The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-03-27
TIT FOR TAT"
A Bit of Talk for Young Folk, by the
Late Helen Jackson.


Late Helen jackson.
The saying is by-word of Immature
and quarreling. Tit for tat and
Good enough for you!"-those We're
the two meanest ordinations ever
heard in the set of children among
whom ] grew up. Our differences were
due to thoughtlessness and not to any
bad intent; and those of us who quar-
relied most fercely one day were often
the best of friends the next. / suppose
that is just the way it is with children
to-day, and always will be as long as
the world lasts and men and women
have to begin their lives by being BOYS
and girls. But we should have been a
great deal happier if we had never quar-
relied; had never said or acted Tit for
Tat"
Acting it is worse than saying it, 1t
is bad enough to do mean or unkind
thing to another person from any mo-
tive, from envy or hatred or hasty tenn
per-but TO do it simply Gas the saying
is) ''to pay back for an unkind thing
done to us seems to me the very mean
est kind of meanness.
1t occurred to me once upon a time
to try to find out what the hateful
phrase came from. Tit for tat the
words sound as silly as they are ugly,
and | wondered how they had ever
come to be in peoples mouths, like a
sort of proverb. To my great surprise, |
found that the saying originated with
the Dutch people. In Dutch, it was
''Dit vor dat" and the words mean
simply This for that" nothing more
Then how has the saying come to
mean always, the return of a disagree
able or cruel action, by one of its
own kind? There is proverbs:
Zone good turn deserves an
other" When kindness is repaid by
kindness, therefore, why should we
not say: This for that" as well as
when unkindness is repaid by unkind-
ness.
Nobody can give any reason. And
nobody can tell, now, how the ill-nat-
ured meaning was ever fastened to the
words; but there it is, fastened close,
and it will always stick, l suppose.
Yet it would be jolly little phrase, if
it meant good thing. The syllables
are short and brisk-sounding; and they
are based upon three cheerful vowels:
i-o-a, each with the shortest. merri-
est sound it has. Surely, it is a shame
to degrade them so when we might
turn the phrase right around if we
would-inside out, and right side out,
at last; and we might make it mean
just the opposite from what it ALWAYS
has meant, by never using it, except
when we had paid back bad turn by a
ing one, n mean deed by the most gen,
erous one we could plan or perform.
Then would be the time to cry out
Tit for Tat This for that, my friend!
and as often as you treat me badly. I'll
treat you well, and we'll see which
will get tired soonest" If the saving
ever comes to mean that, it will be bv
the children's beginning to give it that
meaning. 1t would take about cent
ury, | dare say. But that is only three
generations of children! Wouldn't it
be worth while for the children of to-
day to start the new version of the say
ing? And then, some time in the far
distant future, say in the year 2O9O,
perhaps somebody who is interested in
searching out the origin of phrases,
will be seeking, as | sought, to find out
where Tit for Tat" came from. By
the time, you see, if three generations
of American children have all been
steadily working, to give the new, kind
meaning to the words, the phrase will
come to he as the Golden Rule in the
New Testament, and every body will
be interested in knowing about it.
Then this seeker out of meanings, of
the year 209O, might perhaps read
something like this:
1.-THE phrase, Tit for Tat has under
gone a curious change. For a long
time it was what people said when
they returned evil for evil: Tit for
Tat, This for That j. e., this injury
do you is in payment for that injury
you did me.
"But in 1886 some American chill
dren thought that they would give the
phrase new and nobler meaning;
would make it the watchword of kind
deeds done in return for unkind ones;
in other words a sort of supplement- TO
the Bibles Golden Rule. Their exam
pie spread among all the children in
the land, and now in America the
phrase is never used in the old sense"
The more 1 think of it, the more l
feel as if / must be writing a sort of
prophecy, and it would really come
true. Any boy or girl who thinks it a
good prophecy, that ought to come
true, can begin to fulfill it right away
Every good thing that has ever been
done in the world, has been done
by one persons beginning it tirstl
Then this person makes others think
and do as he does, and so the thing is
at last accomplished. -t
As | have great hopes that some
among the 81. Nicholas children will
agree with me that we ought to give