Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1913 — PROVERBS MOSTLY OLD [ARTICLE]

PROVERBS MOSTLY OLD

MAJORITY HAVE BEEN HANDED DOWN FOR CENTURIES. Same Meaning la Expressed In Vary* Ing Phrases Among Different Na- . tions—-Comments on Luck Are Most Expressive. Many proverbs have come down to us from remote ages, and are common to all nations. It is said that a king of Samos worked his slaves nearly to death in making a vineyard. This provoked one of them to prophesy that his master would never drink the wine. The king, being told of this, when the first grapes were produced took a handful, and, pressing the juice into a cup in the presence of the slave, derided him aa a false prophet “Many things happen between the cup and the lip,” the slave replied. Just then a shout was heard that a wild boar had broken into the vineyard. The king, without tasting, set down the cup, ran to meet it, and was killed in the encounter. Henceforth the words of the slave passed into a proverb. From this Greek original came two French proverbs: “Between the hand and the mouth the soup is often spilt,” and “Wine poured out is not swallowed.” Neither is so near the original as our English, “There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip.” v It is curious to trace how similar ideas have taken root in different languages and the various modes of illustrating the same thought. For instance, one or two familiar proverbs in our own language. We say, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” The same idea is eiDressed by Italians when they say, "Better an egg today "than a pullet tomorrow,” and the French proverb is still more significant, “One here-it-ls is better than two youshall-have-its"Better a leveret in the kitchen than a wild boar in the forest,” Is the Livonian saying conveying the same meaning. The proverbs on luck are numerous and expressive in all languages. In English we say, “It is better born lucky than rich.” The Arabs convey the same idea in the apt proverb, “Throw him into the Nile and he will come up with a fish in his mouth,” while the German says, “If he flung a penny on the roof a dollar would conje back to him.” A Spanish proverb says, “God send you luck, my son, and little wit will serve you.” There is a Latin adage, “Fortune favors’ fools," and it is to this Touchstone alludes in his reply to Jacques, “Call me not a fool till heaven hathjent me fortune." The Germans say, “Jack gets on by his stupidity” and "Fortune and women are fond of fools.” There is also a Latin proverb which shows that the converse of this holds good: "Fortune makes a fool of him whom she too much favors." Some unlucky Englishman is responsible for the saying: "If my father had made me a hatter, when would have been born without heads,” but this can scarcely be called original, as an unfortunate Arab, ages ago, declared, “If I were to trade In winding sheets no one would die." “Misfortunes seldom come singly,” has many equivalents in all languages. The Spaniards say, “Welcome, misfortune, if thou comest' alone,” and "Whither goest thou, misfortune? To where there is more?"