The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-16
"HEADs on TAILS
Origin of the Phrase That Is Gem
turtles Old.
From the London Globe.

From the London Globe.
Not many days ago a morning news
paper had paragraph in which 1t was
sagely remarked that the influence of
kings and queens extends to many of
the minor things of life. And then,
by way of illustrating this indisputa-
BILE remark 1t was stated that before
the accession of Queen Victoria peo-
pie who tossed with coin usually
tried Man or woman'-the woman"
being, as was shown by the quotation
| from "Pickwick," the figure of a drag
| on-but that when the queens head
| appeared on coins some confusion
| probably arose. and hence" we were
told 1.-The popular cry became heads
or tails Further the question was
asked, "Will the kings accession bring
about the revival of the almost ohso-
lete term?"
The appearance of his majestys
head on the coinage in place of that
OF the late Queen Victoria is hardly
likely to affect the popular formula;
but the paragraphist was hopelessly at
sea in giving 1889 or whereabouts as
the date of Introduction of the said
formula, Heads or tails" The phrase
a. AA d1C ENIGldiAOuS DGIOEt man OF
woman was ever heard of: and, by
the way, the latter did not die out
of use at the accession of Queen Vic
toria, any more than head or tail
then first came in. So long ago as
1854 Otway in one of his plays talks
of the way boys played with farthings
they Ego to heads or tails for EN-.
Fashion in sreeeh.
The tall is, of course. mere fash
ion of speech used simply to denote the
reverse Of head" In ireland, when
the reverse of coins bore a harp the
cry naturally used to be head or
harp" a more recent English YER
sion is head or woman"-the woman
being the figure of Britannia, which
is hardly so absurd as the identification
of the dragon trampled by st. George
with woman, The Pickwickian all
fusion mentioned above occurs near the
beginning OF Mr.. Pickwick's adven-
lures at the Bull Inn. Rochester, on the
occasion Of the charity ball. MIR. jim
gle and Mr.. Tupman are about to
purchase their tickets. Not worth
while splitting a guinea" said the for
mer; toss who shall pay for both
| call; you spin-first time--womarl--
came the coin, says the chronicler
a woman) uppermost
An older English phrase used for
tossing purposes was cross and pile
This was only applicable, strictly
speaking, when the diverse of the coin
bore the design of cross, but the
words We're used occasionally long
after the cross had disappeared from
the coinage. The origin of the pile"
is uncertain. The phrase came to us
from the French. who played "a croix
ct pie" before we did. 1t is. indeed,
at least six or seven hundred years old,
for a district allusion to IL has been
found in French of the thirteenth CEN
fury. The "pile" has been variously
explained as due to the representation
Of column or pillar on the reverse
of ancient French coins, to an iron tool
called pile" used in stamping money
to the design Of a ship which once fig
ured on the coinage Of France, and to
several dozen other origins: but the
fact seems to be that the ''pile" has
really no more definite meaning than
the tall of our common English
phrase. To search for a definite origin
OF an exact explanation is about as
hopeful an undertaking as to hunt
for a literal "ta!I' on what the street
tosser would call brown"
Pitch and Toss.
To play at Gross and pile" that is.
to play at pitch and toss, is a very
frequent phrase in our older writer's
The remark made by a character in
Shadwell's old play of Epson Wells
that Marriage is no worse than cross
! win, pile you lose" shows that the
little game now usually described as
'heads / win, tails you lose" Is no
novelty. Tossing is now considered a
very vulgar form OF gambling, but of
old 1t was not unknown in the royal
palace. The wardrobe accounts OF
King Edward III show that his Plan
tagenet majesty borrowed five shillings
from Henry, the Kings baker, 10
play cross and pile"
Indeed, this weakest of monarehs
seems to have made a practice OF Dor
rowing small sums from those around
him, for other entries read Mem,
paid &c Barnard. usher of the Kings
chamber. money which he lost at cross
and pile; TO Monsieur Robert Waite
Vile, eightpence." Pitch and toss Is
evidently one OF those pastimes which