Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-11-22
FACETIOUS PHRASES.

u
IF one asks a WarWickshire man
what he has had for dinner he Will
renly Gravel hash in the church
ward" supposing that, from inner mo-
tives. he wishes to soften the 1act
that he has been taking a walk IN
stead of dining, says the st. Louis
Globe-Democrat. ''Chums and cnalr-
lznohs'' is another hypothetical feast,
whereas the Worcestershire joker has
"barley-chaff dumplings sugaTed with
wooi - In North Britain the interro-
GATED marty puts the question by
with Cats teeth and clinkins, l. e.
clinkers or cinders; and there IS
similar phrase, Goats knuckles ana
dogs elbows" in use in the MIG
lands. "Pickled cells feet as Fri
dav feast. moonshine banquet or Bar
needle repast, we are all familiar
with but does any one know Wnat
il is "To box Harry and chew rag
Then there is that fearful and Won
derful mystery, the "Tantadlin Tart,
which is either a nonentity-as IN the
nromise to bring a child one from the
fair. a CONNECTION composed of apples,
onions and fat bacon, as in Leicester
shire-or a pasty, the true contents
of which have been abstracted, TO pc
replaced by some unsavory mess.
Other persons boast of having had
"a tailor's feast" but as this is
merely a red herring, let us say with
the poet, "May good digestion wait on
appetite, and health ON both.
Plentiful, too, are sayings signify
ing never A pertinacious child is
uromised a toy when apples grow
on orange trees" or when the sun
shines on both sides of the hedge" or
"Some day, or never at the farthest. p"
A workman who dislikes his occu-
patton proposes to finish 1t at
"Doomsday in the afternoon, IN
which case you must promise to pay
him at Latter-Lammas or eNeVermaSS,
or invite him to supper on lids eve
the dates of which, it is almost
needless to say, must be sought Tor IN
the Greek Calends These last recall
Jolly old Rabelais aid his fictitious
regard for exactitude, in his second
book, chapter one, where he speaks OF
the year of the great medlars. In
that year the calends were found by
the Grecian almanacs. There was
that year nothing of the month OF
March in the time of Lent, and the
middle of August was in May. In the
month of October, as [ take it, or at
least September, that I may not err,
for I will carefully take heed OF that,
was the week so famous in the an
mails. which they call the week of the
three Thursdays, ETC., etc" In War
wickshire- where years" is corruptly
pronounced ''ears''-a speaker who
attempts to authenticate some doubt
full matter by declaring he has known
it for ears, is rebuked in the phrase
EARS and ears, and donkey's ears =
presumably because donkey's ears are
long.
Euuivocal, evasive and euphem1stlc
phrases are numerous, and often SIN
gularly useful. Children frequently
ask the name or nature of an object
which it were wiser to keep them II
ignorance of. In such an extremity
GA wim-WOm for a mustard mill Is
not a bad subterfuge, though some
people prefer GA wim-wom for lame
ducks" The first term, which is
provincial form of Ftwhimwham,
meaning any queer contrivance Of
odd device, a reduplicated phrase USED
by Beaumont and Fletcher in thu
Little Thief" is a great favorite il
puzzling sentences. An old enigma
which has escaped the notice of rid
die collectors, preserves it, with othe
dark terms, thus:
AS I went through a 'wim-wom
very
I peep'd through a 'tin-ton-terry,
I saw a Madam Landigo"
Eating up the ''paplipo."
I went to borrow "framing-to"
For eating up the '|paplipo,"
To kill Madam Landigo.
The words within inverted comma
signify a lane, a hedge, she-hare
parsley, and a gun.
A tippler must not be referred t.
exactly "in hoe statu." He must b
spoken of as ga good man round