Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1898-05-05

- q Sss-s!
afmeti oxen !6iias ofaillg
a,Yay industriously On their bodies.
lGrasping the idea that he was being
worked" by these agile paupers, the
emperor remarked 'Scrape ahead,
gentlemen, but yoa'll not acrape ac-
quaintance with me.
Y AS TO MRS. GRUNDY.9 81
eco to the dogs" has probably q
classic origin. The ace or the dice
used blythe Romans was called oanis
--dog--and throwing three aces
ment loosing the game, a sense es-
sentially conveyed in the general
use of the expression nowadays.
'sDog-watch".is q corruption of
"dodge- -watch," introduced on
board ship, whore the sailors are
devided into two watches, and each
watch takes the place Of the other
evory four hours. TO prevent the
same men serving at the same huors
on subsequent days two dog-wa atches
of two hours each arc introduced in
the course of tho twenty -four hours,
Ihy which means the ordinary
sequence of the four-hours watches
is lodged or avoided. We have the
same corruption in tho expression,
"to dog PERSONS footsteps"
"What will Mis-. Grundy say ?" that
venerable social bugaboo, which has
been thrown at us 40 long, had it's
origin in very old popular play. In
Bishop Morton's "Speod the Plow,"
written in the sixteenth century, Far
ner Ashfeld, one of the leading char
acters, becomes ncttled at the con-
tinnal Difference his wife pays to her
neighbors' opinions and thus breaks
forth at his sensitive holpmatc : "Be
quite, woody Getaways dinging
Dame Grundy in to my oars--what
will Mrs Grundy say? What will Mrs.
Grundy think?* n ** Let ur alone
and bchavet y'rself pratty!"
COOKING YOUR GOOSE.
"Good wine need no brush," mean
ing that good thing can make its
way without advertising or horn
blowing, is not sound gospel in these
days of department. stores and news
papers, but its pc ligrcc is quite
clear. 1t was the custom in England
several centuries ago, to put an ivory
bush AS sign outside of taverns, or
private houses, by the roadside,
where travellers could be regalcd with
wine and beer. The custom still
survives in some parts Of Gloucester,
especially on festival occasions.
"l'll cook your goose for you," an
other old friend, was born when Eric,
the warrior king of Sweden, had
the habit of fighting everybody that
came along. lie laid siege once to
a town which he hadn't the force to
capture, and the inhabitants had
some fun at his royal expense by
hanging goose from the wall on a
pole. Erie returned later with rein
forccmcnts and, when the heralds
bcwalcd their challange from the
towers he announced that he chad
come to cook their goose" which he
did.
"To show the white feather" has
reference to gamc-birds. The pre-
scnce of a white feather in n game
bird generally indicates cross bred
In fact, no game cuck has one, and
as the inscparability of pluck and
good breeding in tho animal world is
generally admitted, 80 also is the
converse, and the presence of the
white feather is regarded as a sign
of lack of courage.
SENT TO COVENTRY.
TO "grin like Cheshire cat" dates
back to the particular pattern of stamp
for their butter pats longed used by
farmers Of that agricultural district
in England. The popular imprint
was cat wearing remarkably wide
and open smilc-hcnce the express
sion.
TO "send one to Coventry" mean
ing to declare social boycott on n
person for some breach of decorum,
is based on the tradition that in ono
of the long-age reigns, when partisan
feeling ran high against the royal
forces, the good people of Coventry
set their faces against any communi-
cation between their own party and
the soldiery quartered there, and if
any of their woman-folk transgressed
their unwrittcn social law and were
canght speaking to these sons of
Mars they AT once became the object
of town scandal.
When ga man Of straw" is referred
to, we go back, in fancy, to the court
custom Oncn in voouo ot tbo 0ld