The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-08-19
About Impudence.

Great Is the power of impudence, and
endless are its degrees. 1t has many dis
guises. In the edifying book of those good
folks who profess to show the young how
to get on in life, how to attain what they
are pleased to call success much emphasis
is laid upon the value of certain qualities
modestly christened push and tact and
perseverance They are admirable qualities,
no doubt, but it is often difficult to see ex-
actly where the line begins which separates
push from e1frontery tact from cunning
and perseverance from check" A vice
may be defined as a virtue gone wrong-an
exaggerated virtue, in fact-and some of
the different degrees of impudence are sim
ply exaggerated forms of those admirable
qualities deservedly lauded under the
names of push, tact and perseverance.
In the world of letters, for instance, tact
appears as clog rolling and to "roll the
log" persstently and successfully is an art
that needs modest amount of brass. "
1t might be invidious to point out the val
he of push, alias CHECK, in the other
professions, and as for politics-but for
tunately that is another story, with which
we are not concerned here. Brass is
push in the superlative degree. 1t is in
valuable to the believer in the gospel Of
getting on" Brass and "brazen
faced" are colloquialisms of long standing.
The latter was in use more than three cen
turtles ago, and Shakespeare makes Obi
ROM say, in Cloves Labor's Lost "Can
any face of brass hold longer QUIT"
! 1t is curious to note how many colloquial
synonyms for the front of brass have been
drawn from the face and its features. OF
old brow was so used. The seventeenth
century Fuller speaks of linen of more
brow than brain, Icing so ambitious to be
known that they had rather be Kissed down
than not come upon the stage" We are
still perfectly familiar with men of this
type, but we do not talk of their brow"
!" Brow is obsolete, and "cheek" reigns in
its stead. Its offspring are Zip, " Claw"
mouth and "chin''-all well known
equivalents for the language born of
"chcek"
Face" itself is still common form of
"cheek." The expression is old Ben
Jonson makes it the name of an impudent
servant in his "Alchemist," and some one
in one of Middleton's plays says:
l, that had face enough to 10 tho deed
Cannot want tongue to speak it.
A curious old way of describing the
evergreen method of obtaining credit by
sheer efrrontery was to speak of pushing
little read ESSAYS" describes three ways
of getting into debt and the first, he says,
is by pushing face" He goes ON to give
an example thus: "You, Mr. Lutestring.
send me home six yards of that paduasoy,
damme; but, harlIee, don't think 1 ever
intend to pay you for it, damme. 3" At this
the mercer laughs, cuts off the paduasoy
and sends it home nor is he, till too late,
surprised to find the gentleman had said
nothing but the truth and kept his word
In America at the present day similar
methods OF obtaining goods on credit are
called running ones face, " an obvious
survival of the last century English phrase
In swindling of every kind check is
an Indispensable condition of success. 1t
is pure and simple "cheek" that enables
the evergreen confidence trick to flourish
in eternal youth that bilks hotel keepers
and cab drivers. 1t was colossal or, us
our American cousins would say, "monu-
mental cheek" that SO long gave the
claimant the honor of company to which
he was not born. The same indispensable
article embroidered the once notorious Mr..
Liggens to claim the authorship of Adam
Bede' and the Scenes of Clerical Life"
and enabled him to stand by his prepos-
ferrous claim with an effrontery which
forced Gcrogo Eliot from the
position of complete anonymity which she
had at first taken up.
Cheek OF the same curiously diseased
variety encouraged an eccentric individual
q year or two ago to travel in the south of
France under the name of Paul Bourget,
the well known novelist. This pseudo
rBourget allowed himself to be interviewed
several times ON literary subjects and no
doubt greatly enjoyed the pleasure of find
ing his utteranoes reported in the papers,
lie was comparatively harmless individ-
nal, Tor swindling did not enter into his
plan of campaign, He paid his hotel bills
ana otherwise behaved as an honorable
citizen, but he could not refrain from
gratifying strange vanity by posing as
the novelist Obviously this was mild
form of mania, but still it must have re-
quired considerable amount of "face" to
speak successfully with his interviewers
in the gate
In warfare, again, the same quality, un.
der other names 40 doubt, has often led
brave men-lit, though fcw-to victory,
from the farOu time when Gideon, by the
MD of lamps and pitchers ana trumpets,
Bmote the Alidianites aud tho Amulekites
hip and thigh To the days Of BalalSlava
and the seizure of the citadel of Cairo
some Ii years ago 1t was magnificent
Check" too that mado Nelson fix his
glass to his blind eye and declare that he
could not see the admiral's signal for re-
treat Household Words