The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-12-17 00:00:00

THE r 7
LIADGE OBL,*ERVL
jru,

ingiy mutable
,puNie mind acl-oiis the silver
streak. President Carnot may to ion?, at
tho Elpsee, or his retn may be but brief.
All who would maintain the peace of En7ope
will hope, however, that he may have the
strength to hold the maly conflicting parties
in the great nation ovc.. which he has been
called to pr:side upon tit pleasailiT p Lthv,-ay
of international amity.

TH —, TEETH FIGURATIVELY USED.
THI d...rent members and portions of the
humu bedy have their natural functions
supplemented by figurative uses. We are
accustomed to speak of the head of a party,
looking difficulties in the face, the brow of
night, the eyelids of the morning, the eye of
the day, poking the nose irto private affairs,
the month of a river, the :thousand tongues
of rumour, breaking tl,:e neck of rebeldon,
the shoulders and breast of a hill, the back-
bone of a scheme or movement, the sinwS
of war, limbs of the law, and the pu`,tino•
down of the foot in a resolute purpose. The
teeth, which form the active machinery of
mastication, and which cause exc:lici !Eng
pain when decay attacks any of them at the
core, are likewise frequently used, in a
figurative sense, in everyday phrases familiar
to all. The appositeness or forcible expres-
siveness of these phrases accounts for their
general acceptance, and the favour in which
°they are held. It is the marked character-
istic of common sayings, which have the
currency of proverbs, that familiarity in
their case does not breed contempt. Every-
boiy understands what is meant when any-
one is said to have shown his teeth. It
means that he resented an injury or insult,
and that he exhibited an amount of irritation
which it would have been unwise furthsr to
provoke. The phrase is obviously derived
from the habit dogs have of displaying their
weapons of warfare in two seriee rows
when a paw has been accidentally trod upon,
or when a stranger of their own species is
suddenly encountered face to face. The
allied phrase "in spite of his teeth," signifiea
that something will be carried out, or a de-
termined effort made to do so, though an
opponent should show fight like a snarling;
dog. Holinshed presents this phrase in an-
other light in his story of a Bristol Jew who,
lather than submit to the exkortions of King
John, suffered a tooth to be drawn every day
In seven days, however, feeling that he had
undergone quite enough of the torture re—
sulting from this persistent process of dental
surgery, he agreed to pay the exactions im-
posed upon him, and the tyrannical King
could boast that, in spite of the teeth of the
Bristol Shylock. he had succeeded in getting
his desired tribute. In a quarrel between
two friends, two lovers, or between husband
and wife, the recalling of something exces-
sively disagreeable is forcibly described by
the phrase "casting his teeth," which de-
notes a reproachful retort, intended to give
pain by opening an old wound. Such retorts
envenomed by spitefulness, belong to the
unforgivable kind, and often defy every
after effort to consign them to oblivion.
Like rooted sorrows they cling tenaciously
to the memory, and cannot be plucked away.
The one who made the pain-giving retort in
the height of the quarrel may repent of it ;
but the repentance, it frequently happens,
comes too late to be of such healing service.
The man who has made up his mind irrevoc-
ably to follow a certain course is commonly
described as having determined to do so in
the teeth of all opposition, which implies
that he is :prepared to undertake every
hazard, to undergo every hardship, and to
straggle to the uttermost for the attain-
ment of the end he has in view, "Going to
the teeth of a storm"—which is an equiva-
lent expression —signifies encountering its
fiercest energy, and experiences of the kind
are frequently fatal in the case of mariners
at sea, and of travellers who are caught in
the whirling and blinding snow-dirt on some
solitary mountain side. Tackling to any
business in hand, "tooth and nail" indicates
an intention to imitate the action and per-
severance of rodents in their industrious
mining and tunnelling opperations. It is by
the use of like means—though claws in their
case take the placelof nails—that the carni-
vord, make sharp work of their captured
prey. The exclamation, "Ah ! he has cat
his eye teeth," which follows the mention
of someone's name shows that the individual
in question is understood to know what he
is about, and to be always wide awake. If
you take:the conceit out of a man, or fleece
him in some way, withont his be:ng con-
scious of undergoing the operation, you can
claim for yourself the credit of having
drawn his eye-teeth. It would certainly be
a feat worth bragging about to succeed in
thus dealing with a Yankee, as he is supposed
to possess an acuteness which prevents him
from being tricked or over-reached. Thore
is yet another figurative use made of the
tooth-drawing process, not restricted, how-
ever, to any particular class of teeth. Re-
specting the disputatious personage who
brooks no opposition in argument, and who
retorts fiercely when his dictatorial asser-
tions are challenged or contradicted, it is
sometimes aptly remarked that he would be
none the worse of having his teeth drawn.
The rigorous severity of ancient Jewish law
found expression in the phrase, "An eye for
an eye, a tooth for a tooth," and we have
reason to feel thankful that no lex talionis
of so merciless a kind is in force in our more
enlightened times. By the familiar phrase,
The tooth of Time," is forcibly expressed the
effect which centuries have in gradually
wearing away m mumants lof antiquity,
and the most imposing structures reared by
the hand of man. Anyone who shows a
strong liking for sweetmeats is said to have
a "sweet tooth," and this serves to indicate
that the teeth, no less than the tongae and
palate, have their functions to fulfil as in-
struments of taste. In the days when dram
drinking was more common in Scotland than
now, it was customary to call the meridian
tipple a "toothful," though the quantity im-
bibed might not be restricted to a gill, which
would suffice to fill an ordinary winegless
to the brim.