El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-08-03
By FREDERIC J. aASKM.

acceptable in the days Of Henry VIII
with the sdgmata OF slang upon II
we now find il again in use. 4 dodge"
as a cunning trick. is the purest Anglo
Saxon; ~gallivantinS and "flabDer-
casting" are quite respectable old
words, while "gadding," may be found
in an old translation of the bible.
Reference to a person as j party
usually employed in sneerlng man
ner-is to be found in Shakspere and
in the book of TObit. Booze" in the
same cOnviyivaI sense in which it is
used today, has been good English,
as a verb and as a noun, for more
than 500 years and found its way into
the elegant pages of Macauly-
Campaigns Produce Slang.
Election campaigns are nOtOrtously
prolific in the production OF fresh slang
words and phrases, but none ever has
been more interesting than gerry
mander.' Governor Gerry. of MasSach-
usetts in 1911. had signed the bill
which redistricted the state in such
way as to give an advantage to the
Democrats, although the federalists
outnumbered them two TO one. As Gil
bert Stuart the painter, sat in the
sanctum of Mr.. Russell, editor of the
Boston Sentinel, he traced the out
lines or the districts with his pencil
and remarked, That will do for a
salamander." ''Salamanderi" exclaimed
Russell, cali it a Gerrymander" And
a new word was born. 1t became
federal battle cry and the map was
circulated as a campaign document
Some idea Of the extent Of slang
may be gathered from the fact that
the cOllOquial dictionaries give 45O
nick-names for q thief. such as bar
abbag, "Tyburn blossom" and wrong
'un." st. Paul said 1t was the love Of
mOney'-nOt money itself-that is the
root of all eVil' but common usage
will not have it so, and thus the root
of all evil" is one of the 900
slang terms for what is otherwise
known as 'rhino,' the needful,"
beans "spondulicks." corn in
Egypt etc all of which names are
hoaFy with age.
In characteriZing a thing as "bOsh'
we little realize that we are using
good old Turkish word in the same
manner that a Turk would use it. but
such is the case, and has been ever
since Maurier made frequent employ
ment Of it in his eastern novel
.-AyeSha," published in 1884.
Elbow grease" as signifying the
application of energy and activity to
the task in hand is somewhat remark
able as being almost a literal trans
lation OF the French "huile de bras
which our Gallo friends use in the
same sense The original dates from
1T79. and was probably brought to
America by the cOmpatriOts of LaFay-
cite and Rochambeau. FrOme the same
source come that expressive word,
-Shebang.' Its gencalOgy is traced to
the French speaking Louisiana soldiers
who enlisted in the Confederate army
and referred to the huts they hastily
constructed for use as store houses and
even as winter quarters as Ca banes-
Their fellow soldiers speedily adopted
the name, as nearly as they could pro-
nounce it, for the ramshackle shelters
they were often forced to occupy, and
thus from the civil war dates the
whole shebanS-7
Not only did that expressive term
-skedaddle' creep into the language
during this same period. but around
it ragged a greater amount Of amusing
controversy than any coIloquialism OF
the time. 1t was pointed out that
the northern soldiers always were
said to have retired upon their lines
while the southern soldiers were uSu-
ally said to have "skedaddled." The
London Times gravely discussed the
word and lord. Hill wrote to prove
that it was excellent Scotch, meaning.
in the HeighbOrhoOd, Of Dumfries. ITO
for example
Where that pinchbeck sport. the
'welcher," gets his name has been va
riOusly explained It has been pointed
out as highly Illuminating that George
", as prince OF Wales. was nOtOri-
OuSly unwilling 10 settle his debts. but
more considerate BritOns hold that the
word had its origin with sharper VINO
took deposits on account of Welsh
ponies, and then ''welched' on his con-
tract.
The Dictionaries of slang are not
more infallible than other leXicons and
they abound in blunders as amusing Is
those they seek to explain An Eng !
lish handbook of collOquiaiisms gravely
presents US with a variant of the Davy
Crockett story in explanation of the
phrase "a gone coon" We are asked !
to believe that an American spy in the /
war Of Independence disguised him j
self in a coon skin and climbed a I
tree a British rifleman. taking him I
for real coon. was preparing to fire |
when the terrified spy exclaimed, |
Don't shoot I'll come down; 1 know /
7 am = gone coon" We are left to infer ]
that the 'coons grew much larger dur !
ing the revolution than they have (
since.