lly sealed save when the voice of gentility bids its furtive
door be opened. The American "parlor" resembles the "parlour" of the
eighteenth century as little as the "parlour" of the Victorian age. It
is busy, public, and multifarious. It means so many things that at last
it carries no other meaning than that of a false elegance. It is in a
dentist's parlor that the American's teeth are gilded; he is shaved in
a tonsorial parlor; he travels in a parlor-car; and Miss Maudie's parlor
proves how far an ancient and respected word may wander from its origin.
One example, of many, will illustrate the accidents which beset the life
of words. No examples will prove the plain absurdity which has flattered
the vanity of some American critics that their language has faithfully
adhered to the tradition of English speech.

The vocabulary of America, like the country itself, is a strange medley.
Some words it has assimilated into itself; others it holds, as it were,
by a temporary loan. And in its choice, or invention, it follows two
divergent, even opposite, paths. On the one hand, it pursues and gathers
to itself barbarous Latinisms; on the other, it is eager in its quest
after a coarse and living slang.

That a country which makes a constant boast of its practical
intelligence should delight in long, flat, cumbrous collections of
syllables, such as "locate," "operate," "antagonize," "transportation,"
"commutation," and "proposition," is an irony of civilisation. These
words, if words they may be called, are hideous to the eye, offensive
to the ear, and inexpressive to the mind. They are the base coins of
language. They bear upon their face no decent superscription. They are
put upon the street, fresh from some smasher's den, and not even the
newspapers, contemptuous as they are of style, have reason to be proud
of them! Nor is there any clear link between them and the meaning thrust
upon them. Why should the poor holder of a season-ticket have the grim
word "commutation" hung round his neck? Why should the simple business
of going from one place to another be labelled "transportation"?
And these words are apt and lucid compared with "proposition." Now
"proposition" is America's maid-of-all-work. It means everything or
nothing. It may be masculine, feminine, neuter--he, she, it. It is tough
or firm, cold or warm, according to circumstances. But it has no more
sense than an expletive, and its popularity is a clear proof of an idle