Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 80, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 June 1909 — PROFANITY A HABIT. [ARTICLE]

PROFANITY A HABIT.

An exchange calls attention to what must be accepted as a fact, that profanity is gdmg out of vogue, which means that the practice is becoming unpopular and losing recognition as pardonable linguistic excess in the way of emphasis. If this is true, and the careful observer has no reason to doubt it, the world is getting away from a foolish and useless custom, one that has never accomplished anything outside of the realms of brag and bluster and one that has not been,, the mark of a gentleman since anybody now on earth can remember. Profanity is one of the things pronounced against by divine law and legislated against by mundane legislatures, but outside of any question there may be as to whether it is wicked or not, it is subject to condemnation on sufficient grounds to place it in bad odor among selfrespecting people. Swear words are classed among the improper language that should not be used in the presence of a lady or of children, or ministers, or other people on whom it would have a shocking or evil effect, so that the practice of swearing is confined largely to occasions when those to whom it is addressed or in whose hearing it is engaged in are addicted to the habit themselves and are supposed to be immune so far as their sensibilities are concerned. Most persons who indulge in profanity will declare that they do not mean anything by the swear words they use, but they have got so in the habit of using them they rip out unconsciously or without realizing as to their significance or application. Unfortunately this habit is usually acquired in youth. Some boys think it is smart to swear. They hear older boys and men uttering oaths to emphasize their conversation and get an idea that it is an evidence of superiority of some sort. In fact, they do not analyze the impression very closely. In many instances the habit follows them through life and is exercised for the supposed relief of indignation and anger and to lend a purely imaginary emphasis to arguments and declarations. And yet that the habit is controllable is evidenced by the fact that profanity is rarely, if ever, heard in church or in a court of justice, nor is it indulged in under many other conditions when it would seem to shock the proprieties.