Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1898-10-08
ODD BOWERY SLANG.
Tough but Graphic Dialect Of the East
Side of Gotham.

sue OF nCtn3m.
Slang, like hot air, rises, 1t starts
in the speech. of tho least educated
to become Incorporated into the
daily talk of the best informed. It
is true that the best infol med use
slang apologetically and with men
tai quotation marks, but neverthe-
less they use it. Slang is the out
come of bright minds not we'll stored
with work, Hence it is graphic.
East of the Bowery they do not
say "beggar. They say, "a man
with hia hand out" When Stephen
Brodie wished to say that certain
popular novelist was not of very
heavy mental caliber, he said that
"if that gent fell on a wet sponge
he wouldn't squeeze it dry
In tho lower walks of life mai
does not get angry; he 'gets red
headed" He does not expose mon
ey; he flashes Il wad," from which
he skins the long green" If he
happens to be we'll to do, he has II
"thick wad," so hard that "you
couldn't knock dent in it with an
AK No man every struck another
east of the Bowery; he just care
lessly threw 'em into him." the
"em'' being two hard fists.
a man in reduced circumstances
is, in slang parlance, "on the
swine" 1T his circumstances are a
little more reduced, he is ION the
swine train And when he sis ON
the caEoosc of the swine train his
condition is most deplorable. No
man ever died east of the Bowery;
he did IL croak.' And, if he hap
pened to die Il violent death, be
shot, she did Il gun croak."
In this locality men ale not stab
bed; they are just "cut." Lob
ster, Il most favorite expression of
contempt, originated on the race
track, where it was used to desig
nate Il slow horse. And as there is
no quality of mankind which the
native New Yorker holds in more
reverence than rapidly, both phys
ical and mental, it naturally follow
ed that man mentally inactive be-
came Il "lOhster."
When Il person is in hard luck, he
is Cup against it, and if the luck
grows worse he is against it for
fair" If person goes to another
persons house and so behaves that
discredit is brought upon the house,
he puts the whole drive on the
hog" which is Il variation of ION
the swine" and easily traceable to
tramp slang.
1t one person rushes at another
like "a bull at a gate,' tho other
person attempts to beat in the roof
of his head" which might well dis
courage the onc0mer.
East of the Bowory drinks, rats"
and fists are always Thrown III.
Ii the citizen Of this district should
unwisely throw in too much "red
liquor" the next morning his "ears
would be foot out" meaning that
his head would be long. In this dis
trict tho youths and maidens do not
court; they simply "win" each 9th
er. Defeat is impossible, it wouldap-
pear.
No one east Of the Bowery at.
tempts to do anything. He or sho
"makes a stagger at it, Beer is
known as "hops,'' cigarettes as
"pipes." If girl has pretty fig
ure, she i. "dead swell built" and
every man is guy" If he is in
telligent. he is "a wise guy;' if he
isn't, he is lobster guy" If no is
tall, he is a high guy" and if he
is strong he is "husky guy"
Finally comes the all pervading
expression "get next" the great
of the east side. Its in
habitants get next" to pretty much
everything they can.-New York
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