Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-05-19
SOME NEW YORK PHRASES.
Slang Expressions for Which This
City Is g. Point OF supply for
the Nation.

The city of New York is the great
point of supply of colloquial or slang
phrases for the whole United States,
though occasionally New York adopts
a phrase which first gained a foothold
in some rural district and became a
New York colloquialism by adoption.
In this category the phrase: 1.-THE cool
est customer who ever came down the
pike" with variations, for there are no
pixies in New York Tin Manhattan Dor
ough, at least), and the appearance of
a stranger, cool or otherwise, is not
much of an occasion for remark here
abouts. ga land Office business" is es-
sentially western phrase, though it
was taken up at one time sympathet-
ically in New York. The conditions of
metropolitan life, however, offer many
opportunities for new expressions, the
appositeness of which soon makes them
popular. 81 can see my finish" had its
origin on race track in the neighbor-
hood of New York, the finish referred
to being, of course, the close of the race
and the loss of the investment wagered
by the speaker. In a country district
matters do not proceed actively enough
TO show finish with such promptness
3
especially SO. "a new proposition" is
essentially city phrase. and there has
been recent variation of it in the local
expression, ga cool proposition
phrase intended to describe the self
confidence of thoroughly sophisti-
Gated person.
Local to New York, too, is the ex-
preston The has wheels" or, as it was
afterward extended, The has wheels in
his head" The man with wheels in his
head was a demented inyidivual; the
man with wheel in his head was a man
who was eccentric on one theme or sub
ject. 1t is a popularity of local eX
pressions in common use in large cities
that, not having the sanction of
grammatical recognition or any real
permanence, they change and are
changed from time to time, so that such
an expression does not decline in Popu-
larity until all the possible changes
upon it have been rung, and then it is
voted obsolete and makes way for some
thing else. After the occasional altera-
ton of the original expression relating
to wheels, it was found desirable to
substitute for it something more nearly
up to date, and so the current express
sion, There are rats in his attic"
gained acceptance. Another vesy pop
ular expression nowadays and one like
ly to become still more popular in the
future (for a time, at least) is moth
ing doing" BY that is meant that mat
tiers are, or have become, at a standstill,
| and it is an answer which covers many
| words of detailed explanation-a con-
| clusion briefly put, and obviates much
| talk.
eff you should ask me" seemed at one
time likely to be popular, but it did not
get very much farther than the first
stage of acceptance in the variety the
aters and the continuous performance
houses, an obstacle to its popularity be-
ing the fact that it required some ac-
| companying explanation, and such a
defect is a serious one for colloquial
phrase. Moreover. it made easy the an
swer, Nobody asked you," which 81
fenced lie first speaker. There is no &C
counting for taste in colloquialism any
more than in other matters. and while
one phrase goes another stops short
after squirt of ephemeral popularity.
Sometimes, too, a phrase which has ex-
hausted its original popularity is re-
vived with success through an addition.
Thus, ION easy street" was for time in
general use to describe the case of
person whose circumstances were opu-
lent and whose reasons for business APP
prehension were few. Then it was re-
placed by other expressions, and was
generally forgotten until recently,
when it has been revived in the phrase
ON the sunny side of easy street.''-N.
Y. Sun.
The Ubiquitous DraEOman.