The Dickinson press., 1890-03-22
SLANG AND ITS ORIGIN.
THERE ARE NEVER ANY ROWS OVER
AUTHORSHIP CLAIMS.

THERE ARE NEVER ANY ROWS OVER
AUTHORSHIP CLAIMS.
Phrases and Gags" That Live for a Brief
Period in Popularity-No One Acknowl-
edges Having Evolved the Most Striking
and Funny Sayings.
Ibid it ever strike you," said Capt.
Fitzmaurice, an old retired navigator
with a quizzical turn of mind, chow odd
it 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 it to be an extraordinary thing
that in not a single instance has there
been a man or woman coming forward
and acknowledging the authorship of
any of these terse, picturesque or rough
ly slangy expressions that sweep the
country like a whilwind and then die
out, leaving no trace.
SOME OLD ONES.
And it is remarkable how sometimes
they die out as quickly as they spread.
If track were kept of them all-or a reg
ular register by somebody-this assertion
would be more susceptible of proof. But
l can recall a number of cases of this
Kind, ever without having anything to
aid my memory. You remember that gag
about How do you s~agatiate?' or, 'How
is your corporosityy They spread over
the country inside of a month, being in
everybody's mouth; and then they Just
as quickly sank into the bottomless pit
of the past. l venture to say not one
a in a thousand could recall either of
the two queer expressions Oh 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, I 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 a 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, a
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 hat?' Cheese ity'
Come Off Get on to his nibsv And the
band played Annie Lauriev Johnny, get
your gun!' No flies on himr Has your
mother any more like your They all do
it! Have you got the mate to ity Shoot
that haiti Pull down the blinds! Break
awayI and a whole lot of others. You
remember when that shibboleth Chest
nutsv was first manufactured? No? Well,
neither do l. It 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 a chestnut bell
tinkling now? Nowhere. 1t has done
its duty"
A "GAG's" QUICK TR1P.
Sat 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 a green old age ever
today"
"These are exceptions-rare excep.
tions-to the general rule. And when ]
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 'mugwump,' etc.
and which fit the needs Of the hour at
we'll as the needs of aftertime. Those, O
course, stay with us. They really supply
a long felt want, and are madeto do per
manent duty. But ever for these
so far as l know, it is Away;
impossible to find responsible au
thors of their being. The newspaper
and magazines will, subsequently, tax
the thing up and give %derivations o
these words and expound their Origin
and birthplace, but even they have neye
been able to find the real father of an,
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 cas-
comes to my mind which illustrates this
1t was in 1877. In May of that year
joined Capt. Blackwell, an old friend o
mine, in a long trip to Chinese waters
I went from here to San Francisco
where his vessel lay. Our journey t
Shanghai was a short one. Passin
down n of the main streets of thu
Chinese port the next afternoon, Cap
Blackwell and myself were run int
and almost knocked into the quite
by a trio of sailors from the Unite
States man-of-war Kearsarge. I'll
fellows were evidently spelling ft
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