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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 27, 1898)
12 Conservative. The Knglish Language of the Future. A fascinating tbcruo for the speculation - tion of students is found iu tbo future evolution of the English language. Fixity is death , growth is life that is the law of nil organism iu affairs of the mind and spirit as well as of the body. The evolution of modern English from the ago and practice of Chaucer to the time of Shakespeare and his Elizabethan galaxy , and theuco down to the period of Tennyson and Browning , Longfellow and Lowell can bo studied as minutely as the victim of the vivisectionist's knife. The changes in the language in its ac cretion of words , even in some usnges of construction , within a generation are quite noticeable. Ifc is a sign of the magnificent vitality of our great tongue , alike in its written and spoken phases , that it responds so quickly to each in tellectual and social need. Perhaps its very lack of a great and finally author itative dictionary like that of Littre in French , made under the sanction of the academy , which is so tyrannical in its claims , is not without advantage. ProfefeEOi' Brander Matthews of Co lumbia college , who has written with spirit and vivacity on kindred topics , has something to say on tbo future of English in the current issue of Muu- soy's Magazine. This critic is aggres sively , even ferociously , American in hit claims for this country as being the fated arbiter of the coming language. He says : The English of the future will bo the Eng lish that wo Ehnl ) use hero in the United States , iind it is for us to hand it down to our children lilted for the service it is to render. This tn.slt is ours , not to bo undertaken boastfully or vainglorioubly or in any spirit of provincial bclf assertion on the ono hand or of colonial Eulf depreciation on the other , but with a full Eon.su of the burden imposed upon us and of the privilege that accompanies it. It is our duty to do what wo can to keep our English speech fresh and vigorous , to help it draw new life and power from every piopor sourcci , to resist all the attempts of pedants to cramp it and re&tiain its healthy growtli and to urge along the simplification of its grammar and its orthography , so that it shall bo ready against the day when it is really a world Ian guago. No doubt this responsibility rests in considerable degree where Professor Matthews puts it. But docs he concede no share in it to our English cousins , to the influences which stir at the very fountain head of English speech ? This is a little selfish in the pundit of Co lumbia. America has certainly greatly affected England in its habits , usages and modes of speech , and England has returned the pleasant compliment vig orously. If the one country has been Americanized , the other has been Augli- o zed in many familiar usages of life and speech. That this country adds fresh verbal wealth to English more rapidly than does the more conservative people is true. But the process is really reciprocal. It is sure to become more and more HO in the future , for more in timate acquaintance and the sense of a common heritage are making constant strides. Englishmen are more particular in using and pronouncing words than wo iu America , if wo are more prolific aud creative. Both functions are need ed by healthy growth. Let the spirit of co-operation oxteud to literature and language as well as to public affairs. The proper way to phrase Professor Matthews' prophecy is not that the new Euglish will grow out of its American modification , but that it will grow simultaneously by them and by British changes and by Australian variations. The United States will only play its big part , though that will bo a great one indeed. It was a pet scheme of Gordon Paeha iu his earlier days as governor general of the Sudan to establish a college at Khartum. Here the western education could bo taught , at least iu its rudi mentary brauchos , and the sons of the chiefs of the Baggara and of other semi-Arab tribes who swell the ranks of the dervishes might thus be brought under civilizing influences during plas tic youth. Education iu the Sudan un der native auspices simply means a well memorized knowledge of the Koran The notion of establishing such a col lege was that of a fareeeiug statesman General Kitchener , the brilliant Eng- lifeh soldier , who has been walking in Gordon's tracks with more than Gor don's good fortune , has revived the scheme. On his return to Cairo and Qnally to England the assent of tbo khedive and of the Euglish government , with the requisite assistance , will bese- aured. A well pushed enterprise of this kind will tend to make further Mah- disrn impossible and substitute an equal ly effective apparatus for the maohiuo ? un and the soldier s bayonet. Tlio World's Wheat Crop. Mr. Bramhall of the Liverpool Corn Trade News is ouo of the most distin guished aud conservative experts in his line iu the world. The statistics which ho has receutly published of the wheat crop of 1898 appear to have been com piled with much care. If they are ap proximately true , they indicate a record breaking year. His estimate of the graud total for 1898 is 2,007,000,000 bushels against 2,270,700,000 in 1897 , a gain of 886,800,000 bushels. The in crease iii tbo product of the Uuited States is 60,000,000 bushels , a figure vhichourown authorities declare too low , their count raising the total to 100- 000,000. The interesting question is v hat effect this largo iucreaso in the World's wheat will have on prices. \ \ bile it is impossible that last year's high figures will bo reached , there is still borne grouud for the convictiou that there will not bo any declension from a normal aud substantial return to our wheat farmers. This reaboniug is based on the fact that the very small crops of the four years preccdiug 1898 our owu 1897 crop alone excepted exhausted all of the wheat reserves of the world. The ' .A r US r new crop must not only supply current needs , but fill this great deficit. What this reserve should bo normally or how to estimate it is difficult to define. But the markets tend to accumulate such a rcbervo by n well known economic law. Whether much of that reserve exists to day can be guessed through a calcula tion. The totality of wheat which the world produced iu the four years pre ceding 1898 was about 843,000,000 less than in the preceding quartet of years. If Sir William Crookes' figures , HR given in his recent British association paper relating to the increase of the world's population ( mainly in wheat eating conutries , too ) , are approximate ly correct , that gain is about 0,000,000 a year. So with again of 24,000,000 moio people to feed in lour years there have been 848,400,000 bushels of wheat less to eat. Considering this rather as an indication of fact than an exact statement , it hints that any wheat sur plus must have boon pretty well ex hausted. However errant statistics may be in exact detail , they may still show the current of things. It is not reasonable to suppose that the prices of wheat will fall much below a normal level of profit on account of the enor mous crop of 1898. Tbo utilization of the byproducts of aiiinufacture once discarded as waste IB becoming an important feature of iu- lustrial economy. For example , the phosphorus eliminated from iron by the basic process is returned to the fields igain as ono of the most effective ma nures. At the great packing houses every thing in the animal is made valuable. Tlio tomato and fruit canneries use oven ; ho skin and core , for out of these can DO made excellent soups and. jollies. The average reader thinks of the Aleutian islands as icebound rocks in habited by barbarians and bears wearing heavy fur garments to keep off the win ter cold. According to Governor Brady Df Alaska , these islands are covered for nine mouths of the year with the most luxuriant and succulent gra&s and are 3ertain in the future to support largo herds of sheep and cattle. The Aleuts , too , are among the most docile , iudus trious and intelligent of American races. Joaquin Miller's funeral pile has been srected by the eccentric poet near Oak- laud , Cal. Eight feet in height , it cov ers 100 square feet in area aud is built Df rough bowlders of unequal sizes. On the top of this the poet will ouo day bo nemated and his ashes scattered to the four winds of heaven if his will is car ried out. This poetiofato is highly euit- iblo to the career of the "bard of the Sierras. " "Tho Daughter of the Confederacy" IB to have no successor. This is as it should be. But ono person could legiti mately have held that name beloved in ; he south. t 4
