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Show 'Tell It To The Marines" Quip Born In Old Navy Uncle Sam's sea soldiers have been tagged with an odd catch-pnrases catch-pnrases as long as they can remember, re-member, yet they do not seem to mind it in the least. "Tell it to the Marines" sounds harmless enough, yet it implies so many things that might be told to them that they could be excused for harboring some resentment against its use, according to a release by Posbmasle. Ray K. Bchne. On the contrary the Marines are proud tf te phrase and will lend a willing ear to anyone who has a tale to recount that is worth the telling. Mo.e than a century ago it was known aboard the wooden sailing frigates of the U. S. Navy, but the coiner of the quip is believed be-lieved to have been seme unknown sailor of still earlier times. E. C. Wines, a bluejacket on the Id Ccnstsellation ui 1829. wrote that "Tell it to a marine" was part of the banter exchanged between sailers and marines of that time, and that the honors in these verbal ver-bal encounters were always fairly even. Happily blue-jackets and marines now work together in per-i'ect per-i'ect accird, and any friction which may have existed a century or more age has long since vanished frcm the Navy. For a long time the sea soldiers credited the expression to King Cha les 2nd of England, who Is alleged to nave used it while comp-.imenting comp-.imenting the marines on their knowledge of flying fish acquired duri" f.'.'ii tu.i els hi tropical seas. Later it was definitely learned learn-ed that the story was pure fiction and that the English monarch was net its originator. The noted artist, James Montgomery Mont-gomery Flagg, paraphrased the quip when he painted one of the rniost popular marine posters of World War. With the approval of the Marine CLrps the late Lon Chaney revived the title of Tell it to the Marines" to achieve one of the crowning successes of his movie mo-vie career, and the phrase still has its place in the p-pular vernacular vernacu-lar of the day. In an attempt to locate its true origin, historians of the Marine Corps have delved deeply into the earlier records of both American and British sea s-ldiers without success. The Corps hopes that seme bibliophile may eventually locate an earlier record of its use than that given by Sailor Wines, and that its discoverer will promptly prompt-ly tell it to the Marines. |