Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 August 1895 — Danger in the Use of Slang. [ARTICLE]

Danger in the Use of Slang.

A new illustration of the dangerous confusion that often is created by the prevalence of slang is furnished, says the Brooklyn Times, by an incident reported in this morning’s news. A professional rat catcher went to a fashionable club on Tuesday evening, and at midnight he had bagged fifty rats. With the fifty living rats in a bag—for this professional scorns to kill any rats on the premises—he left the fashionable club and started home. Then appeared an unknown policeman, who said: “Where are you going?” “None of yur business,” answered the rat catcher. “So that’s your swag,” said the policeman, sarcastically tapping the bag with his club. “Nary swag,” said the rat catcher. “What have you in the bag, then?” Here we come to the first crisis of the story, for the reply was “rats.” The policeman then punched the professional for what he, perhaps reasonably, regarded as his impertinence. Moreover, he grabbed the bag and thrust in his inquiring, official hand. Here comes the second crisis of the story, for at least seven rats grabbed that hand. The policeman yelled, and shook off the rats, and the other forty-three leaping from the bag the street was soon full of rats. The poor policeman, with rats to the right of him amd rats to the left of him, and rats in an indefinite vista before and behind him, fled into the night. This is not the first time that Slang has indirectly created confusion in the world. The rat catcher had no suspicion that the policeman would take his explanation amiss. This is the trouble. The slang thab creates disaster is generally used unwittingly. May the present picturesque warning be heeded.