The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1911-05-04
True IRISH BULLS.
They Have a Flavor All Their
Own, ''the Effect Of Climate"
BRANDS FROM OTHER LANDS.

| OutCN anu GCTuo"
| Sir Richard Steele explained why his
! countrymen made bulls: "'Tis the eff
feet of the climate, sir. If an English
man were born in Ireland he would
make as many" said he. 1t is not ev-
| cry one who knows bull when he
sees her. 1t may be no bull, but
merely blunder "a betise, as the
! French have it. To make sure that
we have the true criterion let us first
set down a few of the genuine, ortho-
dox Irish kind:
He built the wall wider than it was
| high, so that when 1t fell down 1t
should be higher than 1t was wide.
Two weary and footsore Irishmen
come to q milestone, ten miles to Dub
lin. "Arrah," says one. "tss but five
miles apiece"
Disputing of the date of st. Patrick
birthday, "He couldn't have had two
unless he was twins"
An Irish sailor reported that in Phil
adelphia they copper bottomed the tops
of the houses with sheet lead.
Give me the loan Of Ratchet to saw
an empty barrel Of -four In two to
make the dog a pigpen.
His estate is divided by impenetra-
BILE furze bitches made of quarried
stones set on edge.
An Irishman. describing glorious
fight, said, "There was only one whole
nose in the house. and that was the
taypot's."
In these and in hundreds like them
we have the true flavor of the Irish
bull
There are genuine bulls In French,
but they are rare. The genius Of the
language does not lend itself to any
| thing less than neat precision. A
French bull is usually nothing more
than a betise. Still, French bulls exist.
Leon, Bishop and Count of Lisieux
wrote to the Duchess of Brissac as fol
lows:
Madame, knowing how fond you
are of red cartridges, / send you here
with half q dozen. Three of them are
gray, and one is q woodcock. You will
find this letter In the bottom Of the
1 80 -
basket"
A Frenchman used a large stone jar
for pillow, explaining that 1t was not
hard because he had stuffed 1t full of
hay.
The very best French bulls are acted,
not spoken. The Duke de St Simon
relates that lady, lying Ill. was much
disturbed by the ringing Of the church
bells. To deaden the noise her lover
had the street in front of her house
laid with straw.
| A spoken bull in French Is apt to be
something different from the Irish va
riety, something more like a betise, as
has been said. And 1t Is difficult to
retain the flavor In translation. Zee
sont toujours les memes soldats qui Sc
font tuer." says Marshal Bugeaud of
his army. This loses little when one
translates. 1T is always the same sol
diers who get themselves killed"
"En fait d'inutilites il ne faut que lie
necessaire" is more highly colored In
the French than in its translation,
"Only SO many useless things are re-
quired as are strictly necessary"
| Here is the translation of part of an
Italian letter:
I'VE have had most famous earth
quake. If by the mercy of God 1t had
lasted for another half hour we should
all have gone to paradise, from which
may God deliver us. Whether you re-
ceive this letter or not, please advise
me in either case"
Here is Portuguese bull. In offer
ing a reward for the recovery of the
corpse of a drowned man his relatives
remarked that the deceased might be
identified, if found. by slight impedi-
ment in his speech.
After much research it has been SO
far impossible to discover a genuine
Spanish ball, but here is a Dutch bull:
1.-The pig had no marks on his ears
except short tail"
| And here is a German bull:
der Zahn der Zeit, der allie Thranen
trocknet, wird auch uber desc Sache
Gras wachsen lassen" C'The tooth of
time, that wipes away all tears. will
permit grass to grow over this mat
| ter also'O.
Blunders in English speech are not
uncommon. The orthodox bull of Ire
land has scarcely crossed the channel.
A fellow of the Royal society speaks
of "the earthquake that had had the
honor to be noticed by the Royal So
ciety."
1.-THE West Indies will now have a
future which they have never had in
the past" sounds promising until one
sees that its bullish quality is mere
blunder by which the word "opportuni-
ty" was omitted There is none Of the
flavor Of the famous definition of salt
by the Irish schoolboy, "Salt is that
which makes your potatoes taste nasty
if you don't put it in
Even the best Of the foreign bulls in
Latin tongues evoke the suspicion that
they are mere translations from Irish
originals. The Dutch, the Germans
and perhaps the English may have the
genuine article at times. No distinc-
lively American bulls have emerged