commended at this moment in preference to government bonds." (The Week, September 21, 1878.)

"For here the railroad comes to an end, and a good riddance to it." (The same, October 19, 1878.)

But if it should be said that this is mere newspaper writing (although upon such a point of usage there is no better evidence than that of a high-class London weekly paper), see the following examples furnished by an eminent Englishman who is regarded by many persons as the writer of the purest and most unexceptionable English of the day:

"In these times newspapers, railroads, and magnetic telegraphs make us independent of government messengers." (John Henry Newman, Callista, chap. vii.)

"Therefore, for example, education, periodical literature, railroad traveling, ventilation, drainage, and the arts of life, when fully carried out, serve to make a population moral and happy." (The same, Apologia pro Vita sua, page 296. Note on Liberalism.)

These illustrations might be largely increased. I have taken merely what was within reach of my hand as I sat at my table. Clearly, again, a man need not be an "American" to use railroad instead of railway. But railway is right and railroad wrong, as I have shown in Words and their Uses, for the reason, in brief, that a railway is laid upon a road, and the road is always somewhat, and generally very much, wider than the way. Of this view of the case I find the following illustration in a recent number of a London journal:

but the years passed away, and one governor-general succeeded another, and still the railway was not begun. At last it was determined, in the interests of economy, to lay down the rails on the existing trunk road, a very fine work." (Pall Mall Budget, October 12, 1878.)

1 Railroad occurs four times on a single page (vol. i. p. 282) of Memoirs of a Quiet Life; and Mrs. Trollope, most American-eschewing of British females, furnishes this instance: "When an individual, or set of individuals, desire to commence some expensive undertaking, such as the construction of a railroad, the establishment of steam vessels, or

66

As to baggage, I have already shown (Atlantic, April, 1878) that it is not distinctively "American" upon the evidence of the writings of Fielding, Sterne, Walter Scott, Mrs. Trollope, Thomas Hughes, and others. As to right off the reel, I can only say that I have constantly heard it from my childhood upon the lips of New England people who, although educated, were entirely unsophisticated by British example; and it is remarkable that Mr. Bartlett gives right off, in the sense of immediately (which is a mere abbreviation of right off the reel), as an Americanism! A similarly laughable confusion exists as to fire-dogs. At the end of that excellent work, Chambers's Dictionary of the English Language (Lond. 1872), there is a glossary of Americanisms," so called; and in this glossary dogs is set forth as an Americanism for andirons! Truly, we may leave our British critics to settle what is British English and what is American English among themselves. As to andiron, there is not a word in the language more thoroughly English, past or present. I will observe, by the way, that in this same Chambers's Glossary of Americanisms I find, under F, fleshy in the sense of stout, upon which I remarked in my last article; and flashy, in the sense of not sweet and fruitful, notwithstanding Bacon's "else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things (Essay, Of Studies); and, St. Patrick help us! fornent, in the sense of opposite, -a word not only never heard from Yankee lips, but the occasion of smiling remark to us when we hear it from Biddy and Murphy. We shall next be told that Ochone! is an Americanism. Returning to our critic: I hear to the fore quite as often here as I heard it in England (where I also heard on hand), and much oftener than I hear on deek, which is slang of a kind not used by persons fastidious as to their hotel

the like," etc. (Vienna and the Austrians, page 183, chap. lvii.) Dickens also writes: "At one point, as we ascended a steep hill, athwart whose base a railroad, yet constructing, took its course, we came upon an Irish colony." (American Notes, vol. ii p. 212, Lond. 1842.)

VI.

I AM not Feste, and yet the Malvolios of literature might say of me, with more reason than their prototype said of him, that I am a barren rascal, and that unless some one ministers occasion to me I am gagged. But again, in the selfperfection of their characters, they furnish me occasion themselves. Since the writing of my last article upon my present subject, the following illustration of the prevalent British ignorance upon it has appeared. A letter professing to be written by an American was published in the London World, about hotels in that city. Upon this the London Figaro undertakes to show that the writer is not an American, "because, while trying to assume the Yankee style of expression, he shows a lack of familiarity with peculiarly American phrases." The point in itself is well taken, and if maintained it would be fatal to the pretense of the "American" origin of the letter. But to accomplish this the critic must have a double knowledge as to the phrases which are the grounds of his criticism, – that they are or are not used by "Americans," and that they are or are not used by Englishmen. As to his possession of this knowledge we shall see. "For example," he says, "Americans say railroad, not railway; they say a hotel, not an hotel; andirons, not fire-dogs; that's so, not that is so; baggage, not luggage; parquet or reserved seats, not stalls; right away, not right off the reel; shirt bosom, not shirt front; on hand or on deck, not to the fore; and many other things besides." What the other things are I do not know. I have seen neither the letter nor the criticism in situ, but quote the latter from a New York paper in which it is presented as settling completely the question at issue. Now whether the letter was written by a Yankee or not I shall not undertake to say; that matter is nothing to my purpose.

-

But I shall show by a few illustrations lying just at hand that this formidable attack upon its origin based upon internal evidence is quite futile, and that the British critic was not sufficiently informed as to what are peculiarly “ American" phrases.

As to the use of railway being evidence of non-American origin, see the following passages, the first from the most American of newspapers:—

The

"The Board of Fire Commissioners of the District [of Columbia] has refused to recognize Mr. W. B. Reed. funds for paying for the Railway Mail Service will run short in December." (New York Tribune, October 23, 1878.)

"Whenever the Greeks have tried to establish railway communication with the rest of the world, they have been met by the opposition of Turkey," etc. (Speech of General Reed, United States minister to Greece, in London Week, September 21, 1878.)

I have before me a letter dated Paris, September 12, 1878, from a gentleman now traveling in France, one who till four months ago had never been out of New England or New York, and in it are these passages: —

"We took a bottle of old Beaune into the railway carriage, which we had to ourselves,” etc.

"In France they set the clocks in front of the railway stations ten minutes in advance, so everybody shall come early."

Clearly, a letter may be written by an "American" of the most pronounced type although its writer uses railway and not railroad. On the other hand, see the following evidence that Englishmen use railroad. In the very London journal which on one page quotes the American minister's speech containing railway is the following passage:

"For investors are not so well situated, and therefore the descriptions of American railroad securities are to be

commended at this moment in preference to government bonds." (The Week, September 21, 1878.)

"For here the railroad comes to an end, and a good riddance to it." same, October 19, 1878.)

(The

But if it should be said that this is mere newspaper writing (although upon such a point of usage there is no better evidence than that of a high-class London weekly paper), see the following examples furnished by an eminent Englishman who is regarded by many persons as the writer of the purest and most unexceptionable English of the day:

"In these times newspapers, railroads, and magnetic telegraphs make us independent of government messengers." (John Henry Newman, Callista, chap. vii.)

"Therefore, for example, education, periodical literature, railroad traveling, ventilation, drainage, and the arts of life, when fully carried out, serve to make a population moral and happy." (The same, Apologia pro Vita sua, page

296.

Note on Liberalism.)

These illustrations might be largely increased. I have taken merely what was within reach of my hand as I sat at my table.1 Clearly, again, a man need not be an "American" to use railroad instead of railway. But railway is right and railroad wrong, as I have shown in Words and their Uses, for the reason, in brief, that a railway is laid upon a road, and the road is always somewhat, and generally very much, wider than the way. Of this view of the case I find the following illustration in a recent number of a London journal: —

-"but the years passed away, and one governor-general succeeded another, and still the railway was not begun. At last it was determined, in the interests of economy, to lay down the rails on the existing trunk road, a very fine work." (Pall Mall Budget, October 12, 1878.)

1 Railroad occurs four times on a single page (vol. i. p. 282) of Memoirs of a Quiet Life; and Mrs. Trollope, most American-eschewing of British females, furnishes this instance: "When an individual, or set of individuals, desire to commence some expensive undertaking, such as the construction of a railroad, the establishment of steam vessels, or

As to baggage, I have already shown (Atlantic, April, 1878) that it is not distinctively "American upon the evidence of the writings of Fielding, Sterne, Walter Scott, Mrs. Trollope, Thomas Hughes, and others. As to right off the reel, I can only say that I have constantly heard it from my childhood upon the lips of New England people who, although educated, were entirely unsophisticated by British example; and it is remarkable that Mr. Bartlett gives right off, in the sense of immediately (which is a mere abbreviation of right off the reel), as an Americanism! A similarly laughable confusion exists as to fire-dogs. At the end of that excellent work, Chambers's Dictionary of the English Language (Lond. 1872), there is a glossary of "Americanisms," so called; and in this glossary dogs is set forth as an Americanism for andirons! Truly, we may leave our British critics to settle what is British English and what is American English among themselves. As to andiron, there is not a word in the language more thoroughly English, past or present. I will observe, by the way, that in this same Chambers's Glossary of Americanisms I find, under F, fleshy in the sense of stout, upon which I remarked in my last article; and flashy, in the sense of not sweet and fruitful, notwithstanding Bacon's "else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things" (Essay, Of Studies); and, St. Patrick help us! fornent, in the sense of opposite, a word not only never heard from Yankee lips, but the occasion of smiling remark to us when we hear it from Biddy and Murphy. We shall next be told that Ochone! is an Americanism. Returning to our critic: I hear to the fore quite as often here as I heard it in England (where I also heard on hand), and much oftener than I hear on deck, which is slang of a kind not used by persons fastidious as to their hotel

the like," etc. (Vienna and the Austrians, page 183, chap. lvii.) Dickens also writes: "At one point, as we ascended a steep hill, athwart whose base a railroad, yet constructing, took its course, we came upon an Irish colony." (American Notes, vol. ii p. 212, Lond. 1842.)

VI.

I AM not Feste, and yet the Malvolios of literature might say of me, with more reason than their prototype said of him, that I am a barren rascal, and that unless some one ministers occasion to me I am gagged. But again, in the selfperfection of their characters, they furnish me occasion themselves. Since the writing of my last article upon my present subject, the following illustration of the prevalent British ignorance upon it has appeared. A letter professing to be written by an American was published in the London World, about hotels in that city. Upon this the London Figaro undertakes to show that the writer is not an American, "because, while trying to assume the Yankee style of expression, he shows a lack of familiarity with peculiarly American phrases." The point in itself is well taken, and if maintained it would be fatal to the pretense of the "American" origin of the letter. But to accomplish this the critic must have a double knowledge as to the phrases which are the grounds of his criticism, — that they are or are not used by "Americans,” and that they are or are not used by Englishmen. As to his possession of this knowledge we shall see. "For example," he says, "Americans say railroad, not railway; they say a hotel, not an hotel; andirons, not fire-dogs; that's so, not that is so; baggage, not luggage; parquet or reserved seats, not stalls; right away, not right off the reel; shirt bosom, not shirt front; on hand or on deck, not to the fore; and many other things besides." What the other things are I do not know. I have seen neither the letter nor the criticism in situ, but quote the latter from a New York paper in which it is presented as settling completely the question at issue. Now whether the letter was written by a Yankee or not I shall not undertake to say; that matter is nothing to my purpose.

But I shall show by a few illustrations lying just at hand that this formidable attack upon its origin based upon internal evidence is quite futile, and that the British critic was not sufficiently informed as to what are peculiarly "American" phrases.

As to the use of railway being evidence of non-American origin, see the following passages, the first from the most American of newspapers:—

The

"The Board of Fire Commissioners of the District [of Columbia] has refused to recognize Mr. W. B. Reed. funds for paying for the Railway Mail Service will run short in December." (New York Tribune, October 23, 1878.)

"Whenever the Greeks have tried to establish railway communication with the rest of the world, they have been met by the opposition of Turkey," etc. (Speech of General Reed, United States minister to Greece, in London Week, September 21, 1878.)

I have before me a letter dated Paris, September 12, 1878, from a gentleman now traveling in France, one who till four months ago had never been out of New England or New York, and in it are these passages:—

"We took a bottle of old Beaune into the railway carriage, which we had to ourselves," etc.

"In France they set the clocks in front of the railway stations ten minutes in advance, so everybody shall come early."

Clearly, a letter may be written by an "American" of the most pronounced type although its writer uses railway and not railroad. On the other hand, see the following evidence that Englishmen use railroad. In the very London journal which on one page quotes the American minister's speech containing railway is the following passage:

"For investors are not so well situated, and therefore the descriptions of American railroad securities are to be