The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-08-06
Sayings About Cats.

For living "cat and dog life," the
French say to Glove like cats and dogs;"
and this leads US to observe that many
Of the sayings which are current in one
language appear in Others more or less
modified. Thus, we say stto buy pig
in poke;" but in France, Flanders and
elsewhere they say ''to buy cat in a
bag
A scalded cat breads cold waterjust as
much as burnt child breads the fire;
and though scalded cat does not go
back to the kitchen, the Spanish idea is
good: Gone eye on the pot, and the
other on the cat" The italian means
cat when he is in earnest, does not mean
cat when he is in jest, and plays the dead
cat when he dissimulates. He calls the
cat waen he speaks plainly; he sets
about skinning the cat when he under
takes hard task; and when he sees no
one he finds himself neither cat nor dog.
That evil-doers are caught at last, he
shows by saying the cat goes SO often to
the bacon that she leaves her claws
there. He goes to see the cat drowned
when he lets himself be imposed upon,
and he cheats another when he gets him
to go and see him fish along with the
cat. Though every cat would like a
bell the cat of Messina scratched out its
own eyes in order not to see the rats.
The Spaniard, like the italian, plays
the cat when he dissimulates, but it is
not dead one. The Spaniard says the
cat would be goodsfriend if he did not
scratch, and he thinks cat which news
is not good mouser. An italian says
one had better be the head of a cat than
the tail of lion; a wary German goes
1lr<o <,t I, - ILL
it too late to drive the cat away when the
cheese is eaten. Many believe that a
good cat often loses a mouse, that no cat
is too small to scratch, and that you can
not keep away the cat when it has tasted
cream. The Russian that play for cats
means tears for the mice: the Arab says
terms the provisions suffer; the Turk
against one lion. Another Turkish say
ing is, it is fast day to-day, as the cat
said when it could not get at the liver.
The Englishman fancies that some men
have as many lives as cat-that cat,
in fact, has nine lives; yet he holds that
care will kill q cat, and that May kittens
should be drowned. He is scarcely
alone in thinking that the more you
stroke cats back the higher she raises
her tai-in other words, that fattery
feeds vanity. He lets the cat out of the
bag; but so do others, and they all agree
that it is in the nature Of cat always to
fall on its feet. Only he talks of turn
ing cat in pan, and of raining cats and
dogs, or sees folks dance like cat on hot
bricks.
The Spaniard says, "Has the cat kit
tened?" when he sees place full of
lights; and he asks, 'Who has to take
the cat out of the water?" when some
thing unpleasant has to be done. That
any one watches as cat mouse, is
French as much as English. The French
always say, She is as dainty as cat;
it is nothing to whip a cat for; their
singers have q cat in the throat when the
throat is not clear; and the phrase scat
music" is not unknown. If one has a
scratched face, he has been playing with
cats; and an impossibility is mouses
nest in cats ear. That people should
sometimes go like cat over hot Goals, is
Ineligible enough.-The Queen.