The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-03-16
Popular Phrases.
Some Account Of the Origin Of Current Express
sinns

sfon8.
i Yellow Jack.-Among sailors COM
mon personification of the yellow fever.
Although used as a proper name, it is
| probable that the original meaning Of
the application was nothing more than
| yelloac flag, a flag being termed Jack
by seamen, and yellow being the color
OF that customarily displayed from laza-
| rettoes or naval hospitals, and from
| vessels in quarantine.
4ankee.--A term in America for New
Englanders, and applied by foreigners to
| all natives of the United States. The
most feasible origin is, that the Indians,
when speaking of the English settlers,
called them ssYenghees,n corrupted af-
forwards to Yankee
The Gray Mare is the Better Horse
This expression first occurred in Hey
woods Proverbs, 1862, and was subse-
quently quoted in Hazlitt's English Pro-
verbs, with Haywood as authority. The
| story of the origin of this familiar saying
is as follows: A young English gentle
man had married very handsome lady
with large fortune, but she proved to
be so determined to be the head of the
family that he was anxious to part from
| her. He accordingly laid the matter
before her father, offering, if he would
| take her back, to refund all the fortune
| which he had received with her. The
| old gentleman assured his son-in-law
that his case was by no means an unusual
| one; but that, in fact, all women did
| not only wish to govern their husbands,
but that they actually did so, some by
one means, and some by another.
t.Now," said the old gentleman, s'in
order that you may be convinced that
you are quite as well off as other men,
and SO have nothing to complain of, I
will make you this proposition: I have
two horses in my stable. You shall
harness them to a cart, in which / viii
place basket. containing hundred
eggs, and you shall ride through the
country, making dfligent inquiry, and
whenever you find house in which
the husband is master, you shall leave
horse, and at every house where the
wife governs you shall leave an egg. If
you find that you get rid of the eggs be-
fore you do the horses, you shall go
home and be content with my daughter;
but if the horses are gone first, / will
take my daughter home, and you shall
keep her fortune" The young man set
out on his expedition. At every house
where he made inquiries he found enough
to convince him that the wife was the
master, until his basket of eggs was
| nearly empty before he had got rid of
either of the horses. AT length, early
one morning, he came to afne mansion,
and asked to see the master of the house.
The servant said that his master was
not yet up, but the lady was in the par
lor, into which he was ushered. The
lady received him courteously, but said
that unless his business was very urgent
she would prefer not to awaken her
husband. 'sReally, madame" he said,
'tyou will think my business a very sim
gu1ar one. hope you will not consider
me impertinent, but I wish to ask a
question which you can answer as well
as your husband, and considerable
wager depends upon the answer which
shall receive. The question is just this,
DO you govern your husband, or does
he govern you?" 1t is an odd question,
certainly" replied the lady, ''but no
one, surely, ought to be ashamed of
doing what is right. 1t is the wife's
duty to obey her husband, and I am
proud to say that / always obey mine.
But perhaps you would like to have his
testimony also Here he comes, and
YOU can ask him. The husband being
appealed to, promptly confirmed the
truth of what his wife had said, where
upon the stranger explained the object
of his inquiry, and said that it gave him
the utmost pleasure to ask his new
friends to select whichever of the horses
they liked best. The husband preferred
the fine black stallion, while the wife
fixed her heart upon the pretty gray
mare, and an argument arose as to
which it should be- An end was put to
this by the wife saying in determined
tone: E'You say you will not take her,
but say you shall, for | am sure that
the gray mare is the better horse"
''Well, well,'' replied the husband, t'i2
it must be so, have your own way. az
you always do. Wen take the mare
he continued, addressing the visitor.
mo, you DON'T was the reply, '.you'H
Have to put up with an egg, as every
enc else to whom have put the question
has done. As for me, / shall take my
horses home, and shall try to live hap
PLY with my wife, for she does allow
me to have my way now and then"
Stonewall Jackson.-It is related that
at the first battle of Bull Run, July q,
1861, at a moment when the day was
apparently lost to the Confederates,
Jackson's brigade made so firm stand
that some one cried out, 'tHere is Jack
son standing like q stone wall" And
his soubriquet.
Ten Penny.-The word penny, when
used to mark the size of nails, is sup
posed to be corruption of pounds; thus,
a four-penny nail was such that 1000 of
them weighed four pounds, ten-penny
nail such that /, 600 weighed ten pounds.
What He Said was Nero Gibberish.-
In the eighth century there was fam
Gus professor of occult chemistry whose
name was Geber. He held that all met
ais. except gold, were liable to disease,
and that this in them was cured by gold,
which also was a panacea for the mala-
dies of the human family. He wrote
500 treatises on this subject, so learned
and unintelligible that they were ridi-
culed as Geberish, whence it is conclud-
ed came gibberish in our own vocabul-
airy.
Tuft Hunters. and in most
of the European colleges, and to this
day in the Universities of Oxford, Cam
bridge and Dublin, each student who
was nobleman's son wore q distin-
gushing tuft or tassel on the square cap
which collegians wear while at college.
Hence, persons who fawned upon these
scions of aristocracy obtained the very
ineligible title of fluff hunters -
Mind Your p's and q's.-This express
sion comes from the printing Office.
where the similarity in form OF the
CLOVER case,n or small 'tp'' and ssq'' In
a font of Roman letter is always perplex-
ing to the typographical novice, espe-
-