Fashionable Slang.

lady of title , ' but I enjoy myself immensely among my pals . ' ' He is a great ally of mine , ' said one member of Parliament to another , as if he were afraid of believing in friendship , and loth to utter its name . Love fares still worse than friendship in the year 1878 . ' Smith is awfully spoony upon Miss Jones , ' says one . ' Well , ' replies his companion ,- ' she is an immensely fine girl ,-but she has no tin . ' 'I can't understand , ' says Snob the first to Snob the second , ' how a fellow can go spooning about

a girl that hasn't got a penny to bless herself with ; ' ancl Snob the second replies , ' Nor I either . Neither can I understand how that awful ass' ( Jones or Robinson , as the case may be ) , ' can spoon about his own wife as he does , after being married two years !'" Stable slang is , alas , just now very popular among all classes , ancl it is much to be feared that the demoralizing habits of Newmarket and racing stakes have affected both

our habits and our literature to a very hurtful extent . Ancl yet let us remember that much may be said , on the other hand , in favour of " legitimate horse racing , "—at least I suppose there can , though I do not feel so sure about it , I confess , as I did some years ago—ancl I for one , cannot think it right in any one to devote his time , his talents , and his means to horse racing , when he might be doing God and man good service ; and when , to adapt the hackneyed description of Burke , he gives up to Newmarket what was " meant for mankind . "

I greatly deprecate the introduction of stable language by our young men , and especially our young women . To an outsider their conversation is often unintelligible . Mackay amusingly notes a certain use of stable slang which all can read with profit : " Two words derived from the stable are constantly heard from the mouths of men who may have studied at Oxford or Cambridge , who may hold commissions in the army or the navy , or be high in the civil service of the Crown , or who may otherwise rank

honourably in the estimation of the world ancl of society . These words are ' groom ' ancl' form . ' A fashionable newspaper , noted for its excellent caricatures of the notables of the clay , writes of a lady , whose name shall not be repeated , ' She is fair and splendid , and has a profusion of hair , which she grooms in the plainest way , without fringe . ' 1 Look at that little fdly , ' says a vulgar man in a ball-room , ' how nicely she is groomed . ' ' Form . ' in the stable signifies the state of health and general condition ! of a horse . The word is of such modern acceptance as to be unknown , not only to Captain Grose in the

last century , but to the compilers of Hotten ' s Slang Dictionary , published so lately as 1864 . It is no longer confined to the race-course , to Tatter ' sall ' s , or to the stables where it originated , but is constantly employed to convey the idea of fashion , manners , customs , and polite observance . It is not good ' form' to arrive too late for dinner , to dance with animation , or to applaud heartily at the opera , etc . It is good ' form , ' however , to call a hat a tile , a child a kid , money dibs , a father a relieving-officer , a mother wife old

or a an woman , a cigar a weed , clothes togs , a pocket-handkerchief a wipe , a cravat a choker , a shilling a bob , , £ 25 a pony , etc ., etc . That men of superior culture ^ by frequenting low society shoidd pick up ' the words of their associates is intelligible : but that when out of such society they should repeat ancl be proud of the vulgarity , which they have caught as they woidd catch scarlet fever , is no more to be understood than that a gentleman shoidd like to be considered a costermonger or a

chimney-sweep . " AYe all can add to this list of terms others which we may hear in society constantly day by clay . AVhen a fan- and sporting young woman asks you to luncheon , and says , " We put on our nosebags at 2 p . m ., " you can only bow , and admire such unsavoury language from such a very pretty mouth . But I don't wish to be too severe , ancl don't wish to preach a sermon , as magazines are not meant , in my opinion , to usurp the duties of the pidpit ; neither do I wish to treat the matter too severely , as I look upon it as a passing folly .