Practical English Composition Part 6

II

James M. I. Galloway, veterinary surgeon of Kirkintilloch, Scotland, arrived yesterday from Glasgow with photographs of a cow with a wooden leg on the starboard quarter, which the veterinary says is almost as good to the cow as an ordinary leg of beef and much more effective in knocking out folks who try to milk her on the wrong side.

Other veterinaries laughed at Galloway, who is young and of an experimental temperament, when he decided to save the life of this cow after the leg had been cut off by a locomotive. He insisted, however, on fitting the wooden leg, which he regards as much more useful than wooden heads on Scotch veterinaries.

The only time the wooden leg gets the cow into trouble is when she stands too long in a damp field and the leg sinks in a foot or so.

III

The written orders of Mr. J. W. Brooks, a once celebrated American railroad manager of Michigan, were, it is said, almost beyond deciphering. On a certain occasion, when a double track had been laid on one of his roads, it was reported at headquarters that the barn of an old farmer stood partly upon land which the company had bought, and dangerously near to pa.s.sing trains. Mr. Brooks, who was just getting ready for a trip down the Mississippi, wrote to the farmer that he must move his barn from the company's land at once. If he delayed he would be liable to a suit for damages. The old farmer duly received the letter, and was able to make out the manager's signature, but not another word could he decipher. He took it to the village postmaster, who, equally unable to translate the hieroglyphics, was unwilling to acknowledge it. "Didn't you sell a strip of land to the railroad?" he asked. "Yes." "Well, I guess this is a free pa.s.s over the road." And for over a year the farmer used the manager's letter as a pa.s.s, not one of the conductors being able to dispute his translation of the instrument.

IV. Notes and Queries

1. A good story always has three parts: (1) A Situation; (2) a Climax; (3) a Solution. Do the models possess these elements? If they do, point them out.

2. Point out the "Four W's" in each.

3. Tell whether each sentence is simple, complex, or compound.

4. Tell why each mark of punctuation is used.

5. Tell why each capital letter is used.

6. Explain the syntax of the adjectives in I, the adverbs in II, the prepositions in III.

7. Explain the etymological signification of the following words: "solution"; "fowl"; "constable"; "photographs"; "veterinary"; "locomotive"; "decipher"; "liable"; "translate"; "hieroglyphics"; "conductors."

8. Find on the map Uniontown, Arnold City, Kirkintilloch, Michigan, and the Mississippi River.

9. Explain the reference in "Solomonesque."

10. What are "costs"?

11. Find a metaphor in II.

V. Suggested Time Schedule

As usual, except that on Friday one number of the program may be a magazine composed of the best stories written during the week by pupils.

VI. Oral Composition

Be sure that your story has a good point; is free from slang; and possesses a beginning, a middle, and an end.

VII. Written Composition

_Suggestion_: Imagine that the cla.s.sroom is the local room of a daily paper, the pupils reporters, and the teacher the editor. The stories may be written in cla.s.s.

VIII. Memorize

THE GRa.s.sHOPPER AND THE CRICKET

The poetry of earth is never dead: When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead; That is the Gra.s.shopper's;--he takes the lead In summer luxury;--he has never done With his delights, for when tired out with fun He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never: On a lone winter evening, when the frost Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever, And seems to one in drowsiness half lost The Gra.s.shopper's among some gra.s.sy hills.

JOHN KEATS.

CHAPTER VII

THE USE OF CONTRAST

"Give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness."--ISAIAH.

I. Introduction

Ant.i.thesis, or contrast, is one of the two most effective devices at the disposal of any artist, whether he works with words or colors. Its skillful use often enables a newspaper writer to make a good item out of trifling material. The object of this week's work is to teach a little of the art of using ant.i.thesis effectively in reportorial work.

II. Models

I

LONDON, Dec. 25.--Mrs. Rebecca Clarke, who is 109 years of age, presided this morning at the wedding breakfast of her baby son, Harry, who is 67. This is Mr. Clarke's second venture on the matrimonial sea. His two brothers are sprightly bachelors of 70 and 73 years. Mrs. Clarke toasted the newly married couple and ate the first slice of the wedding cake. She attended the Christmas wedding celebration in the evening.

II

Commuters in Yonkers took advantage of the Christmas holiday to mow their lawns. The gra.s.s has been getting longer and longer, owing to the spring weather, until it just had to be cut.

Players on the Dunwoodie Country Club course, also at Yonkers, had to keep moving to keep warm yesterday, but they played on greens which had been mowed only a few days ago, and those who were fond of flowers stopped now and then to pick a b.u.t.tercup.

The greens keeper at Dunwoodie says that the greens have been mowed four times since the latter part of September, when in ordinary seasons the gra.s.s is mowed for the last time until spring. The condition of the course is about the same as in May, according to the greens keeper.

Up in Bronx Park the gra.s.s has not been mowed recently, but it is unusually long for the time of year, and so it is in the other city parks. The same condition prevails in the nearby cemeteries. Out in New Jersey a fine crop of gra.s.s is in evidence.

Farmers in the vicinity of New York are saving on their usual bills for winter fodder, for with the spring weather and the long gra.s.s the animals can pick up a living out of doors.

III

NEW YORK, Dec. 31.--An order for $2,000,000 worth of shrapnel, to be used in the war in Europe, has been rejected by the Commonwealth Steel Company of Granite City, Ill., it was learned to-day, because Clarence H. Howard, president of the organization, believes warfare should not be recognized.

Mr. Howard, who lives in St. Louis, is known all over the country as the "Golden rule steel man," because he tries to run his plant in accordance with the Golden Rule by sharing profits with the employes.