Arizona republican., 1906-06-15
PHOENIX. ARIZONA, JUNE IS, 1906.


Everybody. or nearly everybody ia miliar with the newspaper literature Of today knows what "23" and "skiddoo' mean Apparently nobody knows how they originated That is true of most slang words and phrases. More atten- ton is now given to slang by philolo- gists. who have noted the tendency to admit expressive and widely-employed slang to the dictionaries than formerly. It gives a virility to language, which, in the nature of things must change or die.
 These two mysterious expressions "23" and "skiddoo," are now receiving the attention of word experts. with view to the determination of their or igin and their proper classification. The search for the origin has led only into the field of interesting conjecture.
 One writer is of the opinion that "23" is from the secret code of signals used last year by the captain of the Uni versity of Pennsylvania football team. Tt is the order of execution" he says. which follows the order of direction. as in the manual of arms. and means Do it now It corresponds to the word go as used by school boys in counting for a footrace thus. one, two, three, go'"
 This slang expression has enlisted the attention of Prof. Frederick Newton Scott of the chair of rhetoric in the University of Michigan, who believes that it may be traced to one of the closing sentences in Dickens A Tale of Two Cities" whose scene is laid in the bloodiest period of the French rev olution.
 The last scene in the chapter depicts the execution of Sidney Carton, the hero of the story. As the line of those condemned to die advances slowly to- ward the guillotine, the knitting wom- an." keenly interested in the executions, counts the victims as their heads are shorn off by the fatal blade Carton. the twenty third person in the line, steps upon the platform the guillotine. Then. says Dickens, "the murmuring of many voices, the upturning of many faces. the pressing on of many foot steps on the outskirts of the crowd. so that it swells forward in a mass like one great heave of water. all flashed away. Twenty -three!"
 As to "skiddoo." it's etymology Is perhaps a little clearer. It can be traced with some definiteness to a slang expression of an earlier genera tion. meaning the same thing. "ske- daddle"
 The tracing of slang words and ex- pressions back to their sources usually brings one to a surprise at the aptness of them. A few years ago, Gone where the woodbine twineth" meant Host" It was first employed by James Fisk in speaking of a valuable pearl necklace which he had contrived to present to the wife of a powerful per sonage from whom Fisk desired aid in the securing of legislation in further ance of one of his gigantic schemes. There was no legislation. and Fisk phi losophically said of the fortune which he had spent for that necklace, gone where the woodbine twineth"
 He afterward explained to an inquir- ing friend what he meant He said that in his early days. while driving a peddling wagon through the rural re- gions of New England, he had observed or many of the farmhouses wooden rain-spouts, around which the more aesthetic housewives had trained climbing vines. usually the woodbine. No further explanation was required. Fisks necklace had gone up the spout" a still older slang expression.
 The report of the national manufac-