Los Angeles herald., 1906-12-11
THE LEMON NOW
HAS ITS INNING
New York Has Honor of Coining This
q Choice Bit of slana-No Chance
of Its contemptuous Mean
ing Being Lost
Special to The Herald.

Special to The Herald.
NEW YORK, Dec. 9.--Old jokes are
always new in an aphorism.
1t is occasionally said that the joke
maker of twenty years ago, if he could
reappear today, might manipulate his
old material and produce quips equally
crisp and modern. That is an error.
and the shade of any dead and gone rib
tickler that tries it will be instantly
progressed.
For instance, two decades ago every
jest architect employed the humble
prune for foundation stone. Today
how different. Today it is the lemon
for contempt and derision where yes
terday it was the prune.
Yet the prune for versatility of appli-
cation was not in the same class as the
lemon. The prune in the hands of the
old masters of the art of being funny
never quite got beyond the boarding
house class of humor. But the lemon,
that synonym for contumely and scorn,
permeates everything; it is applicable
| to that which is humble as well as to
the mighty and strong.
| Note the protean character of the
new slang expression.
I'VE played in Jayhawkstown lawst
night and they sure did hand us the
lemon" says the show girl to her
blonde companion as they meet per-
chance in the day coach behind the par
| lor cars next day.
II ran into lemon when l took this
from Bill" observes the clubman as he
scornfully contemplates a smoking
weed with a Connecticut mother hub
| bard.
"It was STALL" remarks the "manly
art" fan. "They put the kid against
a lemon; lasted only one round"
Name gave me knockdown to her
like lemon" is the early morning
comment of the girl behind the counter
to her neighbor.
The lemon islregarded as the highest
form OF expression Of the superlative of
contempt. The slang Vocabulist has so
thoroughly disseminated his definition
of the lemon that nowadays no wine
clerk (Which is Broadway for barten-
der) has the temerity to drop curl of
the rind into the highball or cocktail
for fear of insulting the good custo-
mer and driving him to the place next
door. The lemon is being overworked.
however, by word color artists.
There are many claimants for the
honor of enriching the English lam
guage by the application of the lemon,
for 1t is considered an act worthy of
commendation to increase the vocabu-
larry of the great English speaking
world, Between the patenteesr the
race is so close and the arguments for
their respective rights as coiners are
so logical and circumstantial that the
Judge cannot give a decision.
1t was first heard about a year ago
and the place is put as New York and
the time after midnight on Broadway.
1t is strange when New York aspires
to embellish or improve anything II al
ways consults the leading authorities
on etiquette, who are always out and
at their best after a. m.
There Is on Broadway disease
known as chorus girl RASH The
symptoms are the breaking out of a
rashness in the pursuit Of pretty La
dies of the show, the malady having
two forms-blonde and brunette.
A young man SO affected was intro
duced To a show girl by an obliging
friend to both. After the performance
the girl was persuaded to. go TO a
Broadway restaurant and have a
bite" On Broadway IL is "a bite even
II II is an eleven course demonstration