Certain Fashions in Commas and Apostrophes

THE MOST widely read literature in the United States, and consequently perhaps the most influential for the rapid introduction of new usages, is the headlines of newspapers. The world of headlines has lately been swept by a new epidemic, an extension of the substitution of the comma for the co-ordinating conjunction. If I were describing standard punctuation, 'substitution of the comma for the conjunction' would be such careless language on my part that it might discredit all that I have to say. But in the case of headline usage I think the phrase is rigorously accurate. There exists a widespread belief that one of the functions of the comma is to take the place of an omitted word, especially of an omitted coordinating conjunction; I hear say that this doctrine is enunciated in the manual of style of the University of Chicago Press. I have little doubt that the belief in question rests on a good deal of instruction given in elementary schools, though I do not know what support it has in school textbooks even of the lowest grades. But this belief, through whatever channels it comes, has had a very perceptible influence on the dissension as to whether in cases of monosyndeton-that is, in cases of the type 'A, and C'-we should or should not use the comma before the expressed conjunction. good-sized minority will mentally argue, 'The purpose of the comma after A is to take the place of the omitted conjunction; consequently it is illogical to use it also after B, where the conjunction is expressed.' few years ago an American man of letters of excellent reputation in the second line of prominence died, and the literary reviews printed anecdotal reminiscences of him. One of the most interesting anecdotes told of an outburst of furious indignation against those who would use the comma before and in such a case: were they incapable of perceiving that here the conjunction was expressed and consequently there was no motive for the comma? This man, who wrote excellent light literature and plenty of it, did not take it into his head that the use of the comma in 'A, and C,' whether it be one comma or two commas, might have another object than to point out the ellipsis of a short word. Now I cannot think it doubtful that this same popular misconception of the function of the comma was the determining factor in the headlines' recent sudden extension of the use of asyndeton. Because the

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