"flying horses" depicted in 1721

[Garson O'Toole]

> 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?

Michael Quinion wrote
> 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

The act of obtaining a "brass ring" is used symbolically to refer to
winning a political nomination in the New York Times in 1924. The
article is titled "Thirty Dark Horses March on New York" and the
accompanying illustration depicts several potential presidential
nominees who will be attending the Democratic National Convention. The
candidates are on a merry-go-round and a donkey figure is holding a
shining ring labeled with the word NOMINATION. The caption asks WHO
GETS THE BRASS RING?

The illustration can be viewed by following the link below and
downloading the PDF from the New York Times archive.

Cite: 1924 June 15, New York Times, Thirty Dark Horses March On New
York by Silas Bent, Page XX1, New York. (New York Times online
archive; also ProQuest)

http://goo.gl/RfJmf
http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70E17FC3D5B12738DDDAC0994DE405B848EF1D3

Garson

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