Page:The American language; an inquiry into the development of English in the United States (IA americanlanguage00menc 0).pdf/181

 G. K. Chesterton's in "Man Alive." Even Kipling, who submitted the manuscript of "Captains Courageous" to American friends for criticism, yet managed to make an American in it say "He's by way of being a fisherman now." The late Frank M. Bicknell once amassed some amusing examples of this unanimous failing. Max Pemberton, in a short story dealing with an American girl's visit to England, makes her say: "I'm right glad.…You're as pale as spectres, I guess.…Fancy that, now!…You are my guest, I reckon, . . . and here you are, my word!" C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne, in depicting a former American naval officer, makes him speak of saloon-corner men (corner-loafers?). E. W. Hornung, in one of his "Raffles" stories, introduces an American prize-fighter who goes to London and regales the populace with such things as these: "Blamed if our Bowery boys ain't cock-angels to scum like this.…By the holy tinker!…Blight and blister him!…I guess I'll punch his face into a jam pudding.…Say, sonny, I like you a lot, but I sha'n't like you if you're not a good boy." The American use of way and away seems to have daunted many of the authors quoted by Mr. Bicknell; several of them agree on forms that are certainly never heard in the United States. Thus H. B. Marriott Watson makes an American character say: "You ought to have done business with me away in Chicago," and Walter Frith makes another say: "He has gone way off to Holborn," "I stroll a block or two way down the Strand," "I'll drive him way down home by easy stages," and "He can pack his grip and be way off home." Even worse are the attempts at American made by English writers upon lower planes. Here, for example, is the effort of the advertising agent of the Morris motor car (prefaced by the rather cryptic note: "In view of the fact that the famous Morris car is now being sold at low 'American' prices, we have ventured to put our advertisement into the American language"):

Say, bud, jest haow do you calculate to buy an automobile? Do you act pensive after you've bought, or do you let a few facts form fours on your grey matter before you per-mit the local car agent to take a hack at your bank balance?

F'rinstance, what horse-power class do you aim to get into? Will your pocket bear a 20 h.p., and, if not, will a 10 h.p. bear your family? That's