The Coconino sun., 1924-02-22
''SCOFFLAW!!'' Is AWFUL
EPITHET HURLED AT THE
ADDICTS OF OLD D. rs

NEW YORK, Jan. 30.-Strong men
broke down and giggled when New
York began to appreciate the awful
signifiance of the word selected as
the prize motto in New England
competition for the proper scorching
sibilant with which to describe and
denounce those fiends in human form,
those social buccaneers, who still
drink more or less ardent liquids in
defiance of the Volstead act.
"Scofflawt"
The terrible epithet cracked above
the clank cf the bott es, decanters and
glasses in all wellordered speakeasies
like the awesome thunder Of rose
petals in June breeze.
"Scofflaw!"
"Aw, petuniesw exclaimed Gerald,
the lawless bar keeper in a vicious
rendezvous which is reputed to hold
a certificate of regularity if not of
purity, from the district police in
spector. Lets all US boys play a
game
Gerald, the illicit barkeeper, danced
out from behind the mahogany
stained bar, fluttering his apron and
flounced around the stove singing:
"Scofflaw! Scofflaw! Who are
we'se?"
"We are the addicts of the old
D. us.
"see the purple piffiks, climbing
up the stair.
"See the speckled elephants glapp-
ing through the air!
'Weezer-walns and whoop-dedood-
les; wearing overshoes!
'Whatsit gonna be, gents ~
Booze! Booze! Boozew
Gerald, who by this time, was
thoroughly ashamed Of himself, as
well he might be, for getting fresh
with the law, then fled to the tele-
phone booth and began to cry.
Il may be a bootlegger," he sobbed,
"but even a bootlegger has got feel
ings, and | won't be called a scofflaw!
When / was tending bar in Billy
Gallagher's store up on Seventh ave-
nue., they used to be some gals came
in the place now and again for their
toddy and the lads always used 'em
decent, buying 'em this and buying
EN- that, till they was limp and call
in 'em cabs to send 'em home. But
they never called 'em nothing vulgar,
because they was every one of them
a gent, and now those dirty" here
Gerald lapsed off into the BECKER
street idiom-'3 those dirty prohibition
lists are calling me a scofflawi |
may be humble bootlegger but my
heart is pure.
Many aewhite vest conceals a sen
sitive heart, and Gerald's cardiac re-
gion appeared to have been wounded
by the scorn of the man who won
$500 by inventing that fearsome, that
CHASTITY word, "Scofflaw!" He pho
ned the station and reserved a suite
for the night in tier A.
"To think of any dirty bum calling
any fellow scofflaw for $200p' ex-
claimed the social secretary of the
Bourbon literary and drama circle,
when the blue limousine had changed
up to call for Gerald. "I've called
many -asterisks-"a rotten"
asterisks "for nothing whatever, you
understand. But this 'scofflaw' busi-
ness is something out Of my line. II
| should call guy that around the
places where | hang out at, some
body would likely shoot me and no
jury would blame him. Because any
fellow that would say "scofflaw"
might be any kind of guy. You
can't tell"
"Let's all play another game" said
the recreation director Of the Bourbon
literary and drama circle, who had
taken no previous part in the conver-
sation, as he clapped his hands and
began:
"Peas porridge hot; peas porridge
cold; peas porridge in the pot; nine
days old; I'm a scofflaw; you're a
scofflaw; long live the lawi
'sThree cheers for prohibition; Raw
Raw! Rawl"