Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-10

ERxen.
The ARantic Monthly has lengthy article
from which we extract the following;
Idicms are just what their
naule implies. They are the commonality of
laneuage--private, proletarian words who
do the work, "dura aIteri tulerunt honoTes.n
They come 10 us from all handiworks and
callings, where you will always find them at
their posts. Sharp, energetic, incisive, they
do the hard labor Of speech-that of carrying
heavy loads OF thought and shaping new
ideas
We think them vulgar at first and savor-
ing of the shop; but they are useful and
bsady, and we can not do without them.
They rivet, they forge, they coin, they fire
mn Hbrake M, switch of" prospect
"shin" for US when we are short, post up"
our books, and finally ourselves, strike a
"dicker,', "swap," and ''peddle:" They are
"whole teams" beside the 'one- horse vapid-
ities which fail to bear our burdens. The
Norman can not keep down the Saxon.
The Saxon finds his Wat Tyler or Jack
Cade. Now "Mosep brings his Bowery Boys
into our parlor, or Cromwell Judd recruits
his LronSideS from the hamlets of the Ken
nebec.
We declare for the proletaires We vote
the working-w words ticket. We have to
plead the cause of American idioms.
Some of them have, as we said, good blood
in them, and can trace their lineage and
standing to the English Bible and Book of
Common Prayers; others are "new men,"
bora urder hedge-rows and left as foundlings
Rt funac, doors. And before we go further
we have brief story to tell in illustration
of tie two tongues.
a case of assault and battery was tried in
q Western court. The plaintiffs counsel
informed the jury in his opening that he was
aprepaTed to prove that the defendant,
steamboat CAPTAIN, menaeed his client, an
English traveller, and put him in bodily fear,
commanding him to vacate the avenue of
the steamboat with hi9 baggage, or he would
precipitate him into the river" The evil
dence showed that the Captain called out:
"Strmger, ef you don't tote your plunder off
that gapg plank, I'll spill you in the drink"
We submit that for terseness and vigor the
practitioner at the bar of the Ohio had the
better of the learned counsel who appeared
at the bar of Justice, albeit his client was in
Cockney my stifcation at the address.
The illustration will serve our turn. 1t
points TO class OF phrases which are lndl-
genous to various localities OF the land, in
which the native thought finds appropriate,
bold, and picturesque utterance. And these
in time become incorporate into the uni
versal tongue. OF them is the large family
of political phrases These are coined in
moments of intense excitement, struck out
al white heat or, to follow our leading
come upon the stump in their shirt-sleeves.
Every camapign gives us new horde.
Some die out at once; others telcltously
tickle the public ear and ring far and wide.
They 'speak for Buncombe," are Barn Burn
ers, Old Hunkers, Hard Shells, Soft Shells,
Log Rollers, Pipe. Layers. Woody Heads,
Silver Grays, LOcofocos, Fire-Eaters, Ada
rantines, Free Solers, Freedom Shriekers,
Border Ruffians. They spring from bon
mot or a retort. The log cabin and hard
cider watchwords were born of taunt like
the "Gueux" of the Netherlands. The once
famous phrase "Gerrymandering" some OF
our readers may remember, Governor Ell
bridge Gerry contrived, by a curious ar
IangemeDt of districts in Massachusetts, to
transfer the balance Of power to his own
party. One of his opponents, pOring over
the map of the Commonwealth was struck
by the odd look of the geographical lines
which thus were drawn, eurVing in and
out among the towns and counties. "It
looks" said he 'like asalamander." Looks
like Gerry-mander," calculated another
and the term stuck long and close.
Now and then you have the aristocratiC
and democratic sides Of an idea in use at the
same time. Those who style themselves
gentlemen of the press are known to the
rest of mankind as "dead heads''-being, foI
paying purposes literally, capita nsortuG.
So, too, our colleges are provided, over and
above the various dead languages of theil
classic curriculum with the two tongues
The one serves the young gentlemen, es-
pecially in their Sophomore maturity, with
appropriate expressions for their literary ex-
ercises and public flights. The other is fol
their common talk tells who hunked" and
was deaded,' who " fished with the tutor
who "cut " prayers and who was dig
ging' at home. Fac college, from imperia
Harvard and lordly Yale to the freshes
western institution, whose three profess
ors fondly cultivate the same number o
aspiring Alumni, has its particular dialec
with its quadrennial changes The just bud
ded Freshmen Of the class of GA could hardl,
without help decipher "The Rebelliad
which in the Consulship of Plaucus kirkland
was the epic of the day. The good old gen
tleman who came up to eat Commencement
dinners and to sing with quavery voices tn
annual psalm thereafter, are bewildered il
the mazes of the cOllege-speech of thei
grandsOns. Whence come these phrases few
can tell. Like witty DR.. SIS quota
tion," which never Wes any thing else, the
started in life as sayings springing full
grown, like Palas Athene, from the laborin
brain of some Olympic Sophister. Here i
the quiet of our study in the country, W
wonder if the boys continue as in our day t
"creste q shout" instead Of making
call upon their lady aeguaintance,-if the
still use "ponies "-if they "group," and ge
as We did, "parietal and "publies" for IL
same.
The police courts contribute their quot
Baggage. smashing, dog smudging, RIM
dropping, watch-stuffing, the patent-sa
men, the confidence men, garroters, shysteI
policy. dealers, mock-auction Peter Funk
bogus.ticket swindeTs, are all terms whit
have more or less out-grown the bounds
their Alsatia Of thieves Latin and are know
Of men.
Even the pulpit, with its staid decorum
has its idioms, which it can not quite keep
itself. We hear in the religious world
"professofs, and "monthly concert
(which mean praying and not psalmodyl
"sensation preaching (which takes {
place Of tho "painful" preaching OF {
iimesA Of fplatlOrm speakers Of "'reYn
preachers of "broad pulpits," a
"chuFcAes the future" Of the Eclipse
FsiIh and the "suspense Of faith,
liberal Christians with no reference
the contribution platesl of subjective,
"ObjectiVe sermons, "Spurgeonisms," a
businessmen meetings. And we c
never think without smile of that gift
genius, whoever he was, who described
certain public exercise as Hthe most eloque
prayer addressed 70 a Boston audienc
He surely created a new aud striking idio
The Almighty Dollar Of 9
worship has more synonyms than the l
man Pantheon had diVinities. We are
well informed" but "Fosted' or "posi
up" We are not Hospitality entreats
any more, but "put through" We do l