Gift That Keeps on Giving; Golden Rule

[Barry A. Popik]

GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

"In trial, e-mail is the gift that keeps on giving."
--USA TODAY, 10 May 1999, pg. A1.

    What is the original "gift that keeps on giving"?  I couldn't find this
phrase recorded anywhere.  However, I found hundreds of various hits for it.
    An estate charitable trust is "the gift that keeps on giving."  An organ
donation is "the gift that keeps on giving.  Syphilis is "the gift that keeps
on giving."
    Did it start as a catch phrase of a charity?  Which charity?
    The New York Telegram, 13 December 1927, pg. 7, had two ads for the new
orthophonic Victrola.  "The Gift that keeps on giving" was used at the top of
both of the ads.   Is that the first use?  Certainly, Victrola wouldn't steal
the catch phrase of an existing charity, would it?

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GOLDEN RULE

     I was going through 1927 for "fat cats," but I'll find that in the
Baltimore Sun.
     Many years ago, I did work on the origin of the "golden rule."  The
American version is recorded in the New York Telegram, 5 December 1927, pg.
10, col. 4:

_Who Says Golden_
_Rule is "Old_
_Stuff?"_
By FLORENCE SMITH VINCENT
     GREED is its creed, and America is a nation of Get-Rich
Quick-Wallingfords by the "do-others-before-they-do-you" method.

     Mieder's AMERICAN PROVERBS has  (b) "Do it to him before he does it to
you" and (c) "Do others before they do you" and (f) "Do unto others before
they do you" on pg. 154.  I couldn't find it in the RHHDAS.