“No
sir, I don’t want no machine, shank’s mare will do for me
For
getting through this world of ours,” says Hiram Brandagee;
“I’ve
set and watched ‘em whizzing by our place from day to day,
Just
like a consarned railroad train that’s gone and run away,
And
I’ve been dizzy setting there a-watchin’ of ‘em go;
How
would I feel to ride in one I’d kinder like to know?
I
may be slower getting through this world on shank’s mare,
But
I will be a thousand times more sure of getting there.”
“Now
Doctor Todd he went and bought an autermobile new
And
started on a distant drive, as all the nabobs do,
And
‘fore he got a dozen mile she flunked and wouldn’t go,
And
doc he had her towed back home a sorry looking show.
Now
if he’d started out afoot he would have got there, see?
And
none the neighbors could have laughed at doc’s perplexity.
For
speed I’ve learned that shank’s mare is not the very worst;
And
he who takes it slow and sure sometimes gets there first.”
“Sam
Brown he bought a speedy yacht and tried ‘em all to beat;
She
run ashore and broke her wheel and sunk in twenty feet.
Tom
Haines he bought a trottin’ horse to give his neighbors fits,
And
by and by he run away and stove Tom all to bits.
And
that’s the way the things turn out. you try to go too fast
And
by and by you’ll find yourself a-plugging homeward last.
No
sir, I don’t want no machine, shank’s mare will do for me;
I
rther take it slow and sure,” says Hiram Brandigree.
Aug.
18, ‘06
Shank's (or shanks') mare (or nag or pony) derives from the
name of the lower part of the leg between the knee and ankle - the shank,
nowadays more often known as the shin-bone or tibia. This was alluded to in the
early form of this term - shank's nag. This originated in Scotland in the 18th
century. There are several early citations in Scottish literature, as here in
Robert Fergusson's Poems on Various Subjects, 1774:
"He took shanks-naig, but fient may
care."
When it crossed the Atlantic, the expression migrated
into 'shank's mare', which remains the common form in the USA. It was first
referred to there in the 1860s. This rather unfortunate prediction was made in
the Iowa newspaper The Dubuque Daily Herald in May 1869:
"A public exhibition of the velocipede
[a predecessor of the bicycle] was given on the streets last evening by Mr.
Clark, who managed the vehicle with considerable skill... They are a toy, and
will never come into general use in competition with Shank's mare."
In the UK and Australia the term is commonly
'shanks' pony'. It is sometimes capitalized as 'Shank's pony' as some reports
claim it to have derived from an individual called Shanks, or from the Shanks
& Company Ltd. (formed in 1853 and now absorbed into Armitage Shanks), who
previously manufactured lawn-mowing machines. One such horse-drawn mower had no
seat and the driver had to walk behind it. Examples of these machines still
exist and this would be a plausible theory (albeit one lacking in any real
evidence) if it weren't for the clear pre-dating of the Scottish references.
An alternative version of this allusory phrase
is "the horse of ten toes".
Nabob – (as used) – a person
of great wealth or prominence.
Stove (verb) – to puncture or smash, esp. by breaking in a
stave or staves
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