This kind of succession is called a _series_. Each new member gives a
new idea, the comma being used to help the reader to separate one from
the next with ease. Notice that the comma is used between the last two
members before the coördinate conjunction as well as between the other
members.
2
Dear Sir:[1]
You can make no mistake in buying BCL Power Co. bonds
now the company supplies power to mines and towns of
Colorado Utah and Idaho it furnishes electric light
and power to Ophir Ouray Ames Pandora and other towns
in Colorado in Utah it supplies light to Mescal Eureka
Provo Logan and Bingham it also furnishes power for
the street railway systems of Salt Lake City
Farmington and Ogden.
The bonds offer such good security good interest and
ready convertibility that we expect our allotment to
be heavily oversubscribed will you therefore send us
your order before Monday.
Yours truly,
3
Imagine the scene: a little hollow in the prairie
forming a perfect amphitheater the yellow grass and
wild oats grazed short a herd of horses staring from
the slope I myself standing in the middle like a
ring-master in a circus and this wonderful horse
performing at his own free will. He trotted powerfully
he galloped gracefully he thundered at full speed he
lifted forelegs to welcome he flung out hind legs to
repel he leaped as if springing over bayonets he
pranced and curvetted as if he were the pretty
plaything of a girl and finally he trotted up and
snuffed about me--just out of reach.
4
Dear Madam:[4]
Our Style Book shows you the best of the season's
styles for ladies misses and children it contains
illustrations of the latest kinds of long coats of
skirts in the most fashionable cuts and materials of
hats that are new and particularly becoming and of
dresses with the newest sleeves and collars we are
especially sure that you will like our waists they are
artistic in design stylish in cut and excellent in
workmanship they are selected from the leading fashion
centers are the creations of the best costumers and
always have individuality twenty years of selling
goods by mail have given us experience skill and
knowledge that make it certain we can please you.
The enclosed coupon is good for fifty cents on a five
dollar order one dollar and twenty-five cents on a ten
dollar order and two dollars on an order for fifteen
dollars or more this offer expires September 30.
Yours truly,
5
Increased wages shorter hours and perhaps lower
efficiency for the hours worked have done more to
raise the cost of living than almost anything else
this higher cost of production we see on the farm in
the factory in transportation in merchandising and
even in domestic service we cannot double the cost of
excavating brick-laying plumbing and decorating and
expect not to double the rents that we must pay the
cost of building has increased as the demands of
laborers increased as their hours of work decreased
and as their wages advanced the materials that go into
a building the transportation of that material the
labor of assembling it and the labor of fashioning it
into a building have all advanced in price.
Moreover, high living has a great deal to do with the
high cost of living because it has made most of us
think that we must have more conveniences more
luxuries more clothes and more amusements than our
fathers had with a return to the thrift of our fathers
with a return to their desire for work we shall no
longer feel the grip of the high cost of living there
is a real danger to our nation in our extravagance in
our indifference to cost in our sweep toward ease and
idleness and in our growing antipathy for work.
=Exercise 175=
Write five sentences illustrating series of words; five illustrating
series of phrases; and five illustrating series of clauses.
=Exercise 176=
Write the following from dictation:
1
THE GOVERNMENT'S LAUNDRY
Some of the paper money in circulation is so dirty
that one feels the need of gloves in handling it, and
the suspicion that it is germ laden might well be
verified. It has often been said that money spreads
contagious diseases, nor can such a statement be
questioned when one remembers that money goes into
every kind of home and is handled by many infected
persons. The government has long felt that something
should be done to lessen this means of spreading
disease, and a machine has finally been invented that
will wash and iron the dirtiest bills until they look
almost as fresh as new ones. The entire cost of
operating the device is hardly fifty cents for each
thousand bills, but it is estimated that it will save
the government as much as a million dollars a year.
2
LUCK AND LABOR
Luck is ever waiting for something to turn up; labor
with keen eyes and strong will turns something up.
Luck lies in bed and wishes the postman would bring
him news of a fortune; labor turns out at six o'clock
and with busy pen or ringing hammer lays the
foundation of a competence. Luck whines; labor
whistles. Luck relies on chance; labor on
character.--_Cobden._
The selections given above illustrate the compound sentence. Notice the
thought expressed in these sentences. There is usually an idea of
balance or contrast, and the two halves of the sentence express the two
halves of the idea. The two members are usually distinct enough to
require a comma before the conjunction. If the conjunction is omitted, a
semicolon must separate the two members, as in the second selection
above.
=Rule 3.--The comma is used before the coördinate
conjunction in a compound sentence. If the conjunction
is omitted, a semicolon must be used.=
=Exercise 177=
Separate the following into compound sentences and punctuate:
1
Sawdust as a fire extinguisher sounds absurd but
recent experiments in Boston have proved it to be
successful in quenching fires in tanks of oil and
other inflammable liquids the Boston experiments were
conducted with tanks of burning varnish but the same
principles seem to apply to tanks of burning oil the
floating sawdust forms a blanket that shuts off the
air from the flames and the lack of oxygen causes the
fire to die out the experiments were tried with both
wet and dry sawdust and the dry material seemed to
extinguish the fire as quickly as the wet.
2
Select the kind of business that suits your natural
inclination and temperament some men are naturally
mechanics others have a strong aversion to machinery
because they do not understand it some men are
imaginative others are purely practical some prefer
active work others like sedentary employment all
should select those occupations that suit them best.
3
Certain Western railroads have long felt the need of a
new material for sleepers and they have been
experimenting for some time past with cocobolo or
Japanese oak the wood is so hard that it is almost
impossible to drive spikes into it and screwed spikes
in bored holes are used these sleepers will cost a
trifle more than those made from American oak but they
are expected to last twenty-five or thirty years the
reason for experimenting with foreign woods is that
native oak is becoming scarce and it is deemed wise to
search in time for a substitute.
4
Dear Sir:
We wrote you on the third but as yet no word has come
of your decision in regard to the investment you were
considering at 475 Second Avenue let us have your
order and we shall at once prepare the contract of
sale the building is an especially attractive offering
at $9,500 and we feel sure that you will find the
return from it unusually large.
Yours very truly,
=Exercise 178=
When an adverbial clause or a participial adjective phrase is put at the
beginning of a sentence to secure emphasis, it is called an _initial_
clause or participial phrase. A comma separates it from the independent
clause to help the reader to see where the subordinate idea ends and
where the main idea begins. Rewrite the following from dictation,
noticing the punctuation of initial elements:
If a city is to be kept in good condition, every
citizen must pay his share of the expense. If the
dreadful epidemics are to be exterminated, there must
be a good board of health to see that everything is
kept sanitary. When the health officers do their work
well, the health of the city improves. In order that
the decrees of the health department and of the courts
may be enforced, there must be a good police
department. Besides having these advantages, cities
need good streets and good schools. Because all of
these good things cost a great deal of money, high
taxes must be levied to pay for them.
=Rule 4.--An initial clause or participial phrase must be set off from
the rest of the sentence by a comma.=
=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: