The daily critic., 1890-12-03
PHRASES AND THEIR ORIGINS.
Tr You Don't believe rhcso origins are
Genuine Got Better Ones Voureeit

Vt AOu Dnut BolteT0 NneHe fFlttiaH =
Genuine Got Better Ones Voureoit
The phrase ~ acknowledge The
corn" originated with a slave To the
South. He was charged with Stealing
corn found In bis possession. Having
a sack with him he was also CHARGED
with stealing that His reply was
'No Sir; ! knowledge de corn, but !
aint ewine to knowledge TO de sack.
Tipping the wink generally te-
oaIded ms q vulgar phrase, Is 70 be
found IN a grave historical romance.
1t OcCursi in 'Nalerius a Roman story,
by John Gibson Lockhart, Sir Walter
Scotrs son in law, aud for many years
editor Of the Quarterly Review
"Any color, so it's red, originate !
among the mass Of characters called
Jakeys in the local drama. One Of
them, being on a committee appointed
TO procure a new fire engine, was ask .
what color the company desired tle
apparatus painted. He replied Why
any color, go it's RED.
The origin Of the phrase II cam see
it, is traced 10 Lord Nelson, who, ut the
battle Of Copenhagen, was told that a
signal was given 20 cease firing, and the
direction pointed out TO him Setting
a t. escope he applied Il to his blind eye
and exclaimed, ~ can't see II.
Hauling over The Goals dates six or
seven centuries back, when feudal
barons often used harsh methods Of eX-
acting gold from the rich Jews by sus-
pending their victims above slow fires
until they paid ransom or died There
is a scene of this sort In "Ivanhoe, In
which The Templar endeavored to eX-
tort money from Isaac of York, father
Of RebeCca.
Barking up the wrong tree is
very common expression In the West
IL originated from the fact that n dog
will bark al the foot Of a particular
tree to indicate 10 his master where the
game is located While endeavoring
10 see the animal he discovers Il on
another tree, and it finally escapes him
altogether. In It's application It denotes
that a person has mistaken his object,
or is looking for It in the wrong place.
Anxious mothers often tell their
handsome daughters that beauty Is
but skin deep" The phrase probably
originated with these two lines.
Beauty g. but skin Deep aud SO dothfall
short Of those statues made Of wood or
stone,
which occur IN Rev Robert Fleming =
poem, published in 1891.
The term "blue stocking" was orig
inally used in Venice about the year
/ il00 to designate literary classes by
colors In Mill's History of Chivalry
we are told that members Of the various
/ academies were distinguished by the
/ color Of their stockings, blue being the
| prevailing color. The application Of
/ the term to women originated with Miss
| Hannah Moore's admirable desCrintiou
\ Of a blue Stocking Club in her "Bas
| Dleu
Corporations have no souls Is a
| much older expression than most people
/ imagine. IL originated with Sir Edward
| Coke, who In the Sixteenth Century
was considered one Of the best legal
| writer's Of the age. lie says Ia one Of
/ his treaties Corporations cannot com
| nit ttcspass, nor be ouilaw,d. nor cN
I communicated, for they have no souls
/ Drowning the miller origiultpl
/ from the following fact II the mill
stream below the mill is damned or
stopped, the water Is pOnded hack, and
the mill becomes what the millOrs call
tailed. There Is too much water,
the mill will not work and the miller Is
said 10 be drowned out Hence.
when too much of any one article Is put
into a mixture It Is called drowning
I the miller"
There are few such common sense
proverbs as Every man Is the architect
I of bis own fortune, Appius Clau1ius
a Roman censor, used 1t in speech de
liyered by him four hundred and fifty
/ years before the christian era.
Better late than never was used
over three hundred years ago by
/ Thomas Tucker In his Five Hundred
/ Points of Good iushandTy." Later
on Bunyan used II in his Pilgrims
/ Progress"
Not few of the phrases 10 use at this
day originated with Lyly, and are found
/ in his 'Euphues, popular book pIb-
I lished In 1850. Among thgm might be
mentioned caught mapping" '
/ crooked stick OF none, brown study,
catching birds BY putting salt on thei
/ tails, etc.
When people do not particularly like
/ each other IL Is sometimes said, "Therr
IS no love lost between them. Tue
Z phrase occurs in the old ballad of 'The
1 Babes in the Wood, and ia a tale Of
/ the days of Shakespeare. entitled "Mont-
chensy "-EfaHk StaHtsr, H DsiryH
/ Free Press.