The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1889-02-26
the BIRTHPLACE Of SLANG.
Billy McGlory Of New York .
Prolific Author.
FROM the Dives 70 the 'sRonr Hun.
dred"-Exprsssivs Words Ussd
by Thisvss.
Sew York World.

a ely Wle310Eaft WAS tE4z8& 70
convert Billy McGlory one day LIST
week. He was glib saIker, and used
to be very tough, but had reformed
and taken 10 exhorting for a liveli-
hood.
II don't see how I'm goin' TO live. =
said Billy, eff quit workin'' =
BE an exhorter like me, suggest
ed the missionary.
nExhorter nothing" said Billy, in
tone Of disgust. Il wouldn's be like
you for any price you could put up.
I'm dead ON to yoa, me friend I've
been 10 your place when you didn 1
know ] was round, an I've heard you
teIlins how your father an mother
brought you up tough an thief.
That's dead wrong. You have no
right to queer them. They was good
ueople. tell you / ain'i got no use
Tor any man that'll crab his mother
see2
The warmth OF Mr.. McGiory's in
dignation had led him to mold q new
slang. OF course il was forceful and
picturesque, as all his metaphors are.
He was tired of the old expression ito
20 hack on ones mother. and had
coined the verb TO crab which obvi-
ousIy means the same thing.
A great many of the slang express
sions OF this town come from Nc
Glory's They spread their tendriIs
abroad and twiFe around the Bowery
variety stage. Thence they grow up
and flourish In the broadest farce
comedy, and so the young men about
town get them and carry the new
words home, and they are yolieyed
about Murray Hill With an air of
much wisdern. At last they may be
heard from the sacred lips of the Four
Hundred. You think not? Then ask
the Ioveliest girl you knew II she has
heard about poor old Van Rensselaer, 3
cabman spilling him last night while
carving a iagg II you can catch her
off her guard she VIII murmur some
thing sweetly sympathetic about old
Van instead of freezing you with a
glance and asking you to explain what
ncarrying Jag means. Careful OBJ
servers have noted that the ordinary
new slang takes ABOUT six months 10
travel from Mc5lorv's to our best
people. "Real deyilish' but harmless
Young men who pose among their girl
friends as awfuily fast occasionally
visit McGiory's to show friends from
out Of town the elephant OF the metro
polls In all its glory. IL Is sad to watch
them trying TO make friends with Billy
BIZ looking tough and talking all the
little slang they know. His smile Is 50
whitening when he hears their paleozoic
chestnuts that they generally quit al
once.
Billy rippies away with new slang
words as freely as some men rip out
oaths. Gus. he said to his bouncer
one night last week--"Gus. turn out
that stuff at the corner table. He's
pinehed that jap's clock and now he's
touchin' him fer his wad, and by the
heavenly Christmas, he'll win biz
benny If he amt got onto pretty quick
60 on an make him give up Gus
walked over and made a iow-browed
Young man restore a watch he had
purioined from doing countryman
He arrived just In time 10 keep tbs
youth from picking roll Of bills
from the sleeper's pocket and walking
off with his oyercoat winning his
beniy}. There is something particu
larly happy in the phrase, ''touchin'
him fer his wad.' ,It pictures so
graphically the rollss OF bill in thu
pocket of the victim, who viii be sc
gently touched that he won't notice
the theft. The verb ITO steal prob
ally has more variants in slang thar
any other. This il significant. by tht
way. Of the hotbed where araof grows,
Some Of the most popular SYNONYM
for stealing arc these:
pineh-'ro steal sharply and swiftly,
as wrenching pocket book from n
shopper.
Toncl,-To gently abstract. This
need not be followed by sudden fight.
Pinching must be.
Wring-To twist super (watch) of
the ring thai holds 1t on its chain.
swipe TO grab. Examples: Hand
kerchief from pocket, peanuts from
stand. A"eopper" swipes peanuts from
the Chimney lftalian), but the Chimney
doesn't kick. Morally the copper Is
guilty of theft. but the Chimney cannot
legally prosecute him as he would a
common man who pinches from or
touches him.
Win This is the broad generic name
for theft. Anything that Is stolen Is
won. 1t is pretty eonceit. The thief
is up against the great game known as
life All he can take and safely carry
off he has twin" The past tense OF
the verb. il will be observed, has the
same form as the present. Where d
We gei the kickers, Chimmie9' asked
gamin who was admiring his pal 3
shoes. aAw, win dem from a hloke
In Baxter street wot sells dem on der
sidewalk was Chiminie's answer.
He wuz dead leery o me, but
pinched dem an took sneak wen be
forgot to watch me fer a minnit. To
be 'iecry" means 10 be suspicious.
frightened. apprehensive OF evil.
Dead" is used as an adverb to intens-
ify and emphasize.
Pinch, by the way, Is also used to
denote an arrest. A sportive young
man about town met u professional
sport In the Hoffman house one night
last week, eagerly told him about a
prixe-iight that was coming off on
Long island that night and invited
him 10 go ana see il. You 20 il you
like" said the sport, rs he toyed with
the starboard twist of his mnstache.
''but don't want any of il in mine,
son. I've known of the scrap for the
past week. but wouldn't 60 within a
mile of Il. The hull outiit'll be
pinched 10 a dead moral certainty"
A dead moral certainty" by the
way. is the newest and most elegant
phrase in slangdom TO express abso-
luIe certainty. Ii is sometimes alb
hreviated, "a. for example, when some
one asked Col Richard X. Fox the
other day whether kilrain could beat
Sullivan. .'Can hesn asked the
colonel. He'll down him TO dead
moral
Everybody has herd "einehs used
as the equivalent of q sure thing. In
loading burros or other pack animals
Of the far West, the packer tastens the
burden with ropes, which he ties
around the animals body with a pc.
culiar knot. IL never works loose. nc
matter how rough the read. In West
ern towns to-day q "diamond" OF
double diamond cinch" expresses a
sure thing that cannot possibly fail,
New Workers draw the knot some
what closer, and when they grow EN-.
phatic speak of an ''air-tight einch,
frequently abbreviated TO "air-tight. y
The writer was followed half way to
the Park place station one evening
recently by sniycling newshoy. who
whined AZ his elbow: HEY, boss,