White Cloud Kansas chief. [volume] (White Cloud, Kan.) 1857-1872, 1858-01-07
I.Not . Drap More, 'thout it's Sweet
ened."

--S-o-&--------
ItNot Q Drap More, 'thout it's Sweet
ened."
Il is astonishing how certain words
and phrases are incorporated In our YER
ascular, by the chance telling of an
snecdote, or anything ofthat sort. A
very common metaphoricsl expression is
contained in the words getting the hang"
It is Of universal application and conye-
pience. and became popular from the day
Of It's first appearance in the New Orleans
Picsyune, ten years ago, as the nub of a
story Of Western gambler in steam
boat who refused to refund certain mon
eys fraudulently obtained, although made
fast to q piston rod of the machinery
and compelled every second, alternately
to plunge forward and jump backward.
70 prevent, in the one case, his head
from being jerked of, and in the other,
his brains being dashed out, by the reg
ular. powerful stroke. "Let me alone;
I'm Just getting the hang of the machine
ry," he exclaimed, when il was demand
cd, won't you pay back now?" And
90 in law, politics, religion and morals,
science and art, the American people have
been GETTING THE HANG ever since.
i"Not drop more, 'Mom It's sweeten-
td,"' is a household phrase in part OF
Georgia and Alabama. A man declines,
with it, to renew a game at cards at
which he has proven unsuccessful; rus
tic expresses, by the elegant periphrasis,
HE HoNo 20 lrOr, fha
tance Of some cruel beauty; the little
politician vows in these terms, to alb
stain in future from some particular
course which has proven Improbable;
and so on, through thousand cases and
phases Of common place life, it answers
its purpose of playful but decided
aegation or declension for the party US
-ing i. In fact, it is a rather liberal
rendering of the Shakespearen, mo
more Of that, Hal, and thou lowest me-"
though used mostly by those who never
read Shakespeare. rsi.7.
We behave that our friend, Col X.
L HARRISON, formerly of Georgia, is
entitled to the credit of the story ont of
which grew the expression He tells it
about thus: b I'D. & 7lr ...f -se
Twenty years ago, it was the custom
In Northwestern Georgia, indeed it was
throughout the Southwest, for dry goods
dealers to keep barrel OF "sperrets" in
the back room, anil to ''treat" liberal
customers to glass whenever desired -
Fillens & Dewberry were such dealers il
one of the small towns of the regions
indicated; and they had for customer
clever, frollicking old fellow, named Joe
Denny, who drank whiskey in preference
TO water. always, and whose wife was
flesh Of his fesh," in that PARTICULAR
The old couple would come to town.,
trade quito freely, and quite as freely
.imbibe the spirits in tho back room Of
1the dealers whom We have named
On one occasion, both the old man
and the old woman continued their pota-
tions Unfortunately; and as Fillens observ
ed that his goods went better, the drunken
the old woman, he pressed her to drink.
At last she refused, unless he would
sssweeten it with little store sugar" -
The amiable shop keeper INDUCED her,
and when the people started home in the
evening late. the old man could scarcely
mount his horse, and the good wife had
actually to be lifted and placed on the
pillion behind him. Happily she leaned
one way, and her husband the other, so
that the graVitating point was between
them--and as she chung to him instinct
lively, they passed out of the village
safely. Before reaching their home,
however, they had to cross small creek.
and when their horse stopped in it to
drink, the old lady having reached uncon-
seriousness released her hold, and quietly
lspsed in the stream below. Occupied
with his thoughts the old man did not
perceive his loss, but logged slowly
homeward Arrived there, his children
enquired anxiously for "mammy," but
the old man could only say that she had
been "on the critter and the critter hadn't
kicked up nary time, so he couldn't say
where she might bel" and threw himself,
stupid, on the bed. .---. 7--
Girls and boys aew along the road the
old man had come, yelling ''mammyl
mammyp' as they went: but Of course no
NANNY responded. When they arrived
at the creek, the oldest girl shouted,
'.yonder she is = settin' down in the
creekP' And there she was comfortably
seated in the water, which came up near
" to her mouth. As she swayed back
and forth, now yielding to the impetuos-
ity Of the stream, and now resisting it
with some success, the muddy fluid
would occasionally wet herlips, and each
time it did so. she would family exclaim,
with grim effort to smile:
"Not a drop more, Hr. FTllens. 'Mom
ia swestenedp'
And It is to this romantic little incl
dent in the life Of the venerable Mrs. Joe
Denny, that We are indebted for the most
popular of colloquial phrases.-Aontgom
cry Mail
We have heard good many touching
expressions of 6ial election, but none
equal to the following which Western
man really gave vent to not long since:.
''My father was the only man ever al
lowed to be sassy to me without licking
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