The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1907-06-28

FAMOUS REToRrs CHARACTER
lzED BY sREylTN
Stories of Noted Men Who Wers
quick to Seize UP an opportu.
nifty 70 Make a
Joke.


s:'evity has been the marked char
acteristic Of many happy retorts. What !
could be more crushing, more grimiy
witty, than the reply attributed to Tai
lyrand on an occasion when a certain
notorious parsonage, III and in great
pain. said that. he was suffering the
torments Of the lost Swiftly came
the wicked retort Deja'-already2 y
OF different complexion, but equal
" exemplifying the soul Of wit, was
the reply, which has been attributed to
various painters, to questioner who
wished to know the vehicle with which
the painter mixed his colors. DR..
John Brown tells the story of Opie.
pray, Mr.. Opie, may | ask what
you mix your colors with? said 2
brisk dilettante student to the great
painter. With brains. sir, was the
gruff reply-and the rig one"
Single word replies. lore or less
witty, says the London Globe, are fair
ly common. A patient whom the fa-
nous DR.. Abernethy had advised to
take a walk on an empty stomach
calmly replied: "Whose?"
A recent example was the answer of
the late Dean Hole to a boring Cock
! ney fellow travelling on the Great
Northern railway. What comes after
ItchinT asked the bore. "Scratchin,"
came the swift retort. and thereafter
the conversation tagged.
Many brief and telling replies are
laid to the account OF Douglas Jer-
rold. It win suffice to recall one.
What's going on?" said bore, gtop-
ping Jerrold in the street. u am"
and the speaker suited the action to
the word.
Akin to this was the answer Of
John Wesley to the clustering swag-
gerer who pushed against him OH the
path, with the insulting remark Il
never make way for fool" II al
ways dc" said Wesley, quietly step
ping aside, and then placidly pursuing
his way.
Brief and witty was the reply of a
Catholic cleric to an opponent in ar
gument who had declared his disbe-
lief in purgatory. you might 60 far
ther and fare worse. was the eccles-
iastic's parting shot
The wit Of more than one Of Or.
Johnson's crushing retorts was en-
hanced by brevity, but examples are
to familiar to be quoted johnson
came down like sledge hammer on
Scotland and things Scottish. Less ia
miliar, perhaps, is the retort in which
Scotchman scored. An Englishman
in Scotland was abusing the country
complaining of the state Of the lard
er and wondering where he could gel
less to eat.
4 could tell ye place whaur "
wad get less" said the Scot, who was
listening to the TRADE. Where's
that?" asked the other.
"Oh, just whaur an Englishman'I
been!" said the Scotsman dryly.
Brevity as the soul Of wit is exem
plihed in many popular sayings. WI
! is by no means an inevitable ingre
/ dent in proverbs. Many Of them ar,
| Of doubtful sense, and some are fool
ish. yet there is a certain spice. Th1
definition Of proverbs by Howell a
Sayings which combine sense, short
; ness and salt" is in the main true
Though truth may be altogether at
! sent and wit barely perceptible, We
I there must be a certain salt" whicl
gives life and SAVIOR to the saying.
It would be difEicult to find SAY
ings more telling than some Of tn
ehortest-such, for instance, as Fore
2 warned, forearmed, Extremes meet,
4 or the ancient Inter maIleum ct Ii
), cudem" (Between the hammer and tn
anvil) Many sayings which in Enl
/ lish are short were briefer still
their original classical form.
That the soul Of wit was exempt
= fed most strikingly among the Greek
is only what we should expect. II
curious to remember that our wor
I 'laconic" preserves the memory [
\ the reputation for conciseness
: speech borne by the people of one pa
: of Greece-the Laconians or Spartan
= When Philip Of Macedon threatene
them. IF | enter Laconia / win lev,
= your city to the dust" they made ii
famous reply: If"
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