Stranger Than Truth ?
Si,—Like many of your readers I was greatly entertained by the extract "from a GovernmencOrder " quoted by Janus from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. My enjoyment was in no way modified by the fact that, from internal evidence alone, it was not difficult to see that the quotation was not taken from an actual statutory instrument but was, in fact, a parody of one. Now the old English sport of bureaucrat-baiting is a very pleasant pastime. I play it myself, and, as a bureaucrat of a minor order in try working hours, I can testify that the fox enjoys St. But even in this branch of gamesmanship there are certain rules ; and surely one of them—too often transgressed—is that the sportsman should be sure.cf his facts. Officialese in correspondence and reports can be amusing and exasperating, and the war against it should be keenly fought (1 nearly said "rigorously prosecuted "); and, in fact, it is the officials themselves (such as the author of Plain Words) who are doing much of the fighting. But do let us fight fair.—Yours faithfully, A. K. Ross. 24 Brooks Road, Manchester, 16.
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