DEFINITIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 50

DEFINITIONS.

TO FLY THE KITE OB JUIBE THE WIND in commercial slang means to obtain monej on bills, whether good or bad ; probably in allusion to tossing paper about as children do kites. DODGE. " That homely but expressive phrase," aa 1 the late Lord Cairns called it in tha House of Commons, March 2, 1852, ig from the AngloSaxon " deogian," to disguise, to colour, to i conceal. CHAOUN A SON GOUT. • A French proverb frequently used in England. It means, " Everyone to his own taste," and is generally used satirically, as : " Well, I didn't think he'd associate with people of that kind ; but (with a shtng) " chacuu a son goat." j DRAW TIIE LONG BOW. | To tell extravagant stories, to exaggerate ; [ the same as "to throw the hatchet." It is probably derived from the extremely wonderful stories which used to be told of their feats by the Norman archerfl, and in later days of American Indianß' skill wiih the tomahawk. FLEUR-DE-LIS. i The emblem of France, eaid to have been ! brought from heaven by an angel to Clovis, he having made a vow that if be proved victorious in a pending battle with the Ale- ! manni, near Cologne, he would embrace Christianity, 496. It was the national emblem till the Revolution in 1789, when the tricolour (red, white, and blue) was adopted. Haydn. I BRADSHAW'S GUIDE ~~~ was firss started in 1839 oj George Bradahaw, a printer in Manchester. The tables were at first printed on a broad aheet. The first "Monthly Guide" was issued December, IS4I. It consisted of 32 pages, and gave " tables " relating to 43 lines of railway. Its information was confined to English railways. It contained neither map nor advertisements. BOULEVARD. I This French term, which is 'the exact equivalent to the English word bulwark, is the name given in France to the ramparts or fortifications by which the towns were formerly surrounded. They have, for the most part, been dismantled, and the places they occupied have been laid out as wide streets, the sides of which are planted with trees. These, which in Paris are the finest thoroughfares, are still known aa boulevards. CHIGNON. The chignon, so fashionable a few years ago, was not a novel introduction. It was ; in nso a hundred years ago, and is mentioned | in the following terms in the Ladies' Magazine for 1777, page 374:—" The fourth curl descends towards the chinion, and measures 6in in length and 2£iu or Sin in diameter. : . . . The cliinion is pretty fall and descends rather lower than it used to do." In " L'Art de la Coiffure dcs Dames Francoises," by Legros (Paris, 1768), are engravings and descriptions of the head-dresses of that day, in which chignons are figured, and the word is gpelled as now — " chignon." EVERY MAN HAS HIS PRICE. This frequently quoted saying is eaid to have been uttered first by Sir Robert Walpole, who, in the libels of the time, was called the " Grand^ corrupter of mankind." j He is said to have thought all mankind rogues. Pope refers to this : Would he oblige me, let me only find He does not think me what he thinks mankind. , That Watpole said something very like the saying attribnted to him even his eon did not deny ; but there is reason to believe that he aaid it with a qualification — "all those men have their price," not "all men have their price." Other version* are given by Richardson the painter, Dr King, and others, and Lord Brougham doubted whether the words were ever uttered. THE MASONIC GRIP. Sir A. Alison, at a Masonic festival at Glasgow, related the following anecdote of what is familiarly termed "the Masonic grip ":—"" :— " In the Crimean War, during the assault on the Redan, an English officer led a small party of soldiers up to one o£ the guns placed in a recess in the Redan, and most of tbe men fell before the tremendous fire with which they were received. The others were attacked by a body of Russian*, and the English officer was about to be bayonettad when he chanced to catch the hand of a Russian officer and had presence of mind to give him a Masonic grip. The Russian, in a moment, struck up the bayonet of the soldier, led his newly-found brother to the rear, and treated him with all the kindness of a Mason." When in doubt attend strictly to your own business. _-