CAP
 

AMERICAN DICTIONARY OF
 

sentence is. In poetry there is one well-known excep¬
tion in poetical versions of the Psalms, where the lines
are alternately seven and six syllables. Here in many
books the second line is not capitalized, because it met¬
rically belongs to the preceding one. Proper nouns
and words which by construction or implication are
proper nouns are also capitalized. The difficulty arises
in the application. Should we write Hudson River
or Hudson river; Westchester County or Westchester
county ; John Jones, Esq., or John Jones, esq.?

The rules on this subject are those laid down by the
best grammars and books on printing, but to many of
them great exception will be taken. It is well in be¬
ginning a book for the proof-reader to make notes of
the capitalizing his author seems inclined to follow, or
when it is to follow the rule of the office put down
the preferential form of words about which doubt may
arise. It is difficult to know where the dividing line oc¬
curs between capitalizing and non-capitalizing. Nearly
all proof-readers agree that President should be capital¬
ized when speaking of the President of the United
States, and that other high offices should also be capi¬
talized. Insignificant offices should not be. Where,
then, in the line of officers. President, Chief-Justice,
Senator, Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Member of
Assembly, Mayor, Sheriff, Alderman, Supervisor, Se¬
lectman, Deputy Sheriff or Constable, should the capi¬
talizing stop ? Nearly all would cut off all below the
Sheriff", and many would do so below Lieutenant-Gov¬
ernor. Some would go still further. It is, therefore,
necessary for the proof-reader to keep memorandums
which shall show how he has decided in similar places,
if he would have his work uniform.

Rules for Capitalizing.—The following classes of
words should be capitalized :

1.  All proper nouns, such as Caesar, Africa, Missis¬
sippi, ^tna.

2.   All nouns which by personification are given the
attributes of persons, as :

Truly we do but grope here in the dark,
Near the partition wall of Life and Death.

3.   Words in apposition, one of them being a proper
noun, as William the Conqueror, Pepin the Short,
Gregory the Great.

4.   The name of the Deity, with the synonymes and
periphrases, as Lord, the Saviour, the Lamb, the Re¬
deemer, and also the personal pronouns relating to the
Deity, but not the relative pronoun nor the derivative
personal pronoun. Thus He, Him and His should be
capitalized, but not whom or himself. This rule is not
followed in the Bible nor in the Common Prayer Book,
nor do many hymn-books, all these pronouns being kept
down, and it is to be wished that their example could
be followed instead of the one now prevalent. Pro¬
nouns relating to heathen deities are not capitalized.

5.  The first word in every line of poetry. Yet there
is one exception in some very long lines in church psal¬
mody, only each alternate line being capitalized.

6.   The first word of every complete sentence or para¬
graph.

7.   The principal words in the names of books, as
Murray's Grammar, the Whole Duty of Man, the Com¬
plete Poetical Works of Longfellow.

8.   Heads and sub-heads of articles in newspapers and
chapters in books, and tables of contents follow the
same rule. No word, however, is considered a princi¬
pal word that is an article or preposition, no matter
how many letters or syllables it contains. Thus Ten
Years amongst the Indians does not capitalize the word
amongst. The older and stricter school of book-print¬
ers did not capitalize participles or auxiliary verbs.
Some even carried the rule further and did not capital¬
ize any verbs, as the Typography of the Fifteenth Cen¬
tury exemplified in a Collection of Fac-Similes, or an
Inquiry concerning the Invention of Printing.    News-

80
 

paper printers, however, nowhere conform to this rule,
and the greater portion of the book and job offices use
their capitals more freely.

9.   Titles of high officers. Capitals are always em¬
ployed when a common noun is used as an adjective
describing the person, as President Harrison, Governor
Hill or Mayor Grant, but many offices do not capitalize
words when not immediately thus followed. They say
George S. Coe, the president of the American Exchange
Bank ; William A. Camp, manager of the Clearing-
House. All would agree in saying President Coe, Man¬
ager Camp.

10.   The personal pronoun I and the interjection O.

11.   Adjectives derived from proper nouns, as Eng¬
lish, Asiatic, African, Shakespearian.

12.   The first word of a quotation introduced with a
colon. When it is not begun in the direct form, but is
really incorporated into the sentence, it is not capital¬
ized.

13.  In many books words relating to the main subject
are capitalized. Thus a Secretary of the Treasury
might capitalize in one of his reports the words Public
Debt or Sinking Fund. In De Vinne's Price-List he
capitalizes Inferior Stock or Specky Paper, Hard-Sur¬
faced Cards, and such words, in the centre of a common
paragraph.    General usage is, however, against this.

14.   Nouns that accompany each other customarily,
although only one may be a proper noun. Thus Hud¬
son Avenue, Mississippi River, the Bay of Fundy and
the Rocky Mountains are frequently capitalized, usage
seeming about equally divided between this method
and the contrary. When it is an adjective of location
qualifying a noun usage seems to favor it, as Southern
England, Southwestern Missouri, Northern Asia.

15.   All great and important things are often capital¬
ized, as the North Pole, the Equator, the City of Lon¬
don, the Littoral, the Desert of Sahara, American Sla¬
very, the Republican Party. Republican is capitalized
as a proper noun in this case, and Party from the opera¬
tion of the rule.

16.   Some authors capitalize the word The when it be¬
gins a compound j)roper name. This usage is erroneous,
as if it is necessary then the whole sentence requires a
small the before it, as the The Last Words and Dying
Confession of John Sheppard. This theory is carried
by some authors to this very extreme, but it is most
favored by lawyers. The word "the," however, is in
most cases only a word to round out the sentence, and
has no real utility, as is shown by the fact that the Ger¬
mans and French make a far diff'erent usage of it from
ours. This usage would construct sentences like : *' If
the The Bible is not true,'' "In the The Complete
Works of William Shakespeare," " It was said at the
beginning of the American Revolution, in the The Dec¬
laration of Independence," &c.

Professed librarians, who have become wearied with
the difficulties of making some exact rule fit every case,
have attempted to put into force another rule, totally sub¬
versive of all others. No words except those at the be¬
ginning of complete sentences, or strictly proper nouns,
are to be capitalized. Thus the librarians, the guard¬
ians of our printed literature, or of that portion which
will be read in future ages, for the sake of ease over¬
throw all the usages and the nice distinctions which
have been transmitted to us, and which make the printed
page clear. Sentences from one of their catalogues,
published in 1876, read thus i

The american genealogist.

Penny cyclopaedia of the society for the diffusion of useful
knowledge.

Encyclopaedia britannica.

Neues conversations-lexikon; ein worterbuch des allgemeinen
wissens.

Historical, genealogical, chronological and geographical atlas.
From the french.

Dictionary, english and dutch; woordenboek der engelsche en
nederduytsche taalen.

Groves's greek and english dictionary.