Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1907-01-17
SLANG SELF-CONSCIOUS.
Efforts to Account for Origin of Phrase
"23."
New York Evening Post. |

1t is told of Mr.. Calling, who has re-
Gently retired from the editorship OF
Lloyd's Weekly, that he once gave coun-
sci to the young man who wrote the
Answers to Correspondents" column of
that journal. Are you conscientious
in that department, sir"' asked MT
Calling. 81 try to be, said the young
man. Then cease to be SO soon as
possible" said the veteran. Scrupu-
lous fidelity in hunting up replies to
every query that reaches newspaper
office Sir, that way madness lies.
AS regards facts not contained in the
standard reference books, this is I'M
doubtedly good and practical advice
But there is raging today such ian cpl
demic of conscientiousness among ON
niscients as recent experience does not
parallel. We refer to the suddenly APP
parent efforts to discover the origin of
current pieces of slang. Instead of be-
ing the spontaneous, unstudied utter
ance of Spirited and flexible intellects,
slang has become thoughtful and intro
spective. 1t delves into it's own past
People want is know the why's of its
existence.
We have been much edited by the
learned symposium now going on re-
garding the history OF that mystical
mum Der OF dismiss "23," which exact
ly two years ago could be uttered on the
vaudeville stage without laugh and
now convulses continent, Every con-
ductor of an inquiry column knows the
answer as well as many private citizens
the trou BILE is that they do not all know
the same answer. So far as we can
learn the phrase "twenty-three" orig
mated in the following manner:
Q) Race tracks are 30 laid out as to
accommodate not more than twenty-five
| horses at time. The twenty-third
horse entered, therefore, must be put
out of the race.
| (2) The psychopathic ward at Belle
vue Hospital is ward No. 30, and, in the
vernacular of the ambulance surgeon
''Twenty-three for his, is equivalent to
Hes crazy"
(3) In mum bering the rooms of a GER
tain new hotel, the numeral '@3' was
inadvertently omitted. The clerks
therefore used "show the gentlemen to
room 90" as signal to the "bouncer"
when an undesirable applicant came for
a room.
az The expression originated from
the twenty-third verse of the third
chapter of Genesis: Therefore, the
Lord sent him far from the Garden of
Eden, to till the ground from whence
he was taken"
(5) The expression originated from a
"She kisses his lips; he kisses hers:
they solemnly bless each other The
spare hand does not tremble as he re-
releases it; nothing worse than a bright,
sweet consistency is in the patient face.
She goes next before him-ls gone; the
knitting women county Twenty-Five.
THE murmuring of many voices, the
upturning of many faces, the pressing
on of many footsteps in the outskirts of
the crowd, so that it swells forward in
a mass, like one great heave of water,
all flashes away. Twenty-three.
(6) "Twentythree" is used by tele-
graphers to signify keep off the
wire, as they use Thirty" for saying
Goodnight"
All of these are plausible. Several
of them are undoubtedly true. The
reader is at liberty to reject or accept
whichever he sees fit. And after be
J has done so he may freely speculate
, how the phrase was conveyed from the
} East Side hospital, the anonymous no
: tel, the racetrack, the Sunday school
or The library, to enrich our heritage OF
English speech.