Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 205, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 August 1915 — TAKING ‘N’ FROM DAMN [ARTICLE]

TAKING ‘N’ FROM DAMN

DOES NOT TAKE THE CURSE OFF BY ANY MEANS. When One Doesn't Care a— Wall, Even “Tinker’s Dam” Is Bad Language to Bay the Bast About It. • - ■ - A contributor to the Sun grieve* over the ignorance of those who assume that “tinker’s dam” is a “profane expression.” ▲ tinker’s dam, says he, waa a chunk of dough or batter used before the days of muriatic acid to keep the solder from spreading; and as the solder commonly did spread nevertheless, the tinker’s dam was as nearly worthless as the common expression of disesteem for it Implies. He differentiates it from the common or garden damn and says: “There is no profanity about it” But not to care a tinker’s dam is just as profane as not to care a maverick damn, unbranded with ownership by tinkers or others. Taking the “n” out of damn does not take the curse oft. If it is profane not to care a damn, It is just as profane not to care A whiffer, a Jabberwock, a goop, or any other illegitimate and unsanctioned word. Whep one stentoriously enun : dates his refusal to appraise the article under discussion at the value of a damn, he is not swearing or cursing; he is literally using bad language, for, in the sense he means, there is no such noun as damn. We know what & tinker’s dam is, but wrhat is a damn? When one says he does not care a whoop, he is far more definite, for there is such a thing as a whoop. Whence arose the idea that not caring a damn was vbeing profane, and why do persons wm^ o not care one plume themselves on their devilishness? It is not profane, but it has the Bound of being profane, and that is all that is needed. An individual who would not for the world have used blasphemous language used to relieve his feelings by pronouncing the name of one of Wagner’s operas in a tone that caused neighboring windows to fall In, and “Gotterdammerung” gave him as much satisfaction as if he had violated a commandment. And who was the man who always swore by Charles G. D. Roberts and Josephine Dodge Daskam because they sounded so profane? There is an excellent Methodist in this town who severely reprehends profanity whenever he hears It, but who produces all the effect of shocking blasphemy by the imbittered emphasis he lays on the exclamation, “For government’s sake!” Colonel Roosevelt plumes himself on his abstinence from profanity, but none of the unregenerate ever got such satisfaction out of a real cuss word as he does out of “By Godfrey! No, tinker’s dam belongs In the com-fort-giving galaxy of profane refuges for the emotions; and that is the worst you can say of the other damn. —New York Times.