Exercise 179
Punctuate the following:
1
Although cotton seed used to be considered worse than rubbish there now come from it every year millions of dollars in profit. Formerly if it was not hauled away to rot it was usually dumped into a neighboring stream and there it did much harm even if we had the space it would be impossible to explain all the products now made from the seed paper and an excellent meal for cattle may be made from the hulls but the most important products are made from the kernels besides making meal for cattle they are readily converted into crude oil according to the degree of refining that it receives this oil may appear as oil for miner’s lamps lard compounds or salad oils as an illustration of the way in which modern manufacturers utilize former waste products the cotton seed is supreme.
2
When you sell your old clothes to the ragman do you know that they come back to you as writing paper because the metal buttons buckles and hooks that are often left on the garments cannot be converted into paper they used to be a source of annoyance to the papermaker although the cloth sorters tried to remove them before the garments went into the pulp vats some were overlooked if any found their way into the pulp they tore holes in the paper and often damaged the rollers in order that such danger may be avoided the pulp is now passed through a series of magnetized rakes as the rakes are passed to and fro every bit of metal clings to them when a quantity of such bits of iron is collected it is sent to the foundry to return to us in many new forms.
3
Dear Sir:
Investigating your complaint of the fifth instant we found that the furniture which you ordered on the tenth of last month left our factory on the fifteenth if all had gone well you would have received the articles on or about the twentieth as you surmised the delay in the arrival of the goods is due to a mistake on the part of the railroad company although the goods were properly billed to you they were allowed to go on to Columbus if you do not receive them within ten days’ time let us hear from you again.
Yours truly,
4
Dear Sir:
Complying with your request of the 10th inst. I am sending you particulars of the property which I wish to sell as I told you when I was in your office last week the price at which I am holding the building is $20,000 if the buyer prefers not to assume the mortgage of $10,000 I think I can get the mortgagee to agree to accept present payment for the note that he holds against me unless the buyer agrees to pay the unpaid taxes for last year and the assessments levied for improvements already made I shall not consider a sale.
After all preliminary arrangements are made if you will prepare a contract of sale and forward it to me I will have the abstract brought down to date and secured by a guaranty policy.
Since I presume that the prospective purchaser has examined the property and is satisfied to pay the price for it in its present condition I would suggest that you do nothing more toward securing bids for rebuilding the porches.
Yours very truly,
Exercise 180
Write five sentences containing initial participial phrases.
Write five sentences containing initial adverbial clauses.
Exercise 181
The comma is used to separate the month from the year, the city from the county or state, the company from the place in which it is operated, or the like; as,
In December, 1912, I wrote to you from Seattle, Washington.
This use of the comma indicates that words have been omitted, the sentence above really meaning,
In December of the year 1912 I wrote to you from Seattle in the state of Washington.
The same use is shown in such sentences as,
Of the three stenographers Mary received fifteen dollars a week; Ellen, twelve; Susan, ten.
Rule 5.—The comma is used to indicate the omission of words.
Supply the necessary commas in the following:
1. The bonds will be taken over on or before October 1 1934.
2. On January 1 1913 the company had outstanding $4,000,000 of stock of the par value of one dollar a share.
3. The offices are at Salt Lake City Utah.
4. The transaction was officially conducted between the Power Bond & Share Co. New York and the Pacific Power Co. Tacoma Washington.
5. A late announcement of the Census Bureau tells us that the center of population of the United States is four and one-quarter miles south of Unionville Monroe County Indiana.
6. Many mechanical devices in common use may be traced to the patterns furnished by nature. Thus the hog suggests the plow; the butterfly the ordinary hinge; the toadstool the umbrella; the duck the ship; the fungus growth on trees the bracket.
7. The per capita saving in the banks of the United States in 1820 was 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 still increasing.
8. The population in 1820 was 10,000,000 and in 1910 90,000,000.
9. Mexico draws about 55% of her imports from the United States; Nicaragua about 50%; the other Central American states from 35 to 75%; Venezuela 31%; Cuba 52%.
10. In one decade Germany’s exports to Latin-America have shown an increase of 222%; those of the United Kingdom an increase of 115%; and those of the United States an increase of 130%.
Write five sentences illustrating Rule 5.
Exercise 182—Explanatory Expressions
There are a number of expressions—words, phrases, and clauses—which are inserted into the sentence for clearness or emphasis. They add a bit of explanation but are not absolutely necessary. In other words, they might be omitted, and the sentence would still be clear. These may be of various kinds but are all similar in use. They should be set off by commas so that the reader will easily see that they are subordinate to the main idea of the sentence.
A. The appositive is a word or a group of words inserted lo explain the noun that it follows. (See Exercise 80.)
Explain the use of the commas in the following sentences:
1. William E. Curtis, one of the world’s ablest newspaper correspondents, in his will expressed the hope that his grandson would continue his life-work, a recital of the good that men had done and not of the crimes they had committed.
2. The new device, the adding machine, has greatly lessened office drudgery.
3. Wall street, the great center of business life, fixes stock prices.
4. The people in moderate circumstances, the excellent middle class of a country, suffer most from the strain of high prices.
5. The Montreal Tramways Company, the first company to introduce pay-as-you-enter cars, started its business in the winter of 1861 with a very simple equipment, two horse-drawn sleighs.
6. The Early Gem musk melon, one of the best shipping melons grown, is a cross between the Rocky Ford and the Emerald Green varieties.
7. In making up our collections and bargain offers for this year, we have arranged to put up a “Surprise Box,” one hundred packages of selected vegetable and flower seeds.
8. The Chinese Giant, a new variety of sweet pepper, produces branching plants about two feet in height.
9. Amundsen, the discoverer of the south pole, is a native of Norway.
Rule 6.—The comma is used to separate an appositive from the rest of the sentence.
Write five sentences illustrating the use of the comma to set off an appositive.
Exercise 183—Explanatory Expressions
Similar in use to appositives are—
B. Words, phrases, or clauses that separate the subject from the predicate verb, the verb from its object, or the like.
In the natural order of the sentence the verb immediately follows the subject and the object follows the verb. When, for the purpose of explanation, something is inserted between the two, it should be set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. Words that are thus inserted are called appositive or parenthetical expressions and are illustrated in the following:
In Ohio and Kentucky enterprising individuals, evidently taking the suggestion from the popular rural delivery service, have established ice cream routes. Ice cream wagons travel the country roads at stated times so that, with no more trouble than is required to answer the postman’s whistle, dwellers on the farms can now secure the hot weather luxury at reasonable prices. The plan, so far as one can tell from present indications, gives promise of meeting with great success.
Rule 7.—Parenthetical expressions should be set off by commas.
Punctuate the following:
1
The politics of the city as well as those of the nation must be kept clean. The most intelligent men of the community not the least intelligent should make our political speeches and be our political leaders. The very opposite we must confess is what we see too often. Many business men steadily pursuing their own ends during the day feel that they cannot devote time to politics. We need not search far to discover that too many of them even if they have the time do not care to give it. At election the most influential business and professional men either through lack of interest or through laziness stay at home instead of going to the polls. The men who are elected in nine cases out of ten are not fit to hold office. The blame belongs every one will agree to those who do not vote.
2
England as most people know is becoming vastly interested in the production of cotton in the Soudan. This state of affairs for more reasons than one is a matter of interest to the American manufacturer as well as to the American cotton planter. Egyptian cotton ranking next to our own sea-island in length and strength of fiber is wanted because of the brilliant finish it gives. For the manufacture of fine goods including sateens India linens and mercerized goods as well as for mixing with silk it has been found very valuable. Cotton growers expect that the enlargement of the Assouan dam will eventually redeem about a million acres from the desert in Lower Egypt and although not more than half will probably be planted to cotton it will increase Egypt’s output about twenty-five per cent. Our Department of Agriculture after having experimented for years has developed and acclimated in California a variety of Egyptian cotton superior several experts say to the real Egyptian. It now rests with the planters any one can see to decide whether American manufacturers will get their fine cotton at home or abroad.
—The Wall Street Journal.
3
For several reasons some of them certainly unworthy people on both sides of the Atlantic are talking of the perils of a “yellow” invasion. It is true that in the past various invasions have been attended with evil but civilization has passed on into an age when migrations even the mightiest that the world has seen are taking place silently and steadily for the good of all. There is no reason to suppose that the overflow and interflow of nations heretofore synonymous with the progress of humanity should bring to us anything but good. Commerce is to lead the van in the new movement of the nations as it has in the past and the merchant consciously or unconsciously is going to anticipate and guide the statesman.
—The Commercial and Financial Chronicle.
4
The prevailing spirit at least among a certain class of young business men seems to be that the saving of little things in the course of the day consumes time entirely out of proportion to the value of the things saved but like all general rules it is carried too far by young men who could hardly employ their time to better advantage than in saving good though minor materials that would otherwise be lost. The man who originated the idea probably found it correct for himself but like all principles catering to indifference regarding details the idea is too readily adopted by many young men who can ill afford its practice. No one wishes a man to be parsimonious but he should not allow anything to be wasted which can with a reasonable exercise of effort be saved.
Exercise 184—Explanatory Expressions
C. Independent elements are words, phrases, or clauses that have no direct grammatical relation with any other word in the sentence. They are really a kind of parenthetical expression, but have less connection with the sentence than those given under B.
The following is an argument against the trusts. The italicized expressions are independent elements. What different kinds do you discover?
Gentlemen, the big problem before us to-day, therefore, is the trusts. Shall the people control the trusts, or shall the trusts control the people? To state the question differently, shall we all continue to keep a voice in government, or shall we turn our power over into the hands of a few and let their word be law? This centralizing of power, by the way, was the evil men tried to remedy by forming republics, and shall we Americans, do you think, be willing to sacrifice all that has been gained for us of liberty? The answer being self-evident, let us proceed. It seems that the little violator of law can be punished; the big violator cannot be, or, at any rate, is not punished. The trusts, most people know, are formed to destroy competition. Their reason for destroying competition, evidently, is to swell profits by charging all that the trade will bear. The trust, finally, is not a method of doing business, but a scheme for levying tribute.
Rule 8.—Independent elements are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
Punctuate the following:
1
New York, May 12, 19—.
Mr. Thomas R. Stevenson,
5010 Prospect Ave.,
Milwaukee, Wis.
Dear Sir:
You are no doubt now planning your summer vacation before you make any new plans however consider the opportunity that we are offering you to see a new and marvelously beautiful world for little more very likely than the cost of an ordinary vacation at the summer hotel to which you usually go.
The idea of summer travel in the Tropics it may be is new to you comparatively few people unfortunately have yet awakened to its possibilities they do not realize at least not fully that the climate in Jamaica Panama and the Central and South American countries is practically the same throughout the year moreover the transportation rates are much lower than they are in the North and the incidental expenses of travel such as carriage fare and the cost of curios are considerably less rough weather too is almost unknown in the summer.
Possibly as you live on the shores of Lake Michigan you have been considering a week’s cruise of the great lakes at an expense certainly of $40 or more and along coasts that you have seen doubtless many times before we offer a number of trips varying in length from twelve to twenty-four days and in cost from $50 to $130 to Jamaica Panama and Central and South America thus for ten dollars more you may sail twice as long pass shores much more beautiful visit cities far more strange and return with a new almost magical store of memories.
You are wondering perhaps how it is that we can offer these remarkably low rates the reason briefly told is that our ships carry an exceptionally large amount of freight however do not think merely because our ships carry freight that they are not splendidly equipped for passenger travel on the other hand they are so luxuriously furnished that they are especially fitted for tropical cruises you are missing an unusual opportunity we assure you if you do not more fully investigate our offer.
Yours very truly,
2
We are learning year by year that as a rule financial independence cannot be secured by most men except by saving the savings bank is of course the first place to invest savings because it will receive small sums and pay an interest on them when a man’s savings however have reached $1000 for example what shall he do with his money he has not the time or the knowledge probably to watch his investments he wishes therefore to put his money where it will be safe where it will earn a fair rate of interest and if possible where he can on short notice convert it into cash.
3
A man is an investor usually at least by virtue of his savings a woman on the other hand invests because she has received a legacy this may take the form of course of property securities cash or life insurance it is the function of sound investment most people know to surround funds of this nature with strong security the selection of conservative investments it is evident must be made with care those companies naturally that deal in conservative securities are the ones a prospective investor should consult.
4
Not long ago the editor of a financial journal received a letter of inquiry from a woman she had she said only two thousand dollars if she invested it as some of her friends had advised her to do in a well-known security she could not live on the proceeds she had consequently made a connection with a brokerage house and was making a living by buying and selling speculative stocks her list by the way showed a profit of $500 in four months what she wanted to know of course was how she could make the gain a second time in effect she was told to take her profits and run as fast as she could she will not in all probability take the advice and in a few months possibly weeks she will write again for help in rescuing her last few hundred dollars she will have learned at last that the way to keep her money is to save it but she will not by that time in all likelihood have any money to save.