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
