| Show laughable mixed metaphors among historic bulls that have added to the gayety gaiety of nations those of sir boyle roche are probably best remembered for some borne curious and undiscovered reason a ridiculous cont contradiction radle in terms customarily Is called an irish bull the phrase iong ion ago passed into literature and has constant repetition yet the tact fact of the matter Is that the people of erin are no more addicted to such mistakes than other races indeed critics repeatedly have noticed that the average irishman Is a good deal of an artist in his management of language ard and it has been said that nowhere else in europe Is it possible to find a more vigorous or picturesque folk speech than in the emerald isle where the influence of the poetry of gaelic still survives cut but no one will care to deny that some of the best bulls current in times have been of irish origin there Is the classic about the two gentlemen who fancying that they were acquainted crossed the street to shake hands on discovering their error one cried 1 I beg your pardon and the other remarked oh dont mention it its a mutual mistake you see I 1 thought it was you and you it was WAR me and really it was neither of usand a second Is cited concerning two men who were discussing the illness of a friend oh hes bes got so thin declared the one and the other rejoined faith he be has rm im thin and youre thin but hes thinner than both of together anecdotes of the mixed metaphors of sir boyle roche boche member of the irish parliament are legion in number mr speaker he declared on one occasion it Is the duty of every true lover of his country to give his last guinea to save the remainder of his fortunes again he said that single misfortunes never come alone and the greatest of natures calamities Is generally followed by one much greater to him also Is attributed the gem why should we do anything for posterity what has posterity ever done for us but sir boyles unparalleled genius reached its apex in his big denunciation of the french jacobins mr speaker it if we once permitted the villainous french to meddle with the buttresses and walls of our ancient constitution they would never stop nor stay sir until they brought the foundation stones tumbling down upon the ears of the nation it if those galilean villains should invade us on that table maybe those honorable members might see their own destinies lying in heaps atop of one another here perhaps sir the murderous crew would break in and cut us to pieces and throw our bleeding heads upon that table to stare us in the face however the irish statesman was not the fool he sometimes pretended to be he used his skill to ridicule politics of which he disapproved and it was an abundantly efficient device for that purpose but the unnamed birmingham lawyer had no such strategic objective in mind when he uttered the famous appeal to the jury which began gentlemen it will be tor for you to decide whether the defendant shall be allowed to come into court with unblushing footsteps with a cloak of hypocrisy in his mouth and draw three bullocks out of my clients pocket with impunity ills his I 1 performance demonstrated that the ball 1 a Is nt it an exclusively irish production and the scots too are not immune to the accident tor for it Is that a glasgow attorney once said to his clerk instead 0 pledges yere always br brcak eakin ln better make no promises at all an keep them language it would siem seem si em Is a tricky affair it should be handled with care but if now and again a r really lly humorous or e error r ro Is made it eay heip sitf tou ls amb emb m may help if it Is r remembered e ro ered that it Is good to prompt innocent laughter in the world even unintentionally washington post |
