find that there 
 was [is] an enterprising young lawyer behind 
 that Cleveland club for the encouragement [en- 
 couraging] of divorce. 
 
 It is not a question here of past but of 
 present time, hence is.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 53 
 
 But all the same the question of the preven- 
 tion [preventing] of seasickness is always inter- 
 esting. 
 
 The title of the organization is " The National 
 Society for the Relief of [to Relieve] Dependent 
 Widows and Orphans of the Officers and Enlisted 
 Men of the Regular Army of the United States." 
 
 A considerable period of time was required 
 for the vianufacture [to manufacture] and erec- 
 tion of [erect] this monster machine. 
 
 In the argument [arguing] of legal questions 
 before the courts his briefs were prepared by his 
 assistants, and no man knew better how to use 
 them. 
 
 Better, because simpler: In arguing legal 
 qtiestions. 
 
 Protest Government against evacuation [evac- 
 uating] Pekin and recognition [recognizing] Li 
 Hung Chang. Both disastrous to missions. 
 
 The eight hundred students at the college pro- 
 pose to experience all the excitement of a presi- 
 dential campaign, even if their votes do not con- 
 tribute directly to the election [electing] of any 
 candidates.
 
 54 SOME ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 The coniniiltcc would not listen to the de- 
 mands of the men in regard to the employment 
 [employing] and discharge [discharging] of the 
 workmen. 
 
 Prince Ching will leave the arrangement [ar- 
 ranging] of the preliminaries largely to Li Hung 
 Chang. 
 
 That is, Prince Ching will leave to Li 
 Hung Chang the doing of something — the 
 arranging, 
 
 The steamer Boscowitz, the last to arrive 
 from the north, brings details of one of the 
 strangest mysteries connected with the explora- 
 tion [exploring] and development [developing] of 
 Alaska. 
 
 The authority of the United States is to be 
 exerted for the securing of the persons and prop- 
 erty of the people of the islands and for the con- 
 firmation [confirming] of all their private rights 
 and relations. 
 
 The discharge of Colonel Harrison is the re- 
 sult of the abolishment of [abolishing] the De- 
 partment of Porto Rico, of which he was In- 
 spector General. 
 
 The dredgers are fully aware of this and never 
 feel any fear of bodily harm while being chased. 
 Another thing zvhich [that] hampers the adniinis-
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 55 
 
 fration [administering] of the law is the fact that 
 the sympathies of the justices and judges are gen- 
 erally [commonly] with the oystermen in the 
 country districts. 
 
 The real crusade against the promotion [pro- 
 moting] and protection [protecting] of vice in 
 this city has begun. 
 
 Offers its services for the safe keeping and 
 judicious management [managing] of trust funds. 
 
 It is admitted by the present biographer that 
 the cardinal was a cold man, unwavering in his 
 animosities and merciless in the infliction of [in- 
 flicting] punishment. 
 
 This clause provides that the residue and re- 
 mainder of the estate, which is a large one, be 
 used for the erection [to erect] and maintenance 
 of [maintain] a suitable building by the city of 
 Woburn, to be used and occupied as a library. 
 
 Which is large, instead of Which is a 
 large one. 
 
 After careful consideration of [carefully con- 
 sidering] the subject of Boston [Boston's] being 
 represented in the Cup defence, it developed be- 
 yond question that the sentiment of our best 
 yachtsmen zvas [is] that the city should be, if it 
 were [is] possible. It likewise developed that
 
 56 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 there xvcrc [are] many obstacles in the way of 
 successful realization of [realizing] this desire. 
 Modern Cup defending has grown to be expen- 
 sive, so expensive as to almost [almost to] exclude 
 small communities like ours from taking part. 
 
 It is not necessary to follow every word 
 that expresses a condition with the sul)jimc- 
 tive, many as there are that seem to think 
 it is. Here, the subjunctive says: " If it were 
 possible, which it is not," which is wide of 
 the thought. 
 
 Desirous as we are to secure the harmonious 
 working of the administrative [administration] 
 machinery and to preserve the equity and justice 
 of its action, we propose to use scrupulous vigi- 
 lance in the appointment of [appointing] officials ; 
 to avoid useless formalities in the transaction of 
 [transacting] official business, to clearly define 
 and rigidly exact [clearly to define and rigidly to 
 exact] the performance of the duties and respon- 
 sibilities attaching to the various official posi- 
 tions, to maintain strict discipline among public 
 functionaries and to secure such despatch and 
 precision in the conduct of [conducting] business 
 as are required by the country. 
 
 There could not be such a thing- as ad- 
 ministvativc machinery. \Ve do not per- 
 form duties or responsibilities, we discharge 
 them.
 
 THE NOUN CONSTRUCTION 
 
 57 
 
 The holding of ptibHc position should be an 
 incident and not the aim of the citizen ; it should 
 be not an cud, but the means for the accomplish- 
 ment of a purpose. — IVilliaiii Jennings Bryan, as 
 reported in the Nezv York Sun. 
 
 Here we have a sentence that few per- 
 sons would pause to find fault with, yet if 
 we look at it closely, we find it very vul- 
 nerable. We mend it. in part, by changing 
 for the accoinplislnnciit of to to accoinplisJi, 
 and we mend it wholly (?) by rewriting it 
 thus: " The holding of public office should 
 be an incident, not an aim; it should be not 
 an end, but the means to attain an end." 
 
 The words of the citizen are worse than 
 useless, and the using of pnrpose instead of 
 re-using end is weakening, hence a dictional 
 error. Accomplish an end might be allowed 
 to pass unchallenged, though it is question- 
 able idiom. We accomplish a purpose, at- 
 tain an end, and compass an object. 
 
 Much that we read, especially in the 
 daily papers, would suffer as much from 
 close scrutiny as does this sentence.
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN'S SPECIAL 
 ABHORRENCE 
 
 Says the New York Sun: " Constant at- 
 tention is the price of good English. There 
 is one error that constantly appears in spite 
 of all castigation. It is a sort of phrase- 
 ology that is exceedingly vicious. The in- 
 fernal ingenuity of the reporters contrives 
 to frame a sentence in which there are two 
 nominati\-es and only one verb." 
 
 This locution that is The Sun's special 
 abhorrence might be called the he-was- 
 given-an-ovation locution. 
 
 Has this double-headed barbarian come 
 to stay? It looks that way, though more 
 offensive no locution easily could be. 
 Whether infernal, as The Sun intimates, 
 or not, it's a pity The Infernal does not 
 take it. 
 
 This story zvas given a place of honor in the 
 Brooklyn Eagle, and was extensively copied in 
 different papers throughout the country. In each 
 
 58
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN'S ABHORRENCE 
 
 59 
 
 [every] case the proper credit was given to the 
 authors. — New York Dramatic Mirror. 
 
 Something like this is, probably, what 
 The Mirror intended to say: The Brooklyn 
 Eagle gave the story a place of honor, and 
 it was extensively copied. 
 
 The sailor is given the tight in the eighth 
 round. — Head line of a New York paper. 
 
 This probably means: The fight is given 
 to the sailor in the eighth roimd. 
 
 ReHgious intolerance ceased and Christian 
 missionaries were given freedom of action, and 
 the Jews were allowed to build a second syna- 
 gogue. — The Literary Digest. 
 
 If this is all that is done, if American manu- 
 facturers are placed simply on equal conditions 
 with foreign manufacturers instead of being given 
 an advantage over them [an advantage being 
 given them] at the expense of the consumers, 
 there would be, we imagine, small disposition to 
 keep the question in the realm of party politics. 
 — New York Voice. 
 
 An old Irish laborer walked into the luxurious 
 studio of an artist, a few days ago, and asked for 
 money to obtain a meal. He was given a trifle 
 and departed.— Tid-Bits.
 
 6o SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The history of his struggles is celebrated. As- 
 suredly the victory will rcM:iain with him. At the 
 last debate he zvas refused a cniiscr squadron. — 
 Nczv York Snii. 
 
 In the first place, you are given a home, lu.xu- 
 riously and more or less beautifully and expen- 
 sively furnished, where real estate is highest. 
 Yon are given every comfort and convenience. — 
 Home Journal. 
 
 She borrowed money and went into a business 
 which she carried to a splendidly successful com- 
 pletion, and when her second daughter became an 
 invalid she zvas given every luxury and tender 
 care that money and affection could supply, while 
 a comfortable home was established for the so- 
 called " Man." 
 
 Most of the Cubans who were identified with 
 the revolutionary movement against Spain are bit- 
 terly opposed to annexation by the United States, 
 and if they are not given independence they will 
 make trouble for those who undertake to thwart 
 their aspirations. 
 
 One evening, just as the farmer had finished 
 his chores, a fine-looking man in clerical garb 
 drove up to the house in a buggy. He requested 
 shelter for the night, and was given the best room 
 in the house.
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN'S ABHORRENCE 6 1 
 
 When he had finished he thanked the court 
 and, still tapping his cane on the floor, keeping 
 time with his step, left the room. The result 
 was that on that day / zvas given a judgment for 
 
 $22,000. 
 
 When an Evening Telegram reporter saw 
 young Kiely in the prison he complained bitterly 
 that he zvas being given a " dirty deal." 
 
 Did Kiely say to the reporter, " I am 
 being given a dirty deal? " 
 
 In a short three years under Republican pro- 
 tection they have been given more general em- 
 ployment and at higher wages than ever before. 
 
 Jerry, soon after his return from the war, was 
 given a minor position in the bank, and being a 
 clever, well-educated fellow he rapidly advanced 
 until he was made paying teller. 
 
 One of the men gave him some meat and 
 cheese and the alligator ate it out of his hands. 
 As soon as he was given the food he returned to 
 the water. 
 
 It isn't because there are not able, respectable, 
 patriotic, and brilliant Americans in Mr. Bryan's 
 parties that they shoidd be refused power now, 
 but because they have no business policy upon 
 which they can agree as a unit.
 
 62 SO^fE ILL-USED^JVOA'DS 
 
 Tlic medal is a fitting token of the nation's 
 appreciation of such a deed. The hero will soon 
 leatl to the altar a beautiful l)ride, and among all 
 the wedding presents that will be received this 
 golden tribute to the husband's valor should be 
 given a place of honor. 
 
 Forrest zvas given a negro " song and dance 
 act " to do when he was very young, and after 
 he had studied it up he asked where was the " old 
 negro lady " that was to act as his assistant in the 
 piece. 
 
 But the laboring man is even more interested 
 in the proposition \ proposal] to establish a labor 
 bureau with a Cabinet officer at its head. Such a 
 bureau would keep the Executive in constant 
 touch with the wage-earners of the country, and 
 open the way to redress their present and future 
 grievances. // labor is given a place in the Presi- 
 dent's official household, the man selected will 
 necessarily be a worthy and trusted representa- 
 tive of the people. 
 
 They zvere given a great send-off as they left 
 the grounds. 
 
 Will Mr. Bryan denounce his party associates 
 in Congress who voted on June ist last that the 
 National Government should not be given the 
 power to control trusts?
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN'S ABHORRENCE 63 
 
 " No sooner was this done," continued the 
 story-teller, " than a great uproar of protests 
 arose from the group in the corner. They in- 
 sisted that ihcy had been given no chance to bid, 
 but the auctioneer stood firm." 
 
 He was given the control of the third military 
 district. 
 
 He was given a life interest in the estate. 
 
 / was given one of the copies. 
 
 Examples in the first person are com- 
 paratively rare. 
 
 The nations should be given warning. — Gov- 
 ernor Budd. 
 
 With us ministers, zve are constantly given 
 occasion [an opportunity?] to study character 
 
 Among the questions discussed at a ses- 
 sion of the University of the State of New 
 York this was one: 
 
 Should the A. M. degree be abandoned, or 
 given a distinct pedagogic significance f 
 
 " What should be done." asked the New 
 York Sun, " when the chiefs of a university
 
 64 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 show siicli dreadful ignorance of llic Knt^- 
 lish lani;"iiai;"e? " 
 
 For every scratch / Jiavc been given he has 
 two scars. 
 
 He zvas convicted, and was given a sentence 
 of twenty years. 
 
 He had been refused her hand. 
 
 While in prison, he zvas given a position in 
 the \\'arden's office, and was granted many privi- 
 leges. On account of his j^ood behavior, he zvas 
 given credit, and in 1888 had but three years more 
 to serve. 
 
 Going on to New York, flie committee were 
 [was] given a great and enthusiastic meeting at 
 Cooper Union. 
 
 He caused astonishment by offering to pay the 
 other $4,000 at once provided he was granted five 
 per cent discount. 
 
 " I am not ruled off," he said. " The de- 
 spatches merely say that / will [shall] be refused 
 a license." 
 
 It is enough to say concerning my youth that 
 I was raised [reared] on a farm and was ac-
 
 THE NEW YORK SUN'S ABHORRENCE 65 
 
 counted a pretty weedy crop. The cockleburrs 
 and crab-grass seemed to spring up all the more 
 prolific after / had been given a good thrashing. 
 
 After a good thrashing had been given 
 I. Turning it around a bit doesn't mend it. 
 Offensive as this locution is, it, now and 
 then, gets into some weh-written books.
 
 FORMER AND LATTER 
 
 These two words, the pronouns, and all 
 other words that send the reader back to an 
 antecedent, should be used as sparingly as 
 possible. 
 
 Nine times in ten. at the least, when tJic 
 former or tJie latter is used, it would be better 
 to repeat the noun. 
 
 Mr. Aldrich, Mr. Morill. and Mr. Gear were 
 formerly merchants, but the former [Mr. Aldrich] 
 is now the manager of the street-car interests in 
 Rhode Island. — W. E. Curtis. 
 
 The words former and latter are properly- 
 used only when it is a question of two. 
 Commonly, it is better not to use them at 
 all. The reader always has to go back to 
 see which is which. 
 
 For illustration, n is classed lingual, when in 
 truth it is lingual-nasal, with a deal more of the 
 latter [nasal] than [of] the former [lingual]. — 
 Professor R. E. Mayne.
 
 FORMER AND LA TTER 67 
 
 Letters passed back and forth between Mc- 
 Comb and Ames, in one of which the latter 
 [Ames], a plain, outspoken man, declared that he 
 had placed the stock with influential gentlemen. — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 All communications between Wagner and Bii- 
 low naturally ceased, and the latter [Biilow] 
 began his period of Wanderleben. 
 
 These tablets consisted partly of contracts and 
 other legal documents, partly of public and pri- 
 vate letters. The latter [letters] have just been 
 carefully arranged, and for the first time their full 
 importance is evident. 
 
 Mr. W. D. Howells, who for many years was 
 a close friend of James Russell Lowell, includes 
 in his reminiscences of the New England poet 
 and critic in Scribner's Magazine (September) 
 some interesting statements as to the latter s 
 [Lowell's] attitude toward religion. 
 
 In these cartoons all foreigners are repre- 
 sented as goats and all Christians as pigs. The 
 predominance of the latter [pigs] in most of the 
 cartoons throws some light on the question as to 
 how far a hatred of the missionaries, rather than 
 of foreigners in general, is responsible for the 
 present outbreak.
 
 68 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 \'ictor Emmanuel II and his son Humbert I 
 were both men of strong and ineradicable attach- 
 ment to the church, and the usurpation of the 
 Pope's temporal domain by the former [Victor 
 Emmanuel] and the continuance in possession by 
 the latter [Humbert] were, it has been proved by 
 repeated incidents, the source o-f continual heart- 
 burnings to them. 
 
 The present generation is distinctly an eater 
 of sweets, not of fats ; but while the former 
 [sweets] supply the heat that would be obtained 
 from the fats, they do not supply certain lubricant 
 qualities zvhich [that] are so important for the 
 proper performance of the intestinal functions. 
 
 One Esquimau for the management of [to 
 manage] the dogs, of which there were 120. The 
 latter [dogs] were fed on a " pemmican," made of 
 horse meat and flour. 
 
 If William III and his consort. Queen Mary, 
 daughter of James II, had had a son, the latter 
 [son] would have become not only King of Eng- 
 land, but Stadtholder of the Netherlands. 
 
 The woman was soon in tears, which gave 
 way later to anger. She scolded her father-in-law 
 and her youthful husband and defied the former 
 [father-in-law] to take the latter [husband] away 
 from her.
 
 FORMER AND LATTER 69 
 
 Mr. Henley says that had Rossetti and Byron 
 been contemporaries, some of the former's [Ros- 
 setti's] verses would have had the proud distinc- 
 tion of making the author of Don Juan blush. 
 
 On November 25th, the seals were taken from 
 du Vaire and given to Mangot. At the same time 
 the secretaryship of state held by the latter [Man- 
 got] was given to Richelieu. 
 
 Richelieu hoped by depriving Gaston of his 
 refuge to induce him to a reconciliation, but the 
 latter [Gaston] was persuaded by his chief ad- 
 viser to withdraw to Brussels. 
 
 British and Russians clash. Railway interests 
 of the former [British] believed to be in danger. 
 
 The portents of war between England and 
 France are looming large upon the horizon, and 
 the former Power [England] has just determined 
 upon a step zvhich [that] shows that she is ready 
 to make the best of her opportunities on this 
 quarter of the globe. 
 
 Albeit there are numerous [many] thrifty 
 souls that find a bank in hens and eggs and coax 
 the former [hens] by many ingenious and suc- 
 cessful devices to produce the latter [eggs] in 
 quantities to suit.
 
 70 SOME ILL- USED WORDS 
 
 Soon after his return to the United States 
 Jones became involved in a controversy with 
 Arthur Lee, and he did not hesitate to charge 
 the latter [Lee] with having betrayed our most 
 secret policy to our arch enemy, Great Britain. 
 
 Lord Salisbury then made a veiled thrust at 
 the Commander-in-Chief, Lord Wolscley, because 
 of the recent speech in which the latter [Wolse- 
 ley] placed most of the responsibility for the 
 shortcomings of the army on the War Office. 
 
 There is no need to assume that there is any 
 disagreement between him and the Emperor. The 
 latter [Emperor], as the world knows, has been 
 for years his own Chancellor, and there is no 
 evidence that Prince Hohenlohe ever challenged 
 or wished to challenge his Majesty's authority. 
 
 There is no love lost between the Coreans and 
 the Japanese. On the side of the latter [Jap- 
 anese] the feeling is one of contempt, and the 
 hatred of the Coreans is justified by the treatment 
 they have received from Japanese adventurers 
 and speculators. In case of a clash between Rus- 
 sia and Japan the Coreans would probably side 
 with the former [Russia]. 
 
 The Cherries, as they are known throughout 
 Ohio, are the daughters of a farmer who died 
 some time ago. leaving them a farm covered with 
 clay, on top of which rested a nice thick mort-
 
 FORMER AND LATTER 
 
 n 
 
 gage. In order to lift the latter [mortgage] so 
 that they might till the former [farm] the girls 
 started out as a " troupe " to give entertainments 
 in the Iowa towns. 
 
 The easier we make it for the reader to 
 get our thought the better is our diction. 
 
 Their present population does not fall short 
 of 30,000,000, more than two thirds of which are 
 in Java. If the administrative methods followed 
 so successfully in the last-named island [Java] 
 were to be applied to all the Dutch East Indies, 
 these would easily sustain 100,000,000 of inhab- 
 itants. 
 
 The Marquis de Noailles, the French Ambas- 
 sador to Germany, called on Imperial Chancellor 
 von Billow to-day. The latter [Von Biilow] as- 
 sured the representative of France [Marquis] that 
 the Anglo-German agreement in regard to China 
 was [is] merely in regard to commerce. 
 
 Three days later a rumor got abroad that 
 D'Esterre was going to horsewhip O'Connell, and 
 the former [D'Esterre] actually appeared in the 
 Four Courts with a whip in his hand, but failed 
 to find the latter [O'Connell]. 
 
 Subsequently she sang for a period of seven 
 months at Geneva, was heard also in Nice, Mar- 
 seilles, Cairo, Monte Carlo, and Bordeaux, and 
 was invited by Sonsogne to sing in Milan and
 
 'J2 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Genoa. In the last-iuiiiicd city [Genoa] slic ap- 
 peared as the heroine of Massenet's Le Cid. 
 
 In the controversy between Max Miiller and 
 the late Professor Whitney of Yale University it 
 is generally admitted that the former [Miiller] 
 was worsted. 
 
 His story is that Captain Herlihy called him 
 a liar and that he then went to see Inspector 
 Cross. When he got to the latter's [Inspector's] 
 office, he says, he found Captain Herlihy already 
 there. 
 
 Mr. Walton next proceeded to Li Hung 
 Chang's private residence, where he found one 
 of the latter's [Li's] private secretaries, Mr. 
 Pethick, an American, who had arranged the in- 
 terview. 
 
 If one citizen may properly withhold his vote, 
 logically all may, while to decline voting [to vote] 
 because practically assured that others will vote, 
 is to give to the latter [others] an undue share of 
 political power and to forfeit the right to com- 
 plain of any abuse of // [power]. 
 
 The country lying between Daiquiri and Si- 
 boney, and between the latter place [Siboney] and 
 Santiago, was marvellously adapted for a stub- 
 born defence.
 
 FORMER AND LATTER 
 
 73 
 
 Both leader and subleader resisted arrest, the 
 former [leader] fighting his way clear to the 
 station-house. 
 
 Mr. Perkins is convinced, that, had Father 
 Joseph survived Richelieu, the former [Joseph] 
 would have succeeded the latter [Richelieu] in 
 his position at the head of affairs in France. 
 
 The accident occurred while the train was 
 running from Tuxedo to Paterson. It left the 
 former place [Tuxedo] at 3.48 o'clock and was 
 due at Paterson at 4.21. 
 
 The Magdeburg correspondent of the Gazette 
 telegraphs an interview with a Japanese diplomat, 
 in which the latter [diplomat] says that Japan 
 has not assumed Russia's attitude toward China. 
 
 The quarrel between the Mayor and [the] 
 Bishop this morning puts the latter [Bishop] in 
 the background. The clergymen, however, are 
 likely to form an organization. Many of them 
 have announced that they will [shall] preach on 
 the subject to-morrow. 
 
 The two young women convicted of carrying 
 on this particular swindle were sisters, Catherine 
 and Marian M. The former [Catherine] is 
 twenty-two and the latter [Marian] twenty.
 
 74 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Eugene Field and the fanner. Having killed 
 the latter s [farmer's] duck, the poet presented his 
 view of the matter. 
 
 The Brooklyn policeman ivho [that] clubbed 
 his own roundsman when the latter [roundsman] 
 remonstrated with him for being in a saloon while 
 on post, is a nice sort of individual [person] to 
 look after the safety of the public. 
 
 There is a distinction to be drawn between 
 the rights of a master in his home and his rights 
 in his public store. In the latter case [store] 
 there is an implied invitation to the general public 
 to come in, and a person entering such an estab- 
 lishment has greater privileges, and, consequently, 
 the master less rights. 
 
 Learning that his visitor had [had] an audi- 
 ence with Prince Ching at Pekin, he pertinently 
 asked whether Jung-lu had been [was] present, 
 adding that the latter [Jung-lu] was Prime Min- 
 ister and Generalissimo of the Chinese Army. 
 
 A harpy eagle could carry ofif a small baby 
 and the golden eagle can carry off a small fawn 
 or a kid or a wild turkey, and does it when op- 
 portunity offers. The latter [golden eagle] some- 
 times weighs twelve pounds and has an expanse 
 of wing of seven feet and a half.
 
 FORMER AND LATTER 
 
 75 
 
 A student may be admitted without any knowl- 
 edge of either Greek or Latin, but he must offer 
 French or German as a substitute for the latter 
 language [Latin]. 
 
 Here is the syllogism : The cases of China and 
 the Philippines are identical. In the former 
 [China] the President has pursued the only policy 
 which [that] is right. In the latter [Philippines] 
 he has pursued a different policy, and it therefore 
 must be wronsf. 
 
 A conductor who [that] is not afraid to per- 
 form [do] his duty will remove the obstructing 
 baggage if the owner refuses to do so [remove it]. 
 But, should the conductor lack the will or the 
 nerve to protect the traveller in his rights, the 
 latter [traveller] will have the sympathy of his 
 fellow-travellers if he removes the obstructor's be- 
 longings. 
 
 Watts — The more I think of that fcllozv [fel- 
 low's] murdering another over fifteen cents, the 
 more awful it seems. Fancy a human life lost 
 for fifteen cents ! 
 
 Potts — I see nothing in it. In the first place, 
 the affair occurred in Kentucky, and in the second 
 place, the money was part of a jackpot. There 
 are things in that State [Kentucky] more sacred 
 than life.
 
 ^6 SOAff. ILL-USED IfORDS 
 
 On the whole, then, Mr. Bryan, in spite of 
 inferior intellectuality, would wear better as a 
 leader than Mr. Towne. When the latter 
 [Towne] was rejected at Kansas City, it was a 
 protest against nominating a Republican on a 
 Democratic ticket. 
 
 It must be a government of intelligence as well 
 as one of honesty. An ignorant, incompetent 
 honest man in an important office is likely to do 
 more permanent harm than a rascal ivho [that] 
 is intelligent and progressive. The latter [rascal] 
 may steal some money, but the former [honest 
 ignoramus] may mar or destroy a park or boule- 
 vard or construct an eyesore of brick and stone 
 where there should be an artistic public edifice. 
 
 The one should come out or a government 
 should be repeated. 
 
 The professional politician is usually disposed 
 to decry and ridicule the professional .reformer, 
 and the latter [reformer] can rarely see any good 
 in the politician. 
 
 \\nio will deny that fanner and latter are 
 much overworked? True, we couldn't get 
 along well without them, but nine times in 
 ten where now we use them they are not 
 needed.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CON- 
 STRUCTION 
 
 Never choose any antecedent construc- 
 tion, if you can well avoid it. The fewer 
 the antecedents, the more forcible the dic- 
 tion. 
 
 That the American people will express their 
 opinions in November, no one knows better than 
 Chairman Hanna, and hence the pressure that he 
 is bringing to bear on the coal barons to comply 
 with the miners' demands and put an end to the 
 strike. He [Mr. Hanna] is fearful, and justly 
 so [fearful], of its [the strike's] effect on the 
 American mind. 
 
 Eliza Ruhama Scidmore, who has written sev- 
 eral books on far Eastern countries, reminds those 
 who are looking for " the break-up of China " 
 that China has been " breaking up " and " dying " 
 for thousands of years, and will probably continue 
 to do so [break up] for thousands of years to 
 come. 
 
 Well, he came to Brook Farm; and I remem- 
 ber that some of his natural predilections devel- 
 
 77
 
 -S SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 oped themselves there as they had not before been 
 able to do [develop]. — Charles A. Dana. 
 
 Under [in] these circnnistanees the patriotic 
 citizen has to consider this fall whether the pnblic 
 interests are to be better advanced by maintain- 
 ing in power the present administration with all 
 its shortcomings or by providing a wholly un- 
 tried one [administration]. 
 
 We zvill [shall] not all share alike, but some- 
 thing each one of us will get. Let us strive to 
 make the conditions of life such that as nearly 
 as possible each man shall receive the share to 
 which he is honestly entitled [he is honestly en- 
 titled to] and no more ; and let us remember at 
 the same time that our efforts must be to build 
 up, rather than to strike down, and that we can 
 best help ourselves, not at the expense of others, 
 but by heartily working with them [others] for 
 the common cfood of each and all. 
 
 In this the Duke of Reichstadt dies a la 
 Camille, but before he does so [dies] he receives, 
 so says the playbook, the " last sacraments." 
 
 This is the last Thanksgiving of the century. 
 That in itself is not a matter to be joyous over, 
 for it reminds us that we are getting along. But 
 it has been a very fine century for this country.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION yg 
 
 And the indications are that the next one [cen- 
 tury] will be more so [still finer for the country]. 
 
 That is not the danger. They know that if I 
 am elected I will put the same kind of striped 
 clothes on a big thief that are put on a little 
 one [thief]. 
 
 Is woman less or more intelligent than man? 
 Less so [intelligent], decidedly, says Professor 
 Paolo Mantegazza. 
 
 We have no record of the part played by 
 Richelieu in the preceding debates, but that it 
 must have been a distinguished one [part] is 
 proved by the fact 
 
 Somewhat careless of the smaller moralities, 
 still more so [careless] of his own reputation. 
 
 The days following were ones [days] of ter- 
 rible suspense at [in] Washington. 
 
 In discussing the South African crisis in the 
 Revue des Deux Mondes several months ago, a 
 Dutch writer, a member of the States-General of 
 the Netherlands, makes some remarks on im- 
 perialism which [that] are very striking, the 
 more so [striking], perhaps, because the writer
 
 8o SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 seems to have a genuine admiration for tlic Rrit- 
 ' ish people. 
 
 It is to he ohserved that while the South Afri- 
 can republics made like requests of other Powers 
 the United States is the only one zvhich [Power 
 that] complied. 
 
 It is noticed that the Eastern cities are now 
 growing about as fast as the Western ones 
 [cities], while the cities of the South are lagging 
 somewhat. 
 
 He observes, with an eye on Messrs. Carlisle, 
 Peabody, Dickinson, Morton, Eckels, and others, 
 that " those men zvho [that] clamor for reorgani- 
 zation after defeat are the very ones zvho [men 
 that] contribute to the defeat." 
 
 But while we recognize the perils of the pres- 
 ent and are bound to do our duty in meeting them, 
 the perils through which we have passed in safety 
 both give ground for hope that the present ones 
 [perils] will eventually be surmounted. 
 
 The campaign four years ago was notable for 
 its changes in the political alinement of State and 
 national leaders. The campaign this year has 
 not furnished as yet nearly as [so] large a num- 
 ber of surprises, but it has not been devoid of 
 them [surprises] by any manner of means.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION 8l 
 
 I think there will be found a strange coinci- 
 dence in the range of their ages, which may ap- 
 pear to, at least [at least to], favor a more natu- 
 ral theory as explanation than the constant and 
 almost wearisome one [theory] of the epileptic 
 possession or influence. 
 
 The Bulgarian agitation — to a large extent a 
 sham otie [agitation] — for the " redemption," as 
 it is called, of Macedonia, is a safety-valve that 
 relieves Prince Ferdinand from much unpleasant 
 criticism. 
 
 She had mistaken a desire to act for the ability 
 to do it [act]. — Nczv York Sun. 
 
 The Kentucky is a sister ship of the Kearsarge 
 and was built at Newport News. These ships are 
 the only ones [ships] in any navy equipped with 
 superimposed turrets. On top of the turrets for 
 the 13-inch guns are placed smaller ones [turrets] 
 containinsf the four 8-inch sfuns. 
 
 This boot is much lighter and more flexible 
 than ordinary ones [boots]. 
 
 But beside this, there are other questions you 
 have to consider as important, and even more so 
 [important], than the demand for [the] unlimited 
 coinage [coining] of silver. 
 6
 
 82 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The coming test of the silver question at tlie 
 polls must, in all human prohal)ility. I)e the tinal 
 one [test J. 
 
 The city authorities are anxious [desirous] to 
 proceed with this work, but inform us that they 
 can not do so [proceed] until they are in a posi- 
 tion to make contracts for the interior work. 
 
 I hate a " coward," especially a dishonest one 
 [coward]. This man Sulzer at least has the 
 courage to tell the truth, and if I lived in his dis- 
 trict I zcould [should] vote for him. 
 
 This is not the language of statesmanship, but 
 rather that [the language] of a candidate who is 
 not very particular what he says if it will bring 
 him the support of unthinking voters. 
 
 As to trusts, he declares that " if the present 
 law can be extended more certainly to control or 
 check these monopolies or trusts, it should be 
 done [extended] without delay." 
 
 The Know Nothing party showed that there 
 was dissatisfaction in the North with existing 
 political organizations and that a new one [or- 
 ganization] was needed. 
 
 The subtlety of his character was perhaps in- 
 dispensable in the atmosphere of deceit and plots
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION 
 
 83 
 
 amid which he lived, but, while cunning may be 
 a serviceable quality, it is not an [a] heroic one 
 [quality]. 
 
 The peace of 1783 was a calamitous one 
 [peace] for England, and yet it was only with 
 difficulty obtained. — New York Sun. 
 
 This sentence would be further bettered 
 by changing the position of the words thus: 
 Was obtained only with difficulty. This 
 puts the most emphatic word at the end of 
 the sentence, besides keeping the parts of 
 the verb together. 
 
 Two nights ago, on top of all the hullabaloo 
 that landed him in Eldridge Street, a tramp 
 through his precinct and the two adjoining ones 
 [precincts], those in Fifth Street and Union 
 Market, at 2 a. m., discovered just one police- 
 man on post. 
 
 The political objections to Oriental labor are 
 scarcely less weighty than the economic ones [ob- 
 jections]. 
 
 Blanche Walsh has a spell of polished comedy 
 and one [a spell] of rough melodrama in Mar- 
 celle. For the former [comedy] her stately beauty 
 is displayed in a pompadour toilet of a fine lady
 
 S4 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 of a century aiul a half aji^o in Quebec, when 
 French fasliions prevailed in that city. 
 
 Our industrial and agricultural conditions are 
 more promising than they have been for many 
 years; probably more so [promising] than they 
 have ever been [before]. 
 
 The American matron is just as powerful, and 
 a good deal more so [powerful], than the cele- 
 brated Mrs. Grundv. 
 
 Colonel Fellows's condition to-day is very 
 grave, more so [graver] than last night or yester- 
 day. There are serious doubts of his recovery. 
 — New York Evening Sun. 
 
 Headache is also very prevalent, but for this 
 they have a remedy, or what they allege to be 
 one [a remedy]. 
 
 No one in official circles here has believed that 
 Russia w'ould insist on withdrawing from Pekin 
 if the other Powers refused to do so [withdraw]. 
 
 Then there would be a battle royal between 
 the various strong tribes to subdue the weaker 
 ones [tribes], then a fierce row to see who zvould 
 [should] come out on top.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION 85 
 
 The British Museum, in its manuscript depart- 
 ment, has an unrivalled collection of letters of 
 celebrities, and by far the most valuable one [col- 
 lection] in existence. In 1895 they commenced 
 [began] publishing a series of specimens of the 
 handwritings of royal, historical, literary, and 
 other eminent persons. 
 
 The tone of the leading Republican papers in- 
 duces us to believe that the policy of the White 
 House is to maintain American interests in op- 
 position to European ones [interests] in various 
 parts of the world more steadily than hitherto. 
 
 Even after the triumphs of the courts of law 
 had yielded to the greater ones [triumphs] of the 
 House of Commons, the title of " counsellor " 
 ever remained his favorite appellation with the 
 Irish peasantry. 
 
 Remember all the terrible things you said were 
 going to happen if you were not elected in 1896. 
 It was money in my pocket to have you beaten 
 then. It will be money in my pocket to have you 
 beaten next November, and I'm going to help do it 
 [beat you]. 
 
 The country is still prosperous and will re- 
 main so [prosperous] under Republican manage- 
 ment.
 
 86 SOAfE ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 " I know something I won't tell," sang the 
 widow boarder's little girl, as little girls have 
 done [sung] ever since language was invented. 
 
 It is a real pity, as much so [as great a pity] 
 as would be the destruction of the beautiful flow- 
 ers which [that] everywhere distil their perfumes 
 on the slumbrous air. — Nezv York Sun. 
 
 And it would not if there were not plenty of 
 persons zcho hod (that have] read it, as well as 
 many more zvho [that] may be expected to do so 
 [read it]. 
 
 I wish I knew as much about anything as 
 Tom Macaulay does [knows] about everything — 
 meaning, of course, everything historical. 
 
 Can you pick out a man whose moral fibre is 
 any stronger, or is likely to be made so [stronger], 
 by the fact that McKinley was [has been] elected ? 
 Or one whose moral fibre would have been made 
 so [stronger] had Bryan been elected? 
 
 These monarchs behave very well when at- 
 tempts are made on their lives. Of course it is 
 part of their business to do so [behave well]. But 
 all the same, the display of professional spirit is 
 to be commended.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION g/ 
 
 I agree with him, that this will be one of the 
 great issues in this campaign — aye, the paramount 
 one [issue] — upon which we may hope to receive 
 the support of Republicans. 
 
 Beyond doubt the present year is a critical 
 one [year] for our country. 
 
 The remarkable character of the wins made 
 by the Chicago man was the wonder of the racing 
 world, and they will become even more so [won- 
 derful] when it is known that he had not previ- 
 ously raced horses in this country. 
 
 Unless the police are willing to tell the truth, 
 or can be compelled to do so [tell the truth], we 
 may not be able, in many cases, to produce legal 
 evidence of this state of things that would satisfy 
 a grand jury. 
 
 Representatives of fifteen denominations pres- 
 ent. Theoretical topics considered yesterday. 
 Only practical ones [topics] are to be on the pro- 
 cframme from this time out. 
 
 That objection of Mr. Olney's may be passed 
 by. It is an old argument, but it was never a 
 goon one [argument], even when it was new. 
 
 Some plays should never have a Metropolitan 
 " first night," and such a one [play] is The Parish
 
 88 SOME I LI. -USED IVOPDS 
 
 Priest, which Daniel Sully produced at the Four- 
 teenth Street Theatre last week. 
 
 This policy is not only patriotic but it is the 
 only safe one [policy] to pursue. Any other 
 policy would show weakness on the part of the 
 United States and invite foreign complications. 
 
 The most noteworthy feature of the coal 
 miners' strike is the familiar attempt of organ- 
 ized labor to force all men to leave work, whether 
 they want to do so [leave work] or not. 
 
 I have no more sympathy than he displays 
 with abstention from voting, a recognized method 
 of expressing political opinions undoubtedly, but 
 to my mind a singularly ineffective one [method]. 
 
 The ofifice is one of the most attractive in the 
 Government, and was rendered doubly so [attrac- 
 tive] by the cordiality of your tender of it. — 
 Chauncey M. Depew. 
 
 In other cities of England the number of prin- 
 cipal centres, each with subordinate ones [cen- 
 tres], will number from one to six, according to 
 size. 
 
 My retirement dates from that year, not from 
 this. Few men have made more speeches for
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION 
 
 89 
 
 their party than I have done [made], and no ex- 
 President, I am sure, has made so many. 
 
 Ptomaines may be developed from a variety 
 of foods, but the principal ones [foods] from 
 which the poisoning occurs are meat, milk, shell- 
 fish, and fish. 
 
 When we told them that Admiral Dewey was 
 inclined to permit the three to go to Manila on 
 the collier Nanshan if they could give any good 
 reason for so doing [going], they informed us 
 that they did not wish to go to Manila until 
 
 As the number of persons using open cars in 
 this city is very large, and as every person travel- 
 ling in that way desires to occupy an end seat, 
 the question is a very important one. It is more 
 so [important] than that involving the right of 
 a passenger on a railroad car to place his bag- 
 gage in the seat beside him. 
 
 I never indulge in personalities. I have re- 
 frained from indulging in personalities through- 
 out the campaign and will [shall] continue to 
 do so [refrain]. 
 
 In civilized countries the Jewish kitchen is, 
 after the vegetarian one [kitchen], the most nar- 
 rowly confined as far as selection goes. There,
 
 90 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 where in all other kitchens the delicacies com- 
 mence [begin], the bill of fare of the Jewish 
 kitchen has already come to an end. 
 
 Now there is nothing at all humorous in any 
 of these things, as such. Nor do they become 
 any more so [humorous] when woven into the 
 texture of a sonjj. 
 
 It seems that no one can go into court to 
 prosecute a just claim or resist an unjust one 
 [claim] without having his family skeleton pro- 
 duced and his private life made the subject of 
 public ridicule. 
 
 I had the good fortune to go through South 
 Dakota. There were few victories that gave me 
 more unalloyed satisfaction than the one [vic- 
 tory] in that State. 
 
 In the alleged fraudulent divorce suits which 
 [that] resulted in several indictments [indict- 
 ments'] being found by the grand jury, answers, 
 some of them alleged to have been " fake " ones 
 [answers], were interposed and the referees who 
 [that] heard the cases were imposed upon. 
 
 These two passages should be read in the light 
 of his declaration at Zanesville on September 
 4th : " The party stands where it did [stood] in 
 1896 on the money question."
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION qi 
 
 Mention is made in the seventh century of our 
 era by a Chinese traveller of a city either on or 
 near the site of the present one [city], called 
 Tchatch or Jadj. 
 
 The way to stop this is not to wait until the 
 men have registered, but to stamp it out before 
 they have a chance to do so [register]. 
 
 Villard first studied law. Beginning with 
 correspondence to German papers, and afterward, 
 as his English grew better, to American ones 
 [papers], he finally went into newspaper work. 
 
 That the sun was once much hotter is prob- 
 able, but [it is] equally so [probable] that at an 
 earlier period it was much colder. 
 
 The ultra-Conservative Kreuz Zeitung says in 
 regard to American relations with Europe that 
 Mr. McKinley's election will perhaps not inspire 
 so much confidence as Mr. Bryan's would have 
 given [inspired]. 
 
 The writer thought he should not re-iise 
 the word inspire. This aversion to re-using 
 a word often weakens the diction. 
 
 In response he announced that he zvas [is] 
 heartily in favor of the election of [electing]
 
 92 
 
 so^rF TLL-usED words; 
 
 Bryan. He epitomized the issues that he con- 
 siders the leading ones [issues] of the cam- 
 paign. 
 
 Having practised the acquisition [acquiring] 
 of territory for nearly sixty years, the question 
 of constitutional power to do so [to acquire terri- 
 tory] is no longer an open one [question] with 
 us. — Lincoln. 
 
 It is fair to assume that his later prophecies 
 are worth just as much as his earlier ones 
 [prophecies] and that expansion will be the 
 source of new prosperity and power. 
 
 That the marquis's party is numerically strong 
 and influential through the character of the po- 
 litical leaders who [that] have already joined it, 
 or are likely to do so [join it] in the future, seems 
 to be the general opinion in Japan. 
 
 It has taken them a long time to get around 
 to this view, which is the logical one [view]. But 
 we may be happy yet. 
 
 He shows plainly that Aguinaldo, after the 
 Spanish-American War, was never at the head of 
 any government, unless a paper one which [gov- 
 ernment that] he created himself.
 
 THE ANTECEDENT CONSTRUCTION 
 
 93 
 
 If the millionaires pay their proportion of the 
 tax this year and every succeeding one [year], 
 as the town people expect the assessors will make 
 them do, the town debt problem will be solved 
 easily. 
 
 The advantages are all on the side of 
 employing a non-antecedent locution. Not 
 only does it result in greater clearness and 
 strength, but it commonly produces better 
 rounded sentences.
 
 ANTICIPATE 
 
 This is a much misused word. It is not 
 a synonym of expect, foresee, look forzuard 
 to, some of our lexicographers to the con- 
 trary notwithstanding. We do not, prop- 
 erly, anticipate a good time; we, properly, 
 expect to have, or look forzvard to having a 
 good time. We do not anticipate successes, 
 failures, or storms; we expect them. If I 
 know your sect, I anticipate your argument, 
 said Emerson; whereas Emerson should 
 have said, If I know your sect, I foresee 
 your argument. 
 
 Properly used, anticipate means, to take 
 beforehand; to go before so as to preclude; 
 to get the start of, or to get ahead of; to 
 enjoy, possess, or suffer in expectation; to 
 foretaste. 
 
 The word is correctly used thus: 
 
 Seward, learning of the doings of the caucus, 
 anticipated the action of the committee by send- 
 ing in his resignation. — Lotlirop. 
 
 94
 
 ANTICIPA TE 
 
 95 
 
 If not anticipated, I shall make an attempt at 
 a magazine paper on The Philosophy of Point. — 
 Poe. 
 
 The chief portion of Professor Espy's theory 
 has been anticipated. — Poe. 
 
 Why should we 
 Anticipate our sorrows ? 'Tis like those 
 Who die for fear of death. — Shakespeare. 
 
 But, after all, it may simply anticipate on the 
 Ensflish of the future. — Hall. 
 
 It is well to have it understood that our mu- 
 nicipal authorities had anticipated by practical 
 work the proclamation issued by the President. 
 New York Sun. 
 
 Politeness seeks the opportunity to please, and 
 renders asking unnecessary by anticipating the 
 wishes. 
 
 But ex-Senator Gorman's off-hand remarks on 
 the politics of the day are always vague, for he 
 was never inclined to anticipate events. 
 
 From all appearances, the proclamations an- 
 ticipate the facts by only a short time, for each 
 day shows more and more plainly the disintegra-
 
 96 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVORDS 
 
 tion of the Boer forces and the increasing power 
 of the British in the two republics. 
 
 During our Revohitionary War, Great Britain 
 had to face a conil)ination. In the course of that 
 contest a Franco-Spanish fleet cruised triumphant 
 in the British Channel, and, could the allies have 
 agreed, or could they have been commanded by 
 a man of even moderate capacity [ability], they 
 might have anticipated Napoleon's dream, and 
 ended forever the dominion of England. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 Here is an excellent example of the cor- 
 rect use of anticipate. Capacity is shown in 
 quickness to perceive; ability is shown in 
 quickness to do. Ability does what is per- 
 ceived by capacity: ability supposes doing. 
 
 And so these people who pack up and get 
 back to town with pleasant anticipations of set- 
 tling down for the winter will be disappointed, 
 just as they were last year and the year before. 
 
 This, doubtless, would be generally reck- 
 oned a correct use of anticipations, yet for 
 my part, I should very much prefer expecta- 
 tions. 
 
 Tesla's plan for " insulation by freezing " was 
 anticipated about two years ago by Prof. R. A.
 
 ANTICIPA TE 
 
 97 
 
 Fessenden, so the latter [Professor] writes to The 
 Electrical World. 
 
 I would not anticipate the relish of any, nor 
 feel the weight of any misery, before it actually 
 arrives. — Addison. 
 
 In the chapters allotted to New Zealand it is, 
 indeed, surprising to remark to what an extent 
 Sir Joseph Banks was able to anticipate what we 
 now know of the Maoris. — New York Sun. 
 
 The results of the exploration will probably 
 show that Nippur was as important in the fifth 
 millennium before Christ as it was in the third, 
 that it anticipated the civilization and the period 
 when Babylon took the lead by at least two thou- 
 sand years. 
 
 Our travelling restaurants have been antici- 
 pated many years by the Chinese purveyor of 
 food, who carries his table on one end of a pole, 
 balanced by his stove and cooking utensils on the 
 other. 
 
 The Secretary for the Colonies anticipated 
 inquiry on this last delicate question by saying 
 that reasonable men would not ask the Govern- 
 ment to fix a time for " full self-government." — 
 New York Sun.
 
 C)8 SOME ILL-USED IfOA'DS 
 
 Secretary Gage announces that the Treasury 
 will iDiticif^atc the payment of interest on bonds 
 due January ist. 
 
 What an admirable word anticipate is 
 when properly used! But when it is made 
 the word of all-work, as it is by the slovens, 
 what an offensive word it becomes! 
 
 Examples of the correct use of anticipate 
 are not easy to find; not so, however, with 
 examples of its misuse. They abound. 
 Here are some of the many I have gathered: 
 
 The dismemberment of China seems almost in- 
 evitable. It is not anticipated [expected] that 
 Russia will withdraw in any circumstances, but 
 will re-enforce her troops now occupying Man- 
 churia. 
 
 Xo one anticipated [expected] that we would 
 [should] attain our plurality of four years ago. 
 This was abnormal and was largely due [owing] 
 to the fact that but little concerted effort was 
 made by the Democrats to get out their party 
 vote. 
 
 An account ix'hicti [that] is published by the 
 headquarters staff of the occupation of Kerin and 
 Bedune, Manchuria, by the Russians, concludes 
 by stating that further hostilities in that country 
 are not anticipated [looked for, or expected].
 
 ANTICIPA TE 
 
 99 
 
 They do not anticipate [look for, or expect] 
 any hostile demonstrations in either America or 
 Great Britain, but they know, too, that unlimited 
 immigration of oppressed Jews from Europe will 
 not be permitted in either of those countries. 
 
 It is anticipated [expected] that the recog- 
 nized government in China will be forced to 
 make promises which [that] the anti-foreign ele- 
 ment will not greet with favor. 
 
 There was no tendency, however, to congratu- 
 late each other [one another] on the fact that 
 fewer miners had gone out than the union lead- 
 ers expected. In fact, it was said that the strike 
 is no [not] less serious than has been anticipated 
 [it was thought it would be]. 
 
 It will not be as [so] large as I had antici- 
 pated [expected], considering the fact that the 
 party organization was so active and united. 
 Four years ago the Democrats did not get out 
 much over [more than] half of their vote. 
 
 The empress has ordered a commissioner to 
 investigate the conduct of the southern viceroys, 
 who entered into compacts with the foreign con- 
 suls for the protection of [to protect the] mis- 
 sionaries. Their degradation is anticipated [It 
 is expected that they will be degraded].
 
 lOO SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Did all the southcM-n \-iccroys enter into 
 compacts, or only a i)art of them? With 
 the comma, the sentence says that they did ; 
 but this is evidence that has little weight. 
 So long as the relative pronouns are used 
 as they are now commonly used, ambigu- 
 ous sentences similar to this will frequently 
 be met with. 
 
 We do not anticipate [look for, or expect] 
 any alternative, for we are a peaceful, law-abid- 
 ing- people. We shall be loyal subjects and we 
 shall keep our part of the agreement. 
 
 I can not tell you how we expect to bring 
 about this scheme, but I will say that I do not 
 anticipate [look for, or expect] any further 
 trouble. It is not yet entirely settled, but I am 
 confident that we have overcome all obstacles. 
 
 Do you anticipate that the free coinage of 
 silver will be an important issue in the next presi- 
 dential campaign ? — Nczv York Sun. 
 
 The barbarity of this use of anticipate 
 could not l)e overtopped. 
 
 These statesmen, as Mr. Foster reminds us, 
 could not, in their times, anticipate [foresee] the
 
 ANTICIPATE lOI 
 
 influence of two physical factors which [that] 
 have since changed the whole aspect of the ques- 
 tion of territorial expansion, to wit: steam and 
 electricity. 
 
 The President has said that he does not antici- 
 pate [expect, or look for] any trouble with Spain 
 over the Cuban situation. 
 
 An exceedingly interesting gathering is antici- 
 pated [expected]. 
 
 It was evident from the actions of the crowd 
 and the remarks made that a demonstration of 
 some kind was anticipated. 
 
 Looked for, or expected. 
 
 Trade is paralyzed and many bankruptcies are 
 anticipated. The French charge d'affaires tried 
 ineffectually to protect French interests. 
 
 Looked for, or expected. 
 
 " They were scared, and the man who had a 
 small sum in a bank was scared worse than the 
 man with a big one [sum]. They shied at the 
 i6 to I." 
 
 " You favored it. Did you anticipate [fore- 
 see ?] the result ? "
 
 102 SO.UJ-: I LI. -USED WORDS 
 
 Ex-Govcrnor Levi P. Morton, of New York, 
 said to-day that he could only speak reservedly 
 on American affairs until his arrival home. He 
 anticipated an early settlement of the Chinese 
 question. 
 
 Looked for, or expected. 
 
 It is the worst of follies to allow the antici- 
 pation that other people's foolishness will render 
 futile our own wise action to lure us into acting 
 foolishly ourselves. 
 
 Expectation. 
 
 The statement that General Gaselee has 
 stopped British re-cnforccmcnts arriving at 
 Hongkong from proceeding farther north is taken 
 as an indication that the British Government 
 anticipates that the diplomatists will very shortly 
 take the place now occupied by the military. 
 
 It is fair to presume that the writer of 
 this sentence does not know that we have 
 the word expect. Re-enforccmcnts should be 
 in the possessive case. 
 
 The provisions of the treaty are so eminently 
 just and fair that the assent of Venezuela thereto 
 may confidently be anticipated [expected]. — 
 President Cleveland.
 
 ANTICIPA TE 
 
 103 
 
 The Reichstag will meet on November 14th, 
 when stormy debates on China and violent at- 
 tacks on the Government's policy are antici- 
 pated. 
 
 Expected. 
 
 O'Connell, who had long anticipated such a 
 contingency, at once issued a proclamation in his 
 own name countermanding the meeting. 
 
 Expected. 
 
 This activity has been anticipated and re- 
 ported upon in letters August 25th, and cable 
 August 31st. 
 
 Was foreseen? 
 
 No steam sizes of anthracite to be had, even 
 now, it is reported. Plenty of stove sizes, but re- 
 tailers anticipate a rise and, besides, may want 
 to make some money. 
 
 Expect, or look for. 
 
 General MacArthur recalls the department's 
 attention to his letters of last August, in which 
 he anticipated a renewal of Filipino hostilities. 
 
 Predicted? To what a variety of uses 
 the word is put!
 
 I04 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 A)tticil^iitiiii^ storms of an exceptionally dan- 
 gerous character, all shipping on Lake Michigan 
 has been advised to remain in port. 
 
 Fearing? 
 
 Anticipating that the properties of the Emi- 
 gres would be confiscated, he sold his castles and 
 forest before the laws against the Emigres were 
 promulgated. 
 
 Foreseeing, or expecting, or fearing; 
 certainly not anticipating. 
 
 The breaking of the concert is hardly to be 
 anticipated unless the United States have in view 
 some new combination of the Powers. 
 
 Expected, or, perhaps, feared. 
 
 The Opera House was owned by a stock com- 
 pany. It was newly fitted up at the opening of 
 the season, and a successful year was anticipated. 
 
 Expected, or looked for. 
 
 Conditions at Galveston seem to be worse, if 
 possible, than first anticipated. 
 
 Thought to be. 
 
 There had been more or less curiosity to see 
 this new work of Rostand's, and it was easy to
 
 AN Tl CI PA TE 
 
 105 
 
 anticipate that this, added to the usual demand 
 for first-night seats, would make a brisk sale. 
 
 Foresee. 
 
 Judgment in his case was delivered on May 
 30th. O'Connell had not been mistaken when he 
 anticipated that the punishment would be a severe 
 one. 
 
 Predicted? The a and one are worse 
 than useless. 
 
 No disturbance of Republican cart-tail meet- 
 ings here anticipated. Maurice B. Blumenthal 
 ^loads four issues on to his orators and gives them 
 a sample of blague. 
 
 Expected, looked for. 
 
 Our enthusiastic correspondent seems to an- 
 ticipate some very good results from the verdict 
 of the people. He will not be disappointed. 
 
 Expect, look for. 
 
 These are some of the more important means 
 of avoiding the revolution which [that] the writer 
 anticipates. 
 
 ■ Fears?
 
 I06 SO.U/-: II. I. -USED WORDS 
 
 Had that licet been as powerful as was gen- 
 erally believed and had Dewey met with the op- 
 position that was anticipated [expected], he 
 would . . . have endeavored to carry out his 
 
 instructions. 
 
 The State Board of Charities has always been 
 friendly to me and I anticipate no friction from 
 this investigating committee. 
 
 It is not probable that Commissioner 
 Keller used the word anticipate. He, prob- 
 ably, said he did not look for any friction. 
 
 Words mif^^ht be likened to the em- 
 ployees of a large establishment where each 
 has special duties to perform and where 
 satisfactory service is possible only by re- 
 stricting each to his special field.
 
 ERRORS IN TENSE 
 
 Errors in using the tenses are very 
 abundant. The error most frequently met 
 with is that of using the imperfect tense 
 where the perfect tense is required. 
 
 Properly, we use the imperfect tense 
 when the time is given: The tallest man I 
 saw in Paris; the tallest man I ever have 
 seen, i. e., anywhere, at any time. The per- 
 fect tense always reaches to the present; 
 the imperfect tense is always limited by 
 some specified period past and gone. 
 
 To use the imperfect tense, then, where 
 the perfect is required is absolutely inde- 
 fensible. 
 
 I never saw a more determined purpose than 
 that pervading our membership. — Charles A. 
 Dana. 
 
 Have seen. 
 
 Mr. Rice was one of the most careful eaters 
 I ever knew. 
 
 Have known. 
 
 107
 
 I08 SOME ILL-rSED IVOA'DS 
 
 IV'rliaps it never occiirrcii to you that the 
 oliarjfes at a iirst-class hotel are cxceedinj^ly low. 
 Wry ]>ossil)ly, on the other hand, it has struck 
 you that they zvcrc [are] high. — Home Joiinial. 
 
 Has occurred. 
 
 We can e([ui|) your office with everything in 
 office furniture you ever saw. 
 
 Have seen. 
 
 One of the saddest sights I ever saw was the 
 placing of a $300 rosewood piano in a country 
 school in the South that was located in the midst 
 of the " Black Belt." 
 
 Have seen. 
 
 The panic and period of depression would set 
 in the morning after election. There would be 
 a pell-mell rush to unload stocks and bonds and 
 other securities the like of which was never seen 
 in this country. 
 
 Never has been seen. 
 
 As religion has its martyrs, politics has its 
 slaves, and among examples of such slavery the 
 Hon. Richard Olney, of Massachusetts, is the 
 most remarkable that we ever heard of. 
 
 Ever have heard.
 
 ERRORS IN' TENSE 
 
 109 
 
 All this imperialism and militarism talk is the 
 worst tommyrot I ever listened to. No citizen 
 of the United States, with as much brains as an 
 ape, has the slightest fear that any President — 
 Democrat, Republican, Populist, Prohibitionist, or 
 what-not — is going to turn himself into an em- 
 peror, or that he could if he wanted to [would]. 
 
 Ever have listened. 
 
 Roosevelt is a hero. He is one of the most 
 successful campaigners that the Republican party 
 ever had. 
 
 Ever has had. 
 
 John R. Walsh, president of the Chicago Na- 
 tional Bank, says that he never knew a time when 
 commercial paper was paid more promptly than 
 to-day. 
 
 Never has known. 
 
 It is the only sensible book on the subject that 
 I ever saw. 
 
 Ever have seen. 
 
 I wish to state that so far as the Democracy of 
 the city of New York is concerned, there never 
 was a time when it was more united and in 
 accord. 
 
 Never has been.
 
 no SOAfE ILL- USED Jl'ONDS 
 
 Another common error is that of put- 
 ting- two verbs in a past tense, when only 
 one should be in that time. 
 
 Those were parts ivhich [that] might have 
 been supposed to have belonged to me, as I had 
 been here for several years before him. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 To belong. 
 
 The time is sufficiently indicated by the 
 first verb — zccrc. 
 
 In this case, how miwrh wiser it would have 
 been to have taught the girls in this community 
 sewing, intelligent and economical cooking, 
 housekeeping, something of dairying and horti- 
 culture ! 
 
 To teach. 
 
 It is probable, however, that as soon as time 
 enough has elapsed for the Czar to Jiave heard 
 from this Government the matter will be made 
 public. 
 
 To hear. 
 
 They will prove our Nemesis for not having 
 been wise enough and strong enough, for not 
 having been right-minded enough and unselfish
 
 ERRORS IN- TENSE 1 1 1 
 
 enough to have prevented this war in the days 
 when it might have been prevented. 
 
 To pi^vent. 
 
 If they did they may fairly claim, I think, to 
 be the last amateur sportsmen to have killed a 
 buffalo on his native range. 
 
 To kill. 
 
 It was the intention to have captured the city 
 by Sunday, after which an immediate move was 
 to have been made upon Porto Rico. 
 
 To capture. To be made. 
 
 It might have been wiser; it certainly would 
 have been more dignified, to have said nothing, 
 rather than to have tilled the air with magnilo- 
 quent phrases zvhich [that] are not to be followed 
 by action [acts?]. 
 
 To say. To fill. 
 
 In the first place a representative of the Public 
 Hack Owners' Union stood up and very rapidly 
 recited a little speech to the effect that his or- 
 ganization deplored such occurrences, and that 
 he deeply regretted that a gentleman of such 
 prominence should be the first to have felt it
 
 112 SOME ILL-USED JVOMDS 
 
 necessary to use the courage required to bring 
 complaint forward in this pubhc way. 
 
 To feci. 
 
 I think it would have been better for the 
 G. A. R. committee to have given the name or 
 names of the book or books from which the ex- 
 tracts quoted were taken and to have named the 
 Southern schools that were using those specific 
 books. 
 
 To give. To name. 
 
 At the time of the civil war the only way to 
 secure peace was to fight for it, and it would have 
 been a crime against humanity to have stopped 
 fighting before peace was secured. 
 
 To stop. 
 
 There were police enough, mounted and on 
 foot, to have held a small army in check. 
 
 To hold. 
 
 I would have given $500 to have landed that 
 fish. 
 
 To land. 
 
 Had any such feeling survived, the intention 
 of Mr. O'Connell in making the communication
 
 ERJiORS IN TENSE 
 
 113 
 
 which [that] he had recently made would not 
 have failed completely to have extinguished 
 them. 
 
 To extinguish. 
 
 We would [should] have much preferred, and 
 it would have been largely to our financial [pe- 
 cuniary] interests, to have done the work on the 
 whole of Broadway both night and day, more par- 
 ticularly at night. 
 
 To do. 
 
 Surely the plainer and more honorable course 
 would have been to have opposed its ratification. 
 
 To oppose. 
 
 " If you were running your precinct properly 
 there would not have been any place for him to 
 have gone into to gamble," said the magis- 
 trate. 
 
 To go. 
 
 A Richard Mansfield would have imbued the 
 mobs and courtiers who wandered woodenly 
 through the acts with enough of his own fire to 
 have made them seem almost human. 
 
 To make.
 
 114 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 The pressure from every side was sufficient 
 to have carried a light-weight President off his 
 feet. 
 
 To carry. 
 
 They were to have played a scene from 
 L'Aiglon at a benefit for the Texas storm suffer- 
 ers, but it was impossible to find a suitable 
 theatre. 
 
 To play. 
 
 Tlioiij:^h often used as such, zvcre never 
 is a grammatical past or future subjunc- 
 tive; at the best it is a reportorial subjunc- 
 tive, except when used in the present tense. 
 
 The fish towed the light skiff as if it were 
 a cork, making some swift dashes far under the 
 boat. 
 
 Had been. 
 
 If Great Britain were defeated by the Boers 
 she would be driven out of South Africa alto- 
 gether. 
 
 Should be. 
 
 A young woman tried to drown herself in the 
 North River yesterday. Before jumping in she
 
 EJiRORS IN TENSE 
 
 115 
 
 carefully gathered up her short skirt as if she 
 were about to walk across a muddy street. 
 
 Had been. 
 
 He looked much as if he were ill, and it was 
 said by his mother and sister, who were in the 
 courtroom, that he should be sent to a hospital, 
 as he was anything but a well man. 
 
 Was. 
 
 Should he decide to give up his visits, it would 
 be a decided check to the diplomacy that planned 
 them, and unless some counterstroke ivere made, 
 would weaken its influences in the future. 
 
 Should be. 
 
 The use of the word " abuses " in the Quarto 
 of 1864, indicates either that Shakespeare had the 
 Hystorie before him when he wrote, or that the 
 older play, if there were one 
 
 Was. 
 
 The people of London were delighted at the 
 repeal of the Stamp Act and it seemed as if all 
 the trouble were at an end. 
 
 Was. 
 
 He was treated by all those around him with 
 the greatest respect, as though [if] he were a
 
 Il6 SOAfE II.L-USED WORDS 
 
 healthy, sane man; never a word about him was 
 spoken in his presence, as he might possibly have 
 understood. 
 
 Had been. 
 
 Just what form this open warfare w-ill take 
 can not as yet be definitely stated, but all Mul- 
 berry Street buzzed to-day with rumors that if 
 the decision were adverse immediate action would 
 be set on foot toward effecting the chief's removal. 
 
 Should be. There are writers that seem 
 to think that 7C'c/t, whether the time be 
 past, present, or future, is the only form of 
 the verb to he that should follow if. 
 
 For more than two decades, indeed, contract- 
 ors have complained that English firms -were dila- 
 tory, and that Englishmen would [will] seldom 
 leave their dinners or their sport for business. 
 
 Are. 
 
 One of the latter explained that Jews were 
 not unlike Christians in that respect. Some were 
 devout worshippers, others were more inclined to 
 worship Mammon. 
 
 Are. 
 
 But if this be so the operators might meet on 
 a friendly basis w4th the representatives of the
 
 EJiROJiS IN TENSE 
 
 117 
 
 mine workers, show them they were unreasonable 
 in their demands, wherein they were unreason- 
 able, and all would be peace instead of strife. 
 
 Are. 
 
 The candidate could tell the Mayor that par- 
 ties were essential to policy, that there have al- 
 ways [always have] been and always will be par- 
 ties, and that any politician ivho [that] thinks he 
 could get on without them [parties] is a dreamer. 
 
 Are. 
 
 Never use a word that sends the reader 
 in search of an antecedent, if you can well 
 avoid it. Such w^ords always weaken the 
 diction. 
 
 He said there were now forty-one companies 
 in Richmond, with a membership of 4,000, and 
 twenty-nine companies in Queens with a large 
 membership. 
 
 Are now. 
 
 I remember reading years ago that with the 
 ancients the practice existed of bringing out at 
 all public banquets a cloaked and hooded figure, 
 masked, with the skull and crossbones, to indi- 
 cate that all human triumphs zvere ephemeral and 
 that man was [is] but mortal. 
 
 Are.
 
 IlS SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The Kansas and Nebraska act of 1854 was 
 sufficient notice, if any were needed, to the North, 
 that the compromise measures of 1850 were not 
 " finalities." 
 
 Was. 
 
 Mr. Coler was quite indignant about it. Mr. 
 Coler said that if the Governor were quoted cor- 
 rectly, his remark was unfair. 
 
 Was. 
 
 The imperfect tense is often used when 
 the thought requires the present. 
 
 He caused a sensation by his scathing arraign- 
 ment of his former colleagues. He declared that 
 followers of Bryan were [are] not entitled to a 
 party name, being men of all parties who for the 
 last twenty-five years had [have] nursed griev- 
 ances. The chief issue in this campaign was [is] 
 silver, he said, and " imperialism " was [is] only 
 a scarecrow set up to obscure the real object. Ex- 
 pansion, he said, had [has] ever been a Demo- 
 cratic policy, and acquisitions of territory had 
 [have] been made under Democratic administra- 
 tions, without the consent of the governed. 
 
 The announcement of the Philippine Com- 
 mission that it was about to assume legislative 
 and appointive powers under the decree of Presi-
 
 ERRORS IN TENSE 
 
 119 
 
 dent McKinley has pleased the business com- 
 munity. 
 
 Is. 
 
 The British will remember that General Sher- 
 man informed [told?] them what war was sev- 
 eral years ago. — The Chicago Record. 
 
 Is. 
 
 And the fact that Mr. Belmont has repeatedly 
 asserted that he was responsible for the opinions 
 expressed in his paper is now giving that staunch 
 free silverite more than his peck of trouble. 
 
 Is. 
 
 When this was written, the paper was 
 appearing regularly, and Mr. Belmont's re- 
 lations to it were unchanged. 
 
 He quoted Sobolkin, the great Russian re- 
 former, who gave a description of Jews in Rus- 
 sian towns, and declared that they were worse 
 off than any [other] people in the whole world. 
 
 Are. 
 
 Louis V. Bell made a bet of $10,000 to $25,000 
 with A. C. Tower, of Tower & Sherwood, on the 
 general result, taking the Bryan end of it. It
 
 I20 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 ivas reported that tlie $10,000 %vas money of 
 Richard Crokcr [Croker's], l)iit this i^'as not 
 admitted. 
 
 Is. 
 
 This is not a statement of what took 
 place at some past time; it is essentially this: 
 Bell bet yesterday, or this afternoon, and the 
 story goes that the hioney is Croker's, but 
 this is not admitted. 
 
 The Republican National Committee made no 
 mistake when it called on Theodore Roosevelt 
 to show the country the kind of stuff he was 
 made of. 
 
 Is. 
 
 His physician, Dr. Burke, said last night that 
 Mr. Faversham's condition was very favorable. 
 Dr. Burke said that while he was not yet out of 
 danger there was every hope of recovery. 
 
 Is. 
 
 A table of the fastest fifty-seven railroad 
 trains in the world which [that] was printed in 
 an EngHsh newspaper recently showed that Eng- 
 land was no longer in the van. 
 
 Is.
 
 ERRO/iS IN TENSE 121 
 
 Mr. Altgeld admitted sadly that Illinois zvas 
 in doubt, and then he said that the wicked Re- 
 publicans had [have] a campaign fund of at least 
 $25,000,000 with which they intended [intend] to 
 corrupt the free and independent voters of the 
 United States. Mr. Altgeld said that he was very 
 much shocked at this, and then, without any par- 
 ticular reason, he said that he was very much 
 dissatisfied with the manner in which Chairman 
 Benjamin B. Odell of the Republican State Com- 
 mittee was acting in this campaign. 
 
 Is. Since the present is the most forci- 
 ble of the tenses, it is a great mistake to 
 put what is really present in the past. 
 
 Dr. Charles F., of New Jersey, corroborated 
 last night the report printed in the newspapers 
 that he zvas to marry Miss Mary E. W., the 
 authoress. The doctor said that he and Miss W. 
 had [have] kept their engagement a secret for 
 the reason that she zvas at work writing a new 
 novel, and under [in?] the circumstances to an- 
 nounce 
 
 Is. 
 
 If you were to attempt to define a " trust," 
 in all probability you would say it zvas a corpora- 
 tion designed or calculated to produce a mo- 
 nopoly. 
 
 Is.
 
 122 SOMI-: ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 Confucius would be called an ajjnostic now. 
 He taught that there were four topics to be 
 avoided. 
 
 Are. 
 
 He proposed that the testimony of Airs. Cox 
 be allowed and then stricken out later, if it were 
 found to be illegal. 
 
 Should be. 
 
 No one will question the importatice of 
 using the verbs correctly. We commonly 
 are understood when we do not use them 
 correctly; so we may be, and often are, 
 understood when we do not say just what 
 we intend to say. The diction, however, is 
 never good, unless the thought intended is 
 clearly and grammatically expressed.
 
 ANXIOUS 
 
 This word is continually made to do 
 duty for desirous, and that, too, by wellnigh 
 everybody, by the lettered as well as by the 
 unlettered. If used only when it should be 
 used, anxious would not be used once where 
 now it is used twenty times. On the other 
 hand, if desirous were used when it should 
 be used, it would be used twenty times 
 w'here now it is used hardly once. Indeed, 
 anxious has banished desirous — which, prop- 
 erly, is not even its synonym — from the 
 vocabulary of many a one that is reckoned 
 among good speakers. 
 
 Where there is anxiety, there is always 
 dread, fear, mental distress, painful solici- 
 tude, apprehensive foreboding; whereas in 
 desire there is only a wish, a longing, as a 
 desire to be rich, to see the world, to be 
 famous. 
 
 Anxiety and solicitude are close syno- 
 nyms, anxiety being the stronger term. 
 
 123
 
 124 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 Nt)t infro(HUMitl\'. auxiciy is used when so- 
 licitude would be the proper term. 
 
 Here arc two sentences that I used in 
 The VerbaHst as examples of the correct 
 use of anxious: 
 
 Then he was trying his 'prentice hand and was 
 more anxious about the treatment than about the 
 matter. — Julian Hawthorne. 
 
 Is not anxious too strong a term? 
 Would not co]iccrncd or solicitous be quite 
 strong enough? Of veritable anxiety there 
 could hardly have been any. 
 
 Naturally she was anxious about the appear- 
 ance he made in what is called society. — Badeau. 
 
 I am now^ inclined to think that the 
 thought would be better expressed by so- 
 licitous. She was solicitous with regard to 
 the appearance he made. 
 
 The office of the Monarch Line of steamships 
 had many callers yesterday. They had friends or 
 relatives on board the Lydian Monarch and were 
 anxious in regard to their fate. 
 
 Here, no other word would serve.
 
 ANXIOUS 
 
 125 
 
 The story of a man ivho [that] grew gray in 
 the space of one night's anxiety is very famous. 
 — Spectator. 
 
 I am very sincerely solicitous for the preserva- 
 tion [preserving] or curing of Mr. Langton's 
 sight. — Johnson. 
 
 Of the many examples I have gathered 
 of the misuse of anxious, here are a few: 
 
 We are anxious to make this point clear so as 
 to avoid any disappointment. 
 
 Surely desirous is as strong a term as is 
 here required. Of anxiety there can be 
 none. 
 
 Not that the benefits granted to Germany are 
 important, as German wines chiefly are affected ; 
 but the agreement is taken as an indication that 
 both the American and the German Governments 
 are anxious to avoid a tariff war. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 The justices of the Supreme Court, who are 
 most anxious to prevent any wrong practices in 
 the divorce court, have for a long time been try- 
 ing to formulate some plan to prevent the court 
 [court's] being imposed upon and deceived. 
 
 Desirous.
 
 126 SOME ILL-USED IVOA'DS 
 
 Then will arise the question of details of the 
 indeninitics and means of security. Therefore 
 the Chinese Commissioners are more anxious 
 than the Powers to hurry [hasten] the negotia- 
 tions to a close. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 One thousand tons of coal were mined in the 
 two collieries which [that] were in operation 
 yesterday, and one mine is still working to-day. 
 Mr. Thorne said that 80 per cent of his men were 
 anxious and willing to get back. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Germany is not in favor of continuing hos- 
 tilities in China. She is most anxious that the 
 Powers agree upon a middle course, pleasing alike 
 to those nations which [that] favor the occupa- 
 tion of Pekin and those which [that] would like 
 to withdraw. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 . The property adjoins that of John D. Rocke- 
 feller, w'ho is said to be desirous of getting rid of 
 Melin and his saloon. The saloon keeper is anx- 
 ious to sell, but it is said wants too high a price. 
 
 This writer evidently thinks that desir- 
 ous and anxious are interchangeable. De- 
 sirous to get.
 
 ANXIOUS 
 
 127 
 
 The great success of American jockeys has of 
 course stirred up a little jealousy, but the ma- 
 jority of English racing men are, I am sure, anx- 
 ious to treat us fairly. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Belief that he has now asserted his authority 
 and will behead Prince Tuan. To leave the Em- 
 press Dowager at Singan-fu. No Power anxious 
 to prolong the crisis. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Mr. Olney dismisses free silver at 16 to i 
 without even mentioning it, lumping it with other 
 minor differences of opinion ivhich [that] may 
 be overlooked by any Democrat anxious to remain 
 with his party. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 For himself, being anxious to get the ordeal 
 of his maiden speech over as soon as possible, 
 he spoke on the very evening when [that] he 
 entered Parliament. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 But however much the American heiress may 
 pity the princeling who has placed his art treas- 
 ures and himself at her feet, she will do well to
 
 J 28 SOME ILL- USED WORDS 
 
 ask, "Would you be so anxious to marry mc if 
 you could sell your pictures?" 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Mayor Joseph Mason's office was surrounded 
 last night by over [more than] five hundred 
 people, all anxious to catch sight of a woman in 
 man's clothes zvho [that] had caused the arrest 
 of her husband for assault. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 But all of them are interested in the welfare 
 of the Manhattan Club and arc anxious to see it 
 successful. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Moreover, England is anxious to enlist the in- 
 tervention of the United States in the Chinese 
 settlement, and she could not have looked for aid 
 in this direction from Mr. Bryan. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 There was one thing he was particularly anx- 
 ious to have made clear, and that was that he had 
 not been in Mount Vernon since the night his def- 
 alcation was discovered. 
 
 Desirous.
 
 ANXIOUS 
 
 129 
 
 Mr. Burdine was very anxious to have the 
 mother back. She had long been a faithful and 
 trusted servant. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 The reason for Michael's glee was that eggs 
 are selling for 24 cents a dozen, and twenty-four 
 dozen would cost $5.76. He forgot that others 
 besides Baker were anxious to see the fun, and 
 that $5.76 was but a small item among 150 men. 
 
 Desirous. ' 
 
 The late king once remarked, it seems, that he 
 was not particularly anxious to acquire all the 
 youth and beauty of Siam himself, but, as so many 
 of her fairest daughters had already been pre- 
 sented to him, he could not possibly refuse similar 
 gifts in the future, as he did not wish to offend 
 any of his subjects. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Boston has been very generous in the past in 
 all such cases, and the mayor is anxious that the 
 city shall maintain its reputation for open-handed- 
 ness. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 We are most anxious to preserve our his- 
 torical continuity, and we are far too patriotic 
 
 9
 
 I30 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 ever to dream of such a thing as denationali- 
 zation. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 I am certainly as anxious to maintain the gold 
 standard as you are. — Carl Schurz's letter to Sec- 
 retary Gage. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Wiggs — Why are you so anxious to be cast 
 for the role of Hamlet? 
 
 Futlites — As I recollect the part, I get a 
 chance to kill most of the other members of the 
 company. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Of course I am very anxiotis to get married 
 immediately. I told her, however, that I vi^as 
 willing to wait until she had finished this new 
 novel. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 I am very anxious to make a success in the 
 new piece, and if hard work will accomplish it I 
 will [shall]. We begin rehearsals to-morrow 
 morning, and there will be a lot of work before 
 we will [shall] have it ready for the stage. 
 
 Desirous.
 
 ANXIOUS 
 
 131 
 
 We are gathered here to-night as patriotic citi- 
 zens, anxious to do something toward reinstating 
 the prosperity of our fellow-countrymen, and pro- 
 tecting the fair fame of our nation against shame 
 and scandal. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 Mr. Bryan was so anxious to have this treaty 
 ratified that he came in person to Washington 
 to use his influence with the opposition Senators 
 in its behalf, and he himself has admitted that 
 he was responsible for its ratification. 
 
 Desirous. If he was, he still is, hence 
 why not .write is? 
 
 The Republican party is not afraid to meet 
 any issue, past or present. I am always anxious 
 myself to oblige my adversaries by discussing any 
 subject they may select. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 The Government is anxious to have the ne- 
 gotiations transferred to some place remote from 
 Pekin, such as Brussels, Berne, or The Hague. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 For this reason he was so anxious to secure 
 the contract that he was willing to pay liberally. 
 
 Desirous.
 
 132 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 For some time past it has been known that 
 Lieutenant-Governor Woodruff has been anxious 
 to reorganize the party in Kings in order to at- 
 tract to it the independent element for the coming 
 municipal campaign. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 The Government is anxious to have some 
 naval representation on the west side of the 
 Isthmus during the present disturbed condition 
 of political affairs in Colombia, but does not re- 
 gard the situation as so serious as to demand 
 immediate attention. 
 
 Desirous. 
 
 We write best when we say just what 
 we would say and say no more. The fre- 
 quency of our talking about Anxiety when 
 we mean Desire, does not lessen its dic- 
 tional sinfulness.
 
 FINANCIAL 
 
 Heee is a verbal invader that, probably, 
 has as much to answer for as any other 
 word in the language. 
 
 Financial, pecuniary, and monetary, 
 though related in signification, are not in- 
 terchangeable. A monetary transaction is 
 one in which money changes hands; pe- 
 cuniary refers to a transaction in which 
 value is involved; -financial is used in speak- 
 ing of the money afifairs, the finances, of a 
 government and of private business enter- 
 prises of great magnitude. Successes are 
 pecuniary, not financial, and we assist our 
 friends pecuniarily, not financially. 
 
 Scores of others have been bribed by appoint- 
 ments to the Senate of Canada for life, and others 
 by invitations to accept seats in the Cabinet, and 
 hundreds of others by financial considerations ex- 
 pressed in public contracts, land grants, grants of 
 timber lands, and mines of great value. 
 
 Had Sir John A. Macdonald offered the Hon. 
 Sir Oliver Mowat a financial consideration for 
 
 133
 
 134 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 his support of Rritish connection he would have 
 spurned it with contempt. — Alice Slonc Black- 
 u<cU. 
 
 P^ectiniarv, or money consideration. 
 
 One of the most serious features of the Gal- 
 veston storm from a financial standpoint, is that 
 there were scarcely a dozen storm policies held 
 in the entire city, according to a statement of 
 Mr. Charles Janvier, of this city, president of the 
 Sun Insurance Company, of New Orleans, and 
 one of the hest-posted [informed] insurance men 
 in the South. 
 
 IMonetarv, or money. 
 
 From the financial standpoint the college 
 women married better than the non-college 
 women. 
 
 Pecuniary, or worldly; certainly not 
 financial. 
 
 It is alleged by the detectives that Mulhall, 
 who, they assert, is Salman, received credit from 
 a number of firms, who took the circular as a true 
 statement of his financial responsibility. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 The directors of the company operating the 
 mill say that they kept the mill in operation dur-
 
 FINANCIAL 
 
 135 
 
 ing the summer at a financial loss because they 
 did not want to throw the girls out of work and 
 in order to retain them for the busy season. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 The men who [that] put up the money were 
 the Hon. Richard Croker, Chieftain of the New 
 York Democracy, and some of his political and 
 financial friends. 
 
 Moneyed. 
 
 No one is financially interested in this latest 
 undertaking but myself. Because of my experi- 
 ence I think I am more competent than any 
 [other] manager or [any] architect in this city to 
 build the kind of a playhouse the people want. 
 
 Pecuniarily, 
 
 The financial profit obtained by Secretary 
 Long's refusal to accept the original bids is con- 
 siderable. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 We have now been paying these debts and 
 bringing home many of our securities and estab- 
 lishing countervailing credits abroad by [with?] 
 our loans, and placing ourselves upon [on] a sure 
 foundation of financial independence. 
 
 Pecuniary.
 
 136 SOME I LI. -USED WORDS 
 
 At that time the Manhattan was housed in 
 the Stewart Mansion at Thirty-fourth Street 
 and Fifth Avenue, and was in a bad way finan- 
 cially. 
 
 Pcctiiiiarilv. 
 
 The company had been in financial difficulties 
 for oz'er [more than] a year, but through heavy 
 advances had been kept afloat until after its 
 through line had been completed. 
 
 Pecuniary, or money difficulties. 
 
 Money, so far as I know, is not recog- 
 nized as an adjective, yet it would not re- 
 quire much courage so to use it. 
 
 News of Henry V as a financial success seems 
 to have reached London. Lewis Waller, a popu- 
 lar actor there, says that he will [shall] revive 
 the Shakespeare drama on a fine scale at the 
 Lyceum. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 The play will undoubtedly haye a great finan- 
 cial success. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 Auditor Castle, of the Post Office Department, 
 made public to-day a statement ivhich [that]
 
 FINANCIAL 
 
 137 
 
 shows the entire Unancial result of the postal 
 service for the year 1900. 
 
 Monetary, 
 
 Furthermore, all his financial obligations to 
 the estate are to be cancelled. — New York Sun. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 The President is not unmindful of the dis- 
 tressed financial condition of Spain, and what- 
 ever consideration the United States may show 
 must come from its sense of generosity and be- 
 nevolence, rather than from any real or technical 
 obligation. 
 
 Spain was in want of money, hence her 
 trotibles were pecuniary; if she had been 
 well supplied with money, but had had dif- 
 ficulty in managing her finances — if her 
 finances had simply been in a tangle — her 
 troubles would have been financial. Being 
 in financial difficulties is, by a good deal, 
 not so serious a matter as being in pecun- 
 iary difficulties. True, the thing that com- 
 monly makes financiering dif^cult is a lack 
 of means. 
 
 As far as any one here knows, he is in that 
 same financial condition to-day. 
 
 Pecuniary.
 
 138 SOAfE n.L-rSED WORDS 
 
 Tlicrc will be a thorough canvass of the under- 
 graduate and alumni bodies this fall for sub- 
 scribers to the orchestra fund, and there is little 
 fear that any financial deficit will ensue. 
 
 jMonetary. 
 
 Hinsdale being a small county and in financial 
 straits, there is no regularly appointed deputy 
 sheriff, so the imprisoned physician claims this 
 office. 
 
 Pecuniary or monetary. 
 
 We do not believe that it will be a failure. Its 
 financial success for one year at least is secured 
 in advance, providing [provided] the editor's in- 
 numerable friends do their duty at the beginning, 
 and providing [provided] likewise that Mr. 
 Bryan is careful that The Commoner does not 
 degenerate into The Communist. — New York 
 Sun, December 2g, ipoo. 
 
 Pecuniary. 
 
 It is quite as difficult, perhaps, always to 
 use financial, pecuniary, and monetary cor- 
 rectly as it is to use generally, commonly, 
 and usually correctly. Who is the he or 
 the she that does it? Financial would be 
 little used, if used only in its true significa- 
 tion.
 
 HURRY 
 
 As an invader, hurry is a close second to 
 anxious. Hurry has crowded haste pretty 
 nearly out of the vocabulary field. Hurry, 
 if properly used, is a word that would be 
 used rarely, whereas haste, now little used, 
 is a word that would be used much, if hurry 
 would but keep out of its field. 
 
 Though widely different in meaning, 
 both the noun and the verb hurry are con- 
 tinually used in the sense of haste and 
 hasten. 
 
 Hurry implies not only haste, but haste 
 with confusion, flurry; to move or to act 
 with injurious haste. Haste, to the con- 
 trary, implies only celerity of movement, 
 despatch, speed, expedition, an eager de- 
 sire to make progress. Unlike hurry, Jiaste 
 is not incompatible with dignity and delib- 
 eration. In hurry there is an absence of 
 forethought and method. Hasten we often 
 
 139
 
 140 
 
 SOME ILL-USED J^'OKDS 
 
 should. Init hurry never! Properly, then, we 
 tell others to ;;/(//vV liastc, not to hurry up. 
 
 The bookkeeper may sometimes be in haste, 
 but of all men he should never be in a hurry. — 
 /. M. Buckley. 
 
 It is rough all around for Spain, so much so 
 [rough] that we could [should?] not be surprised 
 if Weyler were any day to jump into one of the 
 cars of the railroad train ivhicJi [that] is held in 
 readiness for him, and hurry back to Havana. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 Hasten. 
 
 The aldermen are in no hurry to revive street 
 music. — New York Sun. 
 
 Haste. 
 
 Though I am in a great hurry. I can not let 
 the opportunity slip to let you know 
 
 Great haste. 
 
 If you do not hurry, you will be late. 
 
 Hasten. 
 
 Delay will suit the Empress Dowager. But it 
 is impossible to hurry matters in China. 
 
 Hasten.
 
 HURR Y 
 
 141 
 
 When Chairman Stranahan rapped for order 
 at 10.13 o'clock, delegates and spectators were 
 still pouring into the building in a steady stream. 
 The late comers were seated in a hurry and then 
 Mr. Stranahan said 
 
 Haste. 
 
 The correspondent of The Sun knows that 
 pressure is being brought to bear on some of the 
 Ministers by merchants in their own countries 
 to hurry up the completion of the treaty. 
 
 Hasten. 
 
 The party leaders, the officers of the Conven- 
 tion, and the men who were to make the speeches 
 were not in a hurry ; most of them had been up 
 until long after midnight, and this morning they 
 slept late. 
 
 Haste. 
 
 She was without her hat and seemed to be 
 in a hurry. 
 
 Perhaps she was fltirried, and conse- 
 quently in a hurry. 
 
 After declaring himself in this manner, the 
 Democratic nominee hurried to make speaking
 
 142 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 engagements for La Salle and Joliet for the even- 
 ing of October 9th. 
 
 Hastened? 
 
 According to advices received here the Vice- 
 roys have received urgent orders to hurry money 
 to Singan-fu to pay the troops, who are believed 
 to be mutinous. 
 
 Hasten. 
 
 Go slowly, there is no hurry. 
 Haste. 
 
 Returns from Mexico in a hurry and after a 
 stormy conference lieutenant governor with- 
 draws opposition. 
 
 Haste. 
 
 Immediately upon his arrival he conferred 
 with some of his associates and then hurried ofif 
 to Woodruff's home to have it out with the lieu- 
 tenant governor. 
 
 Hastened. 
 
 Despite Mr. Nixon's statement there did not 
 seem to be any hurry on the part of the gambling 
 houses and poolroom keepers to get under cover. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 Haste.
 
 HURRY 
 
 143 
 
 Miles may answer Alger. The General says 
 he is in no hurry to reply, but may do so [reply] 
 later. 
 
 Haste. 
 
 The mind is hurried out of itself by a crowd 
 of great and confused images. — Burke. 
 
 Hurry, whether as noun or as verb, is a 
 word we should seldom have use for, if we 
 used it to express only what it really 
 means.
 
 THE POSSESSIVE 
 
 W'e should always put pronouns and 
 commonly nouns in the possessive case, 
 when they precede verbal nouns, as they 
 are called by some, participial nouns, as 
 they are called by others, and infinitives in 
 iug as they are called by still others. Some- 
 times we see the pronoun in the objective 
 form — or case — and oftentimes we see the 
 noun in no case at all; or, if you will, in any 
 case you please, except the case, in gram- 
 matical strictness, demanded — the posses- 
 sive. In such locutions as. His coming was 
 not unexpected. My going depends on the 
 weather, John's leaving made no difference, 
 the possessive is imperative; but some- 
 times, in the interest of euphony, when 
 nouns precede a participial noun, they are, 
 purposely, not inflected. In the great ma- 
 jority of cases, how'ever, when the inflexion 
 is absent, it is the result of non-knowledge 
 or of non-painstaking. The possessive 
 144
 
 THE POSSESSIVE 
 
 145 
 
 construction in these sentences is the 
 primitive and regular form. 
 
 Sometimes the downtown barbers throw out 
 broad hints about it being necessary to rehone 
 the razor after a hard shave as a gentle induce- 
 ment for a tip. 
 
 Its. • 
 
 If you can get any kind of decent odds put 
 some money up on McKinley ; it is Hke finding 
 it. Even out here in Colorado the odds are 3 
 to I on him winning. 
 
 His. 
 
 " That is ridiculous," said Mr. Croker. " I 
 have not heard of him giving up and I zvould 
 [should] certainly know of it." 
 
 His. 
 
 Yet he was compelled to say that the army 
 corps that was engaged in the operations that day 
 — some 30,000 men — was not in a condition zvhich 
 [that] would warrant it being sent abroad as fit 
 to take the field. 
 
 Its. 
 
 His former cook sued him for $5,000 for al- 
 leged indignities and last night had him arrested, 
 
 10
 
 146 SOME ILL-USED IVOKDS 
 
 ostensibly to prevent /;/';» going to tlie Klon- 
 dike. 
 
 His. 
 
 IMorcover, as the correspondent of the Daily 
 Telegraph points out, it would surpass the wit 
 of man to prevent them knowing our movements, 
 if not our intentions. 
 
 Their. 
 
 Nevertheless, there have been pretty well 
 established cases of it having carried off young 
 lambs and kids, and one has been shot while eat- 
 ing a rabbit ivhich [that] it had just killed. Yet 
 one naturalist who [that] watched the laemmcr- 
 geier for twelve }'ears never once saw the bird 
 attack anything alive. The laemmergeier some- 
 times weighs sixteen pounds and has a wing ex- 
 panse of over [more than] nine feet. 
 
 Its. 
 
 T am glad that some one has concerned them- 
 selves [himself] about the matter to express their 
 conviction in a daily paper. — 6". C. R. 
 
 His. 
 
 Late in August he gave out an interview de- 
 claring that if Mr. Bryan were [should be] Presi- 
 dent the gold standard law would offer no effec-
 
 THE POSSESSIVE 
 
 H7 
 
 tive protection against the country being placed 
 on a silver basis. 
 
 Country's. 
 
 The average American finds it hard to think 
 patiently of an American Minister being extra 
 civil to a sovereign whose hands smell of blood 
 that has smoked \^'^'] to the sky for vengeance. 
 Congratulations to such an [a] one are only an 
 absurd mockery. 
 
 Minister's. 
 
 The Berliner Tageblatt, Hamburgischer Cor- 
 respondent, and other newspapers express in simi- 
 lar terms their satisfaction that Germany is saved 
 forever from the possibility of Great Britain 
 grabbing the Yangtse Valley. 
 
 Britain's. 
 
 But most important of all, these three notes 
 say to the American people : You are weary of 
 unctuous phrases. You are opposed to your 
 President wandering about the Orient " outside 
 [of] the Constitution." 
 
 President's. 
 
 It was just at this time that Captain Eason 
 put in an appearance and prevented the bunco 
 game being played any further. 
 
 Game's.
 
 148 SOME ILL-USED IVOA'DS 
 
 It sees no reason for any Power dissenting, 
 and says it should especially be indorsed with 
 alacrity by the Washington Government. 
 
 Power's. 
 
 He adds : " We see, then, that there was not 
 the slightest hope for our Government behaving 
 with any sort of magnanimity in the matter." 
 
 Government's. 
 
 Such a marriage affords too splendid [ !] an 
 opportunity to Germany to permit of any effort 
 being spared to accomplish it. 
 
 Effort's. 
 
 Yet within the last few days he has been 
 going around telling his audiences that the fact 
 of American money going abroad for investment 
 is a proof that the country is in a bad way. 
 
 Money's. 
 
 In a case like this where a false mark is put 
 on the package, there is but little chance of the 
 sender getting his loss made good. 
 
 Sender's. 
 
 In 1896 she prevented a man named Pietras 
 from building a pier, and beat him when he car-
 
 THE POSSESSIVE 
 
 149 
 
 ried the case to the Court of Appeals. She also 
 prevented another pier being built two years 
 later. 
 
 Pier's. 
 
 I can not think for a moment there is any 
 danger of such a thing happening. 
 
 Thing's. 
 
 Read this at midnight roll call and at the roll 
 calls in the morning prior to the men leaving 
 their stations for duty at the polling places. 
 
 Men's. 
 
 Miss FitzGerald had Adolph examined by the 
 school medical inspector, who reported that there 
 were no evidences of the hoy being in danger. 
 
 Boy's. 
 
 She and her husband live apart, but he re- 
 sented another \nan taking her out. 
 
 Man's. 
 
 Previous to [Previously to] that date it had 
 occupied a small building across the street. The 
 space was so limited here that it did not admit 
 of a railing being placed around the teller. 
 
 Railing's.
 
 I50 
 
 SOMI-: ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The Gleaner further asserts that, instead of 
 the revenue heing honestly expended, there has 
 been more extravagance and corruption than was 
 ever before zi'it)iessed. 
 
 Revenue's. Than ever before had been 
 
 ^vitnessecl. 
 
 t 
 
 The people are opposed to this Government 
 acquiring territory zvhich [that] is not to be gov- 
 erned by our Constitution. It has no more con- 
 stitutional right to set up a colonial system than 
 it has to create [make?] a king. 
 
 Government's. 
 
 This led to the heroine recalling how the two 
 brothers, then in a wordy war with one another 
 [each other], used to form with their hands a 
 seat on which to carry her about. 
 
 Heroine's. Eacli other, when it is a ques- 
 tion of two only. 
 
 One can not have good or bad fortune with- 
 out the other being in the same box. 
 
 Other's. 
 
 It sometimes happens that fiesh becomes poi- 
 sonous from the animal having fed upon [on] 
 noxious substances shortly before it was killed. 
 
 Animal's.
 
 THE POSSESSIVE 
 
 151 
 
 The boy insisted on the bookmaker taking the 
 $100 and putting it all on the cheap thoroughbred 
 that he thought had a chance of winning the 
 handicap. 
 
 Well, the horse that the kid had picked only 
 won by [won by only] about half a block at 30 
 to I, that's all. 
 
 Bookmaker's. 
 
 My reason for giving so many examples 
 of this simple error is the exceeding fre- 
 quency with which we meet with them, 
 Reportorial English teems with them.
 
 CAPABLE— SUSCEPTIBLE 
 
 The Standard Dictionary defines capa- 
 ble thus : Possessing power or capacity 
 to do, perform, or undergo; as, he is capable 
 of any crime; capable of improvement [im- 
 proving-?]. 
 
 From wliich it would seem that capable, 
 when properly used, is used only in an 
 active sense. In the passive sense, the 
 proper word to use is susceptible. 
 
 Capable of hAng defended. — Webster's Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being defended. — Standard Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being protected against outward 
 violence; capable of vindication. — Worcester's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Properly : Susceptible of being vindi- 
 cated, of being protected. 
 152
 
 CA PA BLE—SUSCEP TIBLE \ 5 3 
 
 Capable of being destroyed. — Standard Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being surmounted. — Century Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of solution, as a problem. — Standard 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being set on fire. — Worcester's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being ignited. — Standard Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. ■ 
 
 Capable of being ignited. — Webster's Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being solved; capable of being 
 paid. — Webster's Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible.
 
 154 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Capable of being corrected or set right. — 
 Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Stisceptible. 
 
 Capable of being comprehended. — IVcbster's. 
 Dictionary, 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being grasped or comprehended by 
 the mind. — Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being explained. — Worcester's 
 Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being reversed. That may have 
 direction or position reversed ; that may be used 
 in some way opposed to the normal or usual w^ay. 
 — Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being apprehended or grasped. — 
 Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being understood. — Standard Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible.
 
 CA FA BLE— S USCEP TIBLE 
 
 155 
 
 Capable of being reduced. — Webster's Dic- 
 tionary. 
 
 Susceptible, 
 
 Capable of being set right or amended. — Web- 
 ster's Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 Capable of being corrected or amended. — 
 Worcester's Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 The trouble about the word is that it is not 
 capable of any definition. You can tell a 
 " bounder " when you see one. But it is impos- 
 sible to say what a " bounder " is. 
 
 Susceptible of being defined. 
 
 When Adam delved and Eve span, who was 
 then the gentleman ? The poetic interrogation, 
 frequently propounded, has never, we believe, 
 been capable of satisfactory solution. 
 
 Susceptible of being satisfactorily- 
 solved. 
 
 They are capable, too, of enduring great heat 
 and for that reason grow well in sub-tropical and 
 tropical countries. 
 
 Correctly used.
 
 156 SOME ILL-USED WOJiDS 
 
 Not capable of being divided without losing 
 identity. — Standard Dictionary. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 A vivid-hued, sometimes a many-colored, 
 scarf, often of immoderate length, capable of 
 being wound around and around the youthful 
 neck or over the head and ears and neck — that 
 was a tippet. — New York Sun. 
 
 Susceptible. 
 
 To my surprise, I find that not only the 
 Standard, Worcester, and Webster use 
 capable in the passive sense, but the word 
 is used in like manner in the Encyclopaedic 
 and in the Century and by Johnson and 
 by Murray. Indeed, in all the dictionaries 
 capable is made to do double duty — for 
 itself and for susceptible. 
 
 Now if the dictionary way of tising 
 capable be correct, it is also correct to say 
 that coffee is capable of being ground, that 
 sugar is capable of being dissolved, that 
 lead is capable of being melted, and that 
 iron is capable of being welded. If it be 
 proper to use capable in a passive sense, 
 what use have we for susceptible'^
 
 PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL 
 
 The word proposition is much misused 
 in the sense of proposal. Indeed, it is quite 
 certain that more than half the time propo- 
 sition is improperly used. 
 
 A proposition is something to be consid- 
 ered; a proposal, something to be acted on. 
 
 We admit or deny the truth of a propo- 
 sition; we accept or reject a proposal. 
 
 Here is a writer that, seemingly, looks 
 on proposition and proposal as being inter- 
 changeable: 
 
 The German Government has indicated to the 
 United States that it will submit a new general 
 proposition [proposal] in regard to the settlement 
 [settling] of the Chinese troubles, which will, it 
 is understood, take the place of the German pro- 
 posal to punish the leaders of the anti-foreign 
 outbreak as a condition precedent to peace negoti- 
 ations. 
 
 Better: With regard to settling the Chi- 
 nese troubles. 
 
 157
 
 158 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Examples of the correct use of propo- 
 sition are not easily found. Here are what 
 I have: 
 
 Surely there is nothing startling, to persons 
 familiar with the principles of American consti- 
 tutional law, in the proposition that even a great 
 city may not take away a man's private property 
 without paying for it. 
 
 Her success as a clergyman was immense ; 
 only second, indeed, to her success in personally 
 proving the proposition that a woman can't work 
 at all, apparently, without overworking. 
 
 That woman is as much man's inferior in- 
 tellectually as she is physically is a proposition 
 the truth of which is generally admitted. 
 
 It is dangerous for a debater to affirm a uni- 
 versal proposition, since that can be negatived by 
 a single exception. 
 
 Herbert Spencer, and many other thinkers be- 
 fore him, have shown that if we try to realize 
 the absolute nature of the simplest phenomena, 
 we are inevitably landed either in a contradic- 
 tion or in some unthinkable proposition. 
 
 Thus, his main proposition that Christianity 
 is necessarily superior to all other systems be-
 
 PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL 
 
 159 
 
 cause it is Divine is obviously based primarily 
 on his own " sentiment " or inward feeling or 
 conviction due to his religious faith, and not on 
 any rational facts. 
 
 Examples of the misuse of proposition 
 abound. 
 
 Then he applauded the proposition of the 
 Democratic platform to establish a " Department 
 of Labor " with its head a Cabinet officer. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 The next propositions are that the forts at 
 Taku and the other forts on the coast of Chi-Li 
 shall be razed and the importation [importing] 
 of arms and war material prohibited. 
 
 Proposals. 
 
 In one of his reports Judge Taft refers to the 
 propositions of peace submitted by a number of 
 leading Filipinos, and also tells of the feast of 
 amnesty zvhich [that] followed the issuance [is- 
 suing] of the amnesty proclamation. 
 
 Proposals. 
 
 An official note announces that France, Italy, 
 and Austria have formally assented to the propo-
 
 l6o SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 sitions in the German note for the punishment 
 [punishing] of the leaders of the recent outbreak 
 before beginning peace negotiations. 
 
 Proj^osals. 
 
 The nations, with the exception of Austria 
 and Italy, dechned to accept the German propo- 
 sition that the Powers undertake the punishment 
 of [to punish] the anti-foreign leaders before 
 peace negotiations should be instituted. As Ger- 
 many has now so modified her proposition as to 
 remove the feature to which the Powers objected, 
 it is regarded certain that there will be a harmo- 
 nious agreement. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 The Rev. \V. F. Graham (colored) was asked 
 to-day what was the feeling among the colored 
 people of the city concerning the proposition of 
 Miss Lillian Clayton Jewett to come here and 
 make one of her famous speeches. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 And the proposition in the Municipal Assem- 
 bly of New York to abolish the name of old Elm 
 Street and substitute the name of " Dewey Ave- 
 nue " exemplifies the third class. 
 
 Proposal.
 
 PROPOSITION— PROPOSAL i6l 
 
 The proposition for the creation of the office 
 of State Auditor is defeated. 
 
 The proposal to create. 
 
 It is learned here that the discussion now pro- 
 ceeding in Berlin of an alleged American propo- 
 sition to limit the occupying forces in China to 
 1. 000 in Pekin, 2,000 outside the walls, and 20,000 
 elsewhere is not based upon any plan suggested 
 by the State Department here. It can be said 
 positively that such a proposition has not figured 
 in the diplomatic negotiations. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 The diplomatic negotiations looking to an 
 amicable settlement of the Chinese troubles cen- 
 tre in the proposition of Germany that the Chi- 
 nese Government be made to surrender the lead- 
 ers of the anti-foreign uprising. There is a 
 strong feeling of hope here that Germany will 
 modify her proposition. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 Russia has made a proposition to the United 
 States as to a plan of solving the Chinese difficulty 
 which the Cabinet considered in a special session 
 to-day. — New York Sun. 
 
 Proposal.
 
 l62 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 It is thought here that the United States se- 
 cured considerable advantage by promptly reply- 
 ing to Russia's proposition. — Nczv York Sun. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 The amended canal treaty is the American 
 proposition to Great Britain. — Nczv York Sun. 
 
 Proposal. 
 
 The using of proposition when one means 
 proposal, will commonly, perhaps always, 
 suffice to convey the thought intended; but 
 the would-be fine young woman that says 
 she " has saw " can defend her diction with 
 the same argument.
 
 PREVIOUS TO 
 
 The adjectives prciions, subsequent, in- 
 dependent, antecedent, relative, and possibly 
 others are often erroneously used in an ad- 
 verbial sense. When used adverbially they 
 should have the adverbial termination. 
 
 The captain is very severe upon the conduct 
 of the English after the battle, but independently 
 of such strictures his narrative is very interest- 
 ing as a description of a part of the great naval 
 battle. — New York Sun. 
 
 Not independent of, as we often see it. 
 Independent is never anything but an ad- 
 jective. 
 
 More influential still, in this way, have been 
 the growing scarcity of gold relatively to the 
 need of it. — President E. Benjamin Andrezvs. 
 
 Unusual, but correct. Relative is an ad- 
 jective when not a noun, and when used 
 adverl)ially must have the adverbial inflec- 
 tion. 
 
 163
 
 164 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Of these phenomena, the most important are 
 the faihire of Great Britain to maintain her finan- 
 cial and industrial preponderance rdaiivcly to her 
 competitors, and the evidence that the seat of 
 wealth and power is migrating westward, and 
 may even now have entered America. 
 
 Without reference to the Hay-Pauncefote 
 negotiations, and independently of the provisions 
 or restrictions of the proposed treaty, the Hep- 
 burn bill authorizes the President to acquire from 
 Costa Rica and Nicaragua the necessary terri- 
 tory. — New York Sun. 
 
 The size of the Democratic majority rela- 
 tively to the past was of no consequence, even in 
 the estimation of the Democrats of Arkansas. — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 Pekin — Germany's proposal is not acceptable 
 to this Government, and Minister Conger may be 
 instructed to begin peace negotiations, independ- 
 ently of the other Powers. 
 
 Examples of the other sort are more 
 abundant. 
 
 But I am sorry to say that George Ripley no 
 longer possessed the fine library that he had 
 previous to our experiment ; it was sold to pay off 
 the creditors. — Charles A. Dana. 
 
 Previously to.
 
 PREVIOUS TO 165 
 
 On August 28th last, Minister Taylor, at 
 Madrid, learned at a dinner given by the Brit- 
 ish Ambassador to the representatives of 
 the foreign Powers that two or three days 
 previous the Prime Minister of Spain had. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 Previously. 
 
 At the last ofificial dinner given by Bismarck 
 previous to this fall, the Emperor gathered about 
 him a group from v^hich the Chancellor held 
 aloof. — New York Sun. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 The mayor will review the parade of the 
 Knights of Labor, which passes City Hall an 
 hour previous to the time set for that of the 
 Central Labor Union and Building Trades 
 Council. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 First, aim to correct any mannerisms, any ab- 
 solutely discordant conditions in the presence, 
 action, or speech independent of any system. — 
 New York Sun. 
 
 Independently of. 
 
 A younger contemporary of Herodotus was 
 Hellenicus of Mytilene, whom Thucydides men-
 
 1 66 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 tions as almost the only historian who [that] had 
 treated of the period subsequent to the Persian 
 wars. 
 
 Subscqtiently to. 
 
 Petition of Li and the other viceroys sub- 
 mitted to the throne at this meeting, subsequent 
 to the appointment of Tuan and Chwang. 
 
 Subsequently to. 
 
 For the last year, Mr. Rice drew only six or 
 eight checks a month, but previous to last year 
 he would send from fifteen to twenty checks 
 through our bank, and was what we would 
 [should] term a comparatively active depositor. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 The great epochs that mark the history of 
 Constantinople previous to its capture by the 
 Turks may be indicated in a paragraph. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 The origin dated long previous to the Jack- 
 son campaign, for nearly fifty years previous the 
 best tobacco and the best rum came from Aux 
 Cayes, and the best of everything was designated 
 as Aux Cayes, or O. K. 
 
 Previously.
 
 PREVIOUS TO 
 
 167 
 
 She lived at the Park Avenue previous to her 
 last marriage. After that event she left the hotel 
 with her young husband. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 The lawyers refuse to disclose the terms of 
 settlement previous to the meeting of the bank 
 directors to be held next week. Mrs. Schreiber, 
 the mother of the defaulter, who was prostrated 
 when her son's crime became known, is still suf- 
 fering with [from] heart trouble. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 Previous to the present Chinese trouble what 
 influence, if any, had Secretary Hay exerted 
 toward the establishment of [establishing] the 
 "open door" in China? 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 Previous to the death of Bcha-u'llah he made 
 many prophecies, and all of them came true, say 
 his followers. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 He recalled that the Socialists alone disap- 
 proved the Emperor's telegram to President 
 Kruger in 1896, subsequent to the Jameson raid. 
 
 Subsequently to.
 
 1 68 SOME ILL-USED JFOJ^DS 
 
 Having read one of Mr. Charles Reade's 
 novels (the title of which I forget), I wish to 
 inquire whether white slavery existed in this 
 country previous to the Revolution (1776) or not. 
 
 Previously to. 
 
 Directors refuse to give details of the negotia- 
 tions with the United States. Some urge that the 
 canal be finished independent of any action by 
 this Government. 
 
 Independently of. 
 
 It is safe to say that we meet with the 
 incorrect form of these adverbs ten times 
 where we meet with the correct form once. 
 Indeed, we are so used to seeing and hear- 
 ing the incorrect form that the correct form 
 not infrequently is disturbing.
 
 GENERALLY 
 
 It is a common thing to see the word 
 generally used where one of its synonyms 
 would better serve. Indeed, there are per- 
 sons, among them some clever writers, that 
 seem to have little or no acquaintance with 
 any of Generally's kinship. It is easier to 
 write in an indiscriminating way, but that 
 is not a good way to choose if one would 
 produce what the world always has been 
 readiest to applaud and most willing to pay 
 for — quality. 
 
 I am often in doubt whether I should 
 use commonly, generally, usually, or ordi- 
 narily, but I am sure I more frequently use 
 the right word of the four than I should if 
 I were not of opinion that there is always 
 a best one of the four to use in any given 
 sentence. 
 
 The distinctions between these words 
 may, perhaps, be intimated thus: 
 
 Commonly is opposed to rarely or ex- 
 ceptionally. 
 
 169
 
 170 SOAfE ILL-USED JVORDS 
 
 CiCucraUy to rcstrictedly. 
 
 Usually to occasionally. 
 
 Ordinarily to exceptionally or rarely. 
 Connnoiily and ordinarily are very closely 
 allied. 
 
 The American eagle — that is, the so-called 
 bald-headed eagle, which is not bald-headed at 
 all — is a fish-eating bird generally, though it will 
 not disdain flesh when it can get it. 
 
 Commonly? 
 
 A certain portion of the wages was generally 
 advanced as earnest money. 
 
 Commonlv? 
 
 The Post, which is known as the Ambassa- 
 dors' organ, and is generally well informed, semi- 
 officially states that the dispute between Field 
 Marshal Count von Waldersee and General Chaf- 
 fee, growing out of the latters [General Chaf- 
 fee's] letter to the German commander in rela- 
 tion to 
 
 Ordinarily? 
 
 He is a conservative Republican, very careful 
 in his estimates, and his figures have generally 
 proved to be strikingly accurate. 
 
 Commonly?
 
 GENERA LL V 
 
 171 
 
 In the case of the man, as generally in Semitic 
 law, the opportunity for divorce was theoretically 
 unlimited. 
 
 Commonly or ordinarily. 
 
 Foreign press comment upon American na- 
 tional character is generally the reverse of flat- 
 tering, even when it appears in English publica- 
 tions. Yet even those journals which [that] 
 are most hostile in their criticism concede that 
 Americans possess certain qualities which [that] 
 place them in some respects in the front rank of 
 nations. 
 
 Commonly or ordinarily. 
 
 While it is generally most convenient to be 
 able to light all the stair lights from any story, 
 it may in some cases be thought undesirable to 
 have to light all the upper landings if only one 
 flight of stairs is to be used. 
 
 Commonly or ordinarily. 
 
 Of the contract for rent there were various 
 forms. Houses were generally rented for one 
 year, though, occasionally, the lease ran for a 
 longer period. A certain portion of the rent 
 for the term was generally paid in advance. 
 
 Commonly?
 
 IJ2 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 " Sporty " McAlister was what he was called, 
 and he was very often seen on [in] the streets in 
 the evening, generally in the neighborhoods fre- 
 quented by young girls. 
 
 Commonly? 
 
 He usually goes to Philadelphia every Mon- 
 day. 
 
 I am a great believer in sleep. I usually go 
 to bed early and rise late. 
 
 Ill-used, because over-used, generally is 
 properly used thus: It is generally known; 
 it is generally believed; it is generally ac- 
 cepted ; it is generally regarded. 
 
 The opinion generally prevails, in my neigh- 
 borhood, that McKinley will be our President for 
 another four years. 
 
 Until recently, it was the generally accepted 
 belief, throughout the Christian world, that the 
 world was made in six times twenty-four hours. 
 
 It is generally understood that the law is 
 aimed at the executive council, to prevent that 
 body from acting in an executive and legislative 
 capacity.
 
 GENERALLY 173 
 
 The distinction that should be made in 
 using these words is often very dehcate, 
 too dehcate indeed for it ahvays to be made 
 even by the cleverest and most painstak- 
 ing. Nevertheless, however delicate the 
 distinction, it is none the less worth while 
 to try to make it.
 
 APPRECIATE 
 
 If any word in the language has cause 
 to com])lain of ill-usage, appreciate has. 
 Appreciate can not, properly, be employed 
 with a limiting, a qualifying word — i. e., 
 with an adverb, since the word means to 
 estimate justly; to set the true, the real 
 value on men or things. An overestimate, 
 therefore, is no more appreciation than is an 
 underestimate. He that appreciates justly 
 estimates, and justly to estimate one must 
 weigh the demerits as well as the merits. 
 
 " We appreciate him highly " — a locu- 
 tion often heard — is nonsense. " We have 
 great regard for him," or, " We think a 
 great deal of him," or, " We hold him in 
 high esteem." 
 
 We value things highly, and we prise 
 things highly, but we do not appreciate 
 things highly. 
 
 Such proofs of kind and generous feeling are 
 naturally most highly priced by me and will for- 
 174
 
 APPRECIATE 175 
 
 ever be cherished in my memory. — Albert Ed- 
 ward. 
 
 I number him among my most highly valued 
 friends. 
 
 She said she greatly appreciated [fully appre- 
 ciated] all we were doing for her country and her 
 people. 
 
 All this only shows how much Queen Victoria 
 thinks of what Americans are doing in getting 
 this hospital ship, and how much she appreciates 
 [values] any expression of good feeling from 
 America. 
 
 Singing birds are esteemed in all countries, 
 but in Japan the musical sounds emitted by cer- 
 tain insects are appreciated. 
 
 Bettered, but not mended, by using 
 prized where the writer has used esteemed 
 and appreciated. 
 
 Unskilled writers are commonly far too 
 solicitous to avoid tautophony. The re- 
 using of a word often betters the diction; in 
 part, too, because the sound is repeated. 
 When one has a word that fully expresses 
 one's thought, as a rule, it is better to re- 
 use it than to iise a synonym.
 
 176 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Should 1 write, "than to employ"? I 
 do not think so, though employ would serve 
 as well, as far as the thought is concerned. 
 Note the circumstance that the first use is 
 under the emphasis, whereas the second is 
 barely touched in the utterance. This suf- 
 fices to prevent any monotony there might 
 otherwise be. 
 
 If one would appreciate how thoroughly the 
 entire industrial system depends upon iron, let 
 him imagine what the world would be to-day 
 without it. 
 
 Here is a writer that probably makes 
 appreciate do duty for a considerable list of 
 words. In this instance, realize, I fancy, 
 would have been a good choice to make. 
 
 " You can appreciate,'' said Kerr, " that we 
 naturally have nothing to give out." 
 
 Not appreciate, certainly; perhaps under- 
 stand. 
 
 He appreciated that his countrymen had a 
 claim on his memory. 
 
 Realized, or, was not unmindful.
 
 APPRECIA TE 177 
 
 A little care should certainly suffice to 
 enable any one to avoid the misuse of ap- 
 preciate. The signification of the word is 
 so simple!
 
 DICTION 
 
 Diction, according to the dictionaries — 
 and what they say on the subject has never 
 been ciiiestioned — is the manner of using 
 words; is especially that department of 
 rhetoric that treats of the choosing and ar- 
 ranging of words. We speak of the diction 
 of a book, an essay, a drama, a speech, 
 meaning the manner in which and the felic- 
 ity, or the lack of felicity, with which the 
 speaker or writer has expressed his thought. 
 This is the only sense in which, until re- 
 cently, so far as I know, the word diction 
 ever has been used. 
 
 " Diction" says Johnson, " being the ve- 
 hicle of the thoughts, first presents itself to 
 the intellectual eye." 
 
 When the word diction is used as it is 
 used in the following examples, what is it 
 intended to mean? 
 
 Mr. Mann had gained a reputation as an elabo- 
 rate disguiser of himself and as a speaker of 
 17S
 
 DICTION 
 
 179 
 
 astonishingly broken English. He appeared in 
 this piece in much the same aspects of droll vis- 
 age and awkward physique, but his diction was 
 markedly improved in amusing value, because its 
 tedious slowness and reiteration were gone and 
 all its funniness was retained. 
 
 Quite apart from its great success as a song, 
 Rhoda and Her Pagoda, as Miss Ashley rendered 
 it, was a delicious piece of acting. Somehow or 
 other, this little girl, since she graduated from 
 the newsboy ranks in " 1492," has learned what 
 diction means. Yvette Guilbert herself could not 
 have got more meanings — either single or plural 
 — out of this remarkably clever song. 
 
 Shall we ever have another actor with Booth's 
 wonderfully facile and expressive diction f 
 
 He begins to speak more rapidly, his eyes 
 brighten, and the long sentences which [that] 
 roll from his lips are as pure in diction as if he 
 were on the stage delivering in classical style the 
 sentences he reads so wonderfully. 
 
 The French have a word that presents 
 the same appearance to the eye that the 
 English word diction presents. They use 
 it where a writer content to confine himself 
 to English would use delivery, utterance, or
 
 I So SOME ILL- USED IVOMDS 
 
 elocution. This may possibly account for 
 the " new meaning " in which certain writ- 
 ers use this good old English word. For 
 the benefit of the average . reader — for a 
 time at least — the innovation should l)e ac- 
 companied by an explanatory foot-note.
 
 NONE 
 
 The word none is commonly treated as 
 a plural, as, " None of them were his 
 equals." Though none is a contraction of 
 not one, construing none as a singular in a 
 sentence like this antagonizes established 
 usage. Instead of using none as a singular, 
 it is better to write not one or no one, which, 
 besides being more idiomatic, is more em- 
 phatic. 
 
 None of these conditions arc at present ful- 
 filled. We do not know who or what is the actual 
 Government of China. The reports which [that] 
 reach us on this subject continue to be untrust- 
 worthy and conflicting. — London Times. 
 
 Thus it happens that none of the Cordilleran 
 States from Venezuela to Chili has as yet 
 emerged from the stage of rough, pioneer ex- 
 ploration. 
 
 Have. 
 
 The European papers are now discussing the 
 problems that confront the Powers since the occu- 
 
 i8i
 
 i82 so.}//-: i/j.-i'SED iro/y:DS 
 
 pation of Pekin. None of them appears to favor 
 the Russian proposal to withdraw from the Chi- 
 nese capital. 
 
 Appear. 
 
 No man here expects to see Coler nominated. 
 None claims more than 150 votes for him. 
 
 Claim. 
 
 None of the boys is over fourteen years old, 
 and young Meehan is only seven. Their parents 
 are all respectable people. 
 
 Are more than. 
 
 It is midway in merit among them, and, al- 
 though none of the others has won success in a dis- 
 tinctly fashionable New York theatre, Mr. Heme 
 has the advantage of an adulatory following. 
 
 Have. 
 
 True, the role of Beckmesscr is not a severe 
 test of the voice, but of all the roles in comic 
 opera none perhaps is as difficult from the purely 
 dramatic viewpoint. 
 
 Are so. 
 
 The same is the case with Kerr. None of his 
 relatives has called to see him. 
 
 Have.
 
 iVOA'E 
 
 183 
 
 None of the relatives of the accused ivas pres- 
 ent except Judge John F. Kerr, brother of George 
 Kerr, and his counsel. 
 
 Were. 
 
 None of the proposals zvhich has been made at 
 Washington, except this violation of a principle 
 of international law, if it ever was suggested, 
 excites any resentment here. 
 
 That have. 
 
 Of the eighteen persons referred to as still 
 missing in The Sun yesterday none has yet been 
 accounted for. 
 
 Have. 
 
 None of those named by Charles Stewart 
 Smith has as yet announced his intention of de- 
 clining to serve on the committee. 
 
 Have. 
 
 Neither " none have " nor " not one 
 has " is offensive to anybody, whereas 
 '' none has " is offensive to many, if for no 
 other reason than because it conflicts with 
 habit. It is ahvays unwise to make use of 
 any form of expression that, in any degree, 
 is calculated to divert the reader's, or the 
 listener's, attention.
 
 1 84 
 
 so.)//-: //j.-us/-:d ivokds 
 
 'riicro is one of our 1)1,1;' dailies that seem- 
 iiii^iy is adverse to printing' a plural verb 
 with none under any conditions, yet this 
 same daily prints dictional errors of every 
 description. Its columns teem daily with 
 auxiliary verbs misused. Somebody said 
 something once about a gnat and a camel. 
 If the saying doesn't apply here, it's only 
 because there is no gnat.
 
 INDIVIDUAL 
 
 The word individual, as a noun, is prop- 
 erly used in contradistinction to collective 
 terms. It is often improperly used where 
 person or man, for example, would be the 
 proper word. 
 
 The rules applicable to a corporation must be 
 the same as would be applied to an individual in 
 a similar case. There can be no question in the 
 present case that if the defendant were an in- 
 dividiial, there is no way in which his acts could 
 be held illegal. — New York Sun. 
 
 Properly used. 
 
 The industries of a nation depend upon the 
 actions of an aggregation of individuals. When 
 the individual considers an expenditure for a 
 permanent improvement, and finds that improve- 
 ment will cost 50 per cent to 100 per cent more 
 than it would have done [cost] a year before, or 
 is likely to do [cost] a year later, he acts, and 
 that action is almost invariably a postponement 
 of that improvement. 
 
 Properly used. 
 
 185
 
 lS6 SO.U£ ILL-USED UOKDS 
 
 It is to the Mormons as a sect that I object, 
 and not as ind'n'idiials, for among them I have 
 met many excellent persons. 
 
 Properly used. 
 
 Changes, both in individuals and in communi- 
 ties, are often effected by tritlcs. 
 
 Properly used. 
 
 Action by State and individual must go hand 
 in hand. 
 
 Properly tised. 
 
 Great events affect individuals as well as 
 nations. 
 
 Correctly used. 
 
 Individual is opposed to what is divisible 
 into parts. Etymologically, it means that 
 that can not be divided. 
 
 When the Jehu got into the dispute with his 
 fare, two other rough-looking individuals ap- 
 peared on the scene and took the part of the 
 former [Jehu]. — Neiv York Evening Sun. 
 
 Men or fellows. 
 
 To this, of course, there have been many nota- 
 ble exceptions, for endurance of sight, like any
 
 INDIVIDUAL 
 
 187 
 
 form of physical strength, differs greatly in dif- 
 ferent individuals. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 There are physical limits to the executive 
 energies of any single individual, and, broadly 
 speaking, there are limits beyond which it is not 
 safe to test the administrative capacity [ability] 
 of a single head. 
 
 Any man. The individual is always 
 single. 
 
 There are two or three circumstances under 
 which the editor appears to be an agreeable in- 
 dividual. — George H. Wesiley. 
 
 Person. 
 
 This proceeding is usual, it seems, at such 
 audiences, and the fact that so many individuals 
 hear everything, even at the most important in- 
 terviews, accounts for the impossibility of keep- 
 ing secret anything that happens at the Tsung-li- 
 Yamen in regard to political or other affairs. 
 
 Persons. 
 
 The Lord Mayor is a very busy individual 
 and the following list is a thoroughly authentic 
 account of some of the functions in which a re- 
 cent Lord Mayor took part. 
 
 Person or man.
 
 1 88 SOME ILL- USED WORDS 
 
 There was nothing of the jaunty air zvliich 
 
 [that] first distinguished William T about 
 
 that interesting individual this morning when he 
 was seen in the city prison. — New York Evening 
 Sun. 
 
 Person. 
 
 The public trustee is a corporation, and it is 
 immaterial whether the individual, for the time 
 being holding the office, disappears, resigns, or 
 dies, the corporation continues. 
 
 Man or person. 
 
 Using individual, when one should use 
 person or man, is not quite so objectionable 
 as it is to use party; but the difference is 
 not great.
 
 IN RESPECT OF 
 
 If I knew how to hit the locution " In 
 respect of " any harder than George P. 
 Marsh hits it in his Lectures on the Eng- 
 hsh Language, I should not quote Marsh, 
 who says: 
 
 " The deliberate introduction of incor- 
 rect forms, whether by the coinage [coin- 
 ing] of new or the revival [reviving] of 
 obsolete and inexpressive syntactical com- 
 binations, ought to be resisted even in 
 trifles, especially where it leads to the con- 
 fusion [confusing] of distinct ideas. An 
 example of this is the recent use of the ad- 
 verbial phrases in respect of, in regard of, 
 for Mi or zvith respect to, or regard to. 
 This innovation is without any syntactical 
 ground, and ought to be condemned and 
 avoided as a mere grammatical crotchet." 
 
 Much would depend on the rapid flow of blood 
 in the case of the head of the guillotined criminal 
 in respect of the existence of movement or con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 To. 
 
 189
 
 IQO SOAfE ILL-USED IVOI^DS 
 
 There was not any appreciable improvement in 
 to-day's stock market in respect of activity but a 
 distinctly better tone was evident in the dealings. 
 
 To. 
 
 It admits the principle that, in respect of 
 South American republics, the United States may 
 not only intervene in disputes, but 
 
 To. 
 
 In respect of area, indeed, the French colonies 
 much exceed the Dutch. 
 
 To. 
 
 In the Periclean age no writer on morals or 
 physics can be compared in respect of style with 
 Plato, who belongs to the next generation. 
 
 To. 
 
 You will see that I ask for no change in the 
 conditions, as I was perfectly satisfied with all 
 the arrangements made on the last occasion and 
 in respect of which the New York Yacht Club 
 was so deservedly congratulated. 
 
 To. 
 
 Every reader of the papers, too, knows of your 
 action as Governor in respect of the Ice Trust. 
 
 To.
 
 IX RESPECT OF ipi 
 
 There is indeed one striking difference in re- 
 spect of custom. 
 
 To. 
 
 Even if " In respect of " were as idio- 
 matic as " In respect to," the fact that the 
 one locution is offensive, at the least, to 
 some, while the other locution is oiTensive, 
 it is certain, to none, should, it would seem, 
 suf^ce to determine one's choice.
 
 FEELS BADLY 
 
 \\'e frequently see, and more frequently 
 hear, adverbs used where the qualifying 
 word should be an adjective. In grammar 
 it is always the thought that determines. 
 He that says, " She looks badly or miser- 
 ably " means that she looks to be in a bad 
 or miserable physical condition. " She 
 looks sadly or gladly or madly " is not 
 more incorrect. The thought is, " She has 
 the appearance of being glad, or sad, or 
 mad." The noun, then, not the verb, is 
 the word qualified. 
 
 From the last hole the wind smelled so 
 strongly [strong] of gas that the drillers were 
 unable to work over it. — Pittsburg Dispatch. 
 
 If this be correct, then we should say, 
 The butter smells or tastes szueetly. 
 
 The oil used was that of the cocoanut, in 
 which some sweet-smelling woods or flowers had 
 been infused. Most commonly, however, it was 
 192
 
 FEELS BADLY 
 
 193 
 
 very rancid. Hence the wearers of it smelled 
 unpleasantly [unpleasant], but Banks found that 
 he soon got reconciled to it. — New York Sun. 
 
 The oil did not really smell; it was smelt, 
 and to the smeller it was unpleasant. 
 
 When taken home and skinned the carcass 
 weighed 246 pounds, and it smelled so strongly 
 of checkerberry that Nye's family had to go out 
 doors to breathe while the work of dressing it 
 was going on. 
 
 Strong. 
 
 " Now," as he there said himself, " thanks to 
 my misfortune, one can see me nakedly as I am."' 
 — Lord Rosebery. 
 
 Naked. Grammatical French, probably, 
 translated into ungrammatical English. 
 
 I wish you would deny for me that story that 
 Mr. Jiggins committed suicide on my account. 
 I heard about his death before I left, and as he 
 had been a friend of mine I naturally felt very 
 badly. 
 
 Bad. 
 
 It sounded strangely to the listeners in the 
 courtroom to hear the girl in giving her testi- 
 13
 
 194 
 
 SOAfE ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 mony speak always as she did of " papa, mamma, 
 and the baby." — Nezv York Sun. 
 
 Strang'e. That is. It had a strange 
 sound to the listeners. 
 
 Why, then, does he suddenly feel so badly 
 about the Philippines? 
 
 Bad.
 
 OF THE NAME OF 
 
 The locution, " Of the name of " is met 
 with frequently, and the locution, " By the 
 name of " is met with occasionally. The 
 first is objectionable, the second — nearly 
 always — erroneous. Nearly always, the 
 one word named is all that is required. 
 
 We might know a man of the name of, 
 or named, Jones by the name of Smith. 
 That is, the man we know by the name of 
 Smith might really be named Jones. 
 
 Accompanied by a young man of the name of 
 Gaerin she attended the theatre last night and 
 after the performance the pair went to Court- 
 ney's saloon. 
 
 Named. 
 
 At 165 West 136th Street last night it was 
 said that nobody of the name of Johnson lived 
 there. 
 
 Named. 
 
 The police of this city have arrested a Ve- 
 netian shoemaker of the name of Giuseppe To- 
 
 195
 
 196 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 niazio, who is suspected of having been the ac- 
 compHce of Luccheni, the assassin of the Em- 
 press of Austria. 
 
 Named. 
 
 A young Frenchman of the name of Cauchois 
 has successfully crossed the Straits of Dover, 
 from Dover, in a canoe. 
 
 Named. 
 
 A young man of the name of Stevens is nearly 
 dead to-day at his home in Spring Valley from an 
 encounter with a bull. 
 
 Named. 
 
 His mother. Alary, daughter of James Coghler, 
 was descended from an old Italian family of the 
 name of Righi. 
 
 Named. 
 
 Here are two examples of the other sort: 
 
 Singularly enough, a German woman hy the 
 name of Helena Bohlan, a convert to Moham- 
 medanism and an inmate of a Turkish harem, 
 has written a novel entitled Half Animal, which 
 is in opposition to Midhat's story, being an [a] 
 eulogy of Turkish marriage life. — Literary 
 Digest. 
 
 Named.
 
 OF THE NAME OF 197 
 
 Upon the trial he offered to prove by a com- 
 petent witness that a man hy the name of John 
 Cline had confessed that he was the guilty party. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 Named. 
 
 This is a locution that the dictionist 
 strenuously objects to. Why use four 
 words when one would better serve?
 
 COMMENCE 
 
 Most careful writers are content — if I 
 do not err — to look on couuncncc and begin 
 as being absolutely interchangeable, and, 
 as a consequence, seldom, if ever, use com- 
 mence, a word that comes to us from, or at 
 the least through, the French. They prefer 
 the Saxon word begin and use it exclusively. 
 
 They that would make a distinction — if 
 such there be — between the two words are 
 counselled to consult " Crabb's English 
 Synonyms." One will seldom, if ever, be 
 vulnerable to the faultfinder, if one confines 
 oneself to begin. In truth, we could dis- 
 pense with commence entirely. 
 
 An older man, with a well-developed beard 
 that is commencing to get a bit wiry, will fre- 
 quently exhaust 700 strokes. 
 
 Beginning. 
 
 At the commencement of the war, and at the 
 time of the defeat of the Spanish fleet at Manila, 
 
 198
 
 COMMENCE 
 
 199 
 
 Spain was the supreme and sovereign authority 
 in the Philippines. 
 
 Beginning. 
 
 A passenger conductor must by experience 
 qualify himself for that position ; commencing as 
 freight brakeman, next as freight conductor. 
 
 Beginning. 
 
 We 'will [shall] not commence [begin] operat- 
 ing the Broadway line hy [with] electricity be- 
 fore spring, but we have placed contracts for 
 material to connect the Third Avenue and Fourth 
 Avenue and other East Side lines with the Broad- 
 way line, and soon after we commence [begin] 
 operations with electricity on the Broadway line 
 we will [shall] be able to run the cars of these 
 lines as well as those of the Sixth Avenue line 
 right down to South Ferry. 
 
 This paragraph tells us that the Broad- 
 way line will be run, next spring, by the 
 Company imth electricity.
 
 A OR ^.Y, WHICH ? 
 
 As the American has no difficiihy in 
 aspirating his A's, there is no excuse for his 
 dropping- the initial Ji in polysyllabic words, 
 though the h does not stand under the 
 accent. The truth is, however, that most 
 Americans that use an before these //'s are 
 not aware that, when they do so, the Ji 
 should be dropped in the utterance, whicli 
 to that extent is to Cockneyize the lan- 
 guage. It's a question of euphony, nothing 
 more; in strictness, grammar has nothing 
 to do with it. 
 
 A historical, a heroic, a habitual, is 
 ofifensive to nobody; whereas an historical, 
 an heroic, an habitual, is offensive to many. 
 And then a is American, you know! 
 
 Schuck, who is of powerful physique, has an 
 hallucination that he is still at the top of the 
 ladder on which he was injured. 
 
 A.
 
 A OR AN, WHICH? 2OI 
 
 " Since then the Congress gatherings," he 
 said, " had shown that a race accused of money 
 grabbing could rise to an heroic measure." 
 
 A. 
 
 This lack of German patriotism and of ag- 
 gressiveness in employing the many superior 
 qualities and acquirements of the Germans is an 
 hereditary weakness. 
 
 A. 
 
 That purpose the author endeavors to carry 
 out in an historical introduction and in the last 
 four of his nine chapters. 
 
 A. 
 
 " He had," he said, " all his long life been an 
 habitual drinker of strong liquors." 
 
 A. 
 
 He indulged in an harangue that for violence 
 I never have heard equalled. 
 
 A.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 He left Fort Resolution for Great Bear Lake 
 in April, hauling his canoes by dog teams over 
 the ice of Slave Lake to its outlet. 
 
 The building will be as high as the law allows. 
 It will be lighted with electricity and heated ^3; 
 steam. 
 
 With. 
 
 Another authority averred: "Henry George 
 had little influence; he frightened us by the con- 
 fiscatory features of his plan." 
 
 With. 
 
 Sir Ernest Satow, the British Minister, is suf- 
 fering zvith [from] pleurisy. While his condi- 
 tion is serious it is not believed to be dangerous. 
 
 There is no improvement in the condition of 
 General Gaselee. the British commander, who is 
 suffering ivith [from] pneumonia. 
 202
 
 M ISC ELL A NE US 
 
 203 
 
 Osgood Field, who died in Paris on Thursday 
 after a month's illness with [of] pneumonia and 
 complications, was a New Yorker by birth, but 
 had lived abroad for many years. 
 
 Perhaps no word in the language is 
 oftener misused than hy. We often see it 
 where zvith is the proper preposition. 
 Theatres are cooled in summer with ice, 
 heated in winter zmth steam, and hghted at 
 all times either ivith gas or electricity, yet 
 their advertisements often tell us that they 
 are cooled hy ice and so on. They are 
 cooled hy the management — the agent — 
 ivith ice — the means. We never light our 
 houses hy candles, cool our wine hy ice, or 
 sweeten our coffee hy sugar. 
 
 Commonly, it is not dif^cult to decide 
 what preposition to use, but sometimes the 
 most learned are in doubt. Indeed, the 
 English language offers no greater diffi- 
 culty than the proper use of the preposi- 
 tions. It is the last thing the foreigner 
 learns. 
 
 But the cruelty of the treatment accorded new 
 cadets of late years is spread on the records of 
 the court by the admissions of many cadets. 
 Fourth-class men have been exercised to fatigue.
 
 204 
 
 SOAfE ILL-USED IVORDS 
 
 exhaustion, fainting, and convulsions. — Nczv 
 York Sun. 
 
 'J'lie word accord is here used in a sense 
 directly opposed to its accepted meaning, 
 which is. To condescend to grant, to vouch- 
 safe. We accord only good. 
 
 Whereupon a most affectionate and cordial 
 welcome was accorded the Baroness, and she was 
 invited to pass a long period with them. 
 
 Prepositions frequently, and sometimes 
 other words, should be repeated where they 
 are not. 
 
 I must especially refer to Captain McCalla, of 
 the United States Navy, who was of the greatest 
 value to me and [to] all concerned. He was 
 slightly wounded in three places, and well merits 
 recognition. 
 
 Never before in the politics of this country 
 or [of] any other [country] have advocates of 
 any political party seeking national control under- 
 taken to commend it to favor by arguing that its 
 triumph would be innocuous. 
 
 The above figures are sufficient assurance to 
 me and [to] many others that the workingman 
 knows which side his bread is buttered on.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 205 
 
 As a rule, the money in institutions for sav- 
 ings in this or [in] any other country is the con- 
 crete result of the toil and self-sacrifice of the 
 poor and of those who [that] are only moderately 
 well-to-do. 
 
 Separating to, the sign of the infinitive, 
 from its verb is a thing to be avoided. 
 
 All Europe, inimical to England, is drawing 
 its own conclusions from the fact that fifteen or 
 at most twenty thousand Boer soldiers have been 
 able to so long resist [so long to resist] the com- 
 bined military resources of the empire. 
 
 The circumstances in the case of Mr. Pear- 
 son, who died in official harness, were to some 
 extent an excuse, but far from a justification, for 
 the precedent which [that] the placing of his 
 bust established — a precedent ivhich [that] it is 
 better now to promptly ovcrthroiu [promptly to 
 overthrow] than to further strengthen [further to 
 strengthen] . — Home Journal. 
 
 For no one would [should] we expect to more 
 clearly [more clearly to] voice the sentiments of 
 the Cleveland Democracy, save it be Cleveland 
 himself, than Mr. Olney. 
 
 To really love [really to love] the conversion, 
 welfare, and salvation of never-dying souls is to 
 faithfully and persistently tell [faithfully and per-
 
 2o6 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 sistently to tell] them not only of the wondrous 
 love of God, but it is also to fully [fully to] in- 
 doctrinate them respecting hell. — The Rev. Sill- 
 vian Blagdon. 
 
 It would seem that willi the Reverend 
 Mr. Blagdon. the matter is everything, the 
 manner nothing:. 
 
 Both IMr. Piatt and Mr. Berri believe that 
 Mr. Woodruff should reconsider his decision not 
 to again [again to] be the candidate for Lieu- 
 tenant Governor. 
 
 But I know that few things could happen to 
 so seriously and, in some cases, so disastrously 
 [to] affect the men and women of this country 
 who [that] have been able to save enough money 
 to open accounts in the savings banks as the elec- 
 tion of William J. Bryan. 
 
 Here we have no fewer than eight words 
 between the sign of the infinitive and its 
 verl). 
 
 We have here an example of a nauseous 
 exudation of the vanity of the player folk 
 that occasionally gets into print. 
 
 The leading part of Timmendorf will be 
 created by the leading comedian of the Irving 
 Place Theatre, Mr. Gustav von Seyffertitz.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS 207 
 
 If Herr von Seyffertitz is the "' creator " 
 of Timmendorf, what is the author of the 
 play of which Timmendorf is a part? Com- 
 monly, very little discretion is allowed these 
 "creators" of parts; they must, as a rule, 
 play as author and stage-manager direct. 
 The Dramatic Mirror never uses create as 
 it is used in the sentence above; it uses 
 originate, which, however, is not very much 
 better, since there is little difference in the 
 signification of the two words. Until re- 
 cently, an actor that was the first to play 
 a part was said to be The original so and so. 
 Forrest, for example, was said to be the 
 original Jack Cade; he was never spoken of 
 as having created or as having originated 
 Jack Cade. To express the thought abso- 
 lutely, we should have to use the locution, 
 The first to play. 
 
 To use either in the sense of eacii is little 
 better than an affectation. 
 
 Two other pages marched on either [each] 
 side of him, and each held by the bridle a valu- 
 able charger. 
 
 The fishermen live during the season on small 
 vessels or immense scows fitted with a cabin at
 
 2o8 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 either | each | cinl if their camp is near a swampy 
 shore. 
 
 Ahiiost every trade has its own street, the 
 shops on either [each] side being devoted to 
 shoe-making or harness-making, or crockery-mak- 
 ing, in all their different branches. 
 
 The mob was strung out along on either 
 [each] side, shouting, cursing, and every little 
 while making a rush at the Governor's company. 
 
 Snow is piled up so high on either [each] 
 side of the walks that one can not see persons 
 walking on the opposite side of the street. 
 
 The patriarch of the pack is a dog nine years 
 old, who [that] has helped to kill over 200 moun- 
 tain lions. 
 
 These lions, so-called, of California and 
 the Northwest, like the cougar, the puma, 
 the catamount, and the painter — a corrup- 
 tion of panther — are panthers. They might, 
 very properly, be called the American leop- 
 ard, like which they are, except in color. 
 They and the leopard are tree-climbers, 
 which the lion and the tiger are not. There 
 is nothing leonine about them, except that 
 they, like the lion, are of the cat family.
 
 M ISC ELLA NEO US 
 
 209 
 
 Indeed, it would not be surprising if a mob 
 were to attempt a rescue. If forty murderers re- 
 main unhung [unhanged], why should a new 
 murderer be a victim? 
 
 He that is lynched is " hung by the 
 neck"; he that is executed judicially is 
 " hanged by the neck." 
 
 " Well, you had better keep out of the way 
 of each other," said Magistrate Hogan. " I shall 
 discharge the prisoner this time, but my advice 
 to him is that he leave [let] his wife alone in 
 the future." 
 
 But, as a rule, actresses have left [let] man- 
 agement alone in this country; and few women 
 not actresses have undertaken the task. 
 
 This use of Icavx; is indefensible. 
 
 Lincoln had been practising law on one side 
 of the Wabash River and Thompson on the other 
 and they had many mutual [common] friends. 
 — Chicago Record. 
 
 Mutual implies reciprocity of sentiment, 
 sentiment received and returned. Jones 
 and Smith have a mutual aversion — they 
 dislike each other — or they are mutually de- 
 pendent — i. e., they depend on each other. 
 14
 
 2IO SOME ILL-USED ITOA'DS 
 
 Jones and Smith have a coDiiiioii accjnaint- 
 ance in the person Brown. Jones and Smith 
 found two of their common friends in the 
 audience. Common enmities often cement 
 friendship. 
 
 The jealousy of England, on the part of both 
 France and Germany, is so bitter that the two 
 nations have almost forgotten that the river 
 Rhine exists. Their common hatred of the island 
 kingdom is inspired by the circumstance. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 The careless writer would be quite sure 
 to use mutual instead of common in a sen- 
 tence such as we have here, yet mutual 
 would be iiidefensible. 
 
 A mutual [common] friend of the married 
 pair stops the elopement and saves the merely 
 foolish woman from becoming criminal. 
 
 Yet the actress tuho [that], out of character, 
 ought to sit for her picture most often [oftenest] 
 with unadorned head, insists most often [often- 
 est] upon wearing for portraiture a hat or [a] 
 bonnet that destroys the future value of her 
 picture. 
 
 The common origin of such pieces is often 
 demonstrated by analysis or by general appear-
 
 M ISC ELL A NEOUS 2 1 1 
 
 ance, but more often [oftener], perhaps, it re- 
 mains in doubt. 
 
 Never smoke upon [in] a crowded street, in 
 public carriages, or in any other place where it 
 may be offensive at the time or afterward. — Hozv 
 to Behave. 
 
 We live in a street, meet people in a 
 street and do things in a street, and not on 
 or upon a street. The man, however, that 
 smokes in the street would be likely to in- 
 sist that on the street is good enough Eng- 
 lish for him. This is doubly true of the 
 man that smokes a pipe in the street. No 
 man can smoke a pipe in the street and have 
 the appearance of being other than a vulgar 
 fellow. He that does it descends — in his 
 manners — to the level of the groom and the 
 hackman. 
 
 A knot of people can always be found on [in] 
 Broadway looking up at the banner and studying 
 its inscriptions. 
 
 The presence of the Yale students was made 
 conspicuous by the appearance of hazing parties 
 and their victims on [in] the principal streets of 
 the city to-night.
 
 2 I 2 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The locution " on the street " has a sip^- 
 nification in l^igland that deters every one 
 from using it in the sense of " in the street." 
 
 The author of The Gods, Some Mortals, 
 and Lord W'ickenham never by any chance, 
 it would seem, gets the little word only in 
 the right place. Examples: 
 
 His eyes only directed their gaze [only] on the 
 finest feature of each face, his ears only caught 
 [only] the happiest remarks, his heart only 
 thrilled [only] at the noble motive in every action. 
 
 Beauty is only given [only] to few. 
 
 Only, when used as an adjective, is more 
 frequently misplaced than any other word 
 in the language. 
 
 Unhappily, they only persevered in this ex- 
 cellent resolve for [only] a few days. Within a 
 week their abhorrence of the bottle had disap- 
 peared, and they were drinking with a zest that 
 comes of temporary privation. 
 
 The right-placing of only is commonly a 
 very simple matter. 
 
 The word other is frequently wanting. 
 
 Probably more women have fallen in love with 
 Jane Eyre's Rochester than with any [other] man 
 within the pages of a book.
 
 M ISC ELL A NEO US 
 
 213 
 
 When he returned to the United States in the 
 autumn of 1863 he was at the height of his career. 
 He was then more loved and honored than any 
 [other] man of his day. 
 
 Here's a genuine romantic actor for you ! 
 One who [that] really appreciates the value of 
 lines and reads them with more intelligence than 
 any [other] actor on the American boards to-day. 
 
 The Sun has shown up the tricky document 
 as no [other] paper could do. Let us have a 
 truly American canal or none. 
 
 Salisbury and Bayard. They congratulate 
 one another [each other] upon the signing of the 
 arbitration treaty. — Headline New York Sun. 
 
 One another is properly used only when 
 it is a question of more than two. The 
 headline man of the Sun has long been a 
 bit careless. 
 
 He may also define how far he and his wife 
 are to mutually [mutually to] support one another 
 [each other] in cases where assistance is required. 
 
 There was a time when the speakers at public 
 dinners were supposed to show off. Now they 
 devote their attention to making a show of each 
 other [one another].
 
 214 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 The expression i\n dc siccic is supposed to sum 
 up in itself a number of peculiarities of the time. 
 This is in spite of the fact that it is perpetually 
 [continually] used in a loose and reckless way. 
 — Nczv York Sun. 
 
 Perpetual means never ceasing, continu- 
 ing without intermission, which is not the 
 thought the writer intended to express. 
 Occurring with interruptions is expressed 
 
 by coiifimially. 
 
 The preparations for the monster Bryan meet- 
 ing, when all records of attendance will be broken 
 if Tammany obeys orders, are inspired by Mr. 
 Croker. His teeming brain is never still, he is 
 perpetually [continually] on the go. 
 
 The members of the gang with zvhieh Barrett 
 has zi'orked are four crooks known to the police 
 as George Willard, " Dan " Algin, " Billy " 
 Burlce, and " Micky " Gleeson. 
 
 Simpler and more idiomatic, lience l:)et- 
 ter, thus: That Barrett has worked with. 
 
 The despotism under which this country is suf- 
 fering is worse than confinement in a penitentiary. 
 
 The despotism that this country is suf- 
 fering under; or, simply, The despotism 
 this country is suffering under.
 
 MISCELLA NEO US 2 1 5 
 
 This reminds one of the Hamlet line, 
 " There is nothing either good or bad but 
 thinking makes it so." 
 
 It is a mistake to think that neither a 
 sentence nor a clause of a sentence ever 
 should be ended with a preposition. 
 
 Never mix the languages, if you can 
 avoid it. One language at a time. Per is 
 Latin. 
 
 The rent of rooms in the college buildings 
 ranges from $15 to $80 per [a or the] year, and 
 board is procurable in the college hall for $2.75 
 per [a or the] week. 
 
 Before the freeze, when the yield was 5,000,- 
 000 boxes, they sold at 50 cents per [a or the] 
 box, but this year the average price per [a or the] 
 
 box is $2. 
 
 A dealer in this city who [that] bought coal 
 in Amboy recently finds to-day that he can pur- 
 chase [buy] the same only at an advance of $1 
 per [a or the] ton. A man who [that] bought 
 four consignments of coal from a dealer recently 
 received yesterday an offer of re-purchase at an 
 advance of 50 cents per [a or the] ton, the dealer 
 saying that he zvould [should] soon be able to 
 dispose of the coal for $1 a ton more.
 
 2i6 SOME ILL-USED IVORDS 
 
 The presence of the word f^itrcJiasc l)c- 
 trays the tyro. The use of the instead of a 
 is not common, but the one is quite as cor- 
 rect as the other. 
 
 When apples are plenty [plentiful] and rea- 
 sonable in price as they are this season. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 Dr. Campbell, in his Philosophy of Rhet- 
 oric, says: "Plenty [a noun] for plentiful 
 [an adjective] appears to me so gross a vul- 
 garism that I should not have thought it 
 worthy of a place here if I had not some- 
 times found it in works of considerable 
 merit." The error is more common in 
 America than in England. 
 
 The masculine roles in plays predominate 
 largely. Of comely, intelligent, and tolerably 
 facile actresses the supply is far in excess of the 
 demand. Heroes are scarce. Heroines are plenty 
 [plentiful]. 
 
 Where the worn coins come from is not 
 known, but the fact that they are so plenty 
 [plentiful] has led some persons to believe that 
 they are purchased by weight somewhere.
 
 M ISC ELL A NEO US 
 
 217 
 
 A special word must be recorded in favor of 
 Mr. Watts's rendition [rendering] of the poetry. 
 — Neiv York Home Journal. 
 
 We have authority for using rendition as 
 it is used in this example, yet this use of the 
 word does not find favor with our most 
 careful writers. They use the word only in 
 the sense of yielding possession, surrender, 
 thus: They remained till the rendition of the 
 fortress. 
 
 Let him confess, publicly, over [under] his 
 signature, the truth that the $262,000,000 worth 
 of bonds. — New York Sun. 
 
 " Given under my hand and seal " means 
 under the guarantee of my signature and 
 seal. The position of the signature on the 
 paper has nothing to do with it. We write 
 under a date though the date be placed, as 
 it often is, at the bottom of the sheet. 
 
 Joseph H. Manley, chairman of the Repub- 
 lican State Committee, over his signature to- 
 night, issued the following. 
 
 Under. 
 
 Ex-President Cleveland has spoken at last, and 
 in a most emphatic way. He is opposed to Bryan
 
 2i8 SO.UE ILL-USED IVOA'DS 
 
 and Bryanism. He to-day authorized over his 
 signature the pubHcation of his views. 
 
 Under. 
 
 That way is to issue to the Democracy of the 
 United States an address, over the signatures of 
 the Democratic National Committee. 
 
 Under. 
 
 Here is a common error — an error of 
 omission. The preposition should have 
 been repeated. 
 
 The chrysanthemum seems to have recovered 
 from the partial disfavor into which it fell [it fell 
 into] last year, and to be once more flourishing 
 in popular fashion. There is a tide in the affairs 
 of flowers as well as [of] men. 
 
 Transpire is frequently used in the sense 
 of to occur; to happen; to come to pass; 
 whereas it should be used only in the sense 
 of to leak out; to become known. Here is 
 a good example of the correct use of the 
 word : 
 
 " Do angels ever come back and pay the 
 money they owe ? " she asked. It transpired that 
 this particular angel owed the child $5.
 
 MISCELLA NEO US 
 
 219 
 
 Reliable information about the real extent of 
 the plague in Bombay and the vicinity is lacking. 
 — New York Sun. 
 
 We commonly see its vicinity, but ihc 
 vicinity is equally correct. Supply the el- 
 liptical words and we have, " In Bombay 
 and in the vicinity of Bombay." 
 
 M. Leroy Beaulieu is sanguine enough to 
 anticipate that this alliance would not remain 
 purely economical. 
 
 Here is a use of anticipate that should be 
 cast in brass and kept as a dictional curi- 
 osity. Predict would probably have served 
 the writer's purpose; but very likely in his 
 judgment, predict was not fine enough. 
 
 Alvord, the notorious bank robber, pleaded 
 guilty yesterday. It is curious to note the ag- 
 grieved air adopted by the prisoner. You would 
 think that it was a case of the culprit [culprit's] 
 being more sinned against than sinning. It 
 shows that when one is a criminal it is well to 
 be a big one [criminal]. — New York Evening 
 Si in. 
 
 We do not adopt airs, we assume them. 
 Neither word is necessary. " The ag-
 
 220 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 {grieved air of the prisoner '" would suf- 
 fice. 
 
 The close student of the life of Samuel Rich- 
 ardson does not think of him as a novelist alone 
 [only]. He was a business man who had a con- 
 siderable eye for material enterprises. This fact is 
 recalled by the disappearance of an [a] historic 
 house of his, the buildinj^ in Salisbury Square, 
 London, which he built for himself in 1754. 
 
 We could not say. The student does not 
 think of him alone as a novelist. Alone and 
 only, we see, are not interchansfeable. 
 
 In an interview in the Pittsburg Dispatch of 
 yesterday morning, Mr. Carnegie said, in sub- 
 stance, that the real reason for the Carnegie 
 Company [Company's] taking up the making of 
 steel pipe zvas [is] because it wanted to. He said 
 that the reason it had [has] been decided to have 
 the plant at Conneaut ?vas [is] because the rail- 
 roads running into Pittsburg had [have] been 
 charging altogether too high freight rates. The 
 only way to get rid of the railroads and their 
 rates, Mr. Carnegie said, was [is] for his com- 
 pany to take to water. 
 
 The Columbia oarsmen begin the year in ex- 
 cellent financial [pecuniary or monetary] condi- 
 tion. If the universitv shows the same sort of
 
 M ISC ELLA NEO US 221 
 
 improvement on the water that it displayed 
 [showed] on the football field, all will be well. 
 
 It was fortunate for us that nothing happened 
 to him in the circumstances. 
 
 Otiite correct, but not very common. 
 The French always write in the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Balance is often improperly used in the 
 sense of rest or remainder. Not the balance 
 of the stock, but the rest or the remainder of 
 the stock. The word means, when properly 
 used, the excess of one thing over another, as 
 the difference between the debits and the 
 credits. 
 
 The balance of the officers of the university 
 were either doubtful, non-committal, or their 
 views could not be ascertained. 
 
 The rest. 
 
 Shades of my grandmother ! Perhaps they 
 would take me ! As though I were an outcast, 
 whose faults might be. forgiven if I promised to 
 be good ! 
 
 As if. The locution " as though " is 
 very common, but it never says what the 
 writer really intends to say.
 
 222 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Their object seems to be to try and bring 
 about an awakening among the younger people 
 of India. 
 
 Not try and, hut try io bring-. 
 
 We follow a negative with so, not witli as:. 
 
 However good Alderman Bridges's poetry 
 may be, it is not half as [so] interesting or pic- 
 turesque as his prose. 
 
 There is no train in England as [so] luxurious 
 as the Pennsylvania Limited and none as [so] fast 
 as the Empire State Express. As regards the ad- 
 vantage in speed, it may be said that the hauls 
 in the United States are longer, distances between 
 stations are greater, and the tracks not as [so] 
 crowded. 
 
 Use the yerb in the infinitive, when that 
 form is permissible. 
 
 It looks as if a great many of Governor 
 Odell's views would [will] be embodied in legis- 
 lation. Many statesmen have ideas, but few have 
 the happiness of seeing them take a concrete 
 shape. 
 
 To see. 
 
 Clauses are often much misplaced. Here 
 is an example: The queen-mother had ex-
 
 MISCELLANEO US 
 
 223 
 
 hausted the treasures Sully had amassed in 
 bribes to tJie princes. Not so. The queen- 
 mother had exhausted, /;/ bribes to the 
 princes, the treasures amassed by Sully. 
 
 Look to your clauses, or you may some 
 day unwittingly advertise for " a coachman 
 to look after a pair of horses of a religious 
 turn of mind." Or you may advertise " a 
 splendid gray horse, calculated for a charger, 
 or would carry a lady with a switch tail." 
 
 " Son-in-law of mine, too," groaned the old 
 gentleman. " As bright a young fellow as I ever 
 knew [have known]. I loved him as though [if] 
 he were [had been] my own flesh and blood." 
 
 " You always [have] told me that he was [is] 
 a veritable Napoleon of finance." 
 
 "And so he is," and the old gentleman made- 
 [an] attempt to laugh. " And I [have] encour- 
 aged him in it. I must admit that I [have] lit- 
 erally drummed it into him that business was [is] 
 business and that sentiment, friendship, even re- 
 lationship, had [have] to be put aside when it 
 came [comes] to business." 
 
 " But what has he done ? Nothing criminal ? " 
 
 " Taken me at my word, the world would say. 
 I'm going to retire. I'm out, frozen out. You 
 know the factory I have my biggest investment
 
 224 
 
 SOAfE ILL-USED JVORDS 
 
 " Certainly. It is coining money, and your 
 salary as president is $20,000." 
 
 Here the old gentleman groaned again. 
 
 " 1 took a vacation. What more natural than 
 that my son-in-law should vote my stock? I 
 gave him authority to do so [vote it]. He elected 
 himself president, chose his own board of di- 
 rectors, and increased the salary of his position 
 [the president] $5,000 per annum [a year]. I'm 
 simply turned out to pasture. My, what a boy ! " 
 — Detroit Free Press. 
 
 We all know what tipping is. It is a vile, 
 foreign practice which [that] has increased, is 
 increasing, and ought to be diminished. It de- 
 stroys the self-respect of him who gives and him 
 who takes. It stamps the one as a coward and 
 the other as a sort of blackmailer. 
 
 It blesseth him tJiat gives and him that 
 takes. — Shakespeare. 
 
 The subject is one of such tremendous im- 
 portance to Americans that the fullest considera- 
 tion will unquestionably be given to it by busi- 
 ness men who are alive to the broad and epoch- 
 making developments of the day. — Dry Goods 
 Economist. 
 
 Are all business men alive, or are only a 
 part of them alive? There being no comma 
 before zvho, the sentence says only a part.
 
 MISCELLA NEO US 225 
 
 If there were a comma before zvho, the sen- 
 tence would say all business men are alive, 
 in which case we should think the meaning 
 doubtful. The meaning, then, depends on 
 the presence or the absence of a comma, a 
 thing that often owes its presence or its 
 absence to the compositor. If the relative 
 that instead of who had been used, the mean- 
 ing would not have depended on a comma, 
 though a comma should never be put be- 
 fore a relative pronoun that introduces a 
 restrictive clause. We sometimes see com- 
 mas that properly stand before restrictive 
 relatives, but they have been put after a 
 parenthetic clause and not before the rela- 
 tive. 
 
 The religious communities, which have inci- 
 dentally involved the common ownership of prop- 
 erty and have employed their members in pro- 
 duction for the benefit of a commonw^ealth, have 
 become rich. 
 
 This sentence says that all religious com- 
 munities are co-operative, which we know 
 is not true. No comma and that and the 
 sentence would say what it was intended 
 to say. 
 
 15
 
 226 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 Lizards, snakes, and grasshoppers, which live 
 in the sand, are gray or brown, while their 
 brethren of the trees and grass are green. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 The first ten words of this sentence tell 
 us that all lizards, snakes, and grasshoppers 
 live in the sand; while the remainder of the 
 sentence tells us that some lizards, snakes, 
 and grasshoppers live in trees and grass. 
 
 Not content with destroying the Teutonic 
 peoples, which had already settled on Roman soil, 
 Justinian intrigued with the tribes that were 
 still north of the Danube, and fomented their 
 quarrels. 
 
 This sentence begins by saying that all 
 the Teutonic peoples had settled on Roman 
 soil, which we see by the last half of the 
 sentence was not true. 
 
 The men that have shown themselves as 
 masters of prose are not, for the most part, the 
 men that are widely read and the men that are 
 most widely read owe many millions of readers 
 to something else than their mastery of prose 
 form. — Prof. Thomas R. Price. 
 
 Here is a writer that introduces his re- 
 strictive clauses with that.
 
 WHY USE THAT TO INTRODUCE 
 RESTRICTIVE CLAUSES? 
 
 Note. — This essay, to be understood, 
 must be carefully studied. Simply reading 
 it will not suffice. 
 
 Owing to the indiscriminate, haphazard 
 use of the relative pronouns that almost 
 universally prevails, there is never, proba- 
 bly, a newspaper, and rarely a book, printed 
 in the English language in which there are 
 not ambiguous sentences; and yet this am- 
 biguity can be easily avoided, as we see if 
 we give the subject a little attention. 
 
 So long as we continue to use the rela- 
 tive pronouns indiscriminately, the mean- 
 ing of all but one of the following six sen- 
 tences — which are all grammatically and 
 idiomatically correct — and of all like sen- 
 tences, will be doubtful: 
 
 I. These are the master's rules, who 
 must be obeyed. 
 
 227
 
 228 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 2. These are the rules of the master, who 
 must l)e obeyed. 
 
 3. These are the rules of the master, 
 that must be obeyed. 
 
 4. These are the rules of the master, 
 which must be obeyed. 
 
 5. These are the master's rules, which 
 must be obeyed. 
 
 6. These are the master's rules, that must 
 be obeyed. 
 
 Nos. I and 2 should mean : These are 
 the rules of the master, and he must be 
 obeyed ; but they may mean : These are 
 the rules of a certain one of several mas- 
 ters, and this one is the one w^e must 
 obey. 
 
 No. 3 may mean: Of the master's rules, 
 these are the ones that must be obeyed. It 
 may also mean: Of several masters, these 
 are the rules of the one whose rules must 
 be obeyed. 
 
 Nos. 4 and 5 may mean: These are the 
 rules of the master, and they must be 
 obeyed; or they may mean: Of the rules of 
 the master, these are the ones that must be 
 obeyed. 
 
 That is properly the restrictk-c relative
 
 IVHV USE THAT? 
 
 229 
 
 pronoun, and ivhich and ivho are properly 
 the co-ordinating relative pronouns. That, 
 when properly used, introduces something 
 without which the antecedent is not fully 
 defined, whereas which and zvho, when prop- 
 erly used, introduce a nezv fact concerning 
 the antecedent. 
 
 Whenever a clause restricts, limits, de- 
 fines, qualifies the antecedent — i. e., when- 
 ever it is adjectival, explanatory, in its func- 
 tions — it should be introduced with the rela- 
 tive pronoun that, and not with zvhicJi, nor 
 with who or zvhoni. 
 
 The use of tJiat solely to introduce re- 
 strictive clauses, and who and zvhich solely 
 to introduce co-ordinating clauses, avoids 
 ambiguities that must occasionally come of 
 using the relative pronouns indiscriminate- 
 ly. This clearly appears from the following 
 examples: 
 
 " I met the watchman zvho showed me 
 the way." Does this mean, " I met the 
 watchman and he showed me the way"? 
 or does it mean that, of several watchmen 
 I met, the one that on some previous occa- 
 sion showed me the way? It should mean 
 the former, and it would mean that and
 
 >30 
 
 SOME ILL- USED IVORDS 
 
 nothing else, if we discriniinatcd in using 
 zvho and tJuit. 
 
 " And fools zi'lio came to scoff remained 
 to pray." Does the familiar line from Gold- 
 smith mean. And the fools that came, 
 though they came to scoff, remained to 
 pray? or does it mean that some of the 
 fools that came, came to scoff, and these 
 remained to pray? Probably the former is 
 the meaning; but as the line stands, this, 
 no matter how general the opinion, can be 
 only conjectured, as every one must admit 
 that the meaning intended may be the lat- 
 ter. If the latter is the meaning, it is clear 
 that the proper relative to use is that. Had, 
 however, Goldsmith never used i^'ho, except 
 to introduce co-ordination, we should know 
 positively just what he intended to convey. 
 
 " It is requested that all members of 
 Council ivJw are also members of the Lands 
 Committee will assemble in the Council 
 room." Does this mean that all the mem- 
 bers of the Council are also members of the 
 Lands Committee, and that they shall as- 
 semble? or does it mean that sncJi members 
 of Council as are also members of the Lands 
 Committee shall assemble?
 
 WHY USE THAT? 
 
 231 
 
 " The volume is recommended to all 
 geologists to zi'Jwni the Secondary rocks of 
 England are a subject of interest." Is the 
 volume recommended to all geologists, or 
 to such only as take an interest in Secondary 
 rocks? 
 
 " He had commuted the sentence of 
 the Circassian officers zvJw had conspired 
 against Arabi Bey and his fellow-ministers 
 — a proceeding which [that] naturally in- 
 censed the so-called Egyptian party." Did 
 all the Circassian ofKcers conspire, or only 
 a part of them? 
 
 '' On the ground floor of the hotel there 
 are three parlors zvliich are never used." 
 Does this mean three of the parlors on the 
 ground floor are not used? or does it mean 
 the three parlors on the ground floor are 
 not used? The latter is probably the mean- 
 ing intended, but as there is no comma after 
 parlors, the former, using the relatives in- 
 discriminately as we do, is the meaning ex- 
 pressed, 
 
 " Emin Bey, the chief, who leaped the 
 wall on horseback and landed safely on the 
 debris below, was afterward taken into 
 favor." Here the language and the punc-
 
 232 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVORDS 
 
 tuation convey the impression that Emin 
 Bey was the sole chief, when in fact he was 
 only one of the many chiefs that were pres- 
 ent on the occasion referred to. The 
 thought intended is expressed thus: " Emin 
 Bey, the chief tliat leaped the wall, . . . 
 was afterward taken into favor." 
 
 " His conduct surprised his English 
 friends ivho had not known him long." 
 Does this mean all his English friends, or 
 only those of them that had not known him 
 long? If the former is the meaning, then 
 who is the proper relative to use with a 
 comma; if the latter, then that should be 
 used, without a comma. 
 
 " Agents of the Turkish Government are 
 trying to close the Protestant schools in 
 Asia Minor, zvJiicJi are conducted by mis- 
 sionaries from the United States." Are the 
 Turks trying to close all the Protestant 
 schools in Asia Minor, or only a part of 
 them? All. according to this statement; 
 but that is probably not what is intended, as 
 there are doubtless Protestant schools in 
 Asia Minor that are not conducted by mis- 
 sionaries from the United States. 
 
 " The police captains zvho yesterday vis-
 
 PVI/V USE THAT? 
 
 233 
 
 ited the central office to draw their pay, all 
 expressed their sympathy," etc. Did all the 
 police captains visit the central office, or 
 only a part of them? 
 
 " The youngest boy who has learned to 
 dance is James." As long as we use who 
 for the purposes of both restriction and co- 
 ordination, this means either, " The young- 
 est boy is James, and he has learned to 
 dance," or, " Of the boys, the youngest 
 that has learned to dance is James." If 
 the latter is the meaning, then that should 
 have been used ; if the former, then 
 who is correctly used, but the co-ordinate 
 clause should have been isolated with com- 
 mas. 
 
 Who and which are the proper co-ordinat- 
 ing relatives — i. e., the relatives to use when 
 the antecedent is completely expressed 
 without the help of the clause introduced 
 with the relative. Thus: " The society now 
 numbers nearly twenty members, zvho (==■ 
 and they) have given up all family ties and 
 devoted themselves entirely to religious 
 work." " The choir consists of about sixty 
 men and boys, who are surpliced." " But 
 some of their friends, who (= persons that)
 
 234 
 
 SOA/E ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 are wealthy and iiillnential members of the 
 church, (lid not like to ha\c them give up 
 their work in Boston, i^'Jiich had been at- 
 tended w^ith great results, and urged them 
 to return, idiicli they ha\'e consented to do, 
 and they will soon begin work anew at the 
 old church, zcliicli is the property of the 
 Society of St. John the Evangelist." 
 
 Here are some examples of the correct 
 use of zclio, cchicJi, tJiat, and wlioin: "The 
 heirs, zvlio are very numerous, will be pres- 
 ent " — i. e., all the heirs. " The heirs, ivho 
 have been notified, will be present " — i. e., 
 all the heirs. " The heirs tJiat have been 
 notified will be present " — i. e., only those 
 notified. " The heirs, i^'lwui I have seen, 
 will be present " — i. e., all the heirs. " The 
 heirs that I have seen will be present " — 
 i. e., only those seen. " I study grammar, 
 zuhich I like very much." " Give me the 
 grammar that lies on the desk." " He 
 struck the man zuho " — i. e., a certain man 
 — " had done him no harm." " He struck 
 the man tJiat " — i. e., a man of several men 
 — " insulted him." " He struck the wrong 
 man — the one that had done him no harm." 
 " Our house, zuhich is built of brick, is very
 
 H^//V USE THAT? 235 
 
 warm." " The house that is built of brick 
 is the warmest." " The cat " — i. e., the 
 species — " ivhich you so dishke is a useful 
 animal." '' The cat " — i. e., the individual 
 — " that you so dislike is a very pretty one." 
 " He jumped into the water, zvliich greatly 
 frightened his mother." '' He attends to 
 his own affairs, whicJi is the way to make 
 them prosper." " He that attends to his 
 own affairs is likely to see them prosper." 
 '* The man that I saw is tall." " This man, 
 ivhom I know well, is a good ploughman." 
 " He tJiat lets the sun go down on his 
 wrath," etc. 
 
 In the following examples the errors in 
 the use of the relatives are corrected in 
 brackets: " The rich despise those ivho 
 [that] flatter too much, and hate those who 
 [that] do not flatter at all." " An am- 
 bitious man zvhom [that] you can serve will 
 often aid you to rise," etc. " He that feeds 
 many serveth few; he serveth all zvJio [that] 
 dares be true." " The curious inquirer zvJio 
 [that] sets himself," etc. " This book has 
 been made for those zvJio [that] aim to 
 have," etc. " The people zcJio [that] are 
 expecting, under the new code . . . The
 
 236 
 
 SOME ILL-USED IVORDS 
 
 people will not consent, under a Govern- 
 ment zvJiich [that] depends upon their will, 
 to adopt the Sabbatarian notions whicli 
 [that] the old Puritans . . . Yet there are 
 some narrow minds in New York who 
 [that] still think . . . They have no sym- 
 pathy with those z^'Jio [that] would force 
 . . . Then there are the Jews, n'ho do not 
 feel . . , and ivho claim the right to work 
 or play on Sunday , . . The population 
 would be sunk in gloom, zvliicJi w'ould of 
 course," etc. 
 
 It is necessary, for the proper under- 
 standing of zvhicJi, to advert to its peculiar 
 function of referring to a whole clause as 
 the antecedent: " William ran along the top 
 of the wall, zvhich alarmed his mother very 
 much." The antecedent is obviously not 
 the noun " w-all," but the fact expressed 
 by the entire clause — " William ran," etc. 
 " He by no means wants sense, zvJiicJi only 
 serves to aggravate his former folly"; name- 
 ly, (not " sense," but) the circumstance 
 " that he does not w-ant sense." " He is 
 neither overexalted by prosperity nor too 
 much depressed by misfortune, zvhich you 
 must allow marks a great mind." " We
 
 WJIV USE THAT? 
 
 237 
 
 have done many things zcJiicJi we ought 
 not to have done " might mean '* we ought 
 not to Jiave done many things " — that is, " we 
 ought to have done few things." That 
 would give the exact sense intended: " We 
 have done many things that we ought not 
 to have done." That is much more fre- 
 quently used instead of zvJio as a restrictive 
 relative. than will be at first supposed. As 
 evidence of this I offer a sentence that I 
 find in a London cablegram to a New York 
 newspaper: " It was he that moved the ad- 
 journment until Tuesday." This, in my 
 judgment, is better and more idiomatic 
 English than it would have been had the 
 writer used zvho instead of tJiat. 
 
 Occasionally, but by no means often, we 
 meet with a tJiat that should be zvhicJi. 
 Here are two such zvhiches: 
 
 Across the Straits of Fuca there is the pretty 
 English town of Victoria that [which] has as 
 solid mansions, etc. 
 
 The Strait or Gulf of Georgia, that [which] 
 separates Vancouver Island from the mainland, 
 although, etc. 
 
 There is not, as some of the unthinking 
 seem to believe, any valid objection to using
 
 238 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 two tihiis in iiiiniodiate succession, as in tlie 
 utterance they are widely dilTerent. Thus 
 usetl, they are not at all disturbing, not at 
 all tautopiionic. Two successive tJiats are 
 tauto])honic to the eye only. 'J^he demon- 
 strative tJiat always has its full name sound, 
 while the other that, be it a conjunction or 
 a relative, is barely touched; thus, " I say 
 th't THAT book is old." " Where is that 
 th't I gave you? " Indeed, three successive 
 tliafs are not at all disturbing — e. g., " They, 
 therefore, that treat of these subjects more 
 boldly, venture to say th't that th't is base 
 is the only evil." 
 
 Who is that that dares to address the court ? 
 — Dickens. 
 
 We must next allude to the cases where the 
 relative is governed by a preposition. We can 
 use a preposition before who (in the objective 
 case whom) and ivhich, but when the relative 
 is that the preposition must be thrown to the 
 end of the clause. Owing to an imperfect appre- 
 ciation of the genius of our language, offence 
 was taken at this usage by some of our leading 
 writers at the beginning of last century, and to 
 this circumstance we must refer the disuse of 
 that as the relative of restriction. — Bain's Gram- 
 mar.
 
 1V//V USE THAT? 
 
 239 
 
 That can not be preceded by a preposition, 
 and hence throws the preposition to the end. 
 " This is the rule that I adhere toJ' This is per- 
 fectly good English, though sometimes unneces- 
 sarily avoided. — Abbott's Hozv to Write Clearly. 
 
 In every other language the preposition is 
 almost constantly prefixed to the noun which 
 [that] it governs; in English it is sometimes 
 placed not only after the noun, but at a consid- 
 erable distance from it, as in the following ex- 
 ample: " The infirmary was, indeed, never so full 
 as on this day, which I was at some loss to ac- 
 count for." Here no fewer than seven words 
 intervene between the relative which and the 
 preposition for belonging to it. One would 
 imagine, to consider the matter abstractly, that 
 this could not fail in a language like ours, which 
 admits so few inflections, to create obscurity. 
 Yet this is seldom, if ever, the consequence. In- 
 deed, the singularity of the idiom hath made some 
 critics condemn it absolutely. That there is noth- 
 ing analogous in any known tongue, ancient or 
 modern, hath appeared to them a sufficient reason. 
 / own it never appeared so to me. — Dr. Camp- 
 hell's Rhetoric. 
 
 The constant placing of the preposition 
 before the relative tends to make a writer's 
 style turgid, ponderous — sometimes, in fact, 
 almost unidiomatic. It makes one's die-
 
 240 
 
 -SV.1//: I LI. -USED WORDS 
 
 tion (lilYer too widely from the diction 
 of everv-day life, which is the diction 
 much the best suited to many kinds of 
 composition. 
 
 The following examples, taken from 
 Massinger's Grand Duke of Florence, will 
 show' what was the usage of the Elizabethan 
 writers: 
 
 For I must use the freedom / was born zvitJi. 
 
 In that dumb rhetoric zi'hich you make use of. 
 
 ... if I had been heir 
 Of all the globes and sceptres mankind bozvs to. 
 
 . . . the name of friend 
 Which you are pleased to grace me with. 
 
 .. . . wilfully ignorant, in my opinion, 
 Of what it did invite him to. 
 
 I look to her as on a princess 
 / dare not be ambitious of. 
 
 ... a duty 
 That I was born with.
 
 W//y USE THAT? 
 
 241 
 
 So in Shakespeare, to take an example 
 out of many: 
 
 To have no screen between the part he played 
 And him he played it for. 
 
 Why, there is not a single sentence in this 
 play that I do not know the meaning of. — Ad- 
 dison. 
 
 Originality is a thing we constantly clamor 
 for and constantly quarrel with. — Carlyle. 
 
 It will be observed that the relative, 
 when it is the object, is often omitted. 
 
 " It was not one with zvhicJi he could find 
 fault"; better, "One he could find fault 
 with." 
 
 " It will be a joy to which I have looked 
 forward with hope "; better, " A joy that I 
 have looked forward to with hope." 
 
 " You are the first one to zvJwm I have 
 unburdened my mind "; better, " First one 
 I have unburdened my mind to." 
 
 "The man to whom I refer"; better, 
 " The man I refer to." 
 
 " Don't whip with a switch that has the 
 leaves on if you want to tingle." — Beecher. 
 How much of its idiomatic terseness this 
 16
 
 242 
 
 SOME ILL-USED WORDS 
 
 sentence would lose if changed to, " Don't 
 whip with a switch on z^'liic/i there are 
 leaves," or on li'hich the leaves remain, or 
 from tcliicli the leaves have not been re- 
 moved ! 
 
 The more thought one gives to the mat- 
 ter the more one will be inclined, I think, to 
 discriminate in the use of the relative pro- 
 nouns, and the less one will be opposed to 
 that construction that puts the governing 
 preposition at the end. — From the Verbalist. 
 
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 dramatic form, the story of Joseph Smith and of the growth of the Church 
 of the Latter Day Saints, which has again come prommently before the 
 public through the election of a polygamist to Congress. . . . Miss 
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 rightly seen that this man's life contained splendid material for a historical 
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 Miss Dougall' s novel." — London Spectator. 
 
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 u 
 
 XCLE REMUS. His Songs and his Sayings. By 
 Joel Chandler Harris. With new Preface and Re- 
 visions, and 112 Illustrations by A. B. Frost. Library 
 Edition. i2mo. Buckram, gilt top, uncut, $2.00. Also, 
 Edition dc luxe of the above, limited to 250 copies, each 
 signed by the author, with the full-page cuts mounted on 
 India paper. 8vo. White vellum, gilt top, $10.00. 
 
 "The old tales of the plantation have never been told as Mr. Harris 
 has told them. Kach narrative is to the poii-t, and so swift in its action 
 upon the risibilities of the reader that one almost loses consciousness of the 
 printed page, and fancies it is the voice of the lovable old darky himself 
 that steals across the senses and brings mirth inextinguishable as it comes; 
 . . . and Mr. Frost's drawings are so superlatively good, so inexpressibly 
 funny, that they promise to make this the standard edition of a standard 
 book." — iWw Vor/e 'Iribiitie. 
 
 " An exquisite volume, full of good illustrations, and if there is anybody 
 in this country who doesn't know Mr. Harris, here is an opportunity to 
 make his acquaintance and have many a good laugh." — New 1 ork Herald. 
 
 "There is but one ' Uncle Remus,' and he will never grow old. . . . 
 It was a happy thought, that of marrying the work of Harris and Frost."— 
 Neiv J 'ork Mail and E.rpress. 
 
 " Nobody could possibly have done this work better than Mr. Frost, 
 whose appreciation of negro life fitted him especially to be the interpreter 
 of ' Uncle Remus,' and whose sense of the humor in animal life makes these 
 drawings really illustrations in the fullest sense. Mr. Harris's well-known 
 work has become in a sense a classic, and this may be accepted as the 
 standard edition." — Philadelphia Times. 
 
 "A book which became a classic almost as soon as it was published. 
 . . . Mr. Frost has never done anything better in the way of illustration, 
 if indeed he has done anything as good. " — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 " We pity the reader who has not yet made the acquaintance of ' Uncle 
 Remus' and his charming story. . . . Mr. Harris has made a real addition 
 to literature purely and strikingly American, and Mr. Frost has aided in 
 fixmg the work indelibly on the consciousness of the American reader." — 
 7'he Clnirchman. 
 
 " The old fancies of the old negro, dear as they may have been to us 
 these many years, seem to Rain new life when they appear through the 
 medium of Mr. Frost's imagination." — New Yorli Hovte yournal. 
 
 " In his own peculiar field ' Uncle Remus ' has no rival. The book has 
 become a classic, but the latest edition is the choice one. It is rarely given 
 to an author to see his work accompanied by pictures so closely in sympathy 
 with his text." — San Francisco Argonaut. 
 
 "We say it with the utmost faith that there is not an artist who works 
 in illustration that can catch ihe attitude and expression, the slyness, the 
 innate depravity, the eye of surprise, obstinacy, the hang of the head or 
 the kick of the heels of the mute and the brute creation as Mr. Frost has 
 shown to us here." — Baltimore Sun. 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIIIRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
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