The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-10-09
THE CHESTNUT BELL.
It's Impotent Efforts to Ring Out
the Old Joke.
The Obscure Inventor of Slang News
papers who Revive Musty Tales
Some samples of the Chestnut
Which the Ignorant Con-
slider Fresh.

A certain class of our greatest invent
ors seems destined to live in complete
obscurity. Irefer to that estimable body |
of men who originate our slang. Who |
was it, for instance, who first said You
bet, or "Giye us a rest" or Chow is
that for high, or 20, come Off" 1t is
rather strange that these phrases should
90 like an epidemic over the country
and yet no one should know who first
contracted the disease. Some slang
words will undoubtedly stick and be-
come part of the language; for instance,
take that detestable word "dude,"
started by some newspaper man. 1t
seems to be a fixture and has quite super
seeded the other slang word "masher,"
that previously stood for the same thing.
One of the latest slang terms is the word
chestnut The dictionary tells us
that chestnut comes from Kastana, a
city of Pontus, and its meaning is given
as the root of tree of the genus cas-
tanen; second meaning, the tree itself,
or its timber; third meaning, reddish
brown color. To this, future diction-
aries will probably add as fourth
meaning "An old joke"
A less elegant and probably more
fOrcible expression which serves the
same purpose as chestnut" is rats. "
What connection a rat has with an old
story is not apparent, but certainly when
man gets off an ancient saying and
one of his hearers contemptuously re-
marks rats the inference is that the
story has often done duty before. In
the highest circles it is understood that
on such occasions it is better form to
use chestnut rather than rats"
still cases have been known where the
use of the word chestnut has been re-
garded as cause for a challenge. This
being the case the great American in
ventOr has turned his attention to the
matter and has invented the now we'll
known chestnut bell. This is a little
gong attached to the vest, and when an
old story is told the silver tone of the
gong takes the place of the words
'chesnut' or rats The object of
this will be plain to the most careless
observer. If the man who tells the story
is bigger and heavier than the man who
rings the gong, the latter can at once
claim that the wicked instrument
went OF by itself, or was rung by mad
yertence, and thus hOStilities may be
avoided. The person can, as Mr.. Ten
nyson remarks, ring out the old' joke
and vet not ring in a new quarrel on
himself.
Probably thousands of those chestnut
bells have been sold in America, but the
demand is already on the wane. The
bells were first sold for twenty-five
cents, then for twenty, and | see them
now offered at fifteen cents, which indi-
Gates a slackening of the demand. The
craze for chestnut bells will be very
ephemeral, and is likely to die out with
the month unless some other novelty is
attached to it. | would suggest that
they rig up an electric attachment sc
that the person can ring his bell while
his hands are in his pockets. Thi,
would give a sort of automatic touch tC
the gong, and it would be a very great
protection against old stories. 1t would
make the arrangement little more ex
pensive, but the expense would be more
than compensated for by its increased
usefulness.
Newspapers are always on theil
guard against chestnuts, yet old stories
manage to creep into the columns with
yexatOus frequency. If any bright in
ventor could manufacture a sort of blue
litmus paper that would turn red wher
brought in contact with an old story
that man would make his fortune
When person thinks of the one mil
lion stories that 60 into the makeup O
the daily and weekly papers during the