Chapter XII: Punctuation (2)

1. The man _wearing the brown coat_ is my brother.

2. My brother bought a new coat _which is brown_.

3. The lesson _that I take at nine o'clock_ is
English.

4. In English _which I take at nine o'clock_ we are
studying punctuation.

5. I am going to work in every city _that I visit_.

6. I am going to work in any city _where I can find
employment_.

7. I am going to work in Denver _where my uncle
lives_.

8. The house _on the hill_ is the oldest in town.

9. The house _that is the oldest in town_ is used as a
museum.

10. The Franklin Museum _which occupies the oldest
house in town_ is a very interesting place.

11. The town museum is the place _that I like to
visit_.

12. The chimney _that was blown down last night in the
storm_ should have been mended long ago.

13. The old ruined tower _which has long been a
picturesque sight in the village_ was blown down last
night.

14. We counted ten chimneys _that were blown down last
night_.

15. The stenography system _that I studied_ is
Munson's.

16. I think she uses Munson's _which she considers a
good system of stenography_.

17. Last year I pursued a course in stenography _which
I enjoyed very much_.

18. The book _that we use in class_ has a brown cover.

19. The only milk _that is fit to drink_ comes from a
clean dairy.

20. Systematic inspection has been carried on _which
has resulted in securing better milk_.

=Rule 9.--A non-restrictive clause should be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.=

=Exercise 186=

Punctuate the following:

1. We have an enormous crop of cotton the value of
which is estimated at one billion dollars.

2. "The root of the mail order evil is the idea which
the retail mail order houses have been able somehow to
instill into the minds of the buying public that the
local merchants ask too much for their goods."

3. Mr. Hilton who was sales manager at that time
induced the company to adopt this system.

4. The lecture will be delivered by Mr. Brenton who is
the head of the advertising department of Whitlock &
Co.

5. Our dog whose fur was wet by his plunge into the
lake came running toward us.

6. Genevieve who had always been the leader in the
games was not present.

7. A late product of the brain of George Westinghouse
who was the inventor of the air brake and numerous
electrical devices is an air spring for automobiles.
This little article has been patented by Mr.
Westinghouse who has the sole ownership. The spring
which has already proved popular with automobile
owners fits over the end of the regular spring and
"makes good roads out of bad ones."

8. Careful selection of investments upon which the
safety of your money depends is often difficult.
Careful watching of investments which is fully as
essential is much harder. Let us tell you about our
Investment Service which does this watching for you
and keeps you fully protected.

9. As a direct result of the conference between the
railroad and steamship interests of the South-Atlantic
and Gulf cotton ports which was held recently at Hot
Springs Va. an organization which will be known as the
South Atlantic and Steamship Cotton Inspection Bureau
has been created. The bureau will have a chief
inspector who will supervise the conduct of its
business at all ports and will arrange for the
employment of the inspectors. According to the rules
and regulations copies of which have been received by
the cotton agencies and the export departments of the
various New Orleans firms any bale that shows external
damage from water mud bad bagging or other causes must
be condemned and its condition noted and reported.

10. How would you like to wear a hat that has been
handed down through six generations in each of which
it was a treasured possession? The Italian peasants
who love finery are proud to do that very thing. Very
few of the poorer people who live in Italy own a hat.
When you see a beautifully woven Leghorn hat which is
also very dirty on the head of a little peasant child
you may be pretty sure that she is celebrating her
birthday by wearing the family heirloom. These hats
which are sometimes willed to a favorite relative and
which in some instances go the round of the family are
considered almost priceless. It is a frequent sight
along the dusty roads outside the little towns to see
untidy old women who are sauntering along twisting
twine as they go all vanity under the flopping brim of
an antiquated hat. This is almost the only souvenir
that tourists' money cannot buy.--_The Chicago
Tribune._

=Exercise 187--Explanatory Expressions=

E. When the subordinate element that comes at or near the close of the sentence gives an _additional_ idea, following the more or less complete idea in the rest of the sentence, it should be set off by a comma; as,

A signature clerk will easily recognize any alteration
in a signature, _although thousands of checks pass
through his hands daily_.

He gave a statement of the affairs of the company,
_explaining that he wished to make a loan_.

=Rule 10.--A terminal adverbial clause or participial phrase giving an additional idea should be set off from the rest of the sentence by a comma.=

Punctuate the following:

1. Popular-priced goods are the safest for a retail
stock however you consider the subject.

2. A sheriff seldom finds large quantities of
popular-priced goods on hand when he comes to take
possession of any retail store although he usually
finds expensive articles.

3. They bring higher prices relatively than the
heavier things even when they are disposed of under
forced sale.

4. The catalogue houses have little fear for
five-and-ten-cent stores because sixty-eight per cent
of their business is in big goods such as furniture
vehicles sewing-machines clothing and relatively
expensive things. They do not wish to increase the
sale of popular-priced articles although their
catalogue may be full of them because it costs them
more to pack one hammer or trowel than the profits can
stand.

5. Steel conditions remain about as they have been for
several weeks excepting that the price of rails has
been advancing for the last few days.

6. Steel men are of the opinion that to increase
prices too rapidly would spoil a good market because
most of the mills are so filled up with orders that
they would not be able to take advantage of increased
quotations for some time to come.

7. The steel business for the last three months has
been very encouraging as it shows that railroads are
dropping their policy of waiting until the last minute
to buy. It will probably mean more normal operation of
mills instead of spasmodic workings as has been the
case for the last few years.

8. Boraxated soap chips will benefit your tableware
and your hands making dishwashing a pleasure instead
of a task.

9. The man who works to the limit of his physical
powers is as foolish as the manufacturer who
immediately invests all his profits in his business
neglecting to have a reserve fund for unexpected
demands.

10. A wide-awake manager tries plan after plan testing
and re-testing them until he can apply them to his
company's needs.

Write four sentences illustrating Rule 10.

=Exercise 188=

Punctuate the following letters, supplying a heading and an introduction for each:

1

Dear Madam:

We wish to acknowledge your letter of recent date
assuring you that we thank you for the opportunity you
have given us of opening a monthly charge account in
your name. We shall spare no effort to make every
transaction as satisfactory as possible hoping thus to
merit a liberal share of your patronage.

Our bills are rendered on the first of each month
being payable between that date and the fifteenth.

Yours very truly,

2

Dear Mr. Warner:

In reply to your inquiry I am sending the following
information assuring you that I am glad to be of
service to you.

The Lancaster Company has apparently abandoned its
plan of erecting a new building this year difficulties
having arisen it is said in their securing a suitable
location. About two years ago the firm purchased a
site on the corner of Harrison and Second streets but
they sold it again last year taking advantage of a
decided rise in real estate values. It is understood
we believe that the company will build in the near
future even now having two or three possible sites
under consideration.

Sincerely yours,

3

Dear Sir:

We offer you the benefits and privileges of our
Special Charge Account whereby purchases may be paid
for in weekly or monthly installments. You will find
this a most convenient arrangement because it permits
you to have a charge account without the usual
hardship of payment at a fixed time. Moreover a
Special Charge Account costs you nothing since our
prices are the same whether you pay cash or have
purchases charged. Please fill out the enclosed
application blank mailing it to us to-day.

You will no doubt enjoy reading the enclosed booklet
as it gives much interesting information on fashion
tendencies. The illustrations too are unusually
attractive although they hardly do justice to the
beautiful garments that we sell.

Yours truly,

=Exercise 189=

Study the punctuation in the following selections from _The Wall Street Journal_; then write them from dictation:

1

TROUBLE IN INTRODUCING STEEL

"Strange as it now seems," said one of Carnegie's
"young men," now the vice-president of a large and
prosperous corporation in New York, "in the early days
of the steel industry we had the greatest difficulty
in the world in weaning the old manufacturers away
from the use of wrought iron, though they admitted the
superiority of steel. They would look at it, test it,
and agree that it seemed to possess all the desirable
qualities claimed for it, but it was more or less
untried by time, and they preferred to stick to the
old wrought iron, with which they were familiar.

"I remember one old chap with whom I had wrestled
long, but in vain, coming into my office and picking
up a long, soft steel rivet, which had been bent
double and hammered flat.

"'How many did you break in making this?' he asked,
picking it up and examining it curiously.

"'That's the first one we hammered over, and, what is
more to the point, we can do it with all steel of that
type,' I replied.

"The polite incredulity in his face stirred my
professional pride, and I said, 'If I let you go to
the mills, pick out a dozen of those rivets just as
they come from the rolls, and hammer them with your
own hands, will you use that steel hereafter, if it
comes up to the test?'

"He said he would, and the rest was easy, for it is
much easier not to break than to break that kind of
steel. Before long the old man came back with
perspiration dripping from the end of his nose but
with the light of conviction shining in his eye. The
firm had a new customer."

2

CONSERVATION

Leslie M. Shaw, former Secretary of the Treasury, was
in New York, attending a meeting of a board of which
he is a member. Something was said about the
present-day discussion of money power, and Shaw said
that it reminded him of a speech he had made in
Seattle in the campaign of 1896.

"I was speaking to a filled hall and had almost
finished," said Shaw, "when a long-whiskered man arose
about the middle of the hall and held up his hand,
saying he wanted to ask a question.

"'Go ahead,' I said.

"'How, then, Mr. Speaker, do you explain the unequal
distribution of wealth?' was his question.

"When I answered him with, 'In the same way that I
explain the unequal distribution of whiskers,' bedlam
broke loose.

"As soon as I could get quiet restored, I said: 'Now
don't think I returned the answer I did to make fun of
your whiskers. You will observe that I have no
whiskers, as I dissipate them by shaving them off.
Nature gives me abundance of whiskers, and, if I
conserved them as you do, I also should be abundantly
supplied. Now, it is the same way with money. The man
who conserves his money has more than his share, as
with whiskers; while the man who dissipates his money
is without his allotment.'"

=Exercise 190--The Semicolon (;)=

The semicolon is used between the propositions of a compound sentence when no coördinate conjunction is used. (See Exercise 176, 2.)

It is not work that kills men; it is worry. It is important not to overdo this use of the semicolon. Do not use it unless the two principal clauses of the sentence taken together easily form one idea.

Especial care must be taken not to confuse coördinate conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs. The following are conjunctive adverbs: _then_, _therefore_, _consequently_, _moreover_, _however_, _so_, _also_, _besides_, _thus_, _still_, _otherwise_, _accordingly_. When they are used to join principal clauses, they should be preceded by a coördinate conjunction or a semicolon; as,

Fruit was plentiful, and therefore the price was low.
Fruit was plentiful; therefore the price was low.

When there is a series of phrases or clauses, each of which is long and contains commas within itself, the sentence becomes clearer if the members of the series are separated by semicolons instead of by commas; as,

You know how prolific the American mind has been in
invention; how much civilization has been advanced by
the steamboat, the cotton-gin, the sewing-machine, the
reaping-machine, the typewriter, the electric light,
the telephone, the phonograph.

Write the following from dictation:

1

No man can deny that the lines of endeavor have more
and more narrowed and stiffened; no one who knows
anything about the development of industry in this
country can fail to have observed that the larger
kinds of credit are more and more difficult to obtain,
unless you obtain them upon the terms of uniting your
efforts with those who already control the industries
of the country; and nobody can fail to observe that
any man who tries to set himself up in competition
with any process of manufacture which has been taken
under the control of large combinations of capital
will presently find himself either squeezed out or
obliged to sell and allow himself to be
absorbed.--Woodrow Wilson: _The New Freedom._

2

If the total amount of savings deposited in the
savings banks were equally divided among the
population of the country, the amount apportioned to
each person in 1820 would have been twelve cents; in
1830, fifty-four cents; in 1840, eighty-two cents; in
1850, $1.87; in 1860, $4.75; in 1870, $14.26; in 1880,
$16.33; in 1890, $24.75; in 1900, $31.78; in 1910,
$45.05, and it is steadily increasing. Remember the
fact that the population had increased from 10,000,000
in 1820 to over 90,000,000 in 1910; the "rainy day"
money, therefore, assumes gigantic proportions.

3

In Germany, says _The Scientific American_, wood is
too expensive to be burned, and it is made into
artificial silk worth two dollars a pound and bristles
worth four dollars a pound; into paper, yarn, twine,
carpet, canvas, and cloth. Parquet flooring is made
from sawdust; the materials may be bought by the pound
and then mixed, so that the householder can lay his
own hardwood floors according to his individual taste
and ingenuity.

4

The country gentlemen and country clergymen had fully
expected that the policy of these ministers would be
directly opposed to that which had been almost
constantly followed by William; that the landed
interest would be favored at the expense of trade;
that no addition would be made to the funded debt;
that the privileges conceded to Dissenters by the late
king would be curtailed, if not withdrawn; that the
war with France, if there must be such a war, would,
on our part, be almost entirely naval; and that the
government would avoid close connections with foreign
powers and, above all, with Holland.--_Macaulay._

=Exercise 191--The Colon (:)=

The colon is always used to indicate that something of importance follows, usually an enumeration or a list of some kind, or a quotation of several sentences or paragraphs; as,

1. Three things are necessary: intelligence,
perseverance, and tact.

2. The buffalo supplies them with almost all the
necessities of life: with habitation, food, and
clothing; with strings for their bows; with thread,
cordage, and trail-ropes for their horses; with
coverings for their saddles; and with the means of
purchasing all that they desire from traders.

3. Quoting from the current number of the _----
Magazine_, he read: (four paragraphs).

Punctuate:

1. For the first fifty miles we had companions with us
Troche a little trapper and Rouville a nondescript in
the employ of the fur company.

2. About a week previous four men had arrived from
beyond the mountains Sublette Reddick and two others.

3. Reynal was gazing intently he began to speak at
last "Many a time when I was with the Indians I have
been hunting gold all through the Black Hills there's
a plenty of it here you may be certain of that I have
dreamed about it fifty times" etc.

4. Objects familiar from childhood surrounded me crags
and rocks a black and sullen brook that gurgled with a
hollow voice among the crevices a wood of mossy
distorted trees.

=Exercise 192=

The colon is used after _thus_, _as follows_, _the following_, or similar expressions; as,

Name the adverbs in the following: He left hurriedly
rather early in the morning.

The colon is not used after _namely_, _as_, _that is_, _for example, for instance_, and the like. Such expressions are preceded by the semicolon and followed by the comma.

Punctuate the following:

1. The Christmas presents that he wants are the
following a toy train a toy automobile a toy circus
and a printing press.

2. Do the exercise thus first lunge to the left second
raise the arms forward and third wind the wand.

3. We are offering for sale three residences of the
size that you wish namely 438 Bishop Ave 1614
Winchester St and 2015 Logan Square.

4. The following are the two that we liked best 438
Bishop Ave and 2015 Logan Square.

5. One use of the comma is to set off an appositive
for example Mr Kearne the buyer has left the city.

6. The comma is used to set off an independent adverb
as We have not yet decided however when we shall
leave.

7. The plan is this I'll do the work and you pay for
the materials.

8. The officers are as follows Edward Lawrence for
President John Kelly for Secretary and Fred Morrison
for Treasurer.

=Exercise 193--The Dash(--)=

The dash is used to set off parenthetical expressions that have very little connection with the rest of the sentence; as,

In New York the Harlem River tunnel was comparatively
a simple one, but the first East River tunnels--the
two subway tubes from the Battery to
Brooklyn--presented all the difficulties known to
subaqueous construction.

These tunnels extend on under the great Pennsylvania
terminal building--another of the same decade's
accomplishments--to East Thirty-fourth Street.

The dash is also used to indicate a sudden change or break in the thought; as,

1. When the millennium comes--if it ever does--all of
our problems will be solved.

2. "I believe--" began the lawyer.

"Believe!" interrupted his client. "I don't want you
to believe. I want you to know."

The dash is used before a word that summarizes the preceding part of the sentence; as,

He had robbed himself of the most precious thing a man
can have in business--his friends.

After a comma the dash has the effect of lengthening the separation; as,

One thing the Puritans desired,--freedom to worship
God.

=Exercise 194--Parenthesis Marks ()=

Parenthesis marks are used to enclose explanatory expressions that are not an essential part of the sentence; as,

The United States Department of Agriculture estimates
that the receipts of cattle at the six leading markets
(Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, South Omaha, St.
Joseph, and Sioux City) from January 1 to August 1 of
this year are 15 per cent less than they were in the
corresponding period of last year.

_Wrong._--Do not use parenthesis marks to cancel a word or a passage. A line should be drawn through a word that is wrong.

Bring to class five sentences that illustrate the correct use of parenthesis marks.

=Exercise 195--The Hyphen (-)=

The hyphen is used when a word has been divided. It is always used at the end of the line and never at the beginning.

When several short words are taken together to form one word, they are hyphenated; as,

a one-hundred-pound bag of coffee

As a rule, when two words taken together are each accented, they must be written with the hyphen. When only one is accented, no hyphen is used; as,

follow-up, first-class, self-reliant, railroad,
steamship

As a rule, nouns which are compounded of a participle and a noun use the hyphen; as,

talking-machine, driving-wheel

When fractions are written out, the hyphen is used; as,

one-third, three-fifths

In other numerals expressing a compound number the hyphen is also used; as,

twenty-one, sixty-six

=Exercise 196=

Punctuate the following letters, supplying a heading and an introduction for each:

1

Gentlemen:

We are glad to tell you that contrary to the fears
expressed in your last letter there are no present
indications of sudden changes at least no indications
of drops in prices. With the exception of two fruits
and one vegetable grapes cantaloupes and cauliflower
all commodities sold on the wholesale fruit and
produce markets here were quoted yesterday at the
prices announced last Friday.

The change in grape prices affected the Red Peru
variety in which the supply has almost stopped the
price being raised from $1.05 to $1.25 a box. If one
may trust the forecast of local merchants the price
will probably remain at this higher point until the
supply is exhausted. Cantaloupes seem to be a trifle
scarce especially the pineapple variety the price of
which was raised from $1.10 to $1.30 a crate.
Cauliflower was raised to $1.35 a dozen heads the
staple price probably for the rest of the season.

Excepting these items we shall be glad to receive any
orders at Friday's quotations.

Yours truly,

2

Gentlemen:

Your order of the 20th instant forwarded from our
Trenton office came this morning. We regret to say
however that we do not carry the Sanito brand of
canned goods as we do not consider the grade
first-class. If the Monsoon brand which is generally
acknowledged to be excellent will serve your purpose
we can fill your order at once.

We are now in a position to supply the trade with Mrs.
Keller's coffee of which we have fortunately secured
several thousand packages at a very low price. If you
wish any at $2.50 per dozen packages less than half
the retail price you will notice let us hear from you
at once.

Yours truly,

3

Dear Sir:

We acknowledge your letter of October 5 but we regret
that as yet we have no information in regard to the
excess charge of $1.02 which you were obliged to pay
on the express shipment of one piece 27 yds. of plaid
silk chiffon. We have taken up the matter with the
mill however and as soon as we receive their report we
shall write you again.

Asking your indulgence meanwhile we are

Yours truly,

FOOTNOTE:

[4] Supply heading and introduction (see page 232).