The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-19

. ~ NrA n EcllLE came 10 Lle Atlu verse OF
tho fourteenth chapter Of Acts he gravely
rendered IL. Paul and Barnabas rent
their clothes ana skipped out among the
people. while good old Miles Coverdale
iu one place assures US my beloved com
eth hopping upon the mountains" and in
smother that the Lord trounced Sisera
ana an his host" 1t was Tyndale who
spoke ~ "a sight of angels" meaning a
multitude. while Spenser is responsible
r1r through thick and thin" Sylvester Is
arswerlnle for cheek by iOWl' and Ba-
Con for hand over head" and head over
aeels all OF which have done their duty
81 rhe serious stage and now play the
SARA OF clowns. In the wrong box"
E1ue 90 pot" and many others originally
1al nothing Of the ludicrous about Them
cut wore good clothes and went with re-
spectacle companions. Draw it mild.
ana come 10 strong" now used in only
slang acceptation, were once very ap-
pruprlate TO the use 10 which they were
placed. Strange as It may seem, both are
Of musical origin. A hundred years ago
when the the director of an orchestra de-
sired a gentle effect or the reverse. from
the violins, he desired the gentlemen Of the
bow 10 draw it mild" or come il strong
according 10 circumstances. His direc-
tons being occasionally overheard by the
patrons of the play, were duly noted. and,
by and by, were brought into requlsition
with a meaning Of which he never dream
ed them capable.
As there are many words and express
sions IN our language which We're once
Regarded as good English but have
become slang. so, on the other hand
there are not a few which originated
among outcasts and thieves, but are now
up IN the world and regarded as quite
acceptable, even in the best societ:
The word slang itself is an illustra-
tion In point According to the wise men
who devote their lives to the eucidatioH
Of such problems this word was once
used to denote the jargon peculiar 10
thieves and gypsies. 1t often happened,
however, that these gentry had a great
deal Of mother wit, and used many ex-
Dressions that. in a few words, con-
Veyed much meaning, hence the word
came TO be applied to any phrase or per-
tinent word which was susceptible to many
uses, and in each brought before the
mind a livid picture. Thus it was dis
covered that slang could be made useful
and as soon as this discovery was made
slang became a matter of interest TO
every one who spoke. In other words,
it met a want, and so when it came IL
came TO stay. Letting the cat out of the
bag" is now considered good enough Eng
fish TO be used by anybody, but the time
was when Il was regarded as slangy and
not to be employed in good society. It's
origin dates from at least the fourteenth
century, when roguish persons would
sometimes go to the county fairs held
all over England with a cat in a sack
In the hope that some one would be in
cautious enough to make a purchase Of
the supposed pig without an examination.
When this was insisted upon, however
the fraud was instantly discovered, giving
rise to the expression, the successful
contamination which sometimes took place
originating another Of equal celebrity
the tricked trader being said to buy a
pig in a poke" the last word being obso-
lete English for sack. ITO walk chalk"
is not now considered particularly slangy
but is often used by persons of education
and breeding, who have no idea Of its
origin. 1t was once. however, regarded
as quite improper, and the mothers of the
century preceding our own frequently
cautioned their daughters against using
70. Its origin dates from the time when
lead pencils were not, when paper was ex-
pensive, and most accounts and memo
randa We're kept with a piece of chalk
on a board The bailiffs or petty legal
officers Of small English towns kept,
chalked on boards, the names of local
good-for-naughts, and, as a matter of
courtesy, frequently exchanged these lists
with similar officials in neighboring vii
lagos. so that when a vagabond wandered
out Of his own neighborhood into another
his name was demanded, he was informed
that he was chalked and advised to
walk accordingly, which he always
promptly did. for in those days loafers
and tramps were frequently hung just
because they We're Of no particular use
10 anybody and hanging was the quick
est way Of getting rid'of them.
There is another explanation of the
walk chalk phrase. which recalls how
summary were the ways of doing things
in the days when the king and the no
bility owned the earth and the inhabit-
ants of the same. and when nobody had
any rights that royalty was bound TO res
pect. In those good old days, when the
king or the lord Travelled, it was always
with a retinue as large as possible, for
every one estimated the dignity of the
royal or noble traveller by the number of
people who accompanied him. A day in
advance of the procession went an officer,
who arranged the line of march and the
halts, which were always when possible,
at towns or villages. When this advance
agent entered the town where his master
designed to spend the following night,
he selected the best houses for the use of
the king and his suits and marked their
doors with chalk, upon which the occu-
pants were at once ordered to leave. so
that the king and his court might have
quarters. Walk; you're chalked" soon
became cant expression for an order to
Vacate without ceremony a dwelling, and,
by and by, landlords came to adopt the
chalking process as a notice to delinquent
Ut uiNtSiIdble leIdilNSs so lndI Ine use OF
the phrase became universal both in
France and England. In the former coun-
try il acquired a terrible significance af-
ter kings had lost their power. for in the
days of the Reign of Terror, during the
revolution, chalking the door of an I'M
willing guest at the conciergerie was syn
onymous with a notice shat the inmate of
the cell thus designated was destined the
next morning to face Mile. La Guillotine
But there is still another explanation sug-
gested by the rigid discipline that the
half-crazy Frederick William, father of
Frederick the Great, imposed on his army
In the drill rooms of this iron discipline
rian the floors We're divided into 2-foot
squares by chalk marks, and, when the
recruits were being cursed and caned into
something like soldierly department. the
chalk lines WERE pointed out to them, and
in their marching, hating and standing
they We're required to observe these guides
with the most scrupulOus exactness. ITO
walk chalk in Prussia was therefore as
much of a solemn reality as it was in
/ England in the ages when tramps were
| hung because they were in the way, and
the phrase had a meaning in both coun-
tries that is but imperfectly preserved in
our use of the expression