"flying horses" depicted in 1721

[Michael Quinion]

George Thompson wrote

> Is no one going to rummage about and find an earlier origin than the late
> 1930s of symbolically catching the brass ring?

The earliest I have is this:

1931 Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, Wisconsin) 3 Aug. "The current anonymous
volume 'The Merry-Go-Round' ... pokes fun - not nice gentle fun - at our
supposed mad round of reaching-for-the-brass-ring-existence."

It's in my piece at http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bra4.htm

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org