New-York tribune., 1912-04-14
BY WILLIAM SHEPARD WALSH

asked by one OF that BODY 10 translate tlle
motto "Concordia res parva crescunt ne
said it meant Mine Tailors Make Man.
Lundy Foot, the tobacconlSt, applied to
Tohn Curran for a motto when he flrst
established his carriage. My dear Curran,
said he, "give me one of a serious cast, be-
cause am afraid the people will laugh at the
idea of tobacconist setting up carriage,
and, for the scholarships sake, let it be IN
Latin. IL have just hit on it, said Cur
ran. at is only two words, and it will at
once explain your profession, your elevation,
and your contempt for their ridicule. 1t has
the further advantage of being in two Ian
guages, Latin or English, just as the reader
chooses. Put UP 'Quid rides upon your
carriage" As English the words speak for
themselves, and "Quid" for the tobacco
dealer is pat and clever; read as Latin, the
two words put this interrogation, why 90
you laugh?' .on
lanes Smith, one OF the authors OF j Ke-
iected Addresses, was as ready with sug-
gestions as his namesake Sydney. He called
one day on a Mr.. Jesse, who was engaged IN
putting to press a compilation entitled
"Gleanings in Natural History" Jesse was
greatly pleased to see him. MY dear
Smith" he said, "you come Just in time.
I've been cudgeling my brains for motto
for nv chapter on Grows and Rocks, and
can't think of one. Can you? Ger
tainlv." said Smith, there is one from
Shakespeare: 1t is the caws, it is the caws,
my SOUL"
Colonel Colt, of revolver fame, is commem-
grated in Hartford Connecticut, by church
still known to some Of the profane as the
Church of the Holy Revolver. 1t must have
been the ancestor of some OF these scofterS
who, when the church was building, sug-
gested two mottos from the Scripture, one to
be emblazoned on the right Of the preacher S
desk, the other on the left, to wit: Then
Elisha said. Shoot And he shot" Thou
shouldest have smitten five or SIX times.
The point of the joke in the first motto Is
emphasized by the fact that Colt had an
uncle named Elisha.
On the weathercock of this church there
was, or there used to be until lately, the
effigy of white colt, saltant; that is, leaplng.
This was the punning or, in heraldic Ian
guage, the "cantng, crest of the Colonel.
A debate once arose in the neighborhood as
to the meaning of this device. One man
suggested the pale horse in Revelation. An
other, an Irishman, laughing, interpreted 1t
as an allusion to the facilities of the revolver
for peppering foe. "'Tis the White Horse
of the Peppers" he said.
Twiss's Life of Lord Erskne" has per
petuated the story of the influence over his
mind of a motto accidently encountered on
the panels of a stagecoach. When plain
Tohn Scott, he started out for London in a
coach that bore the legend, " He Gives Twice
Who Gives Quickly" on whose meaning he
ruminated all the length of long journey.
He applied it to everything that occurred,
whether serious or comic. 1t remained fixed
in his mind through life. When, full of
wears and honors, he came to tell the story
to his bographer he added that MS only
regret was that he had not more frequently
made the motto the rule of his own conduct.
The English never seem to have cultivated
the art of motto making. Their great tam-
lies bear for the most part French mottOs,
many of which came to them from the Nor
mans. On the other hand, not one French
family bears an English motto. Nor do
more than a few French families bear a Ger
man motto; though for two centuries the
fundamentally German province OF AlSace
was a French possession. Possibly many
German families of noble origin left the
Alsatian territory when it passed under the
dominion of the French; or, on becoming
thoroughly French in sentiment and spirit,
as the AlsatianS eventually did become, they
NAV have discarded their German mottoS
for French ones. or simply translated them
into French.