第110章 City Sights(3)

Instead of the curt Yes,and the abrupt No,they say 'Yes,Suh','No,Suh.'

But there are some infelicities.Such as 'like'for 'as,'and the addition of an 'at'where it isn't needed.

I heard an educated gentleman say,'Like the flag-officer did.'

His cook or his butler would have said,'Like the flag-officer done.'

You hear gentlemen say,'Where have you been at?'And here is the aggravated form--heard a ragged street Arab say it to a comrade:

'I was a-ask'n'Tom whah you was a-sett'n'at.'The very elect carelessly say 'will'when they mean 'shall';and many of them say,'I didn't go to do it,'meaning 'I didn't mean to do it.'

The Northern word 'guess'--imported from England,where it used to be common,and now regarded by satirical Englishmen as a Yankee original--is but little used among Southerners.

They say 'reckon.'They haven't any 'doesn't'in their language;they say 'don't'instead.The unpolished often use 'went'for 'gone.'

It is nearly as bad as the Northern 'hadn't ought.'This reminds me that a remark of a very peculiar nature was made here in my neighborhood (in the North)a few days ago:'He hadn't ought to have went.'

How is that?Isn't that a good deal of a triumph?

One knows the orders combined in this half-breed's architecture without inquiring:one parent Northern,the other Southern.

To-day I heard a schoolmistress ask,'Where is John gone?'

This form is so common--so nearly universal,in fact--that if she had used 'whither'instead of 'where,'I think it would have sounded like an affectation.

We picked up one excellent word--a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get;a nice limber,expressive,handy word--'lagniappe.'

They pronounce it lanny-yap.It is Spanish--so they said.

We discovered it at the head of a column of odds and ends in the Picayune,the first day;heard twenty people use it the second;inquired what it meant the third;adopted it and got facility in swinging it the fourth.It has a restricted meaning,but I think the people spread it out a little when they choose.

It is the equivalent of the thirteenth roll in a 'baker's dozen.'

It is something thrown in,gratis,for good measure.

The custom originated in the Spanish quarter of the city.

When a child or a servant buys something in a shop--or even the mayor or the governor,for aught I know--he finishes the operation by saying--'Give me something for lagniappe.'

The shopman always responds;gives the child a bit of licorice-root,gives the servant a cheap cigar or a spool of thread,gives the governor--I don't know what he gives the governor;support,likely.

When you are invited to drink,and this does occur now and then in New Orleans--and you say,'What,again?--no,I've had enough;'the other party says,'But just this one time more--this is for lagniappe.'

When the beau perceives that he is stacking his compliments a trifle too high,and sees by the young lady's countenance that the edifice would have been better with the top compliment left off,he puts his 'I beg pardon--no harm intended,'into the briefer form of 'Oh,that's for lagniappe.'

If the waiter in the restaurant stumbles and spills a gill of coffee down the back of your neck,he says 'For lagniappe,sah,'and gets you another cup without extra charge.