disaster if you were threatened with no more than inconvenience or comparatively slight injury. Do not say you were literally scared to death if you are yet alive to tell the story.

EXERCISE - Slovenliness I

Give moderate or accurate utterance to the following ideas:

The burning of the hen-coop was a mighty conflagration. The fact that the point of the pencil was broken profoundly surprised me. We had a perfectly gorgeous time. It's a beastly shame that I missed my car. It is awfully funny that he should die. The saleslady pulled the washlady's hair. A cold bath is pretty nice of mornings. To go a little late is just the article.

Another thing to avoid is the use of words in the wrong parts of speech, as a noun for a verb, or an adjective for an adverb. Sometimes newspapers are guilty of such faults; for journalistic English, though pithy, shows here and there traces of its rapid composition. You must look to more leisurely authorities. The speakers and writers on whom you may rely will not say "to burglarize," "to suspicion," "to enthuse," "plenty rich," "real tired," "considerable discouraged," "a combine," or "humans." An exhaustive list of such errors cannot be inserted here. If you feel yourself uncertain in these details of usage, you should have access to such a volume as _The Century Desk Book of Good English_.

EXERCISE - Slovenliness II

1. For each quoted expression in the preceding paragraph compose a sentence which shall contain the correct form, or the grammatical equivalent, of the expression.

2. Correct the following sentences:

The tramp suicided. She was real excited. He gestured angry. He was some anxious to get to the eats. All of us had an invite. Them boys have sure been teasing the canine.

Another thing to avoid is triteness. The English language teems with phrases once strikingly original but now smooth-worn and vulgarized by incessant repetition. It can scarcely be said that you are to shun these altogether. Now and then you will find one of them coming happily as well as handily into your speech. But you must not use them too often. Above all, you must rid yourself of any dependence upon them. The scope of this book permits only a few illustrations of the kinds of words and phrases meant. But the person who speaks of "lurid flames," or "untiring efforts," or "specimens of humanity"--who "views with alarm," or has a "native heath," or is "to the manner born"--does more than advertise the scantness of his verbal resources. He brands himself mentally indolent; he deprives his thought itself of all sharpness, exactness, and power.

EXERCISE - Slovenliness III

Replace with more original expressions the trite phrases (italicized) in the following sentences:

_Last but not least_, we have _in our midst_ one who began life _poor but honest_.

After we had _done justice to a dinner_ and gathered in the drawing room, we listened _with bated breath_ while she _favored us with a selection_.

_A goodly number_ of _the fair sex_, perceiving that _the psychological moment_ had come, _applauded him to the echo_.

We were _doomed to disappointment; the grim reaper_ had already gathered unto himself _all that was mortal_ of our comrade.

_No sooner said than done_. I soon found myself _the proud possessor_ of that for which I had acknowledged _a long-felt want_.

After _the last sad rites_ were over and her body was _consigned to earth_, we began talking _along these lines_.

With _a few well-chosen words_ he _brought order out of chaos_.

The way my efforts were _nipped in the bud_ simply _beggars description_. I am somewhat _the worse for wear. Hoping you are the same_, I remain Yours sincerely, Ned Burke.

Finally, to the extent that you use slang at all, be its master instead of its slave. You have many times been told that the overuse of slang disfigures one's speech and hampers his standing with cultivated people.