Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-05-20
CRISP FORMS OF THOUGHT.
SOLOMON AND UPPER TWISTED
TO SUIT MODERN TRADE
The Wisdom of the sages and the wit
of the Masses, Even tho Work of the
Missionaries, Are Grist In the Mill
They Are Poached Upon by Authors
and Advertisers.


They Are Poached Upon by Authors
aud Advertisers.
/ Whether Solomon invented all his prov
cribs, or gathered them from many
sources with a nicer sense of permanent
worth than Mr.. Upper exercised in his
/ later compendium, is and ever will be an
/ open question. Soomon's copyright ran
out long before Tupper's time, and both
| are now poached upon with impunity by
/ all classes, from authors to advertisers.
! But. taken by themselves, proverbs well
repay careful study. Students of ethnol-
| ogy find in the proverbs Of the different
races the clcarest proofs Of their real char
! acter!stics, for they are the shrewdest and
/ yet most intimate expressions of their
/ daily life.
/ Judged by the comparison of these
! homely sayings, it viii be found that all
| nations are of one kindred possessing
/ common needs, common aspirations, and
| seeking similar reliefs from toll and la
! Dor, On the dustiest shelves of our Ii
/ brarics may be found collections of al
/ the proverbs Of the different nations,
/ quite a large proportion of the work hay
! ing resulted from the interest which mis-
| siOuarics have taken in their earnest
studies Of the unciylizcd peoples whom
/ they seek to instruct. That the shrewd
] sayings Of the Scotch or the bright hits
/ of the Irish should be carefully collected
4 gives little cause for surprise; but a col
/ lection Of Abyssinan proverbs of those
/ Of the Tamil language, Of lcelaudic lore,
! OF the Sanscrit, South Sea Islands, Chin
/ csc and Hottcntot Solomons does excite
/ curiosity. The missionaries have found
! il a pleasant az well as a profitable task.
! 1t delyes deep into the idoms Of the Ian
/ guage tells with unerring accuracy the
/ mental tendency Of the people, and by in
/ Producing the foreigner into the inner
/ thought of both home and trade shows
j him the real life Of those who adopt them
/ as everyday expressions.
1t is impossible to read the well-col-
/ lated proverbs Of the Chinese without
/ realizing that a home life exists in that
/ howery kingdom which rivals that Of
/ many more civilized countries. No Solo
/ mon, no descendant of Abraham, could
! eclipse the trade proverbs of the Chinese.
/ They touch on trade with a keenness and
/ thoroughness which proves them to be
masters in that school The baser life of
I the llottentOt, the loose morals of the fell
] lah, the Independent spirit of the Briton,
/ are all crystaliized in their national prov
/ cribs
/ In England and many other countries
/ II was formerly very usual for a trades
[ man to select some proyerb as his motto,
| and thus post his principles plainly over
4 his shop door. Il remained, however, for
an American house to appropriate the
| proverbs of the world Ell masse and use
. them for their own Advancement. New
/ Workers who ride on -he elevated roads,
/ or people who in less favored localities
still jog along in the slow street cars, are
: familiar with the blue and white proverbs
I which proclaim the merits Of Sapoio to
/ the world. Every omnibus in London and
I almost every tram car" In England is
similarly adorned.
They made their FIRST appearance on the
/ Broadway omnibuses, were gathered out
I of over 1000 pages Of the worlds collec-
tiUns, and twisted to suit tle case Many
are beyond easy recognition in their
new dress, many are entirely original, but
( these are also printed between inverted
/ commas, which lend a glamour of anti
( guilty TO them To-day we are told that
over 10000 Of these blue cards are dis
/ played in public conyeyauces carrying
/ over G,00OoO0 passengers daily.
Condensed thought generally requires
padding to make il ineligible to the
masses, just as the stomach Of the horse
must be dstended with hay to make the
oats digest readily; but with proverbs ii
is quite otherwise. Their popularity is
only reached because they have passed
muster as being clear to every mind. They
tell their story with a directuess aud brew
ity which peases the public as the die
tiopary did the old Scotch woman-"They
air Draw stories" she said, but unco
short Turned 10 tell the practical story
of Sapolio, they often acquire new inter
est Who reads the advice, BE patient
and You viii have patient children with
out an innate respect for the advice which
follows, not 10 fret over house cleaning
but do it easily with SapoNof And who
can repress a smile when the Sapolionic
artist pictures the patient father and the
impatient twins defying the proverb? But
the mother win be back sooner If she fol-
low the advice. Our familiar The pot
calls the kettle black" takes new inten
est in its Italian form. The pot says "a
the pan, Keep on or you'll smutch me
The universal toll OF the world finds e1'
preston In the Catalan phrase, "Wher.
wilt thou 10, OK, that thou wilt not
plough? ?" Almost all nations possess a
proverb which declares that 'if You forbid
fool thing that he will do, and With
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