Simile: like substance through a tin horn

Wed Apr 4 17:51:17 UTC 2012

"This tin horn used as a funnel would be shoved into the mouth of an animal
and a dose of "cure" would be poured in the bell like end to slide down the
throat of the beast."

I recall an episode in a movie I saw many decades ago.  Two comedians need
to give a horse a pill.  The smart one shows the dumb one how to put the
pill in a tube and put the end of the tube in the horse's mouth.  Then the
dumb one is to put his mouth to the other end of the tube and blow.

I think you can see the mirth-provoking possibilities here.

No doubt the reason that the horn strategem was developed.

By the way -- am I wrong in remembering that the one- and two-reelers shown
in movie theaters in the good old days (along with 5 or 6 cartoons and two
feature movies, all for a quarter) were called short subjects?  The sort of
movie produced and narrated by A Smith Named Pete, for instance.
The term isn't in the OED.

GAT

On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 1:37 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dan Goncharoff wrote:
> > Is "tin horn" just another way of saying "funnel"?
> >
> > I am thinking of the Tin Woodman's hat...
>
> Thanks for your response Dan. On the Wombats mailing list Suzanne
> Watkins offered an intriguing hypothesis consonant with your
> suggestion.
>
> [Begin excerpt from Suzanne Watkins post on Project Wombat mailing list]
>
> The tin horn has a number of manifestations in the 19th century from a
> child's obnoxious toy, a sailor's fog horn, or a nickname for cheap,
> pretentious gamblers and lawyers, but there was another use of tin
> horns from that bygone era in agrarian circles, that had a very
> practical use with animals.
>
> This tin horn used as a funnel would be shoved into the mouth of an
> animal and a dose of "cure" would be poured in the bell like end to
> slide down the throat of the beast.
>
> To give an example, in the March 1861 New England Farmer, page 150,
> was a "Remedy For Choked Cattle" that consisted of pouring a pint of
> warm lard through a tin horn down the throat of a bull who was having
> serious problem after swallowing a large potato. The end result was
> that the potato (and most likely much more) was "expelled" in about 2
> minutes after the dose was given.
> …
> [End excerpt]
>
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 2:08 PM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Simile: like *substance* through a tin horn
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Is "tin horn" just another way of saying "funnel"?
> >
> > I am thinking of the Tin Woodman's hat...
> >
> > DanG
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 1:30 PM, Garson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:
> >
> >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >> -----------------------
> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Simile: like *substance* through a tin horn
> >>
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> On the Project Wombat mailing list Jane Steinberg initiated a
> >> discussion of the phrase "like shit through a tin horn".
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> I used to work for a harpsichord builder who, whenever something went
> >> absolutely perfectly, would say, "like shit through a tin horn."
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> The appearance of the word "shit" in print was restricted in the past.
> >> So I think it makes sense, as a start, to gather evidence by looking
> >> for variants of the phrase in the major text databases. Here are some
> >> variants that appeared in newspapers and periodicals beginning in the
> >> 1880s. I did not try to find the earliest examples. Details are below:
> >>
> >> Main question: Why do you think a tin horn is used in this collection
> >> of similes?
> >>
> >> like butter through a tin horn
> >> like water through a tin horn
> >> like mud through a tin-horn
> >>
> >> Here is an example of "like butter through a tin horn" in 1887. A boat
> >> was grounded on a bar in a river. Eventually, a strategy was found to
> >> move the boat forward past the bar.
> >>
> >> Cite: 1887 October 09, Kansas City Times, Science in Navigation,
> >> [Acknowledgement to Mobile Register], Page 19, Column 4, Kansas City,
> >> Missouri. (GenealogyBank)
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Then the rope was tied to a tree on the bank above and the old Carrier
> >> went over that bar like butter through a tin horn.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> Cite: 1895, Senate Ex. Doc. No 57, Fifty Third Congress Second
> >> Session, Topic: Hawaiian Islands, [Inclosure 2 in No. 36],
> >> [Advertiser report of mass meeting, February 13, 1894.]  D. B. Smith
> >> Is Again Nominated, Page 1229, Government Printing Office, Washington,
> >> D.C. (Google Books full view)
> >>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=vRs2AQAAIAAJ&q=%22tin+horn%22#v=snippet&
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> T. B. Severin then placed in nomination D. B. Smith. His name was
> >> received with prolonged cheers, and was seconded by the whole league.
> >> Three howls were called for on the nomination, the clockwork was again
> >> put in motion and the league, as one man, signified its approval of
> >> Mr. Smith. J. B. Atherton then moved that the nominations be closed,
> >> which was carried, and D. B. Smith had been sent through the meeting
> >> like water through a tin horn.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> In the domain of sports, the phrase "water through a tin horn" was
> >> used with quotation marks in 1897. It was used to describe a runner
> >> easily penetrating the defense of the opposing team and scoring a
> >> touchdown.
> >>
> >> Cite: 1897 December 26, Oregonian, "Fought In Deep Mud: Multnomah Wins
> >> Christmas Football Game, 10-6", Page 8, Quote in Column 2. Portland,
> >> Oregon. (Genealogybank)
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Wilbur was given the ball, and, with fine interference, plunged
> >> through Multnomah's line like "water through a tin horn" and scored
> >> Portland's only touchdown.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> The phrase "like mud through a tin-horn" was used in quotes in 1906.
> >> The word "mud" was sometimes used as a euphemism for "shit" in
> >> periodicals. So the phrase "like shit through a tin-horn" may have
> >> been used by a pilot in the following excerpt.
> >>
> >> Cite: 1906 December, The Rudder, Volume 17, Number 12, A Fast Trip
> >> Down the Hudson by Walter M. Bieling, Quote Page 735, The Rudder
> >> Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books full view)
> >> http://books.google.com/books?id=CCYjAQAAMAAJ&q=tin-horn#v=snippet&
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> We got off rather suddenly; our start was most businesslike, and we
> >> went out of the Albany Y. C. basin, according to the pilot, "like mud
> >> through a tin-horn."
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> George S. Patton used the phrase on September 23, 1944 according to
> >> the following book:
> >>
> >> The Patton papers 1940-1945
> >> Author: George S Patton; Martin Blumenson
> >> Publisher: New York : Da Capo Press, [1998]
> >>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=RRolDuahqPMC&q=%22tin+horn%22#v=snippet&
> >> [Begin excerpt]
> >> Question: Once through the Siegfried Line, will the advance be much
> >> like the last push?
> >> Patton: I think we will go like shit through a tin horn.
> >> [End excerpt]
> >>
> >> The idea of a substance moving through a tin horn easily was used in
> >> similes by 1887 or earlier. The substance used in the simile varied:
> >> butter, water and mud all appeared by 1906.  Other options include:
> >> huckleberries, dose of salts, grease, shit, gooseshit, molasses and
> >> more. I do not know why a tin-horn was selected for this collection of
> >> similes.
> >>
> >> Garson O'Toole
> >>
> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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>

-- 
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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