Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-26
BAD "BULLS" IN THE COMMONS.
Astounding Verbal Achievements of
British Members of Parliament.

British Members of Parliament.
The House of Commons produces bulls"
and mixed metaphors of rare quality-.in
fact, Great Brtain's legislators appear to
keep in stock sDecial brands of these COM
modities. Here are a few samples taken
from the London Mail:
One night during his last term as prime
minister, Mr. Gladstone rose to his feet and
calmly accused a conservative member of an
astounding feat. He told the right honor
able that he SHOOK his head in the teeth
of his own words' Those words must have
been biting ones
B. l.. Cohen, NJ. p, on one occasion told
an opponent that "the sheet anchor Of his
argument is not one which lies in the mouth
of this house."
At the period when continual reference
was being made to the Gladstone umbrella,
a conservative orator, in the course OF de-
bate, informed the followers of Mr. Glad
stone that I'VE also have an umbrella, which
will soon be heard and when it speaks 1t will
be with no uncertain sound"
A couple of nights later another member,
seemingly in spirit of emulation, aston
ished a bewildered house by exclalming: Il
see a vision float before my eyes-lt is the
car of progress, rolling on in its majesty,
gnashing it's teeth as it goes!" The men,
Der appears to have been quite carried
away by his vision of car.
Undoubtedly a combination Of excitement
and nervousness accounts largely tor the
glorious mixture some orators pour out upon
their listeners. 1t was so In the case of the
Scotch member, whose speech had drawn It's
slow length along for nearly an hour, when
suddenly he startled the house by an elo-
quent outbreak "Sr. look at the great
cities of antiquity-where are they now?
Some have perished so completely that 1T is
doubtful If they ever existed" Then there
went up such roar of laughter as the house
has very rarely heard-and the orator re-
sumed his seat.
Here are a trio of delightfully."- mixed
metaphors which made the speaker almost
hold his sides with laughter. The subject
under discussion was bimetallism and the
intricate ramifications of the topic were In
tensifed by three members VINO wished to
give instruction to their fellow legislators.
The first orator let off this original aphor-
ism: "All along the untrodden paths of the
past we discern the footprints of an un-
seen hand"
Then there was a rush of members to
leave the house, but those who remained
were charmed by another member descrip-
ing several recent by-elections as nay
stack of straws, showing which way the
mons were told-apparently quite in error,
as it did not in any way refer to the de-
bate-by the member for north of Eng
land city that "he had in his constituency
scores of destitute children!" OF course,
laughter loud and long greeted this, where
upon the honorable member fastened to
explain that he did not mean exactly what
he had said.
Lord Curzon, when plain George Curzon,
was once, and once only. known to hope
lessly mix his metaphors. On the occasion
in question he highly amused the House OF
Commons by saying, 1--WE are not yet out
of the wood in South Africa and to get out
the ship of state requires most careful
steering!"
An Irish member, Mr.. Murnaghan towit,
delivered himself OF this delightful remark:
II am not going to reiterate what | was
going to say" This "bull' brings to mind
two strangely mixed metaphors uttered in
the house by another member from the en-
erald isle, William Field.
On one occasion he told the speaker that
''the time had come, indeed, Is rapidly arriv-
ing, when" ETC., and another night he in
formed parliament that, in certain eventual
titles, "the population of Ireland will be
decimated by wo-thrds!" These two de-
lightful expressions have made the honorable
r1anhar famous at ST SteDhenS.