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    Nov. 17, 1860] TJie Saturday Analyst and...

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    on be no I - no , , ] ) g £ \ t s r n fi...

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    Selection—Tails, Toys, Caoutchouc. Ih Wh...

    of our infancy flourish in all their prodigality and pomp , paint , and brittleness . Before , however , dismissing 1 the younger children , their joys , toys , and appurtenances with a . blessing 1 , one word upon perambulators : here it is impossible not to bo on the side of the crinolines and nervous gentlemen with corns . The deliberate way in which parents send out a couple of their infants , side by side , in these cramping , chilling 1 , limb-weakening 1 traps , with the most complete and sellish contempt of the comfort of ordinary pedestrians , deserves a word of animadversion . There is no pretext for the two—it may soon be three-child-abreast perambulator , dragged recklessly forward by an impertinent hussy of a nursemaid . Why not a vis-a-vis , or a dos-a-dos arrangement , and consequently narrower carriage ? Had we ever seen the poor children engaged in apparently pleasing converse , or in passing remarks on objects their route , interchanging 1 observations and inferences , it might cruel to interrupt such social intercourse ; on the contrary , they seem invariably silent , dissatisfied with the destiny which hurries them onward , with the ill-nature of the interrupted pedestrian reflected on the expression of their own physiognomies . Let parent who sends forth his children into the streets in a double perambulator , dare to complain of aristocratic aggression in Ken sington-gardens or elsewhere . As for parents and mu-ses , more appropriate punishment could be devised than a compulsory perambulation of the children up and down Cheaps : de during the three busiest hours of the day . Uninterfered with by the police they should be left simply to the execrations of the hurried passers to and fro . It is probable that the most impudent nursemaid would fairly confess herself vanquished rather than submit to a repetition of the progress . Children have their little selfishnesses , but they are nothing compared with those of average parents and nurses in connection with their children . So let the perambulators pass on and off . We proceed from the innocent to that which is usually considered the mischievous age , eliminating the gentler sex , and leaving them to their dolls , dancing , and ornamental needlework . It may be unreasonable of us to expect to have our Whitwoktes and Akiistkonus , and all the scientific improvem ents in the arts of injuring-, entirely to ourselves . The boy has his engineers' and mechanicians , and naturally emulates the man . Toy rifles maybe seen in the shops , with bayonets of most formidable proportions , really calculated to do a great deal of mischief , and ' which might well call fora '' disarming act . " These are palpably dangerous , and could find , certainly , no sale in well-regulated schools or families . But that which is the most to be deprecated is the insidious use of india-rubber , that strange substance of which the well-known philosopher , Dr . Piuestly , purchased , now some sixty or seventy years ago , a specimen , as quite a novelty , at the price of about two shillings for the square inch and a-half , and which has proved so elastic—not merely in its quality—but it its capabili- ties and price . The most perilous applications of India-rubber have lately made their appearance in the shops , worthy not merely of the animadversions of parents , but the attention of the police . There is a caoutchouc sling , with a place ingeniously arranged for depositing the stone or ballet , so infallible , it is said , in a skilful hand , that with , it our boj's might surpass , with a little practico , the famous children of the Balearic isles , and sling down their dinners iiom the very highest trues in Hyde Park , Even in a feeble hand , its foroc of j > rojoction is tremendous , and might easily stun or oven kill the unwary passenger . Very recently at Chel- tenham , tho police had to bo stationed about the volunteers' parade ground , to protect thorn from the action of thoso slings . Then thorc is tho catapult , also in india-rubber , and for casting arrows of almost oloth-yard dimension 5 its form is somewhat like that of a horso-shoo ; unfortunately it is easily pocketable , and wo may henceforth look with considerable apprehonsion at an arrow parried without any npparont bow . The elasticity is , in this case , in thu cord , and tho rosistunoo in tho short pioce of iron on which tho shaft rests . Fears may bo entortaiued for tho fate of Cupid ' s familiar lip-liko bow in thu vulentines of tho future , indood , that smull god might insidiously clap ouu of these oatapults under his wing as easily u \ s oue of his mother's doves could sccrc'to a lady ' s hiUvl-doux . Tho last woapon whioh it is necessary to mention , is nominally tho " bird killur " —for public sparrows or our private pigeons , uw tho caso may bo ; but also caloulatud to inllict , ncoidontully or not , very sovero uud painful blows on any " bipus implumis " who hap- pens to bo in tUovioiuity . Its struoturoia as follows : —First , wohavo to looso dotuohod handles of wood , Jivo or six jnobes ia longth , cylindrical in form , towards tho end tapering rather sharply and abruptly to a poiut ; thon a oord of india-rubbur of about tho thickness of an ordinary clothos-lino , oig * ht or nine inohos long 1 , and strongly loopod at oaoh ond . Tho 3 e loops are slipped oyor tho two handles , whioh uro hold apart , ono in oaoh hand , keeping on tho atrotuh tho oord , whioh in this ouso is itsolf tho weapon , and ¦ whioh is urojootod with groat violonoo by gradually approximating Blightly tho two ends of tho handles , allowing tho loops to slip rapidly ovor tho taporing portions , ana so liberating tho oord with ajork . . Now , thoso who livo in groat oitios , or thoir suburbs , may fairly protest with vohomonoo against suoli weapons ono and all , though we aro iuolinod to fWgivo india-rubbor a groat donl , for tho sake of thoso hollow balls , —that harmloas , bounding , and boundless Mossing to tho nursery . Invention , always fortilo in misohiof , ought not to be aidod and abofctod by the toy-makor . Already tho rude and reckless atono- throwing of tho young streot Amaloldtoa is formidably 011 tho ' ¦ " * s

    increase ISot many months ago , our own shins were nearly broken by a very considerable portion of a briek-bat , hurled across a surburban road by one of these urchins at his companion our favourite dogs are frequent sufferers . Let our police look to this , as well as to the perversion of the toy-maker ' s art ; and as we aro making the safety of the public our study , the police would also do well to have an eye to the intentional sowing of small pieces of orange-peel on the pavement during the orange season , an amusement in which we have seen five or six children of the democracy more than once busily engaged in the evening twilight . b

    Nov. 17, 1860] Tjie Saturday Analyst And...

    Nov . 17 , 1860 ] TJie Saturday Analyst and Leader . 943

    On Be No I - No , , ] ) G £ \ T S R N Fi...

    on be no I - no , ] ) g \ t r n fi u S ( h V n b nl 1 < ai ci ai oi \\ nc ol f li tli ox If b ; y wi cu on us pl < lur ho gil vul th < hoc wit ofjfi loo tas gat iy 3 d , MODERN" SLANTG . m HPALK of the Chinese with their unintelligible language , their ) e J ~ fifteen definitions sometimes attached to one word , but what ; better will the English soon be who are yearly engrafting whole ; families of slang words on our genuine parent roots ? Take , for U 1 I instance , that one plain comprehensive word " money ; " in the extra-[ O ordinary nomenclature of modern slang it is recognised by no less le than citjhteoi cant terms , each as uncouth in sound as it is unintell ~ legible in meaning . Does a gentleman wish to express his admira-0 tion of a young lady— " She is a stunner , by Jove , " an " out-andy outer , " " a star , " " a flamer . " If a reigning belle , " she is all the e rage . " If her admirer be a nautical man , she is designated " a V trim little clipper . " If a jockey , she is classed , in the jargon of the s stables , " a thorough pacer , " " a handsome filly . " A young man A rarely addresses his friend by his proper name , he is invariably 1 " old boy , " or '" old fellow . " In speaking of his companions , they Y are all fellows— "jolly fellows , " " plucky fellows , " " chums , 1 " trumps , " or "bricks . " The last term is particularly comprehen-> sive , it includes within its ample bounds not only the individual himself but alibis actions . Men drink like bricks , hunt like bricks , 1 pay like bricks , run in debt like bricks , smoke like bricks , live like 1 bricks—yet what the similitude is between these essential pieces of baked earth , and the above occupations , it puzzles the writer to \ imagine . Tf an acquaintance gets married , we are told "they are 1 done for , " " coupled , spliced , tied , knotted , bound , fettered , squelched . " A young man lives nowhere now , he "hangs out , " or is " stowed away " somewhere . If he asks a few friends to supper , he gives a " loose , " or a skin . All the "fast youths , " men of dissipated character of Ms acquaintance , are , strange enough , pronounced good company , if with what is positively wicked they unite good-humour and a pleasing address . Everything that displeases him is . " infernal , " from a glove button that won't fasten , to a fellow ^ being who won't do his pleasure . Every assertion he makes is " upon his word , and upon hia honour , " till one can't help fearing that honour and his word will be finally obscured beneath the mass of nothings heaped unnecessarily upon it . Does an individual or their opinions displease , they are pronounced perfectly disgusting , or " quite sickening ;" ¦ and if the victim of this offensive epithet looked rather annoyed at the brusqueness of the expression , they are made to feel " monstrous small , " or look disgustingly spooney ; and all opinions not exactly meeting his approval are indiscriminately pronounced great rot , or gas , or rubbish . These , to say nothing of the " flying horde of fashionable little foreign slangisms hovering about our fashionable cookery and furniture , " go to make up this wearisome cant and bastard dialect , seldom very elegant , rarely intelligible , of which the fashionable jargon of tho vulgur great is composed ( for tho great have their Vulgar too ) , and it is deplorable that people of elegance and refinement do not eschew the practice as coarse and vulgar . Fashion has been defined as " Gentility running away from vulgarity , and afraid of being overtaken by it . " But gentility and vulgarity alike keep pace in this matter , and are both unitedly destroying * the force and dignity of tho English language . And all tho while these counterfeits pass current in tho world , and reputations are gainedand how undeserved—for wit and talent , by tho sole art of dexterously distributing these words . A premium , in fact , is held out to the modern inventors of nlang , by tho avidity with which every new ciint phrase is seized upon and promulgated . Tho leaders of ton liuvo their"i ' uvourito wutch-word , and not more rapturously do thoy woleomo some new and elegant Parisian novelty in dross , than they do tho advent of some now cunt word . Some time ago , tho oxtromoly and inelegant word " squolch " was the reigning favourite . If n man failed in business ho was " squelohod ; " squelched if visitod by sickness or distress ; squolchod if ho died . " Crushed , " too , wum another favourite , possessing a meaning as unlimited as its circulation . Did a person receive a slight , they wore crushed ; crushed if married -rcrushed if refused—crushed if not greeted as usual in the street . Crunhod , it seems , applies to everything unpleasant or unfortunate in life . How is a well-bred foreigner , ono who has learned our pure rich language from tho best masters and works of the best grammarians , how i » ho , on arriving on our shores , to distinguish , amidst all this gibberish and subterfuge , what is admissible English , and whnfc vulgar colloquialism . Yot all this wore oxousuble , but that eventually thoHO mongrel words become habitual , und a diuleot is engendered soon wearisome Worst of nil , tho abomination is contagious , ana with a bold indopondenco and bniHquonoBs truly doplomblo , theso offensive epithets aro plokod up and reputed by the lipH wo love to look upon . Whnt porvorsity of judgment , what depravity of taste does this all-pervading- love of shuw exhibit ! It w like gathering up tho voriost muds ; tho windfalls and tho rubbish , m

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 17, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17111860/page/7/