Human Frailty

Wherever instruments beat rhythms and humans whirl or sway in the dance, brisk tunes appear, engender lively songs, finally graft upon the tongue of man strange but glib phrases. Recent additions:

Spain. "Oh, please don't set the piano on fire!" is heard now in every dance or recreation hall where Spaniards gather to drink hot milk and coffee, to sip gravely a green or golden chartreuse, to listen while supple dancers click their castanets, or to glide through sinuous tangos.

"Oh please don't set the piano on fire!"* has entered Spanish with a colloquial meaning--unlike such pure vapidities as, "Yes, we have no bananas."

"Don't start what you can't finish!" is the approximate equivalent of even the slightest reference to inflammable pianos.

Scandinavia, To a rhythm deliriously syncopated, Norwegians, Swedes and Danes have learned to shout, "Come as you are!" Introduced at Stockholm by a hatted and coated comedian who invites a bevy of chemise-clad girls to "Come as you are!" it kindled the Norse fancy, has become a quite unsuggestive equivalent for "Hail! Hail! The gang's all here!"

France. The song of the taxi driver stopped by a policeman who tells that worthy what to do "If you see my aunt!" has already circled the globe, but without its original connotation.

U. S. citizens who have tried to discover its meaning throughout their stay in France, often persist to the point of asking even the very last Frenchman whom they see on the dock before embarking for home. The reticence of even rough dock hands has impressed many.

Germany. Berliners caroling "Go pinch the bullfrog's tail!" continue to find this command an expressive equivalent for "Tell it to the Marines!"

*Suggested to the composer by the act of one Isidoro Alvarez, owner of a dance hall near Toledo, Spain, who poured gasoline over the piano owned by a rival dance-hall keeper, set it afire, caused the whole building to burn to the ground, was arrested, jailed.