The morning call., 1891-01-25
PHRASES AND THEIR ORIGIN.
WalI-Kl0Wl Sayings and From What They
Have Sprung.

TIE phrase, 81 acknowledge the corn"
originated with a slave in the South lie
was charged with stealing corn found in his
possession. Having a sack with him. lie
was also charged with stealing that His
reply was: NO, sir; | knowledge de corn,
but l amt gwine to knowledge 10 de sack"
Tipping the wink" generally regarded
rs a vulgar phrase, is to be found in a grave
historical romance Ii occurs in "NaleTius,
a Roman Story" by John Gibson Lockhart,
sir Walter scott 5 Son-ln-law, and tor many
years editor Of the Quarterly Review.
ANY color, 50 it's red" originated among
the class of characters called Jakeys in the
local drama One of them, being on "a COM
mttee appointed TO procure a new fire en-
CINE, was asked what color the company de-
sired the apparatus painted. He replied:
Why, any color, so its red
The origin Of the phrase Il can't see it,
Is traced to Lord Nelson, who. at the baltic
of Copenhagen. was told that signal was
given to cease firing and the direction pointed
out to him. Selling telescope he applied
it to his blind eve and exclaimed: II can't
see it."
Hauling over the Goals" dates six sr
seven centuries back, when feudai harOns
often used harsh methods of extracting gold
from the rich Jews by suspendiug their
victims above slow fires until they paid ran
som or died. There is scene Of this in
''Ivanhoe,' III which the Templar endeav-
father OF Rebecca.
Barking up the wrong tree" is very
common expression in the West. 1t orig
mated from the fact that q dog will bark at
the loot OF particular tree to indicate to
his master where the game is located
While endeavOring to see the animal he dis
covers it on another tree, ana it finally es-
capeS him altogether. In its application it
denotes that person has mistaken his OBJ
ject or Is looking for it in the wrong place.
antl oft III. I
some daughters that beauty is but skin
deep" The phrase probably originated
with these two lines:
Beauty is but ska deep and so doth fall
Short OF those statues made of Wood stone,
Which occur in Rev. Robert Fleming's poem,
published in 1851.
The term blue stocking" was originally
used In venice about the year 400, to desig-
nate literary classes by cUlOrs. In Mills
History OF Chivalry'' we are told that
members of the various academies were dis
tinguished by the color of their stockings,
blue being the prevailing color. The appii-
cation OF the term TO women originated with
Miss Hannah MoOre's admirable description
OF hlue-stocking club in her BIAS Eleu"
Corporations have no souls" is a much
older expression than most people Imagine.
1t originated with Sir Edward Coke, who in
the sixteenth century was considered one of
the best legal writers of the age. He says
in one of his treatiSes: "Corporations can
not commit trespaSs, nor be OuLlawed nor
communicated, for they have no souls"
Drowning the miller originated from
the following fact Ii the mill stream below
the mill is damned or stopped, the water
isis pended back and the mill becomes what
the millers call tailed" II there is too
much water the min will not work, and the
miller is said to be drowned out Hence.
when too much of any one article is put
into mixture it is called browning the
miller"
There are few such common sense pro-
verbs as Every man is the architect of his
own fortune" Appius Claudlus, "a Roman
censor, used 1t in a speech delivered by him
$50 years before the Christian era.
Better late than never was used over
800 years ago by Thomas Tucker in his
Five Hundred Points OF Good Husbandry.
Later on Bunyan used it in his "Pilgrim's
Progress"
Not few Of the phrases in use at this day
originated with Lyly and are found in his
Euphues," a popular hoax published in
1880. Among them might be mentioned
caught mapping" "a crooked stick or
none, brown study" I" catching birds by
putting salt on their tails" etc. When
people do not particularly like each other it
is sometimes said there is no love lost be-
tween them The phrase occurs in the old
ballad of - The Babes in the Wood" and in
tale OF the days of Shakespeare, entitled
" Montchensy. Frank Stauffer, in Detroit
Free Press.