The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-10-18
orrorn 81 rorUnAR PHRASES,
Written for tie GIobe.Dsmocrat
Tam Dying, Egypt Dying The very
beautiful poem,

Written for the Globe-D Democrat
Fam Dying, Egypt Dying The very
beautiful poem,
lam DYING. Egypt, dying,
Ebbs be crimson life-fide fast.
was written by Gen. William Haines
Lyle, brave soldier and faithful SER
want of his country, whose name de-
serves to be kept in remembrance. He
served as a Captain of volunteers in the
Mexican War. At the outbreak of the
civil war he was called to act as Colonel
of the 10th Ohio Volunteers, and was
severely wounded at Carnifex Ferry.
Returning to service as soon as his
wounds would permit, he was again
wounded, this time dangerously, and
made prisoner at the battle of Perry
vile, KY. He was soon exchanged,
recovered from his injuries, was pro-
NOTED to be Brigadier General, and
continued in active service until his lite
was crowned by an honorable death at
the battle of Chickamauga, on Septem-
Der 20, 1863. The words, lam dying,
Egypt, dying" which are placed in
quotation marks in the poem, are from
Shakspeare's Antony and Cleopatra,
act iv., scene 10. Gen. Lytle's verses
may be found in many collections of
popular poetry.
1t Is as simple as the transition from
Kinq Jeremiah to Cucember-This say
ing originated in the following: The
well-known title "gherkin," given to a
little cucumber, such as is used fol
picking, is from the Swedish gasrka, OF
the German gstrke, a cucumber. Some
one ridicuIed an argument concerning q
certain etymology with the exclamation
g Nonsense You might as well say
King jeremiah was derived from Gu
cumber." When the laugh had subsid
ed his witty opponent retorted: "Well
so it is: King Jeremiah-Jeremiah
King-Jere King jerking gherkin-
cucumber
He Comes too Near Who Comes to b
Denied. The original of this line is IL
"The Wife," by Sir Thomas Oyerbury
who wrote it about 1900 More than s
hundred years afferward Gin 1713,
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote
with diamond on a window a short
piece entitled The Lady's Resolve,
in. which she Reproduced the two lines
from Overbury. The first line annexed
is her own:
| Let III s great maxim be my virtues guide
| In part she IL TO b anne that has been tried
He coines 100 uear,that comes 10 be denied
1t is a sentiment worthy of special
commentator to all of her sex. Those
who firt with trifers Of The other sex
to the very edge of discretion are very apt
to be 1udely awakened to resent an in
suit they have invited by their thought,
less folly.
Useful as Shin Of Beef.-A very
ancient English proverb. The whole Of
it reads s'Useful as a shin of beef,
which has big bone for the big dog, a
little bone for the little dog, and sinew
for the cat"
Pienic.-This word is of obscure ori-
gin. According to Littre, it found its
way into French more than 14O years
ago, when it was spelled both picnic and
piouenique. The Swedes had learned
it before 1888, because fit appears in
Nidegreu's Swedish Dictionarysof that
year as npickpick, an assembly ofyoung
folks of sexes at tavern, where every
one paws his 'club," or part Of the
charges. Skeats, in his chronological
Dictionary, expresses the opinion that
the word is of English origin, although
it does not appear to have got into an
English dictionary until Todd added it
to ,Johnson's. in 1914 He maintains
that there is nothing French or Swedish
in its composition. He suggests that
pick or pic, is a corruption of peck,
flood" by attenuation of e into i, and
and that mic is the same as nick, or
knick, trife This style of entertain
ment, free as it is of the labor, expense
and onerous restraints of a formal feast,
popular in spirit, exalting the delights
of the excursion and its social privileges
above the mere animal delight of eating
and drinking, needs no explanation of
how it came into practice; and the fact
that at grand entertainments the feast
S of chief concern, while in the picnic
he ''peck," "pick," or food is, in con-
,rast with feast, ''trihing" matter,
gives color to Skeats' derivation of the
word from ''pick and "knick."
The Bridge Of Sighs..-The name of
bridge in Venice, made famous by
Byron in ''Childe Harold" Criminals
we're conveyed across the bridge to hear
heir sentence, and from there led to
execution; from this it derives its mel
ncholy but appropriate name. 1t may
oe ex planned that the Ducal palace is
Connected on the east side by this bridge
With the prison. Ruskin says of it hat
he bridge is "a work of no merit, and
f late period, owing the interest 1t
Possesses chiefly to its pretty name and
he ignorant sentimentalism of Byron.
Jowells speaks of it as ''That pathetic
the Bridge of sighs; and
ravelor writing of it, says, that the
ighing company that crossed it must
ave been made up of "housebreakers,
ut-purse knaves and murderers, and the
anne was given to it 'by the people
rom that opulence of compassion
hitch enables Italians to pity even ras-
atty in difficulties Nevertheless By
On thus sings of it:
stood in Venice on the Bridge of Signs,
A palace and prison on each hand;
saw from out the waves her structure rise,
As FROM the stroke of an enchanter's wand
thousand years their cloudy wings expand
Around me and dying glory smiles