Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-24
THE NEWCOMER.
Lucky if He Escapes Harsher Fate
Than a Nickname.


From the London Globe.
The instructive attitude toward strangers
of people in self-contained communities, in
| which there is but little. coming and going,
is one of hostility. Traces Of this feeling
survival, surely, from the days of the
tribal or village communicative still to be
found even in many places where the i'm
mensely increased facilities for intercom-
municatlon have broken up and almost
abolished the old isolated modes of life.
There are still old world rural parts where
those who come from or belong to other
districts are generally styled "furriners..
But this is really survival Of medieval
ism.
Connected with the old hostile attitude
toward the outsider is the custom, which is
found all over the world of clubbing the
newcomer, whether to country or town. or
profession, with a nickname, humorous or
satirical. In the far west of America or
Canada he who comes fresh from the east
or from Europe Is a "tenderfoot." Origf-
nally, no doubt. the name was almost lit
orally true. A backwooosman, or frontiers
man, is tolerably tough and hardened in
dividual. and a newcomer from more civil
lied parts would probably find he deserved
TIE name of "tenderfoot" before he had
been long on the tramp. But. Of course the
epithet soon gained a wider application and
became label for a fresh arrival of any
kind. Another western name Of like mean
ing was pilgrim
In India. for many a long year, the new
conner has always been known as a "grif-
| fin,' usually shortened to ''griff::" but no
one has yet been able to explain the orr
gin Of the term. AS a griffin is natural
ly green" to the ways of the country it is
not surprising to find the word turned into
verb. as shown in the following fragment
Of an AnglO-1ndian ballad:
He deemed sin
To grin needless frield-Dlain EnRiSh-tako him
In the Malay peninsula newly imported
Chinese coolies are known "sinkeys."
but why, we cannot say. Australia, of
course, has its own nicknames for the new
conner. When he arrives fresh from the old
country he Is new chum" or a lime
juice and usually bears the marks of his
newness thick upon him in the shape of his
clothes the topics of his talk and the like.
If he goes inland, or up country, as the
Australians would say, and settles down on
sheep or cattle station, so as to get prac-
titally acquainted with the work on a large
run, and thus learn the details essential to-
successful sheep or cattle farming, he is
known at first as colonial experience"
or 'tackaroo."
The application of nicknames Is not con-
| fined to fresh immigrants in any country or
colony. The habit is found in existence in
many other directions. In military slang
a recruit Is rocky and many other oc-
equations have parallel nicknames for the
novice, the raw hand, the greenhorn who
Is not necessarily SlmpletOn. Green
horn itself was used in the seventeenth
century as a name for a raw recruit; while
"greener'' is commonly used in London at
the present time among sweating employers
term for newly arrived foreigners in
search of work, who are just the material
to serve the sweaters purpose. At Eng
lish universities again, the undergraduate
In his first year has been known for CEN
turtles freshman which recent Ok
ford slang, with its idiotic love for making
err a universal termination, turns into
''fresher.' Across the Atlantic freshman
is similarly used. while second year stu
dent is dubbed Sophomore" a name I'M
known on this side. In an American uni
versity, when a man enters college in the
sophomore year, having passed his fresh
man year elsewhere, he gets the portentous
name of man-sophomore," naturally
shortened into the charming locution
"freshSsoph." At German universities men
! rejoice in a variety of strange names. In
one of the chapters Of Longfellows lily
perion'' the reader may make the acauaint-
ance of the Nasty Foxes, otherwise fresh
men: Branders, or second term men; messy
heads, old ones and princes of twilight
Most Of them sound delightfully."- meaning
less, which is one Of the recognized beau
ties of cant terms.