Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-11-29

quaint saying, "A man that keeps the
birds away keeps them away. but a
pretty face cannot be kept away" The
idea that We express in the words,
Only the wearer knows where the
shoe pinches. Is conveyed quite as
aptly by the negro in his proverb:
Only the dead man knows where the
grave IL too narrow" and THE bot
tom Of the ship knows best how the
sea presses Our familiar sayings
about running after two hares and fall
ing TO the ground between two stools
African proverb: 1.-The rider of two
horses splits asunder.' And here is the
occasion to state that our object is not
to multiply instances simply because
they are parallels, but to point out
those which, like the one last men,
toned. are quaint, apt. humorous and
possessed Of the brilliant power Of 'go-
ing one better And in doing this it
will scarcely be necessary to attempt
any kind of classification or order, for
though it is true that gems of speech
look well when they are dexterously
set in an orators discourse, it is equal
ly true that they have their beauties
when massed in heterogeneous fprofu-
sion. To begin, then, anywhere, the
English saying. Don't do as do, but
do as l tell you,' is good: but the
Dutch, The monk breaches against
thieves with the goose in his larder," is
better. and best of all is the Spanish,
1.-The friar condemns the thief with the
pudding up his sleeve"
MT
done. do it yourself the West Indian
gets a shade ahead with the advice.
"Send dog and the dog will send his
tail and the Armenian, IF you send
a messenger on an errand, go with
him. and the astute, unbelieving Chi
naman. who like his prOverbial image
maker. puts no faith either in the gods
or in the messengers Of the gods, "for
he knows what they are made Of
sums up the situation i'll a way that
perhaps is as correct as it is sweeping:
"If you want thing DONE" he says,
go yourself: if not, send. Still wa
tiers run Deep" il not one Of the best
hundred proverbs, is certainly better
than the Turkish saying: "Mistrust
the water that does not MARBLE, and the
bird that does not chirp.' 1t lacks,
nevertheless, certain element of par
adox which would have made 1t as
near perfection as prOverb might be-
1t is merely because the following par
allels possess this element that we pre-
sumo 10 mention them in the same
breath with our own prOverb. Says
the African: Beware of a silent man;
he has a brass band in his mouth"
TIE Arabian with his meditative and
retrospective habit renders this as:
Defend us from the wrath of the mild
i'm spirit and various savage tribes
of South and Central Africa have the
somewhat remarkable parallel: Isl
lence hath a mighty noise.' 1t goes
without saying that all the nations of
the world formed the same opinion
about woman long. long ago. and up to
the present none OF them have seen any
reason to alter it. But, whether this
opinion in which they all concur is con-
cealed or revealed in proverbs. it would
be an insult to the readers reason and
common sense to state. AS for the
proverbs themselves. which can readily
be distinguished as true or false at
sight by the clever student of human
nature. they yield good harvest of
parallels.
IA woman. a dog, and walnut tree.
The more you beat them the better they
be-"
is a remark upon the wisdom or fool
ishness of which no two sane persons
AN hold two opinions. and the same
nay be claimed for the Swahlh saying:
A man Is not obeyed by his wife in his
,wn house. nor does she consider him
ner husband, unless he thrash her
thwack!" or for the Corsicah's asser- |
ton that Just as "A good horse and a
bad horse both need the spur. so good
woman and a bad woman both need
the stick.
When the Spaniard says, Were Il
woman as little as she is good "A pease
ood would make her gown and
iood:" when the F'renchman pauses
between his absinthes to remark: "A
man of straw is worth a woman of
xold:" when the Italian leaves off kill
ing his Kings to whisper. IF IL man
loses "a woman and a farthing. he Will
be sorry he has lost the farthing;
when the negro medicine man swears
to his tribe that words are women,
leeds are men" when they say in Fife
that 1.-The next best thing to nae wife
is n guild wife," when the Scotch in
general admit that honest men marry
soon. but wise men never" when the
Persian asserts that women and dra-
CONS are best out of the world; when
the German swears that wherever
there is mischief brewing there are "A
woman and "A priest at the bottom of
it," that there are only two good wo-
men i'm the world: one is dead and the
,ther cannot be found" and that
every daughter of Eve would rather
De beautiful than good; when the
Pashto seeing man" tells his people
hat =, woman's wisdom is under her
heel" when, to make long story
;hort. all these people and more are
aging all these things about woman.
very full-grow man with the slight
st spark of chivalry left in him will
admit that no woman could have been
present at the making of any proverbs
of this kind. In CHANGING at some in
stances of proyerbial parallelism we
begin to get an uncomfortable feeling
that possibly many of our choicest
savings are not really independent ex-