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Show Sp Tell It To The Marines Postmaster M. L. James has received re-ceived an interesting narrative regarding re-garding the origin of the phrase "Tell It to the Marines", from Major Ma-jor T. Talmadge Taylor, of the Marine Ma-rine Corps recruiting station, Federal Fed-eral building, San Francisco. Major Taylor states that according accord-ing to Peppy's diary, during the reign of Charles II, of England, a certain sea captain, newly returned from the westren ocean, told the king about flying fish, a thing never nev-er heard of in old England. The king and the court were vastly a-mused. a-mused. But, the naval fellow persisting, per-sisting, the merry monarch beckoned beck-oned to a lean, dry colonel of the sea regiment, and said: Colonel, this tarry-breeks here makes sport of us stay-at-homes. He tells us a miraculous fish that forsakes Its elements and flies like a bird over the water 1" "Sire", replied. the colonel col-onel of narines, he tells a true thing. I myself have often seen those fish in your majesty's seas around Barbados". "WeU" decided Charles, "such evidence cannot be disputed. Hereafter, when we heaj a strange thing, we will tell it to the Marines, for the Marines go everywhere ev-erywhere and see everything, and If they say it is so, we will believe it." So we see that a royal quip ! has a royal origin,-and it stuck. |