The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-02-27
SLANG IS LIKE ToPSY.
Hcbody Knows where Cant Express
sIons orIginate-They Just Grow.
rChicago Herald


with quizzical turn of mind, chow odd
ii is that the origin of all the gags and
slang phrases that run riot for "a spell from
Cape Cod to the Golden Gate never be-
come known: 1t is odd, now, isn't it?"
The reporter acknowledged that it was.
Because, don't you see, continued the
captain, 1.-THE people of this generation
have not, among their other failings and
shortcomings, the failing of excessive
modesty. Every man, in fact, who does,
says or thinks something worth mention,
or thinks he thinks, for that matter, gen.
orally comes to the front and acknowl-
edges that it was he and none other who
said, did or thought this or that. Often
the trouble is to find out who was the
real original Jacobs among them all, SO
numerous are the claims put forth by
different persons that they are the think
erS, sayers and doors of something re-
markable. Now, with all this being true,
take 1t to be an extraordinary thing
that in not a single instance has there
been man or woman coming forward
and acknowledging the authorship of
any vt these terse, picturesque or rough
ly slangy expressions that sweep the
country like a whilwind and then die
cat, leaving no trace.
And it is remarkable how sometimes
they die out as quickly as they spread
II track were kept of them all--or a reg
ular register by somebody-this assertion
would be more susceptible of proof But
| pnnan 10, 8 q Al. =
Kind, even without having anything to
aid my memory. You remember that gag
about How do you sagatiateY or, How
is your corporosityY They spread over
the country inside of a month, being in
everybodys mouth; and then they Just
as quickly sank into the bottomless pit
of the past. | venture to say not one
man in q thousand could recall either of
the two queer expressions on the spur of
the moment if required to do so. 1t was
the same with that old Tom Collins gag,
the original of the McGinty gag of today.
That was put on its legs early in 1874 in
New York, / think, and within three
weeks it had Travelled as far as San Fran
cisco. a man couldn't put his nose into
the street in the spring and summer of
that year without hearing some reference
TO the mythical Tom Collins, and score
of topical songs were started at Tony Pas
tors, and at the other variety theatres and
concert halls, all with Tom Collins in
them. In the fall of that year Tom Col
Inns was as dead as a door nail, with no
hope of ever resurrecting him. There
have been, to my personal recollection,
long string of similar words or catch
phrases coined, set in general circulation
and then squelched within the past
twenty years alone. Others have lost
much of their one time popularity, but
have survived after a fashion, like
Where did you get that hatY Cheese itr
Come Off Get on to his nibsr And the
band played Annie Lauriep Johnny, get
your gum No flies on himr Has your
mother any more like your They all do
it! Have you got the laate to it? Shoot
that hatr Pull down the blindsr Break
awayr and whole lot of others. You
remember when that shibboleth Chest
nutsp was first manufactured? No? Well,
neither do l. 1t seems a century ago
the expression appears to us to be as old
as Methuselah. And yet it can't be SO
many years ago when it first originated.
Remember the chestnut bells and the
lively home industry that sprang up in
that article-makers and dealers even
advertising heavily to effect sales, and
territory for the sales agents being
farmed out, much as it is by the sewing
machine companies for their agents.
Yes, all that happened quite recently,
and where do you hear chestnut bell
tinkling now? Nowhere. 1t has done
its duty"
"At the same time," ventured the re-
porter, interrupting the smooth current
of the old captains talk, "there seem to
be some slang phrases and slangy songs
that are enjoying green old age even
today"
"These are exceptions-rare excep-
tions-to the general rule. And when I
think of the huge mass of short lived
slang expressions, many of them enjoy
ing existence no longer than those sand
flies we have with us during a summer
day, these exceptions seem all the rarer.
There are certain words which arise in
this same sudden and impersonal way,
such as dude and smugwump, etc.,
and which fit the needs of the hour as
well as the needs of aftertime Those, of
course, stay with us. They really supply
a long felt want, and are made to do per-
manent duty. But even for these,
so far as l know, it is always
impossible to find responsible au
thors of their being. The newspapers
and magazines will, subsequently, take
the thing up and give derivations of
these words and expound their origin
and birthplace, but even they have never
been able to find the real father of any
of these graphic expressions. And that,
| repeat, is singular. No more SO, how
ever, than the extraordinarily rapid man
ner in which these words or phrases be-
come, for a time at least, the common
property of the whole nation. A case
comes to my mind which illustrates this.
1t was in 1877. In May of that year l
joined Capt. Blackwell, an old friend of
mine, in long trip to Chinese waters.
| went from here to San Francisco,
where his vessel lay. Our journey to
Shanghai was short one. Passing
down one of the main streets of that
Chinese port the next afternoon, Capt.
Blackwell and myself were run into
and almost knocked into the gutter
by trio of sailors from the United
States man-of-war Kearsarge. The
fellows were evidently spelling for
a fight, and to avoid trouble we passed
on without saying anything, when
one of them sang out in a stentorian
voice: Shoot that haiti He referred to
my somewhat battered headgear Now,
the point l wanted to make was this:
The Koarsargo had come from, San Fran
cisco. When had left Chicago that
piece of slang about discarding or other
wise abusing ones hat had not yet
reached that city. Our journey to
Shanghai had been made in less than
the average time. Yet here was this
sailor from the Kearsarge addressing me
thousands of miles away from home
with an absolutely new phrase. 1t must
have reached San Francisco just in time
for this ruffian to have picked it up and
to lug it with him to China and fling ii