[Don't] Buy but One

tN HIS discussion of 'The Doiuble Negative,' AXIr. A/Iencken lists a number 1 of examples containing one, two, and esen six expletive negatives (Nobody aint never said nothial' about sendin' no flowers to nobody'). In this same list, along with 'I will zzo! be responsible for any debts only by myself,' we also find the type with not . . . but: 'Please don't buy lvat one' (store advertisement in Baltimore, 1936) and 'The government last year could not raise but $3,ooo,ooo,ooo' (letter by the Hon. Thomas L. Blanton, of Texas, Congressional Record, Jan. 25, 1935, p. 1037, col. e). This last example Mr. Mencken is offering, evidently, as an illustration of Congressional illiteracy.2 But is it true that the honorable gentleman from Texas has used an expletive negative? \AJould NIr. AIencken also list as curiosities of the folk speech, 'none but the brave . . .' or nothing but, not anything but, where ve have, likewise, the combination of negative + but?3

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