The record-union., 1898-06-01
POPULAR SAYINGS.
WHERE EXPRESSIONS PEOPLE
Some Of Them Date Back to tho
Very Old Saxon and Ro-
man Times.

Some Of Them Date Back to tho
Very Old Saxon and Ro-
man Times.
These are great days for tearing away
the underbrush of fiction, sentiment an1
superstition and getting right dowE 20
the first principles of fact. One bat
TALON of workers is campaigning
against the secrets of nature, another
is Waging war on the venerable dogmas
of creeds and another is tracing family
Iredigrees back to their source. But only
a few of the curious minded have seen
the charm of hunting our popular, every
day sayings down through the debris
of a dust-covered past. To those With
the faintest taste for this weird, literary
sort Of ghoui work this research will al
ways be full of fascination 1t hasn't
quite the dignity or Importance of more
profound studies into relics and records
Of the past. But there is scarcely a sin
gle popular saying bequeathed to US ~
our long-buried human brethren that
does not throw a gleam of light on the
history, customs and traditions of the
past.
| For instance, that expression heard
every day in the world. III take MIN
down a peg or two" wasn't invented by
some genius. didn't drop from the skies
its roots lie deep in the Saxon days ot
centuries ago. as far back as good ST.
Dunstan. This popular prelate had the
hot-headed and stormy men of a very
wild period to deal with They drank
deep and their swords We're ready as
| their hagons. So. at the saints sugges-
ton, to reduce the chances of broils over
their cups, small pegs were inserted lit
regular intervals in their big drinking
| mugs. so that when more than one
drank from the same bowl none should
play the hog and exceed his share The
good saints fierce parishioners. how
| ever, soon found the pegs handy in
| drinking bouts; they served as quiet
and reliable umpires. A gentleman's 5
standing in society was measured by
MS capacity to pack away sack under
his belt, and the pegs measured the po-
tations in these bibulous contests. The
victor was the man who brought the
liquid peg or two lower than his ri
val; took down his pride and self-con-
ancient peg to-day.
| OOR DEBI IO ROME.
Turning the tables has a pedigree
longer still. 1t conveys the idea of
springing a countercharge or some win
| ming tactics on your accuser The
wealthy nabobs Of the days of Angus
tus in Rome We're possessed among
other fads, with a mania for certain
costly tables of Mauritania wood inlaid
with ivory; the table madness, as Pliny
| NJ nf mid
prices We're paid for these coveted
gems. 1t soon became the retort fash
1 ionable among the fair DANES of Rome
when charged with extravaganza by
their spendthrift lords, to turn the ta-
bles on the men, and it usually brought
a swift change in the conversation.
ITO scrape an acquaintance has had
several assigned pedigrees. but none so
| plausible as that given by A. Wallace
| in his Popular Sayings Dissected." a
! choice little companion, by the way,
for students of these linguistic heir
looms. He says the expression had an
| imperial godfather in the Emperor
Hadrian, who, when attending the bath
| caught sight of an old soldier of the
Imperial Guard making use of a tile
in place of the ordinary flesh brush to
rub himself down. Hadrian made in
quiries into the mans condition and
finding it necessitous sent him hand
| some present of clothes and money
| The next time he went to the bath his
| eyes rested on dozen or so of veter-
! ans armed with broken tiles working
| away industriously on their bodies.
| Grasping the idea that he was being
worked by these agile paupers the
Emperor remarked: 'Scrape ahead,
| gentlemen, but you'll not scrape ac-
Quaintance with me-
| Go to the dogs has probably Il
| classic origin. The ace Or the dice
used by the Romans was called CAMS
l-dog-and throwing three aces meant
losing the game. a sense essentially con-
veyed in the general use of the express
sion nowadays.
! "Dog-watch" is a corruption oe
| dodge watch" introduced on board
ship, where the sailors are divided into
watches, and each watch takes the
place of the other every four hours. To
prevent the same men servin.. at tie
same hours on subsequent days tNo
dog watches of two hours each are n
| troduced in the course of the twenty
four hours. by which means the ordi-
nary sequence of the four hour watches
is lodged or avoided. We have the
same corruption in the expression. TO
dog persons footsteps
| AS TO MRS. GRUNDY
| What will Mrs. Grundy say" that
venerable social bugaboo, which has
| been thrown at us so long had its ori-
gin in a very old popular play In
| Bishop Morton's Speed TIE Plough"
written in the sixteenth century, Farm
er Ashfield, one of the leading clarac-
| ters, becomes nettled at the continual
Difference his wife pays to her neigh
bors' opinions, and thus breaks forth
| at his sensitive helpmate: BE quiet,
olye?-always dinging Dame Grundy
! in my ears-what will Mrs. Grundy
say? What will Mrs Grundy think?
IL Let ur alone and behavet
yrself pratty!''
COOKING YOUR GOOSE
Good wine needs no BUSH" meaning
| that a good thing can make it's way
without advertising or horn blowing. is
not sound gospel in these days of de.
| partment stores and newspapers but
| its pedigree is quite clear 1t was -
custom in England several centuries
ago, to put an ivy bush as a sign out
side of taverns. or private houses, by