The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-03-03
SOME POPULAR SAYINGS.
HOW, WHEN AND WHERE THEY
HAD THEIR ORIGIN.

These are great days for tearing away
the underbrush of fiction. sentiment and
superstition and getting right down to
the first principles of fact one battalion
of workers is campaigning against the Sc
crets of nature, another is Waging wax on
the venerable dogmas of creeds and an
other is tracing family pedigrees back to
their source. But only a few of the Gu
rious-minded have seen the charm Of
hunting our popular, everyday sayings
down through the debris of a dust-covered
past. To those with the faintest taste
for this weird, literary sor5 of ghoul work
this research viii always be full of fasci-
nation. 1t hasn't quite the dignity or i'm
portance of more profound studies into
relics and records of the past. But there
is scarcely a single popular saying is
queathed 10 US by our long buried human
brethren that does not throw CLEAN of
light on the history, customs and tradi-
tons of the past.
For instance, that expression heard ey-
cry day in the world, III take him 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 of CEN
turtles ago, as far back as good st. Dun
stan. This popular prelate had the hot
headed and stormy men of a very wild
period to deal with. They drank deep and
their swords were ready as their hagons.
So, at the saints suggestion, to reduce
the chances of broils over their cups
small pegs were inserted at regular in
tervals 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 parish
toner's, however, soon found the pegs
handy In drinking bouts; they served as
quiet and reliable umpires. A gentleman's
standing in society was measured by his
capacity to pack away sack under his
belt, and the pegs measured the potations
an these bibulous contests. The victor
was the man who brought the liquid a
peg or two lower than his rival; took
down his pride and self-conceit-just the
meaning We hang on that ancient peg to-
day.
Turning the tables" has a pedigree
longer still. Ii conveys The idea of spring.
ing a countercharge or some winning tao
tics on your accuser. The wealthy ma
hobs of the days of Augustus in Rome
were possessed, among other fads, with
a mania for certain costly tables of Maui
rhania wood inlaid with ivory; the table
madness, as Pliny puts it. All sorts of
ridiculous fancy prices were paid for these
coveted gems. 1t soon became the re-
tort fashionable among the fair danes of
Rome, when charged with extraVagance
by their spendthrift lords, to turn the ta.
oles on the men, and il usually brought
swift change In the conversation.
TO scrape an acquaintance" has had
several assigned pedigrees, but none SO
plausible as that given by Mr.. A. Wallace
an ms Popular Sayings Dissected,"
choice little companion, by the way, for
students Of these linguistic heirlooms. He
says the expression had an imperial god
father of the Emperor Hadran, who, when
attending the bath, caught sight of an old
soldier OF the Imperial Guard making use
OF tile in place of the ordinary flesh
brush TO rub himself down. Hadrian made
inquiries into the mans condition, ana
nnding 1t necessitous sent him a hand
some present of clothes and money. The
next time he went TO the bath his eyes
rested on dozen or so of veterans armed
with broken tiles working away indus
triously on their bodies Grasping the idea
that he was being "worked'' by these
agile paupers, the Emperor remarked.
Scrape ahead, gentlemen; but you'n not
scrape acquaintance with me-"
Go to the dogs" mas probably a classic
origin. The ace or the dice used by the
ROMANS was called canis-dog-and throw
ing three aces meant losing the game. a
sense essentially conveyed in the general
use Of the expression nowadays
Dog-watch' is a corruption of dodge
watch, introduced on board ship, where
the sailors are divided into two watches
and each watch takes the place of the
other every four hours. To prevent the
same men serving at the same hour on
subsequent days two dog-watches of two
hours each are introduced in the course of
the twenty-four hours, by which means
the ordinary sequence of the four-hour
watches is lodged or avoided We have
the same corruption in the expression "fo
dog a persons footsteps"
What will Mrs. Grundy say?" that ven
cradle social hugaboo, which has been
thrown at us so long, had its origin i'm a
very old popular play. In Bishop Nor
toms Speed the Plough" written in the
sixteenth century, Farmer Ashfeld. one of
the leading characters, becomes nettled at
the continual Difference his wife paws to
her neighbors, opinions, and thus breaks
forth at his sensitive helpmate: BE quiet
woolye?-always dinging Dame Grundy
into my ears-what will Mrs. Grundy say?
What will Mrs. Grundy think?
Let ur alone and behaved y'rself prattyn'
ooOU VINE llSeuS no DQSn, meaning
that good thing can make its way with
out advertising or blowing, is not
sound gospel in these days of department
stores and newspapers but its pedigree is
quite clear 1t was The custom in England
several centuries ago, TO put an ivy bush
as sign outside of taverns, or private
houses, by the roadside. where travellers
could be reg2led with wine and beer The
custom still survives in some parts OF
Gloucester, especially on festival occa-
sions.
I'm cook your goose for you, another
old friend, was born when Eric. the war
rior King OF Sweden, had the habit OF
fighting everybody that came along. He
laid siege once to town which he hadn't
the force to capture. and the inhabitants
had some fun at his royal expense b,
hanging a goose from the walls on pole
Eric returned later with achievements
and. when the heralds bawled their chal.
lenge from the towers, he announced thai
ne had come to cook their goose" whicf
he did
ITO show the white feather has refer.
ence to game-b.rds. The presence of a
white feather in game-bird generally in.
dicates cross-breed. In fact. no game-cocb
has one, and as the inseparability of PLUCK
and good breeding in the animal world is
generally admitted. 50 also is the con