Imagine a girl of the period versed in the loose expressions
of the day. She goes away; but, after an absence of five years in a
country where she hears little except in a foreign tongue, she returns,
and with her comes her slang. How common, how witless, her talk appears!
Her slang has long since gone out of fashion. The best of English never
changes its style.
Girls, especially very young girls, must have their secret signs, their
language of nods and becks and shrugs; but young ladies who have
outgrown "eni, meni, moni, mi; husca, lina, bona, stri," ought to
outgrow signs which are suggestive of coarse, rude acts, and which,
with the slang expressions that accompany them, have often originated
in some theatre of questionable character.
The responsibility rests with you, girls, to stop this increasing use
of slang, and of words of double meaning. I say you can prevent it
because you are so much regarded. Your influence is wide, wider than
you suppose. If you do not cease speaking slang, your younger sisters
will not, your friends and acquaintances may not. More than this: if
you use coarse words, or those which may be interpreted in various
ways, then coarse manners will soon follow coarse tones, and a general
swaggering and lawlessness. My dear girls, I am only prophesying what
will be if no prevention is employed. Surely you will give no cause
for censure, if you seriously think about this matter.
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