Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-25
CRISP FORMS OF THOUGHT,
Solomon and Upper Twisted to Suit
Modern Trade.
The Wisdom Of the ssses and the wit % the
Mssses-Even the Work Of the Mission.
aries, Are Grist In the Mill
They Are Poaohsd Upon
by Authors and
Advertisers.

L
cribs or gathered them from many sources
with nicer sense Of permanent worth than
Mr.. Tupper exercised in his latter compend.
ium is and ever will be an open question,
Solomon's copyright ran out long before
Tupper's time, and both are now poached
upon with impunity by all classes, from
authors to advertisers. But, taken BY them
| selves, proverbs we'll repay careful study.
Students of ethnologY find in the proverbs
of different races the clearest proofs of their
real characteristics, for they are the shrewd-
est and yet most intimate expressions Of
their daily life.
Judged by the comparison ofthese homely
! sayings, it will be found that all nations are
of one kindred; possessing common needs,
common aspirations, and seeking similar re-
| liefs from toll and labor. On the dustiest
shelves of our libraries may be found col
lections Of all the proverbs of the different
nations, quite large proportion of the work
having resulted from the interest which
| missionaries have taken in their earnest
studies of the unciYilized peoples whom
they seek to instruct. That the shrewd say
ings of the Scotch or the bright hits Of the
| Irish should be carefully collected, gives
little cause for surprise; but a collection Of
Abyssinian proverbs, of those Of the Tamil
language, of Icelandic lore, of the Sanscrit,
South Sea Island, Chinese and Hottentot
Solomons does excite curiosity. The mis-
sionaries have found it pleasant as well as
| a profitable task. 1t delves deep into the
idioms of the language, tells with unerring
| accuracy the mental tendency of the people,
and by introducing the foreigner to the
| inner thought of both home and trade, shows
him the real life of those who adopt them as
everyday expressions.
It is impossible to read the well-collated
proverbs of the Chinese without realizing
that a home life exists in that fowery king
dom which rivals that of many more civil
lied countries. No Solomon, no descend
ant Of Abraham could eclipse the trade
proverbs of the Chinese. They touch on
trade with a keenness and thoroughnes
which proves them to be masters in the
school. The baser life of the Hottentot, the
loose morals of the fellah, the independent
spirit OF the Briton, are all crysralli8ed in
their national proverbs.
In England and many other countries it
was formerly very usual for a tradesman to
select some proverb as his motto, and thus
post his principles plainly over his shop
door. 1t remained, however, for an Amer
lean house to appropriate the proverbs of
the world en- masse and use them for their
on the elevated roads, or people who, in less
favored localities, still jog along in the slow
street cars, are familiar with the blue and
white proverbs which proclaim the merits
of Sapolio to the world. Every omnibus in
London and almost every tram car" in
England is similarly adorned.
They made their first appearance on the
Broadway omnibuses in New York, were
gathered out of over 1000 pages of the
worlds collections and twisted to suit the
case. Many Of them are beyond easy recog-
milton in their new dress, many are entirely
original, but these are also printed between
inverted commas, which lends glamor Of
antiquity to them. To-day we are told that
over 20, 900 of these blue cards are displayed
in public conveyances carrying over 6,O00,-
900 passengers daily.
Condensed thought generally requires
padding to make it Ineligible to the masses,
Just as the stomach of the horse must be dis
tended with hay to make the oats digest
readily; but with proverbs it is quite other
wise. Their popularity is only reached be-
cause they have passed muster as being clear
to every mind. They tell their story with
directness and brevity which pleases the
public, as the dictionary did the old Scotch
woman-"They air Draw stories, she said;
'.but unco' short" Turned to tell the prac-
tical story of Sapolio. they often acquire
new interest. Who reads the advice: "Be
patient and you will have patient children"
without an innate respect for the advice
which follows, not to fret over house clean
ing, but do it easily with Sapolio? And who
can repress a smile when the Sapolionic ar
tist pictures the patient father and the i'm
patient twins defying the proVerb?
But the mother will be back sooner if she
follow tine advice. Our familiar ''Tne pot
calls the kettle black" takes new interest
in its Italian form. The pot says to the pan,
keep off or you'll smuteh me-" The uni
yersal toll of the world finds expression in
the Catalan phrase, "Where wilt thou go.
OK, that thou wilt not plow?" Almost all
nations possess proverb which declares
that ''If YOU forbid a fool a thing, that he
will do, and with confidence in the good
will OF the public the advertiser Of Sapolio
puts it in this form:
'Forbid iool thing and that he will
do" So we say for variety: Don't use
Sapolio-but then you are not a fool
"a touch OF nature which makes all the
world akin springs out OF the quaint
thought that ga needle, though naked itself,
clothes others" Who can hear it once and
ever see needle without recalling it? Who
fails to recognize the picture it suggests in
the aid given to the poor by the poor, and in
the hel p which is everywhere gained by
the hum DleSt OF ASSISTANTS
Slang never can be confounded with pro-
verbal phrases. 1t seems universal, but it
ia merely local form used to express a
transient but popular idea. Years ago
when a general rush ut hotel kesping re-
suited in many failures, the slang ran:
"He's very good man, but he can't keep a
hotel" All such phrases are local and
temporary. They do not surviVe-indeed,
rarely possess merit enough to reach sec
oud wear without evident decline in popu-
Iaritv. We have noticed that none of the
advertisements of Sapolio make use Of
slang, and probably for this reason.
Naturally, many of the best proverbs
used in this connection relate to household
cleanliness, and all the original ones are
framed to that end. 'Dirt in the house
builds the highway to beggary," deserves
recognition, despite its origin. Household
savings in the sense of four-walled buildings
full of furniture are quite lacking In many
Eastern tongues. We believe that no refer
enee to clean housekeeping can be found In
the Koran or even in the Blole, except that
Of the woman who swept the mouse 10 md
her lost coin. Shakespeare rather sights
the subject. but whether because it was not
deemed inn portant in that intellectual but
d;rtv aoe or because he scared to grander
things we will not discuss, but the En-
,Ion6 ot to-day we'll SAYS of home 'The
SSiaan.r ,tis the cosier It's, and our Ameri-
can advertiser i'm proves the opportunity to
od5 that humble homes made bright with
SanoIio are better thar tawdry palaces.
Alas for the thoughtlessness of the man
zvbo ,orgot to ask whether his bride used
SapoIio. The Scotch proverb records his
case: "Ye hae tied knot wi your tongue
We Wilma loose wi your teeth"