VOL. IX.

Children's Secret Language.

[From Child-Study Monthly for September.] Some time ago I was led to begin a study of the languages which children employ among themselves when they desire secret means of communication. I found in Am Ur-Quell, a Folk-Lore journal of Germany, a collection of these languages, but I was unable to learn of such a collection of English or American child languages. Through the kindness of the editor of Science, who published my request for aid in the collecting of these languages and furnished me with a large number of copies of his paper to send out to many different parts of the country, I was enabled to get a most valued collection of our American children's secret languages. Also I received several languages of English children.

We Americans have ever boasted of our Yankee powers of invention and have held such up to the world as something most remarkable. From a study of these languages it is quite well shown that children may equal if not surpass the inventive powers of the adult. Had these powers in the different directions displayed by children been studied, no doubt much would have been added to our inventions.

These languages are not confined to any one place or to any set number of places, for wherever children are found these abound. They occur in all parts of America, from Maine to California and from Canada to Texas. They are spread over Europe and are reported by travelers as being in Asia and other parts of the world. Nor do they exist only among civilized people, for even our American Indian children are reported to be adepts in their construction.

It is held that the child in its development passes through all the stages that the race has passed through. In language the child shows at least three stages. The first is the learning of the mother tongue. The second kind of language occurs in the earlier years-about the time of the learning of the mothertongue. This is a language which is originated by the child, who in striving to speak is perhaps unable to master the difficult expressions of the mother-tongue and so he makes a language of his own from the expressions which flow most easily from his tongue. Mr. Horatio Hale (The Origin of Language and the Antiquity of Speaking Man, Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. of Science, xxxv.) has given a number of such cases. The third phase of child-language - secret language-must not be confounded with the above, for they are quite distinct in method of formation and in time of learning, or making of such. This second form comes at a much earlier period in the life of the child than does the secret form, and it is also perhaps involuntarily and unconsciously made, whereas the secret language is wholly a voluntary product. This earlier form becomes fully lost to the child in later years and usually disappears long before the secret language period begins. This is well illustrated by two brothers living in the state of Kansas, who at five or six had a language of their own which they used to the exclusion of English, and at that period showed great anger if they were not understood, while in later years this language was entirely forgotten, and one brother now at twenty-five years of age has no recollection whatever of this language of himself and brother. On the contrary a considerably younger brother did not show this early language period at all different from the

No. I

ordinary child, but now at fourteen years of age uses three secret languages which he and some neighbor boys constructed some years ago.

How old these languages are cannot be known. One of the writers in Am Ur-Quell mentions that the one he gives was in use sixty years. Some parties have written me that their languages were used by them as children fifty years since. One gentleman states that one of the most common languages used by children now was very common among his playmates in 1840-50. This time differs with my informants, as their time of childhood differs from more than fifty years ago, in regular series down to the present. And they are being made now, as I have an alphabet formed only a short time since by a little eight-year-old girl, who volunteered to make other secret alphabets if desired.

The duration of the use of these languages differs very much. Some were used only a very short time-a few weeks-as the fever came and went rapidly. Some lasted a year, some two years, some eight years, some ten, and others twelve years. Some began at ten or twelve and now at seventeen and eighteen are used, although this is rare and the language is used mostly at odd moments. A period of five years is perhaps the limit to any extended use of these, yet usually a much shorter period is named as a fever-heat time of use. These secret languages

very rarely begin before the eighth year and generally disappear before the fifteenth year or about that age. One gentleman confesses to have used his boyhood secret language, speaking it to himself, during all the fifty years that have passed since his childhood.

The names of these languages are numerous and varied. Hog Latin, though, is by far the most common name and is used to designate languages which are very far apart in their construction. Why this term is so common can only be guessed at. There is one form of these languages which, in every instance but one, goes by the name of Hog Latin, so it may be that this is the mother-tongue and is strong enough to give name to many other tongues formed after the parties had learned of this. The term, Hog Latin, does not occur among the German langnages in Am Ur-Quell, and of the few secret languages which have been sent me from England the term is not used, so it may be altogether an American term. Dog Latin is the next most popular name. One of the German contributors to Am Ur-Quell states that this perhaps was first used as a term of reproach to designate a language made up by the ancient merchants of Nievenhagen and Groenstraat, two villages in southern Limburg. Tut, Hash, Bub, and A-Bub-CinDud are named from these words occurring in their alphabet. Esenihc (Chinese) received its name because it reverses the letters in the words and the words in the sentences, as the author of it learned that the Chinese language did. Is-olo gets its name from the fact that the sylables alternately end in s or o, is or lo. Besides these names there are Heathen, Tut-Nut, Fly Talk, Goose Latin, Santipee, Berkshire Gabble, and many oth. A boy using the Is-olo language was sent to a strange school and there he learned another language. He taught Is-olo to a chosen few and then he and they made up a language by mixing up Is-olo with the language in use, and thus Mix-tis-olo (Mixt-Is-olo) came into existence,

ers.

termed the linguistic making instincts of very young children." Quoting further: "If a single pair, man and wife, should wander off into an uninhabited region, and then, after a few years both perish, leaving a family of young children to grow up by themselves and frame their own speech, the facts which have been adduced will show that this speech might, and possibly would, be an entirely novel language." "The strong languagemaking instinct of the younger children would be sufficient to overpower any feeble memory which their older companions might retain of the parental idiom." "The baby-talk, the children's language, would become the mother-tongue of the new community, and of the nation that would spring from it." Going further with this theory, as one has advanced, this might not only occur from cases of losses of parents, wherein the younger children's language would overcome that of the older, but even without loss of parents, in case of family isolation, it might be possible for the strong child-language to force itself upon that of the weak, living parents and totally displace the old language, thus forming a new stock. This is somewhat illustrated in the case of Berkshire Gabble. Some young girls, from ten to fourteen years of age, formed a vocabulary of words, mostly composed of adjectives, to express their feelings which did not seem to be already expressed in English, as, "Ankerduddle, weird and spectral romantic feeling of a big solitary house by moonlight." Not only were these used by the girls, but also by their adult relatives and acquaintances who were highly intelligent, and in some cases scientific people. I am positive that some of these words will be so fitting and have so tenacious a hold on these people as finally to find a place in the dictionary. So if these words could gain so strong a foothold among a class of such highly cultured people, why could not other children's words become permanent among a class of low-grades?

As has been stated, these langunges occur in most cases at a regular period in child-life. The care and attention that are given to their formation in many cases, show that here is an energy of child-nature which is wonderfully great. For example, in this Berkshire Gabble the girls would work over their words, would debate and question, would devote time and energy, and display ingenuity that is most remarkable. Attention to this work ought surely to convince parents and teachers that here is an energy of children which should be turned to account. It only remains for a genius to find some way to lead this wonderful faculty of child-nature into the learning of useful foreign languages. The believer in Volapuk surely will hold that this period of the child is the very time for the introduction of a world-language, if such is possible or necessary. Emporia, Kansas. OSCAR CHRISMAN.

'94. July took another of our dear friends away from us in Miss Emiline Hodgins. Doubtless many of our readers saw a dispatch in the daily papers to the effect that she had taken her own life by drowning. To those who knew her best, this seemed impossible, and a word from an intimate friend, shortly after, maintains that such a conclusion is not warranted by the circumstances. "She had just failed of securing a school for which she had applied, and was returning home on her wheel. It is not unlikely that she had been weeping and stopped to bath her face in the water tank before going home. Dr. Best, of Centralia, gave it as his opinion that she probably was overcome by a sort of sun stroke, and lost her equilibrium and fell into the tank. I have reason to believe that she was a sincere Christian. She loved the Christian Endeavor movement and was a member of the Normal Endeavor Society and always wore faithfully her little gold Endeavor pin. She had an unusual love for nature and was so sensitive that she could not endure seeing a flower destroyed ruthlessly. I cannot but believe that she has been graduated into the beautiful Land of Love." In this hope we all join.

The Great American Desert.

[Full text of a lecture by Professor Mary A. Whitney, before the faculty and students of the State Normal School, May 7, 1896.]

Was it cruel and relentless fate, preconcerted action of the powers that be, or just a happening, that placed this closing lecture hour at the disposal of the youngest member of the faculty? Such an hour as this, should have been reserved alone for one whose genial spirit, broad mindedness, and deep thinking would have taken us upon that high plain, where we could catch the inspiration of his lofty ideals, and feel the pul sations of that great heart in its longings for better things for education and for humanity. Then would you and I feel stronger for the hour thus spent with our honored President.

During the past months, you have passed beyond the seas and caught glimpses of the life and habits, the architectural and intellectual work of other peoples; you have been instructed upon the use and value of classic lore and modern literature, your interest has been awakened in the new science of Child Study; you have been led to see the devious paths which bring one to perfection in the Art of Expression; yet again, your thoughtful consideration has been turned to the higher development of mankind, measured by the careful, pains-taking development of the individual as the basis; while even music has spoken; and messages of information have reached you from the "millions of little fellows of the world down there"-and even from infinity itself. Much has been presented to you. Yours have been the gleanings from ocean to ocean, and from the nether world to the world above. What remains for a young girl's maiden speech?

There is a corner in our fair land, which has been surmised at by geographers, railed at by travellers, taken advantag of by poets and novelists, and left untouched by historians and truth-seekers. Its location has varied. Its name is the Great American Desert. Kansas has much of which to be proud. "Her fallow prairies are to man,

Like the open hand of God!"

Her abundant harvests, and improved towns and cities bespeak a fertile soil and an industrious people. Difficult indeed is it to realize, that on this bright May morning, surrounded by every indication of affluence and wealth, we are nevertheless in the very heart of what was once considered an ocean of sterility and desolation.

Less than forty years ago, there appeared in the North American Review, an article to the effect that "Nebraska and Kanzas could only be inhabited by wild nomadic tribes such as the Teutons Bois Brule Indians, the vilest miscreants of the savage races-the pirates of the Missouri." The "bad lands" were a final barrier to further civilization, because of the aridity of the soil and the perfect freedom from moisture. Kanzas and Nebraska were to be the shores of a great desert, and there would be the damming up of the streams of American emigration. There it must fork and thanks should be rendered to the wise Providence that civilization "was first led to the Atlantic shore rather than to the Mississippi Valley. At the same time people were reading in Henry Howe's "Great West," a most vivid description of this territory between the Platt and Arkansas Rivers and extending south to the Rio del Norte. He called it the Great American Desert, presenting "a scene of desolation, searcely equaled on the continent, when viewed in the dearth of mid-summer. Far and wide spreads the burnt and arid desert whose solemn silence is seldom broken by the tread of any other animal than the wolf or the starved and thirsty horse that bears the traveller across its wastes."

Ten years later Holloway published his "History of Kansas" in which he says "When the Kansas-Nebraska Bill passed Congress, the western bounds of Missouri were regarded as the limits of civilization, and Kansas as a part of the Great Ameri

can Sahara, over which farms, towns, and cities could never spread-fit only for nomadic wanderings of savage tribes, prowling of wolf and range of buffalo. It was marked on the map "The Great American Desert-a desolate and sterile waste."

As emigration continued to stream across the continent to the Golden State, people came to know this country better, and the glowing descriptions of it which they sent to eastern friends disclosed the fact that Old Missouri flowed through a land of possibilities after all. This is but an incident in the advancement of this misconception, this delusive theory, this geographical misnomer-a conception, or theory, or name, one scarcely knows what to denominate it-the growth and influence of which has been a marvel in history. Born of ignorance, nurtured by selfish designs, it has been the subject of foreign enterprise, has furnished occasions for heated discussions at home and abroad, has given rise to foolish appropriations by Congress, has influenced thousands of emigrants, and retarded westward civilization. Whence it came and whither it has gone is our purpose to discover. Once having the various locations in mind, it will not be difficult to understand the opinions advanced as to the fitness or unfitness of this vast district for the uses of man, and the bearing of these opinions upon questions political and sociological.

More than a dozen different names have been applied to this strange land. Some authorities designate it as "The Great Valley," "Great Sterile Valley," "Immense Steppes," "Wide Steppes," "The Great Prairie Wilderness," "Bare and Dreary Plain," "Barren Wild," "The Desert of the Great Prairies," "Arid Desert Plains," while others speak of "The Dreaded Desert," "Great American Sahara," "The American Desert," "The Great Central Desert of the Continent," "The Great Sandy Desert," "The Great American Desert." Six different locations were assigned.

(1) East of the Mississippi River.

(2) Between the Mississippi River and Rocky Mountains.

(3) East of the Rocky Mountains but not to the Mississippi River.
(4) West of the Rocky Mountains and East of Salt Lake.
(5) West of Salt Lake.

(6) Broken into fragments-as the Colorado Desert, Painted Desert, Black Rock Desert, Carson Desert, Bad Lands, Great Sand Hills and the Staked Plains.

The first mention of any such district is in the French History of Louisiana by Du Pratz, published in 1783. In the preface we read "These mountainous regions (between the Mississippi and the Alleghanies) and barren districts which lie immediately beyond our settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so inconvenient to navigation whether to the ocean or to the Mississippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that lie beyond them, which otherwise would have been occupied long ago. * The lands in North America are in general very poor or barren, and if any of them are more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with culture."

Pike in 1806, and Long in 1819, are accredited with being the "first people to create that Great American Desert between the Valley of the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains where now are teeming states." [Winsor VII: 559, note 3.] In 1815, John Pinkerton, editing the Modern Atlas, named a district between the Arkansas and Negrack Rivers "an impassable sand mount," where previously he had suggested the cutting of roads and canals to the western shores that an immediate trade might be opened with China and the Spice Islands." In 1823, Long made his famous expedition to the Rockies. He reported that in ascending the Kansas River one hundred or one hundred and twenty miles, from the Missouri River, he had "discovered numerous indications both in its soil and in its animal and

vegetable products of an approach to the borders of the Great Sandy Desert, which stretched eastward from the base of the Rockies." He spoke of many tracts of naked sand and regarded the Rocky Mountains as forming the shore of that sea of sand which is traversed by the Platte and extends northward to the Missouri above the great bend. Farther up the Platte, Long found the coarse sand, "unvaried sterility, and the cactus sole monarch of thousands of acres of the dreary plains." Mirages were seen the same as upon the deserts of India. Five years after Missouri was admitted, Josiah Condor, in his Modern Traveller, insisted that all the territory, including the west one-half of the state and extending over twelve degrees of longitude to the east half of Colorado, "was a bare and dreary plain, destitute of timber, scorched in summer, and in winter traversed by the howling and frozen blasts from the Rocky Mountains." Likewise three years later appeared "Travels in America and Italy," by Viscount de Chateaubriand. Discussing American ability for expansion, he calls attention to certain "natural limits to colonization. The forests to the west and north of Missouri are bounded by immense Steppes, where not a tree is to be seen, and which seem to be unsusceptible to culture though grass grows abundantly upon them. This verdant Arabia affords a passage to the colonists who repair in caravans to the Rockies and to New Mexico; it separates the United States of the Atlantic from the United States of the South Sea, like those deserts, which in the Old World are interposed between fertile regions."

In this same year Theodore Lyman, Jr., published his "Diplomacy of the United States." In his chapter on the cession of Louisiana, he discusses at length, the danger of our losing neutrality of the Mississippi, from the fact of English strongholds on the Great Lakes, French and Spanish on the West and at the mouth of the Mississippi River, had not Louisiana passed into American possession. He says, "The two most powerful as well as ambitious nations of Europe entrenched upon our northern, western, and southern frontier-and having pursued each other, with a deadly hatred on all the continents of the old world, threatened to select, as their last field, the distant possessions of America, not those shores first approached by Europeans, but the very heart and bowels of our country, penetrating in a single campaign, with their armies and military array those remote and inland regions, to which at the end of half a century, even the astonishing and rapid progress of our own population had just reached. We should have seen great armies contending between the Pacific and the Atlantic, with a desert on one side of them and a civilized nation on the other." This shows the prevailing conception of the bulk of the Louisiana purchase even twenty-five years after its acquisition.

In Malte-Brun's Geography, (1834,) this desert plain extends three hundred or four hundred miles on the east side of the Rocky Mountains. The "tablelands are covered with water worn pebbles and gravel formed of the debris of granite, gneiss, and quartz rocks; but more generally is seen a wide waste of sand, with patches of vegetable mould, continually diminishing in number, till the Rocky mountains rise to view, towering abruptly from the plains, mingling their snow-clad summits with the clouds and exposing at their feet a frightful wilderness of rocks, stones, and sand, scarcely chequered by a single trace of vegetation."

The third location of this Desert-East of the Rockies but not to the Mississippi-seems to have been first established by Lieutenant J. W. Albert, who made an overland trip from Ft. Leavenworth to San Diego in 1847. When but a few hours out from Ft. Leavenworth on Friday, July 17, he made this entry in his Journal-"We have now entered that portion of the prairie that well deserves to be considered a part of the great desert." Other travelers and explorers, as late as 1865, give it