Port Royal commercial and Beaufort County Republican. [volume] (Port Royal, S.C.) 1873-1874, 1874-01-22
Familiar Phrases.
Catching n Tartar---Chip In Porrfdge-..
Cart and Horse---Humbie Pie---Ps
and Q's---Hoolxey Walker.
BY DIR. R. SHELTON MACKENZIE.

eAo W. sNS >~>o
phrases are very common. From time
TO time have received many inquiries
on this subject. To-day I shall attempt
10 answer few of them.
So common a phrase as Catching
Tartar " has its origin variously stated.
Grose, the antiquarian, says that it came
out of q story of an Irish soldier, in
the Imperial service, who, in a battle
against the Turks, called out to mis-
comrade that he had caught J tartar.
"Bring him along, therr.," was the
reply.
"He won't come. answered Paddy.
"Then core along yourself" said
10 rhich the Hibernian responded,
All, but he won't let me-"
This is alluded to in recent work by
Professor Fitzgerald, entitled "Cau-
tions for the Times" revised by Arch
bishop Whately, of Dublin, the great
logician, in the sentence, "We are like
the man who boasted of having caught
a Tartar when the fact was that the
Tartar caught him."
The term is also applied by Charles
Dickens, in his story of Barnaby
Rudge." 1t may be remembered that
toward the close of that powerful ro-
nance, one fine afternoon is mentioned,
on which Gabriel Warden, the jolly and
good-natured locksmith, is having tea
in the little back parlor, in company
with his buxom wife, his pretty little
daughter, and Joe Willet, her erone-armed
betrothed, when, unexpected, uninvited,
and unwelcome, that antique maiden,
Miss Miggs, presents herself to the
company, sure of being re.engaged as
Mrs. Varden's handmaiden. AS she
gets the cold shoulder, Miggs becomes
saucy, pouring the vials of her wrath
upon the whole company, collectively
and individually. Her criticism upon
Gabriel Warden is conveyed in rapid
succession of angry and saucy SEN
tences, such as 81 have heerd the
neighbors make remark as some one
they was acquainted with was a psor,
good-natur'd, mean-spirited creetur, as
went out fishing for a wife one day,
and caught a Tartar"
"Like chip in porridge," meaning
q person or thing of small account or
use, is q phrase that often turns up IN
familiar conversation. Once, on enter
ing the witness-box, in court OF JUS
tice, person summoned to give testl-
mony said to the Judge:
81 don't know why / am here, for L
am like "a chip in porridge.' 1 can say
nothing against the plaintiff"
The late Sir Charles Napier, q very
brave soldier, and simply speaking SOL
der, said, in general order to the Ben.
gal army:
"The reviews which the commander
in-chief makes of the troops are not to
be taken as SO many 'chips in por-
ridge ="
Many years ago, at a contested elec-
ton IN England, one of the candidates
"It has been said that I have played
the game of Mr.. Mellish. 1 have, how
ever, done nothing toward his success.
have rendered him neither service nor
A person in the crowd exclaimed:
"No, nor to anybody else. You're
mere chip in porridge !?
The idea being that he was utterly
inefficient. A bit of chip put into any
food, whether porridge, soup or sauce,
no flavor to it, and is in
the same category with a'man who is
utterly useless. 1t is familiar, natural
and Ineligible comparison.
Putting the cart before the horse" is
q well-known illustration. 1t can boast
of great antiquity, having first been
quoted by Lucian, the great Greek
writer, nearly seventeen hundred years
ago. Francis Rabelais, the French
satirist and wit, whose "Gargantua"
was published in the year 1888, has the
phrase, "He placed the carriage before
the steed." No derivation of it can be
given, but the meaning is very obvious,
and refers to those who begin to do
thing at the wrong end.
"Eating humble pie"-meaning that
the conceit shall be taken out OF per-
son, that pride shall have falls an
often used in conversation.
The proper way of spelling the dish
would be "humble pie" with the as
pirate. 1t refers to pie once more
common in England than it has been
for many generations. Two hundred
years ago, during the reign of Charles
H., the condition of the people OF Eng
land was so low that, Lord Macaulay
says, wages were so low and meat $50
dear that hundreds of thousands OF
families scarcely knew the taste OF 1t.
Among the rich folks, veDison pasty
was favorite dish, but the poor gentry
had to put up with pie made of the
"umbles," or entrails of the deer, which
were the perquisites of the keeper. In
Bailey's famous old dictionary, the
foundation of Johnson's great work, the
word "umble" is said to be umbilicus,
the region of the intestines. If aperson
who had afforded such costly dish as
venison pasty were reduced to the
meaner dish, it might be said that he
was "eating umble pie"
There are various derivations of the
term, "Mind your P's ami Q's." 1t is
said to have arisen from the ancient
custom of hanging a slate behind the
ale-house door, on which was written
P or Q-that is, pint or quart-against
the name of each customer, according
to the quantity which he had drank. and
which was not expected to be paid for
until the next Saturday evening, when
the wages were settled. Perhaps the
word tick, meaning credit, may also be
traced to this-a tick or mark being put
for every glass of ale.