LIFE IN WOODS OF NORTH MICHIGAN 285 



have dropped the use of many objectionable words and 

 phrases. 



Of such words as " skedaddle " for " run away," and 

 " varmish the ranch " for " abandon a position," and a host 

 of others which came into use during the Civil War, I need 

 say nothing, because they were never used by educated 

 people, except, perhaps, playfully ; and the remembrance 

 of them is gradually dying out, even in the country of 

 their birth. Like many vulgar sayings and words in our 

 own country, they, like some noxious insect, flutter out 

 their little day, then fall and die. 



What I have said applies to the vernacular and not 

 to the written language. The American classics with few 

 exceptions are couched in language as pure and elegant 

 as the average of our own, though I think, considering 

 her vast population, that the good writers of the United 

 States are singularly few. There are at least five hundred 

 English words that are used in a false sense by Americans. 



In commercial language it struck me as having an 

 unpleasant sound to address a firm with the abbreviation 

 " gents." instead of " gentlemen," or the more cordial 

 " Dear sirs." 



