Correspondence

Editou Courier : In jour paper of May llth, you publish what yo cali a Michigan nian's impressions of Pennsvlvania, and as that is ray native State I thouglit I would volunteer a few words in reply. The name of Pennsyl vania spoken in my presence sounds to rne more home like that of any other State, I am sorry your correspondent has forrned such an unfavorable opinión of the people of that Stute and thcir surroundiiig circumstances. He seeras to delightin holding tliem up to ridicule for their custonis and habits, but more especially for what he considers their lidiculous use of language. VVhen a person criticises the language of other people unfavorably he should, I think, use at least as good language in doing so as that with which he finds fault. Whether he has done so or not will appear before I get tlirough. He entreats you not to ask the people of Pennsylvania why they do not fix up things, for if you do you will betray the fact that you are not a Pennsylvanian and you will fall ten degrees in tlieirestiination. This last statement seems to be a little indefinite, but I will notstop to criticise it. But what must you say? You must say why don't you" red up' things. Ifyourcorrespondent reporta the use of this word correctly I know nothing about it. The word " up red" used in the same sense that your correspondent says the people of Pennsylvania use "redup" may be found in Scott's literary works and is 110 doubt a Scotch word. If it evei wasa proper word it is obsolete now, and I ivlll offset it agalnst 5'our correspond ent's "flx up," which cannot be found in any good dictionary. It is true you can find the word "fix" to put in order, bu this use of the word is analagous to tha of set; as to set a razor. But even if i can be used in thesense youreorrespond ent uses it, it isonly an Americanism am not sanctioned by English tnage. So say theeditor of Webster'sdictionary. Agaii if your correspondent talks to the peopl of Pennsylvania as he writes to you in hi letter about their " tumble down " houses that simple minded people will be more ii the fog than ever. They will search thei dictionaries of course; búlalas! thatcom prehensive adjective is not to be foum there. It seems a pity it Is not, for "turn ble-down " is such an elegant word. You correspondent may use the word " com monest" if he insists on doing so, but think he will be puzzled to find even tha word in any good dictionary. If he ex pects to remain long among my good ol( friends in Pennsylvania, I hope for hu rnanity's sake he will not teil them as h has told you about their " unprogressive ness," for that big won) will completely tloor them; and as the dictionaries cai give them 110 light on the subject they will forever remain ignorant of its mean ing. But he says he heard words used there he never heard before. This is no strange, and I have no doubt those ignor ant Pennsylvanians whom he has vieited can teil the same story. But he says h heard familiar words strangely applied and they sounded quecr to Yankee ears Just so here. Not long since a man told me that some person had sent a dead man's stomach to Ann Arbor to have i adtilterated, and he snot aPennsylvanian but a full blooded Yankee. It is relatei of a man living not ten milesdistant fron Ann Arbor that he carne to towu 011e da; and when he was ready to go home he go into his wagon and made a thorough searcl inthestraw in his wagon-box, and find ing nothing he quietly remarked to the bystanders that it was d - tl seldom wha had beco.-ne of his whisky-jug. Anotlier Yankee of course. Now I believe there just as much ignorance in some of the New England States and even in Michigan, in proportion to population, as there is in Pennsylvania. A few years since a man carne from Connecticut and settled in Washtenaw County and he enlightened the people of his neighborhood by telling them that thelaw in Connectlcutwassuef that if a minor committed murder and Uien ran away and they could not find hlm withiu one year they alwa3-s hung his fa ther. But your correspondent seems to have been perlectly astonished to find the women of the State of Pennsylvania milk ing the cows and working in the fields just like men. If he had traveled in Michigan as much as he appears to have traveled in Pennsylvania he would have found that the same practice to some considerable extent prevails here. But, he s:iys, a Yankee girl in a strawberry patch looks prettier to liim. Now I freely admit that a pretty Yankee girl makes a nice picture in a strawberry patch and in the schooi room, or at home washing dishes or baking bread. She is an interesting person anywhere and everywhere, and after she has finished picking strawberries for a living and has laid her school books bye, she is quite likely to make some home happy by her presence there as a wife. This much I am willing to concede in favor of his Yankee girl, but what puzzles me is, that after your correspondent had soent eieht months in Pennsylvania, he did not succeed in finding a girl sufflciently lovely to grace a strawberry patcb, but his mind had to wander home to Ann Arbor, I suppose, to find a Yankee girl to fill the bill. Now Pennsylvania, especially Philadelphia, s noted for producing some of the most loveJy girls in the world, and if your correspondent has notsucceded in winning their stniles it may be owing to Iiis foreign accent which would sink him, you knov,ten degrees in their estimation. But your correspondent's story reaches its climax in the following statement. He says, " It is no unusual thing to see six or eight different kinds of jam, or jelly, or preserves on a farmer's table besides two or more kinds of syrups and," he says, " It is generally commonHo see each one around the board take his knife or spoon from him mouth and with it sample the aforementioned dishes returning the knife or spoon to the point of starting after each trial," so the inference may be fairly drawn from his statement that they kept them there at least until the next meal, for hesays,"they took their knife and spoons from their mouths before the trial and returned them to their mouths after the trial." In the language of the poet let me say in conclusión : " Many sueh critlcs you and I have geen, Hea ven be our screen." Mr. Editor, allo w meto congratulate you on your good fortune in having so able a correspondent in Pennsylvania, and I have no doubt he will soon inform you that he has witnessed the falling of a meteor in Pennsylvania, twice as large as the one wliich recently feil In Texas. Aun Albor, June 6, 1883.