The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-02-14
In New. York
By PAUL HARRISON

New York-"This gee used to be next-to-closin' with me. Absolutely right, see? Then he did a double and started putin on the bite. But never 8 payoff. After awhile l give the elbow, then the wipe- of, and next it'll be a pair of fives."
 That sort of talk may be intel ligible only on Broadway now, yet I'll wager that most f the slang expressions now current along ttA Hardened Artery will be in nation- al circulation in a year or two. Within a decade some of them may be in the dictionary. A col lege professor once told me that Broadway folk and college stu dents originate 90 per cent of American slang.
 "Gee," with a hard ''g" as in gift" now means a man-any sort of man. Locally, "gee' is re- placing the "gy" that has beer used so long. ...A "next-to-clos. ing" gee Is a good man, and very often a prominent one. It's a term
 borrowed from vaudeville, where the next to the last act is the fea- ture of the show.
 Gee, o Gee!
 A right gee is square shooter. By "doing double" he effects change of csaracter, thus becom- ing a wrong" gee. Putting on the bit" is attempting to borrow money. "Giving the elbow" is a gentle rebuff. The "wipe-off" means to refuse to speak to, no- tice or associate with a person. Pair of fives' is just another term for a pair of fists.
 He who eats is said to "scoff." A fellow in love, who doesn't care how many gossips know 1t, is Carrying the torch" It's possible to carry the torch and "carry the banner" at the same time, since the latter means an all-night round of the hot-spots. Food or drink Ion the cuff" is on the house-gratis. And a "cufferoo" is an influential individual to
 whom walters don't give checks. A person pledged to keep se-
 cret has been "taped," which has
 an underworld derivation from
 the modern gagging methods of hold-up men and kidnapers. To "give the brush" is to reject 8 proposition, or a persons friend- ship. When negotiating a loan from a Broadway usurer, one asks will be charged. How much off the top?" means the same thing. since interest is deducted in ad- vance and thus comes off the top of the bills counted out by tho | money lender.
 Bar Nothing.
 The bartenders' lexicon reveals a number of new terms which
 sound as though they'd been bor-
 rowed from those master slang
 uists, the soda jerkers. Thus, 8
 ''fruit salad" is an old fashioned
 cocktail; playing the piano" is
 short-changing the cash register;
 American tragedy" is a scotch and ginger ale highball; and a
 "nuisance thinker" is one who or- ders all sorts of fancy connections A headache" is a talkative, non-
 buying barfiy. A musician" is a customer who doesn't tip. Cops
 bottle" is the establishments cheapest whiskey.
 I haven't been studing Z Har-
 lemese lately, but the region Is 'al-
 ways rich infdialetics. At the Cot ton club heard waiter say:
 "Ah don't cop you tive" He meant
 "I don't know what you're talk ing about" I've tried unavailingly to trace the derivation of another
 expression = "dry long so." 1t | means quietly or uneventfully, thus: We was just walking down
 the street, dry long so, when this
 man comes up an pulls out biz ! rabzor--" 4
 Bowery Banter. ' The Bowery, too, has an almost incomprehensible argot. When one underworlding wants to warn an- other to. get out of sight, he'll say, Grab your, cabeilo." Panhandlers
 are called ''sea gulls." probably
 because they're scavengers of "the beach," A sailor is lon the beach"
 when he's broke and Jobless. On
 the other hand, "sea gull" is sailor
 slang for chicken.
 When a .panhandler has fifteen
 hundred" he possesses only 15
 cents. Doing a bendover" is a popular form of mute solicitation;
 1t means standing in g dejected posture in front of theaters or res- taurants. A front is a suit of
 clothes. A ''life-stff'' is a down.
 and outer who knows the sched- ules and locations of all the bread
 lines. Any Salvation Army worker.
 made or female, is Sally Ann,''
 And an "open switch" is slug of
 poison liquor.