Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/119

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THE GIRL WHO USES SLANG

I WONDER how many times my girls are slangy? I wonder if they ever think what a lack of refinement is shown in being slangy in word, dress, or manner? I wonder if they ever think how this much-to-be-deplored slanginess affects the listener and the looker-on? I cannot believe that any of them think this out, and so I am going to preach a little sermon about slang. The first step down on the very quick descent of bad manners is shown in the use of it. Commencing with the mere words of slang soon, very soon, a general degeneration in the girl herself may be noticed. A girl may claim that she uses slang in a joking way; she may just at first, but commenced as a bit of fun it gets to be, like all bad habits, difficult to overcome.

The American girl is bright, cultivated, and refined; she is pretty and interesting, and yet when you hear her say, as many a one does every day