Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1889-05-31
HIBERklAN BULLS.
One of the Special intellectual 0"S"''s'
Of the Irish.

these islands, and is not. as u iiiat.ei
of faet as pon-existent as that carrier
product of the same soil, the irish eih'
| They do not. OF course, deny that GER
tain examples of verbal condition or VI
incongruity between words ana Things
have obtained currency as "puils'
but thew decline to believe that any oil
them were really uttered IN good ial'h'
and thew prefer to regard them simply
as the products OF deliberately per-
verified kind OF Irish humor. There
can no longer be any doubt that there
ia something in the constitution oil the
Irish mind which predisposes IL 10
perceive congruity between words ana
things where no such congrulty exists
| in fact, and to lose sight OF the lncom-
patibility of two conceptions which no
man of any other race would even for
a moment think of as reconcllaDle.
WHY this popularity should form one
of the special intellectual qualities OF
the Irish, and to be absent from or
not found to any thing like the same
/ extent in other peoples. Is curious
problem Its most plausible explana-
ton, however, is not otherwise than
/ Hattering to the bull-making race.
There can be little doubt that is to
say, that the bull is only possible to
very quickly working intelligence ana
to a power of expression which re-
spends with exceptional rapldity to
the thought No man whose ideas are
slow of formation in the mind or OF
| formation by the lips is capable OF
committing u bull, for the simple
reason that the relation of his ideas to
each other or to the world Of external
/ fact have time to get themselves accur-
ately reviewed before any of these
! ideas are translated into words. 1t Is
necessary, too, to distinguish, for there
are obviously bulls and bulls. One
and perhaps the most fascinating.
because the most natural, OF all
descriptions of the bull which is born,
so to speak, of rhetorical emotion
the bull which betrays the speaker,
like Europa, by the attractions OF
strength or grace. Mr.. Keene's Irish
man who, in indignant contradiction
of his English friends assertion that
Irish absentee landlords were less COM
mon than formerly. exclaims: ''Ye're
wrong, me boy; me country swar-r-ms
with them" made the ideal bull OF
the class to which refer. The seduc-
ton OF the phrase which he used was
so great it is so favorite rhetorical
commonplace for the description o.
multitude of objects, that even al
Englishman can here sympathize witt
the bull-maker and can feel that he
too. in moment of unusual vivacity
might have made the bull himself
But there is another though no
perhaps so common variety o
these mental stumbles, which ha
, nothing to do with the form of ex
failure, of course only temporary
to recognize the repugnancy o
! two mutually repugnant ideas. Thu
best, though possibly not the best au
thenticated, example of it is one il
which the misleading influences o
language are entirely eliminated, mas
much as the bull was committed by tn
mere act of speaking, and not by wha
was said. | refer to the well-knowl
anecdote of the man who, obseryin,
himself overlooked in the act of writ
Ing to friend by the prying eyes of
neighbor in the parlor of an inn, al
ruptly closed his epistle with tn
4 words: Il would write you more bu
= that an impertinent Irishman is read
ing every word of this letter over m
shoulder Of course the story goe
: on to relate that the words were n
+ sooner put on the paper than the Irish
q man broke out into wrathful denis
of the charge. 1t is a story which dis
- tinctly lacks confirmation" but
,, should hesitate to pronounce it impos
u sible, and, though the most fragrant
i it is not the only instance of bull-ir
n on.-English Illustrated Magazine