Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-04-14
Miseellaneous &saains.
OUR SLANG CENTURIES OLD.
Some of the Choicest Americanisns
Born In Lands Across the Sea.

| OOH SINNS ZEN OhlGS OlD.
Some of the Choicest Americanism.
Born In Lands Across the Sea.
If there is any one thing that the
average man would be willing to wager
was of American origin 1t would be
the practice of dealing with offenders
against the unwritten laws of certain
rural communities by covering them
with coat Of tar and feathers. The
individuals who, shrouded In sheets
and masks made of pillow cases. Off
ciate at these functions would doubt
less agree that they were melting out a
punishment peculiar to the United
States.
| This punishment, which is supposed
gressions, however, was instituted long
before the United States was ever
thought of and before this continent
was even discovered.
In the time of the crusades Richard
Coeur de Lion and Philip Augustus,
| two Of the crusading kings, conferred
together as to the policing Of their
respective armies and agreed upon the
penalties that should be inflicted for
infractions Of discipline.
Among the punishments provided by
their code were that whoever killed an
other crusader was to be cast alive
/ int N
hand, should be burned alive; that
whoever wounded another should have
his hand cut off; that whoever struck
another should be ducked three times
into the sea, and that whoever stole
from another should have warm pitch
poured over his head, which should
then be powered with feathers. and
the offender should afterward be left
abandoned on the first shore"
1t would seem that only the riding
upon the sharp edge Of a hewn rail-
was of latter day invention as a suita-
BILE climax to the punishment, and
even. this may have been practised by
the ancient fanatics, although not in
cluded in the prescribed code.
When we speak facetiously Of some
one for whom we have no reverence as
having kicked the bucket" we employ
phrase that would seem to be piece
of latter day slang, but, as a matter of
fact, 1t dates back to Old England,
when, about the year 1925, one Bols-
over hung himself to a beam while
standing on the bottom Of a bucket and
then kicked the bucket away. AL
though at first used only In cases OF
suicide, 1t has been applied In the
course Of years to any death, without
distinction.
When we take what we can get and
not what we want and call 1t Hob
sons choice" we are not referring to
the gentleman who once was famous
because Of his kissing capacity and is
now endeavoring to scare the wits out
Of us with dire predictions of Japan
ese invasion.
The Hobson of the popular phrase
was another one, and his vocation was
more peaceful, although he preyed up
on the pocketbooks of his countrymen
His given name was Tobias, and he
was the first man In England to run
livery stable and to rent out steeds to
the horseback riding gallants OF that
long ago day. While his stable was
well filled with horses. they were, as
usual in livery stables, Of varying de-
grees of speediness, but no choice was
permitted his customers. The horse
that stood nearest the door, whether he
was spawned, ringboned or thor
oughbred, was the one that the next
customer had to take, and they all
were rented at the same rates. Hence
"Hobson's Choice" came to be SYM
onym for no choice at all, which Is the
sense in which we used it today.
1t is an unfortunate thing. due to the
cost of high living, that once In while
some of us are dunned for debts that
we owe and have not found 1t conVen-
lent to pay. 1t is eXasperating to re-
ceive a dun" but some OF the lrrl-
tated recipients might feel more pleas
antly about it if they knew that the
word dun was classical and the pro-
cess had been known by that phrase
| from antiquity.
way back i'm the reign of Henry
VII, the father and immediate prede-
cessor on the throne Of the much mar
ried Henry. there was a bailiff of the
city of London, who rejoiced in the
name of Joe Dun. So successful was
Joe Dun in getting money out OF delin-
uuent debtors that the merchants OF
| that day used to say: Il shall nave 10
Dun him" when they were about to put
an account in the energetic bailiffs
hands, and the name OF THIS pioneer
professional collector Of debts crept
gradually into current language untii
it was adopted to signify urgent ana
insistent demands for payment.
We all of us drink to the heaith ol
someone I'm the course OF our hVes'
and when the glass is particularly
large and the drink uncommonly gen.
erous we call it drinking in bumpers
of wine. Most of us know what the
after effect is of bumpers drinking
but few know whence 1t originated
Many good things seem to have been
inheritances from England. and this Is
another of them.
When the Roman Catholic religion
became ascendant in England 1t was
made obligatory that all good Chris
tians should drink the health OF the
Pope after dinner every day, and that
His Holiness health was to he pledged
in full glass. which was to be draineo
70 the bottom. The toast prescribed
as proper was "au bon PEREZ Dut the
Arglo- Saxon of those days was not
good French student, and his pronuh-
citation was faulty, so that "bon pere
rapidly became corrupted to bumper
and ca II has survived ever since. Al