The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-03-27
"TlT 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. "rit for tat" and
Good enough for your'-those were
the two meanest ordinations ever
heard in the set of children among
whom 1 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
great deal happierif we had never quar-
relied; had never said or acted Tit for
Tat. ~ Hl't .r
Acting it is worse than sayingit. 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 meamess. 900.
1t occurred to me once upon 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 ofproverb. To my great surprised
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 kindp There is proverb:
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, | suppose.
Yet it would be jolly little phrase, if
it meant a 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
good one, an unkind action by low
ing one, 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, III
treat you well, and well see which
will get tired soonest" If the saying
ever comes to mean that, it will be by
the children's beginning to give it that
meaning. 1t would take about cent
ury, l dare say. But that is only three
generations of children! Wouldn't il
/ be worth while for the children of to
day to start the new version of the say
ing? And then, some time in the fal
distant future, say in the year 2090
perhaps somebody who is interested il
searching out the origin of phrases
will be seeking, as sought, to find on
where Tit for Tat came from. B,
the time, you see, if three generation
of American children have all beer
steadily working, to give the new, kinC
meaning to the words, the phrase vii
come to be as the Golden Rule in tn
New Testament, and every body vii
be interested in knowing about it.
Then this seeker out of meanings, o
the year 2O9O, might perhaps rea'
something like this:
THE phrase, Tit for Tat has under
gone a curious change. For Ion
time it was what people said whe
they returned evil for evil: Tit TO
Tat This for That, i. E., this injur
do you is in payment for that injur
you did me.
"But in 1886 some American chi
dren thought that they would give tn
phrase a new and nobler meaning
would make it the watchword of kin
deeds done in return for unkind one
in other words a sort of supplement
the Bibles Golden Rule. Their exam
| II. kA III,