Substitutes Wanted

— I can forgive the audacity in that remark of the Contributor’s friend, but I lift up my voice to inquire if, for ordinary use, some one will not supply substitutes for those greatly overworked words “ cunning ” and “ nice.” It seems a pity to add to the agitation of the times, with all the weighty and perplexing questions before the public, — higher education, the ballot for woman, temperance legislation, labor reforms, and the Indian problem,— but somebody must attend to this subject, and give us some other words wherewith we may appropriately describe a year-old baby that is n’t handsome, but is more than interesting, a puppy, or a donkey. There must be something to take the place of “cunning.” I’d rather have it than the ballot. I think the difficulty must have occurred to that popular bachelor divine who was wont, when confronted with his neighbor’s baby, to exclaim, “ Well, that is a baby ! ” but he evaded the difficulty. Even his profuse vocabulary could not stand the draft after the fifth year of his pastorate.