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.

It is a part of youthful exuberance to exaggerate. Children always
want a thing as long as "from here to Jerusalem," and stretch their
tiny arms out till they nearly fall backwards, trying to make an inch
as long as a mile. But, _cave canem_! the fault of exaggerating
once powerful over you, not only the bounds of the English language
are leapt, but truth is unconsciously set at nought. We always allow
for the words of some persons, for with them a scratch is a wound;
a wind, a hurricane; one dollar, a thousand; and all they do in life,
a big, big bluster. The only way to bring back English to a state of
purity--for it has been outraged by slang, imitation, technical
expressions, a straining after long words, and a regular system of
exaggeration--is to speak simple words, using all necessary force and
emphasis in the voice instead of in the number of syllables, saying
what you mean by just the words that will convey the meaning. Of course
the dictionary must be frequently used. There is no help so sure as
that which it affords to one who would use language properly.

Do not be troubled if you hesitate in conversation, and cannot
immediately find the proper word. Search in your mind till you get