At last annual meeting of Black Book Society, honorable John Smith took the chair, assisted by reverend John Brown and venerable John White. The office of secretary would have been filled by late John Green, but for his decease, which rendered him ineligible. His place was supplied by inevitable John Black. In the course of the evening eulogiums were pronounced on distinguished John Gray and notorious Joseph Brown. Marked compliment was also paid to able historian Joseph White, discriminating philosopher Joseph Green, and learned professor Joseph Black. But conspicuous speech of the evening was witty Joseph Gray's apostrophe to eminent astronomer Jacob Brown, subtle logician Jacob White, etc., etc.[26] Richard Grant White, a year or two later, joined the attack in the New York /Galaxy/, and William Cullen Bryant included the omission of the article in his /Index Expurgatorius/, but these anathemas were as ineffective as Gould's irony. The more careful American journals, of course, incline to the /the/, and I note that it is specifically ordained on the Style-sheet of the /Century Magazine/, but the overwhelming majority of American newspapers get along without it, and I have often noticed its omission on the sign-boards at church entrances.[27] In England it is never omitted. [Pg124] § 4 /Euphemisms and Forbidden Words/--But such euphemisms as /lady-clerk/ are, after all, much rarer in English than in American usage. The Englishman seldom tries to gloss menial occupations with sonorous names; on the contrary, he seems to delight in keeping their menial character plain. He says /servants/, not /help/. Even his railways and banks have /servants/; the chief trades-union of the English railroad men is the Amalgamated Society of Railway /Servants/. He uses /employé/ in place of /clerk/, /workman/ or /laborer/ much less often than we do. True enough he calls a boarder a /paying-guest/, but that is probably because even a boarder may be a gentleman. Just as he avoids calling a fast train the /limited/, the /flier/ or the /cannon-ball/, so he never calls an /undertaker/ a /funeral director/ or /mortician/,[28] or a /dentist/ a /dental surgeon/ or /ontologist/, or an /optician/ an /optometrist/, or a /barber shop/ (he always makes it /barber's shop/) a /tonsorial parlor/, or a common public-house a /café/, a /restaurant/, an /exchange/, a /buffet/ or a /hotel/, or a tradesman a /storekeeper/ or /merchant/, or a fresh-water college a /university/. A /university/, in England, always means a collection of colleges.[29] He avoids displacing terms of a disparaging or disagreeable significance with others less brutal, or thought to be less brutal, /e. g./, /ready-to-wear/ or /ready-tailored/ for /ready-made/, /used/ or /slightly-used/ for /second-hand/, /mahoganized/ for /imitation-mahogany/, /aisle manager/ for /floor-walker/ (he makes it /shop-walker/), /loan-office/ for /pawn-shop/. Also, he is careful not to use such words as /rector/,