St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-08-05
Origin Of Popular Phrases.


"a Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss.''
This quotation appears in Gosson'
"Ephemerides of Philao,' as ga rowl.
ing stone gathers no moss Thomas
Tusser, in GOOD Husbandry Lessons -
has The stone that is rolling can gath
err no moss"
"Better Late Than Never This
proverbialism originated with Thomas
Iusser, author of Give Hundred Points
of Good Husbandry,'' who pat it into
his IAN Habitation Enforced" Tus-
ser's writings are prolific of expressions
which have long since become proven
bal.
mo Royal Road to Geometry. =
Euclid. who opened school of mathe-
mates at Alexandria, in the reign Of
the First Ptolemy, was once asked by
that sovereign whether he could not ex-
plain his art to him in a more compen-
dious way, to which Euclid made the
celebrated answer that there was no
royal road to geometry.
1.-The Nine Worthless THE historic
al personages designated 1.-The Nine
Worthless were three Geptiies -Hec-
tor, son of Priam; Alexander the Great
and Julius Caesar; three Jews, Joshua,
ccnqueror of Canaan; David, King of
Israel, and Judas Maccabeus; and
three Christians, Arthur, King of Brit
ain, Charlemagne and Godfrey of Bouil-
lon.
"The Bed of Procrustes.' -Procrus-
ties, called by Parusanias Polypamon,
was, in mytho 'ogy, robber of ancient
Greece, who placed on an iron bed the
travellers who fell into his hands, which
their stature was made to fit by cutting
off the projecting limbs, or by stretch
ing them to suit its dimensions; whence
the metaphorical expression of THE
Bed OF Procrustes.
"City of Magnificent Distances. -
A popular name given to the City of
Washington, the capital of the United
States, from the fact of it's being laid
out on very large scale. The entire
site is traversed by two sets of streets,
from seventy to 100 feet wide, at right
angles to one another, the whole again
intersected obliquely by fifteen avenues
from 100 to 160 feet wide.
Sleeveless Errand. This phrase oc-
ours in Haywood Proverbs, 1916. The
origin OF the word sleeveless, in the sense
of Improbable, has defed the most care
full research at the hands of Sharman
and other noted philologists. It is fire.
quently found, says the former, allied
to other substantives. Bishop Hall
speaks of the "sleeveless tale of tran
substantiation," and Milton writes of
=" sleeveless reason" Chaucer uses it in
the Testament of Love-
"Drawn and CHARTERED. In the
statutes of Great Britain the punish
ment for treason still is that the
offender be drawn to the place of exc
cution on hurdle; that he be hanged
by the neck until he be dead that his
head be severed from his body, and
that body be divided into four parts, or
quartered. The sovereign may, and
now certainly would, by warrant
under the sign manual, countersigned
by principal Secretary of State, change
the sentence into beheading. In the
case of females, the quartering is dis
pensed with. From this statute rose
the expression "drawn and quartered."
1--WE Recognize Hercules from the
Size of the Foot. "-Pythagoras ingeni-
ously calculated the great stature of
Hercules by comparing the length of
various stadia in Greece. All these
courses were nominally 600 feet in
length; but Hercules was said to have
out the stadium at Olympia
with his own feet, while the others fol-
lowed a standard of later days. The
philosopher argued that by how much
the Olympic course exceeded all others
in length by the said proportion did
the foot of Hercules exceed that of men
Of a subsequent age; and, again, by the
same proportion must the stature of
Hercules have been pre-eminent.
"Prairie Schooner An American
ism for a large two or four horse immi-
grant wagon, covered with white can
vas, such as were very commonly used
BY the early emigrants from the Eastern
and Southeastern States. The express
sion is alleged to have been originated
by George Francis Train, who said in
one of his early stump-speeches: ITO
he East lies the Atlantic Ocean, bearing
upon its surface the white doves of COM
nerce, bound for distant ports, laden
with the products of the broad West,
whose bosom is to-day dotted with thou
sands of prasrie-schooners, loaded with
sturdy men and women, who will ere
ong make its remotest quarters blossom
Is the rose. st. Louis Globe Democrat.
The London Telegraph had an edi-
orial article on "The extraordinary
Ipectacle presented in the United States
If meeting in Indiana of 5000 drunk
lrds." The thousands were Dunkards,