premise: Also Went-worth/Flexner and Chapman both cite the term the leather as meaning a kick, but they date the term from 1946, citing a passage from Damon   he would give his fallen foe what we called `the leather,' meaning a few boots abaft the ears.
hypothesis: Went-worth/Flexner and Chapman trace the phrase "the leather" to Damon (1946), but both agree that the phrase undoubtedly is of an earlier origin.