* * * * *

A single illustration will suffice for analysis.  You have heard it often enough; fie upon you if you have said it!

“If you saw that sunset painted in a picture, you’d never believe it would be possible!”

* * * * *

It must be borne distinctly in mind that it is not merely because this remark is trite that it is bromidic; it is because that, with the Bromide, the remark is inevitable.  One expects it from him, and one is never disappointed.  And, moreover, it is always offered by the Bromide as a fresh, new, apt and rather clever thing to say.  He really believes, no doubt, that it is original—­it is, at any rate, neat, as he indicates by his evident expectation of applause.  The remark follows upon the physical or mental stimulus as the night the day; he cannot, then, be true to any other impulse.  Originality was inhibited in him since his great-grandmother’s time.  He has “got the habit.”

Accepting his irresponsibility, and with all charity to his undeveloped personality, we may note a few other examples of his mental reflexes.  The list is long, but it would take a large encyclopaedia to exhaust the subject.  The pastime, recently come into vogue, of collecting Bromidioms,[1] is a pursuit by itself, worthy enough of practice if one appreciates the subtleties of the game and does not merely collate hackneyed phrases, irrespective of their true bromidic quality.  For our purpose in elucidating the thesis in hand, however, we need cull but a few specimens, leaving the list to be completed by the reader at his leisure.

[Footnote 1:  For this apt and cleverly coined word I am indebted to Mr. Frank O’Malley of the New York “Sun,” who has been one of the most ardent and discriminating collectors of Bromidioms.]

* * * * *

If you both happen to know Mr. Smith of Des Moines, the Bromide inevitably will say: 

“This world is such a small place, after all, isn’t it?”

The Bromide never mentions such a vulgar thing as a birth, but

“The Year Baby Came.”

The Bromide’s euphemisms are the slang of her caste.  When she departs from her visit, she says: 

"I’ve had a perfectly charming time."

"It’s SO good of you to have asked me!”

“Now, DO come and see us!”

And when her caller leaves, her mind springs with a snap to fasten the time-worn farewell: 

“Now you have found the way, do come often!”

And this piece of ancient cynicism has run through a thousand changes: 

“Of course if you leave your umbrella at home it’s sure to rain!”

But comment, to the Sulphite, is unnecessary.  These remarks would all be in his Index Epurgatorius, if one were necessary.  Except in jest it would never even occur to him to use any of the following remarks: