Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 April 1910 — RAGTIME IN OUR LANGUAGE. [ARTICLE]

RAGTIME IN OUR LANGUAGE.

Protest Against the Sanctioning of Certain Colloquialisms. - Students of Laura Jean Libby and the Police Gazette, who look to the substance rather than the forms of speech, greeted with enthusiasm the announcement of Prof. Otto Jerperson of Coppenhagen that "it Is me” is quite as correct' as “it is if and “if it was” quite as proper as “if it were,” in spite pf the restrictions which a little oligarchy of grammarians has imposed upon our noble English tongue. Prof. Jerperson tells us blandfy that .‘it is me’ has been In ude 200 years, though he fails to cite his authority, in the absence of which he alone must be held sponsor. He is a Dane, on his way to receive some of thfe Danegelt which, apparently, the University of Chicago keeps in its strongbox for the foreign eccentrics who make occasional forays in its midst, the Baltimore Sun says. But the real explanation of his position revealed 1 when we learn that he in to lecture on a. new universal language, known as “Ido.'’ There have been a number of panaceas for the confusion of tongues which began "at the tower of Babel, so, in a certain, sense, Prof; Jerpefseo brings us nothing new. Volapuk rose, reigned and fell and tp° re recently Esperanto has had the call. Only an enthusiast on the subject of parts of speech could hope to succeed in establishing upon the ruins of other universal languages a twentieth cen-

tflFy vehicle which would be generally accepted. The dletum flrst uttered by M. Talleyrand—and several others—that lan* guage was Intended to conceal thought has been discarded by a wholesomeminded generation which believes that a diplomat Is not an emissary appointed "to lie abroad for one’s country," but rather a business ageat who Is able to dance and rent a palace out of his own pocket. It Is an age of alrect simplicity of speech, but that does not carry with It any authority for slovenly syntax; no license for “It Is me.” This Danish Daniel come to Judgment merely indicates things as they ought to be, in his opinion, and not as they are or have been. When truant husbands stumble on the stairs as the cuckoo clock microphones some early morning hour, they may be pardoned lf,‘ in response to an anxious challenge, they should answer with a hasty “It is me.” , Mrs. Caudle herself mlght"be forgiven the expression, under the circumstances: - ‘lf I was would leave my breath In the hall.” . But written fair, set In print, or uttered with deliberation, the accepted forms for the kind of English in which Dr. Johnson defined a “net” as something "articulated and reticulated, with Interstices between the intersections." We are all for the simple, heartfelt lay, In verse or prose. But when a Dane who has Anew language to sell comes over and begins to pick flaws In the one in which the declaration of Independence and “The Message to Garcia” were written, we are Inclined to suspect his motives and discredit his wares.