The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1891-04-17
welL-kNowN SAYINGS.
The Origin OF same Phrases That Have
Reooma rroverhiat.

| 1t will be found on examination that
most sayings may be traced back to n
| literary origin, says the N. Y. San.
What more common, popular maxim is
there than that Decentralization is the
thief of timem Yet 1t is the first line
of that most deadly dull of books.
Yonng's might Thoughts" Crowds
OF people have been befooled in Inn
| agining that "rhe Lord tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb" Is biblical
saying. yet ii is only as old as Sterne's
Sentimental Journey" Everybody
| knows about the man who read Ham
let" at an advanced age. and said he
would have liked It if II had not been
so full of "chestuuts.n The fact is that
great part of ie has become proven
bial, and so common property. We no
longer have to read the play to imbibe
lot of its philosophy, for it is floating
in the air about ns.
On the other hand. some sayings un-
donbtedly have popular origin. A
splendid example of the evolution of
one occurs in the old testament, in the
history of Saul. When the future first
king of Israel appeared among the
prophets the people were astonished.
He had been of rather frivolous dis
/ position. Some man in the crowd ex-
claimed: lis Saul also among the
prophetspn The expression caught on,
and it has been Il familiar saying ever
| since.
We have among ourselves a very good
example of the same sort in the express
sion: "a good enough Morgan till
after election"
A difficulty here meets us. How is
il that among eastern illiterate nations
proverbs of the most perfect form and
| literary finish are found? The same
state of affairs occurs in Spain.
The explanation lies in the fact that
in both cases the people are able to get
at literature Vicariously. In Persia
and the east generally the professional
story-teller comes to a village. In the
evening the inhabitants sit round the
tent, and he tells them tales, many of
them thousands of years old and full of
the condensed wisdom of ages. In
Spain the muleteer who wanders about
the country ills exactly the same posi-
iion. and TO the literature popularized
by him must be largely attributed the
richness of Spanish in proverbs.
Tony Weller was the pfoyerh-spin-
ner of the Pickwick crowd. He got
his faculty in the very same way that
the Spanish muleteer aud the Persian
story-teller got theirs. He met great
many people in his trips on the coach.
and his savings got sharpness and
clcarness of outline with every fresh
repetition. No doubt many of them
we're retailed by countless anpreciatiye
hearers.
In the same Way, the Jarvey in the
soo.tsi, OF ireland is by nature manu-
rfacturer of proverbs. He is part of
all that he has met. aud, as action and
reaction are equal and opposite. all
that he has met become part of him.
When proverb has gained sure
place in one language. and strikes
some observer of different race and
civilization, there is difficulty about
transporting it bodily. II it be eastern
it will have reference that will not,
for instance, appeal to westerns. What
then happens is that it is localized. 1t
is treated in the very way that names
are altered in good story to give it
local color. In this way an eastern
proverb about camel becomes a west
ern one about a horse, aud so on.