Frou Our OWN Conses?oNDENT
Edinburgh, Mar. 31, Inthe home lands "the vernacular" has largely come to mean the old Seats tongue; but "vernacular" has a wider application; it is simply the Latin adjective, "home born," and no two peoples have quite the same sorb of home born language. But the great point about them all is that, in being essentially spoken, fs against written, speech, they m all extraordinarily vivid, They say things in every sense of the term. That is one of the most sti features of Burns. His poems meant to be spoken, in contion to the sort of poetry which is merely written and mean: to he read. Mr. J. M. Bulloch, the: well-known London-Scottish jour rialist, has written a powerful art! ele on this textp—an article which is. one of a series contributed by various authors to the columns of an enterprising Glasgow newspaper.
Bulloch's suggestion is that!
spoken speech goes to tha making of thought. Slang, which is a form of vernacular, is the concentrated "pep" of experience in expression; one little word reveals 'a whole frame of mind on the instant, and country characters using their' vernacular dramatize them selves and do not need to be evolved out of the novelist's head. We, of course, have all seen this proposition of Mr. Bulloch illustrated in vernacular plays. It is not_ that their subject matter is so much b ter than other plays, but they pre-gent it more vitally, Tt stands for something. It is real happens that a vernacular conviction even to a people who do not rise it themselves, and who even understand it imperfectly, For ex. aniple, London, which has a yer marked vernieular of its own, though not so marked as it was in the days of Sam any sort of play na cular, We have seen the succos*
Soot play Mike "Bunty Pulls. the ngs." "The Lancashire play, "Hinde Wakes," made. an appeal; the Bovonshire Farmer's Wife hold a more than a thousand nights; and Tatest of ull, the American play of "Is Zat So?" caught on very. quickly, even although a glossary had to be supplied with the pro ced, you talk is English, or any form But} taken axa whole, there is mo mistaking what the dramatist is driving at, even if sume words get lost. 'AS Mr, Bulloch sums up very effoctively, the vitality of a vernacular} depanite on the fact that it exhibits in fall dogeroe under daily use the al of the ftiest. Weak words wet displaced; strong ones main, and indeed find their into the xo called standard language of the country, as.in the case of} feaccanny," which has no equivalent)
lish and has been adopted. What again can excel the" pyas? "earn-stai erept into a Sunday' pi other weok—ansl what is better than "easy-oxy"? so those who speak a vernacular do iti to jettison 1s, though, of course, nan believes that it can express everything, ¢specially in an age which wants to say (hings never thought of by our forefathers.
Seats and English Abusive Rhymes There is an old Gacie proverb which speaks of "England's art and Seotland's force." The insinuation is that England won by guile what he could not get by might. We have fa record of the old international strife in the saying, "Every Eng: ish archer beareth under his pirate 24 Scots." In another mood are the Hines, fe. that will England win Mose ith Scotland frst Besa fand there was a parallel saying, quoted by Shakespeare as "very oh and true," that—
"te you. will France wil, Then with Scotland Gest beg is often asked "Which is. the fairest view in all Scotland?" ai newer jo "The road that Teads out of it." "The road that leads out Of England," and "England is. fat feeding ground for _north-country centile." In this connexion it is impossible to omit the deadly: eom-
"Had Cain been Seat, God would hare hened the Sats Not ole. a "wehder, bat con dsenel tle hone'
An old Scots sneer runs Long beards bene, Gag oats pracecas Palate hole wile Bae' England thifles™
And the English made the re tort "Out of the north Aue cone Fortes and "Cold weather and knaves come of the north." The English habit Of "wetting" a. transaction, ati greatly honoured in the observance, the inspiration of this saying, "Ne'er an Englishman loved a dry-lipped bargain." According to proerbial wisdom, shen an. English: tan wants a thing he eries for it But the Scotsman perseveres till wine it, The three peoples are again' brought together in the following, "The Englishman is never content but when he is grumbling, the Irishman is never at peace but ig fighting, the Scots at home but when he 'A Versatile Surgeon Sir James Cantho, the famous} Scottish surgeon who spent a number of years in the Far East, and who retired from practice in Harley Street, some time ago, is recovering from the serious illness which ed him in Scotland recent! though he is now 75, it dificult to associate this astor ishing man with the idea of illness. His en-corgies and enthusiasms are unbound ed, and he occupies a unique place both socially and in the world of medicine. In the former capacity he is always a delight to meet, and he sings "The Tinkers' Weddin") better than anyone I ever heard. Sir James has quite an extensive repertoire of Aberdeenshire—songs. which he thoroughly enjoys. si ing—all of them in the broadest Doric. Tt is coxy to tell not only his nationality but hix county before he has said half a dozen words.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.