The age-herald., 1898-11-20

"Since the rummy had his lacs driven in
 and grafted that new pair of strides, he's a regular heifer."
 Yes, that sentence is written in the Eng
 fish language and makes good sense, but
 let's hear the wisest college prof ssor trans
 late 1t. That's army slang of the First Ala bama, and any one of the twelve
 hundred boys who shared the for tunes of that regiment during its six
 months of service can translate it for you
 as easily as not.
 It means, "since the recruit has had his face shaved and has borrowed a pair of uniform trousers he Is regular ladies' man." See?
 History bears out the statement that the life of soldier is one of the most demoral-
 izing vacations of mankind, and in no case is the truth better exemp!ifed than in the language the men use, familiarly known as army slang ITO swear like trooper" Is
 one of the proverbs of our language, and
 this can be very readily appreciated by any one who since last May has visited any of the army camps enough to see how the soldiers live and to become acquainted with their manners.
 The story is told of a little soldier who, when reproved for swearing in the Y. M C. A. tent of the First Alabama, asked MT Dix if he never "cussed any" On receiv-
 ing a negative reply he looked at the secre- tary with astonishment. Well" said he, "all soldiers was born cussin so I suppose you want born a soldier"
 The cause of this demoraization is not far to seek. The removal from all home
 ties more or less from all religious influ- fta n h.
 kind, together with the devil-may-care spirit that animates nearly every soldier is enough to make him uncouth in dress, in morals and his life in general.
 But to return to army slang. Nearly everything with which the soldiers come in contact has it's nickname especially those which become very monotonous to the soldiers and things which they do not like In most cases the nicknames are very appropriate the article or thing to be named receiving its sobriquet from its l most conspicuous characteristic. For in- stance, what name could be more appropri- ately applied to the heavy leaden biscuits which the amateur cooks in the volunteer army used to make than "sinkers?' In other cases, however, the derivation of a term is as hard to trace as the root of
 
 "heifers'' as applied to a society man. The word "rummy,' meaning a slovenly looking recruit, was the frSt-word coined by the men of the First Alabama Sergeant DeF'uniak at that time member Of the Jefferson volunteers, is given the credit of having first used the expression up in the armory of his company. This was the lat ter part of last April, just before the regi- ment went to Mobile. I remember that eventful trip down to the Gulf City on that .~f ax,6 ,t which time the term was in use by nearly every man in the regiment. Not few of the men had been drinking freely in order to keep up their courage. I suppose, on leaving home on their way to what appear ed certain death in the jungles of Cuba, and ''rummy" as applied to them seemed peculiarly appropriate. This word was ap- propriated by every regiment with which the First Alabama came in contact Since the war is over and the regiment has been disbanded Corporal Jim Johns of the Jefferson volunteers has been devoting A great deal of his time looking up the de-
 rivation and history of the word, and he only few days ago succeeding in solving the great riddle. He says that Richard Harding Davis in his Soldier of Fortune uses the word "roumies'' in reference to
 the soldiers in Mexico, and that ''rummy'
 is one of its derivations MT. Johns doesn'' pretend to say where MT. Davis gets his
 word from. however.
 ''Rummy'' was by long odds the most
 popular expression in the regiment, and
 afterward came to be used as an express
 sion of good fellowship. where formerly it
 had been used as a term of reproach.
 "Slob," derivation unknown, was an ex-
 pression similar to ''rummy." and was ap-
 piled particularly to a man who was dirty
 and very negligent in his dress. "Slob" was
 also a term applied by the men to their
 officers when the latter did not treat the
 men right. On the other hand an officer
 who was nice to his men was "white."
 Of course every article of food had its
 nickname. Potatoes bore the remarkable
 name of "spuds" This was an expression
 handed down from National Guard days,
 and It's derivation is unknown. Cabbage
 bore the name of "roughning." The fam
 liar army hardtack was called shingles"
 because. 1t is supposed,they were used for
 shingling or ..plastering slats." That Is.
 for the making of doughy like substance
 with which the soldiers ''slats" or ribs
 were plastered internally.
 The canned Boston beans which were so
 popular with the army commissaries and so
 universally dfsiked by the men were called