wo or three manufacturers the
approbation was without qualification and in the highest terms. This
result will be largely beneficial to our national reputation; for it was
just in these respects, science, thoroughness, and exactness, that our
foreign critics were prepared to find us wanting.

--The richness and variety of American slang is remarked upon by almost
all English travellers, who, however, might find at home, in the
language of high-born people, departures from purity quite as frequent
and as great as those prevalent with us, although perhaps not so gross;
for it must be confessed that most of our slang is coarse and offensive,
at least in form. But the most remarkable American peculiarity in regard
to slang, or indeed in regard to any new fangle in language, is the
quickness with which it is adopted, and comes, if not into general use,
into general knowledge. This readiness of adaptability to slang may,
however, be attributed almost entirely to the reporters and
correspondents, and "makers-up" of our newspapers, who catch eagerly at
anything new in phraseology as well as in fact, to give a temporary
interest to their ephemeral writing. Here, for example, is the word
"bulldose," the occasion of our remarks. A man who went on a journey to
South America or to Europe four months ago would have departed in the
depths of deplorable ignorance as to the very existence of this lovely
word; returning now, he would find it in full possession of the
newspapers--appearing in correspondence, in reports, in sensation
headlines, and even in leading articles. Although to the manner born, he
would be puzzled at the phraseology of the very newspaper which mingled
itself with his earliest recollections and with his breakfast; for there
he would find the new word in all possible forms and under all possible
modifications: _bulldose_, the noun, _to bulldose_, the verb,
_bulldosing_, the present participle, _bulldosed_, the past participle,
and even, to the horror of the author of "Words and their Uses," and in
spite of him, _being bulldosed_, "the continuing participle of the
passive voice." Such a phenomenon in language is peculiar to this
country. But notwithstanding the fears of the purists and the
philologers, it does not threaten the existence of the English language
here, nor is it at all likely to affect it permanently even by the
addition of one phrase or word. For our use of slang of this kind is the
most fleeting of t