ock I over!"

Into the matter of the quaint features of the speech of the English
countryside, or the wonders of the Cockney dialect, the unlearned
foreigner hardly dare venture. It is sufficient for us to wonder why a
railroad should be a railway. When it becomes a "rilewie" we are
inclined, in our speculation, "to pass," as we say over here. And ale,
when it is "ile," brings to mind a pleasant story. A humble Londoner,
speaking of an oil painting of an island, referred to it as "a painting
in ile of an oil."

An American friend of mine, resident in London, insists that where
there is an English word for a thing other than the American word for
it, the English word is in every case better because it is shorter. He
points to tram, for surface-car; and to lift, for elevator. Still
though it may be a finer word, hoarding is not shorter than billboard;
nor is "dailybreader" shorter than commuter. I think we break about
even on that score.

This, however, would seem to be true: where the same words are employed
in a somewhat different way the English are usually closer to the
original meaning of the word. Saloon bar, for instance, is intended to
designate a rather aristocratic place, above the public bar; while the
lowest "gin mill" in the United States would be called a "saloon." I
know an American youth who has thought all the while that Piccadilly
Circus was a show, like Barnum and Bailey's. With every thing that is
round in London called a circus, he must have imagined it a, rather
hilarious place.

The English "go on" a good deal about our slang. They used to be fond
of quoting in superior derision in their papers our, to them, utterly
unintelligible baseball news. Mr. Crosland, to drag him in again, to
illustrate our abuse of "the language," quotes from some tenth-rate
American author--which is a way they have had in England of judging our
literature--with the comment that "that is not the way John Milton
wrote." Not long ago Mr. Crosland became involved in a trial in the
courts in connection with Oscar Wilde, Lord Alfred Douglas and Robert
Ross. He defended himself with much spirit and considerable
cleverness. Among other things he said, as reported in the press:
"What is this game? This gang are trying to do me down. Here I am a
poor man up against two hundred quid (or some such amount) of counsel."

Well, that wasn't the way John Milton talked, either.

The English slang for money is a pleas