Sluice

“ Sunken gray eyes too dull and cold to light up, marked a hard, stony face, the salient features of which was a thin lipped, compressed mouth, with corners drawn down deeply—the mouth which seems the world over to be the index of selfish, cruel, sulky malignance. It is such a mouth as has the school boy—the coward of the play ground, who delights in pulling off the wings of flies. ”

“ The grace and fun of the story, the odd effects produced by bad grammar, the gentle humour, all combine to make this decidedly slangy chapter a literary masterpiece. A miner or rancheman will talk to you for an hour and delight you, because his slang somehow fits his peculiar thought accurately; an English sailor will tell a story, and he will use one slang word in every three that come out of his mouth, yet he is delightful, for the simple reason that his distorted dialect enables him to express and not to suppress truth. ”

“ His mouth also marks a supreme sadness, which depresses the lower lip and seems to weigh upon it, while the upper lip, contracted from the top to the bottom, expresses at once both physical suffering and that of the soul. Under the mouth there is an expression of indignation that seems to protest against an undeserved suffering, and is revealed in the nostrils, which swell out and enlarge and draw upwards. ”

“ Delicate and clean-made is the little trench that goeth from thy mouth to thy lips, and sweet it is, and there is more might in it than in sweet words spoken. Thy lips they are of the finest fashion, yet rather thin than full ”

“ Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black and sour, begotten of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen, is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones. ”

“ That change, in their rounds, from the bright to the drear;
And, though we deplore their cold dullness and darkness,
We can’t hope for springtime all thro’ the year.
These dull, dreary days, these clouds, gray and heavy,
That hang, like a pall, over Nature’s fair face,
But serve to enhance each gleam of gold sunshine,
When new-waking Nature its beauties retrace.
[89]
THE SONG OF THE SLUSH.
The slush, the slush, the terrible slush,
That streams from each pore of the earth with a gush;
Impeding the travel, making walking a woe ”

“ Little louse has burned herself to death. Little flea is crying. Little door is creaking. Little broom is sweeping. Little cart is running. Little manure pile is burning." Then the girl said, "Then I will break my little water pitcher." ”

“ What was called ‘souling,’ or ‘sowling,’ was practised by the female portion of the poor, who visited their wealthier neighbours, demanding ‘soul’ (possibly from the French soûl, signifying ‘one’s fill,’ or from saouler, ‘to satisfy with food.’ See Wright’s Provincial Dictionary) , which signified, in its provincial acceptation, any condiment eaten with bread, such as meat, fish, etc., but especially cheese. ”

“ In Old High German and early Middle High German the verb signifies ‘to emit a smell,’ and may even mean ‘to give forth a fragrant odour’; in Middle High German the modern meaning prevails. In Anglo-Saxon too, stincan may mean ‘to emit a fragrant odour’ or ‘to stink’; compare English to stink. ”

“ Riming of sweat in the furrows,
⁠Black'ning of blood on the stones.
And they who kneel at the chancel
⁠Gaze forward, they dare not look back.
For white are the "pillars," and bitter,
⁠That warn by the soul-clutching track. ”

“ The Teutonic root slū̆k, not allied to schlecken, originated in Aryan slū̆g, which has been identified in Greek as λυγ (for σλυγ) ; compare λυγγάνομαι, λύζω, ‘to have the hiccup, sob,’ λύγδην, ‘sobbingly,’ λύγξ (λυγγός) , ‘violent sobbing, hiccup.’ In Old Irish the root appears with initial s as slug, ‘to devour.’ Akin also to Schlauch. ”

“ The mouth is said to be filled with laughter, and the tongue with singing, (Psalm cxxvi. 2,) because laughter denotes the affection of truth, and singing denotes the truth itself, which is the object of that affection. Hence it is evident that all the parts of the human body are significative, and that the mouth is significative of a more interior principle than the tongue. ”

“ At times, too, gleaming with a strange wild fire
When taunted by the rabble in the streets;
A Jewish face, complexion pale but dark;
Thin, high-art nostrils, quivering constantly;
Long nose, full lips, hands tapering, full of veins ”

“ There are usually odours in such a camp which are repellent to the nose, dishes that are disgusting to the taste, sights that are disagreeable to the eyes, sounds that are abhorrent to the ear, and habits that are uncongenial to the feelings. ”

“ But now I find a great many who have advanced to a slang beyond that of verbal expressions,—a slang of mind, a slang of sentiment, a slang in which very little seems left of the woman and nothing at all of the lady.
Newspaper essayists assert that the young men of the day are to blame for this; that the young men like it; and the fair husband-anglers dress their flies in the colours most likely to attract a nibble. ”

“ The mouth grows dry, the tongue sticky, and a bitter taste ensues which, it would appear, is only a consequence of the tongue's dryness. [The expression 'bitter sorrow' may possibly arise from this.] In nursing women the milk diminishes or altogether dries up. ”

“ Haggard and pale is the father's face, Where lingering sickness has left its trace; While the careworn look on the mother's brow Tells of the sorrow upon her now. Hungry and faint from the lack of food, With scanty clothing, no coal nor wood ”

“ A preternatural flow of saliva is likewise sometimes occasioned by a disease of the voluntary power; for if we think about our saliva, and determine not to swallow it, or not to spit it out, an exertion is produced by the will, and more saliva is secreted against our wish ”

“ But as the food becomes creamy, so to speak, through being mixed with saliva, or emulsified, or alkalised, or neutralised, or dextrinised, or modified in whatever form Nature requires, the creamy substance will be drawn up the central conduit of the tongue until it reaches the food-gate. ”

“ Every living thing sees the darkness and the light; but the belly does not observe, for the eye looks upon the good and the evil."
"And you, Mouth, also, making yourself to be senior! The pig, too, has a mouth the same as you, but its belly is happy in doing evil, and devours that which it had vomited." ”

“ That the mouth, through which this food is conveyed, should be placed so near the nose and the eyes, as to prevent the passing, unnoticed, whatever is unfit for nourishment; while Nature, on the contrary, hath set at a distance, and concealed from the senses, all that might disgust them? ”

“ My mule (with your excellency’s permission) is but a mule, and has no knowledge of sorrow or of language; therefore, of what avail to speak to her?’
“‘You are much mistaken,’ answered the student, who now had tears in his eyes, ‘for it is well known that even the irrational animals have feelings, and they have been heard to speak. ”

“ Upon the next movements of your lips it depends whether that body you love shall be stretched upon the rack, whether those eyes which you find pleasant shall grow blind with agony in the darkness of a dungeon, and whether that flesh which you think desirable shall scorch and wither in the furnace. ”

“ He neither lies in a bed nor sits in a chair; his clothing is neither dyed, spun nor woven, but is of finest texture and most brilliant hue. His warning cry ought to call all sluggards from their slumbers: he utters it in every land and every age ”

“ Though during the mastication of our natural food the salival glands are excited into action by the stimulus on their excretory ducts, and a due quantity of saliva is separated from the blood, and poured into the mouth; yet as this mastication of our food is always attended with a degree of pleasure ”

“ I got the rheumatism by catching cold at the pond side, from washing in the fresh water; in the salt water I never got cold. The person who lived in next yard, (a Mrs. Greene,) could not bear to hear my cries and groans. She was kind, and used to send an old slave woman to help me, who sometimes brought me a little soup. ”

“ To see him rolling on the sofa in agony, to see his white face, his parched lips, and his contracted brow, to hear his moans and muttered prayers, one would have thought him suffering from the pangs of some terrible disease. ”

“ So the secretion of saliva, which in young children is copiously produced by irritation, and drops from their mouths, is frequently attended with the agreeable sensation produced by the mastication of tasteful food;, till at length the sight of such food to a hungry person excites into action these salival glands ”

“ When mad they shun drink and food, for they are thirsty but do not drink, and for the most part they pant, hang their ears, and emit much frothy saliva. Generally they utter no sounds, and are as it were delirious, so that they do not recognize persons with whom they are familiar. ”

“ Thus we hear of starving men chewing upon an old boot, or famished desert-travellers sucking rapturously at a hole full of mud. I remember once being so absorbed in a story during sermon-time, that, coming to a word of new and queer physiognomy, and having forgotten all circumstance, I repeated it, according to my custom, quite aloud. ”

“ As a result of the restriction of the word — probably in primitively times — to denote the dryness of the throat, we have the Old Indian tṛšús, ‘greedy, panting,’ and Modern High German dürsten; as applied to the voice, or rather speech, tṛs appears in Greek τραυλός, ‘lisping,’ for *τρασυλός (compare δαυλός, ‘dense,’ for *δασυλός, Latin densus) , and Old Indian tṛšṭá-s, ‘hoarse, rough (of the voice) .’ With the general meaning ‘dry,’ Modern High German Darre, dörren, and their cognates are connected. ”

“ The squeamishness which tries to ignore the existence of slang fails signally, for not only in the streets and the prisons, but at the bar, on the bench, in the pulpit, and in the Houses of Parliament, does slang make itself heard, and, as the shortest and safest means to an end, understood too. ”

“ It was strange to my ears to hear a man, nearly white and respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times when he was a slave. With my companion, who carried our dinners and a horn of water, which is quite necessary, as all the water in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took long walks. ”

“ All the little boys are let loose, and the Dominie is caught—Anxious to supply my teeth, he falls in with other teeth, and Mrs Bately also shows her teeth—Gin outside, gin in, and gin out again, and old woman out also—Dominie in for it again—More like a Whig Ministry than a novel. ”

“ She revolted with a feeling of outrage against the side of life that confronted her—against the dirty floor, strewn with withered vegetables above which flies swarmed incessantly, and against the pathos of the small bleeding forms which seemed related neither to the lamb in the fields nor to the Sunday roast on the table. ”

“ In one of the most populous cities of New England, a few years ago, a party of lads, all members of the same school, got up a grand sleigh ride. The sleigh was a very large one, drawn by six gray horses.
2. On the following day, as the teacher entered the schoolroom, he found his pupils in high glee, as they chattered about the fun and frolic of their excursion. In answer to some inquiries, one of the lads gave him an account of their trip and its various incidents. ”

“ On the contrary, nature has made his teeth smooth, his mouth narrow, and his tongue soft; and has contrived, by the slowness of his digestion, to divert him from devouring a species of food so ill adapted to his frame and constitution. ”

“ Could any one, I say, enjoy a fish dinner if surrounded by those unfortunate creatures with goîtres whom one sees in Switzerland? The nose has its susceptibilities as well as the eye or ear, and indeed there is a far more intimate connection between the organs of smell and taste than between any two others. ”

“ The lips are drawn tight,—the lips that neither laugh nor kiss. The clasped hands are emaciated and of waxen whiteness. Bitter thoughts seem to hover around the pale forehead,—cruel doubt and insistent remorse. An expression of appalling incertitude, the terror of faith stripped of celestial consolation are there. Incoherent, rebellious words come from the lips. ”

“ In a word, mid-day slumbers are golden; they make the body fat, the skin fair, the flesh plump, delicate and tender; they set a russet colour on the cheeks of young women, and make lusty courage to rise up in men ”

“ Surely it is a most unbeautiful sight to see a number of people, young and old, with or without teeth, filling their mouths with mutton or beef, chewing, denticating, masticating their morsels, and then washing them down with wine or water. ”

“ Our whole English tradition neglects smell. In English, the nose is still something of an indelicate organ, and I am not so sure that its use is not regarded as somewhat sensual. Our literary pictures, our poetic landscapes are things to hang on the mind’s wall, things for the eye. ”

“ But who does not avoid a dirty fellow that smells and has an unsightly skin, even more than a man bespattered with dung? In this latter case the smell is external and acquired, in the other it comes from slovenliness that is internal, and is characteristic of one who has grown rotten through and through. ”

“ Are there not some whose nature (inherited, or acquired by habit,) is so near akin to that of certain animals, that they would very soon convert the sweetest and most lovely place of abode, into a squalid and disgusting stye? Their nature is such that cleanliness and order seem far less agreeable to them, than filth and disorder. ”