Modern Proverb: Life is just one damn thing after another (UNCLASSIFIED)

Fri Mar 19 21:42:18 UTC 2010

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

3/5/1909 Wilkes-Barre Times p 6 col 6

"Life:  (A new definition) One damn thing after another"


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Garson O'Toole
> Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 4:05 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Modern Proverb: Life is just one damn thing after another
> (slight antedating 1909 July 20)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Modern Proverb: Life is just one damn thing after
another
> (slight
>               antedating 1909 July 20)
>
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> --------
>
> Life is just one damned thing after another.
>
> This quote appears in the online Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (also
> Modern and Concise). A citation is given to the writer Elbert Hubbard
> in the periodical Philistine dated December 1909. The copy of the
> December issue of Philistine in Google Books contains the phrase with
> a minor difference: Life is just one damn thing after another. I was
> unable to find the phrase with "damned" in the December issue.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=IhrZAAAAMAAJ&q=damn#v=snippet&
>
> The Yale Book of Quotations contains a citation for the phrase "Life
> is just one darn thing after another" dated 1909 July 22 in the
> Washington Post along with the comment that the cite "indicates that
> the expression predated Hubbard."
>
> Immediately below are three cites: a newspaper article published two
> days earlier on 1909 July 20, an advertisement in the July issue of a
> monthly periodical called "The Practical Printer", and a book
> published in 1909. In the book the phrase is presented as a motto on a
> wall.
>
> Citation: 1909 July 20, Anaconda Standard, Page 6, Column 3, Anaconda,
> Montana. (NewspaperArchive)
>
> After the Thaw inquiry, the Sutton investigation. As One pessimistic
> philosopher puts it: "Life is just one damn thing after another."
>
>
> Citation: 1909 July, The Practical Printer, Advertisement title, Page
> 107, Vol 11, No. 7, Inland Type Foundry, Saint Louis. (Google Books
> full view)
>
> "LIFE IS ONE DARN THING AFTER ANOTHER"
> Manifold books are here to stay. The printer may as well get busy and
> learn how to handle the profitable line.
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=lJHPAAAAMAAJ&q=darn#v=snippet&q=darn&f
> =false
>
>
> Citation: 1909, The Concentrations of Bee by Lilian Bell, Page 241,
> Grosset & Dunlap, New York. (Google Books full view)
>
> "Bob has a motto on his wall which says 'Life is just one damned thing
> after another!'" said Jimmie. But I refused to smile. I was too
> distinctly annoyed.
>
>
http://books.google.com/books?id=whQYAAAAYAAJ&q=damned+thing#v=snippet&
>
>
> After July 1909 I found several more citations in 1909. Also there are
> some matching items in the Google Books database in snippet view mode
> with uncertain dates. This item may have a 1909 publication date.
>
> Citation: Circa 1909???, History of the Class of 1903, Yale College,
> Page 175, Yale University. (Google Books snippet view only)
>
> Since then the daily round has continued in much the same manner as
> formerly, for, after all, 'Life is only one damned thing after
> another.' My title has been changed and now I am called 'betterment
> recorder.'
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=BHUWAAAAIAAJ&q=damned#search_anchor
>
>
> The word darn and the term d--n are sometimes substituted for damn.
> The power of the word to shock listeners is recorded in the following
> cite which also shows the proliferation of the phrase.
>
> Citation: 1909 October 24, San Antonio Light and Gazette, Gambler's
> Motto His Pulpit Theme, Page 26 (NewspaperArchive numbering), San
> Antonio, Texas.  (NewspaperArchive)
>
> "Life is just one damn thing after another," said the Rev. Dr. Percy
> S. Grant, rector of the Church of the Ascension, Fifth avenue and
> Tenth street, as a preface to a talk yesterday. Members of the
> congregation sat bolt upright, and some gasped in decorous
> astonishment. A deaf woman in the front pew took down her black
> trumpet from her right ear and refused to listen. Afterward curiosity
> overcame her and the trumpet went up again.
> Dr. Grant had received a postal card with the words quoted above early
> in the week, and the cynical sentiment of the missive so aroused his
> indignation that the rector preached against its acceptance in his
> sermon.
>
>
> The following 1910 citation is the first attribution that I found. But
> who is Bruce Calvert?
>
> Citation: 1910 March, Wood Craft, Page 167, Column 2, The Gardner
> Publishing Co., Cleveland. (Hathi Trust full view)
>
> "I would like to have my shop free from accident of every kind, both
> to operators and to stock, but I don't suppose that state of things
> will be actually brought to pass. It's too much like a dream of the
> next world to find something in this one which is not like Bruce
> Calvert's idea of life which he says is: 'Just one damned thing after
> another.'"
>
>
http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ptsearch?id=mdp.39015010724832&q1=damne
> d
> Permanent Hathi URL:
> http://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015010724832
>
>
> The terms substituted for damn in the following 1910 citation are
> entertaining.
>
> Citation: 1910 October 15, The National Provisioner, Chicago Section,
> Page 34, Food Trade Publishing Co., New York. (Google Books full view)
>
> It is better to be a "has been" than a "never was," says Uncle Joseph,
> and adds "What is life, anyway, but one doggoned, golbinged, dodrotted
> thing after another !!!***???!!!???!! anyhow?"
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=BfXmAAAAMAAJ&q=golbinged#v=snippet&
>
> Garson O'Toole
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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