The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-04-10

From the New Orleans Picayune.
Fame is acquired in various and pecu-
liar ways, of which the late Mr.. G. w.
Hunt supplied an instance purveyor
of topical songs for the music halls, he
it was who provided us with the famous
expression OF limoges" A certain mist
of antiquity hangs over the expression
by lingo" which philologists have not
7 entirely dispelled. The most probable
conjecture seems to be that which sup
poses lingo" to be a corruption of the
Basque word for God" Jinko or Jainko.
Thus our sailors cosmopolitan language
acquired a new oath, by Jingo" which
made its first literary appearance in
Motteux's sequel to Urquharts famous
translation of "Rabelias" as an equva-
lent to par Dieu." Another theory is
that the original lingo" was merely a
piece of conjurer's gibberish, "a mere
piece of sonorous nonsense with an APP
pearance of mysterious meaning" Its
first appearance according to the new
english dictionary, is in the pages of
Eachard's satire on the Contempt of
the Clergy where a juggler is thus de-
scribed: HE falls a-f1inging
1t this way and that; let's 1t run a little
upon the line. then tanutus, high lingo
come again. This is by no means in
compatible with the Basque theory of
the origin of the word for 1t 1t highly
probable that another Juggling phrase
hocus pocus, only a corruption of the
sacred words Hoo est corpus" What
ever be the origin Of the phrase, how
ever. there is no doubt that by the mid
die of the eighteenth century by lingo"
had established itself In popular favor
as one of those ladies' objurgations
which much annoyed the valiant Hot
spur when he heard his lady swear like
comfit-makers wife, DIR. Primrose
only showed his old-fashioned nicely in
attributing coarseness to the town lady
who observed that by the living lingo
she was all OF muck of sweat"
The modern popularity of lingo" and
| its use to donate certain mode of politi-
cal feeling dates from the winter when
of 1S77-7s, when Mr.. Hunt wrote the we'll
known song which was popularized by
the great MacDermott. The exact
method by which it emerged from the at
mosphere of the halls to a wider popular
| ity is worth recalling; 1t was described
some years ago by Mr.. c.. S. Oakley in a
Letter to a defunct periodical, and is in
teresting to one who remembers the keen
interest which Macaulay always took in
the ballads of the people to learn that his
distinguished nephew an bographer had
great share in giving us the lingo
I'm December 1871" says Mr.. Oakley,
IT went to Australia, and, not knowing
how long my stay might last. l took a
round of theatres and one or two music
hans before 1 started. At the Oxford I
heard MacDermott sing the famous four
lines which I need not quote. l was i'm
mencely tickled with them as a piece of
blatant swagger for in spite of the Satur-
day Review, it was in that sense that
they were sung and emphasized.
Before sailing l sent the lines to the
late John Myine. of oxford Square. a
dear old college friend, long since dead.
There is no harm in mentioning his name,
because very many Oxford men regret
him. Sir George Otto Treveiyn had mar
ried his first cousin, and few days after
my letter was written Mylne met Sir
George at his wfe's home Welcombe.
near stratford- on-Avon, and read him
the lines.
Sir George was tickled. and it happened
that he left his Christmas party to ad-
dress his constituents at the Scotch
burghs he represented. He quoted the
lines in his amusing way; this passage
in the speech caught the public ear; the
lines began to be quoted. and soon the
word was detached.
This talies with Mr.. Holyoake's con-
tention, mentioned by you today. But
LIT is no afterthought on my part. Mylne's
fyst letter to me in Australia mentioned
to ne that my quotation to him had
borneNfruit. He said that he had read