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SLANGIN AMERICA.
Viewed
is the accretion
and
freely, the English
language
growth of every dialect, race, and range of time, and is the culling
and composition
of all. From this point of view, it stands for
in
the
Language
largest sense, and is really the greatest of studies.
It involves so much ; is indeed a sort of universal absorber, com
The scope of its etymologies
is the scope
biner, and conqueror.
not only of man and civilization,
but the history of Nature
in all
of
and
the
to
date
Universe,
departments,
;
organic
brought up
in words, and their backgrounds.
for all are comprehended
This
is when words become vitalized, and stand for things, as they un
that enters on
erringly and very soon come to do, in the mind
their study with fitting spirit, grasp, and appreciation.
is the lawless germinal
considered
Slang, profoundly
element,
below all words and sentences, and behind all poetry, and proves
a certain freedom and perennial
in
rankness and protestantism
As the United
States inherit by far their most precious
speech.
the Old
possession?the
language
they talk and wrifce?from
under and out of its feudal institutes,
I will allow myself
World,
to borrow a simile even of those forms farthest
removed from
American Democracy.
Considering Language then as some mighty
into the majestic
ever
of the monarch
audience-hall
potentate,
enters a personage like one of Shakspere's clowns, and takes posi
tion there, and plays a part even in the stateliest ceremonies.
Such
is Slang, or indirection, an attempt of common humanity
to escape
from bald literalism, and express itself inimitably, which in highest
walks produces poets and poems, and doubtless
in pre-historic
times gave the start to, and perfected,
the whole
immense tangle
of the old mythologies.
For, curious as it may appear, it is strictly
the same impulse-source,
the same thing.
too, is the
Slang,
or eructation of those processes eternally
fermentation
wholesome

432

THE NOBTH

AMEBICAN

BEVIEW.

active in language, by which

froth and specks are thrown up,
to settle and permanently
mostly to pass away ; though occasionally
crystallize.
To make it plainer, it is certain that many of the oldest and
from the daring
solidest words we use, were originally generated
In the processes of word-formation,
and license of slang.
myriads
die, but here and there the attempt attracts superior meanings,
and lives forever.
Thus the
becomes valuable and indispensable,
term right means literally only straight.
Wrong primarily meant
oneness.
meant
distorted.
meant,
twisted,
Spirit
Integrity
A supercilious
person was one who raised his
breath, or flame.
If you influenced a man,
eyebrows. To insult was to leap against.
but
into
him.
word
which
is translated
flowed
The
Hebrew
you
a
as
forth
to
The
meant
bubble
and
fountain.
up
pour
prophesy
enthusiast bubbles up with the Spirit of God within him, and it
is mis
The word prophecy
pours forth from him like a fountain.
mere
is
to
it
that
limited
understood.
;
prediction
Many suppose
The greater work is to
that is but the lesser portion of prophecy.
is a prophet.
reveal God.
Every true religious enthusiast
is not an abstract construction
of
be it remembered,
Language,
but is something arising out
the learned, or of dictionary-makers,
of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections,
tastes, of long genera
and has its bases broad and low, close to the
tions of humanity,
Its final decisions are made by the masses, people nearest
ground.
the concrete, having most to do with actual land and sea. It im
permeates all, the Past as well as the present, and is the grandest
"
Those mighty works of art,"
triumph of the human intellect.
"
in the con
which we call languages,
says Addington
Symonds,
the
of
whole
which
struction
co-operated,
peoples unconsciously
forms of which were determined not by individual genius, but by
the instincts of successive generations,
acting to one end, inherent
in the nature of the race?those
poems of pure thought and fancy,
of
cadenced not in words, but in living imagery, fountain-heads
we call
which
of
nascent
mind
of
the
mirrors
nations,
inspiration,
in their infantine
surely are more marvellous
Mythologies?these
more
of
the races which
mature
than
production
any
spontaneity
are
of
their embryology
Yet we
evolved them.
;
utterly ignorant
the true science of Origins is yet in its cradle."
it is cer
Daring as it is to say so, in the growth of Language
tain that the retrospect of slang from the start would be the re

SLANG

IN AMERICA.

433

calling from their nebulous conditions of all that is poetical in the

the honest delving, as of
stores of human utterance.
Moreover,
in comparative
late years, by the German and British workers
philology has pierced and dispersed many of the falsest bubbles of
It was long recorded
centuries ; and will disperse many more.
the heroes in the Norse Paradise
that in Scandinavian mythology
drank out of the skulls of their slain enemies. Later investigation
proves the word taken for skulls to mean horns of beasts slain in
the hunt. And what reader had not been exercised over the traces
of that feudal custom, by which seigneurs warmed
their feet in
the bowels of serfs, the abdomen being opened for the purpose ?
It now is made to appear that the serf was only required to submit
his unharmed abdomen as a foot cushion while his lord supped, and
was required to chafe the legs of the seigneur with his hands.
and among the illiterate, we
It is in embryons and childhood,
of this great science, and its
and
find
the
start,
always
groundwork
What a relief most people have in speaking of
noblest products.
a man not by his true and formal name, with a "Mister"
to it,
but by some odd or homely appellative.
The propensity
to ap
not directly and squarely, but by circuitous
proach a meaning
of
styles
expression seems indeed a born quality of the common
and the inveterate
people every where, evidenced by nick-names
of the masses to bestow sub-titles, sometimes ridicu
determination
lous, sometimes very apt. Always
among the soldiers during the
"
or
Secession War, one heard of " Little Mac
(Gen. McClellan),
of "Uncle
"The
old man" was, of
(Gen. Sherman).
Billy"
the rank and file, both armies, it
course, very common.
Among
was very general to speak of the different States they came from
by their slang names. Those from Maine were called Foxes ;New
Granite Boys ;Massachusetts,
Bay Staters ; Vermont,
Hampshire,
Green Mountain
Rhode
Gun
Flints
;
; Connecticut,
Island,
Boys
Wooden
New Jersey,
New York, Knickerbockers;
Nutmegs;
Clam Catchers ; Pennsylvania,
; Delaware, Musk
Logher Heads
rats ; Maryland,
Claw Thumpers
; Virginia,
; North
Beagles
; Georgia, Buz
Carolina, Tar Boilers ; South Carolina, Weasels
zards ; Louisiana,
Creoles ; Alabama, Lizzards
Corn
; Kentucky,
Crackers ; Ohio, Buckeyes
Wolverines
; Michigan,
; Indiana,
Hoosiers
Tad
Pukes ; Mississippi,
; Illinois, Suckers ; Missouri,
Poles ; Florida, Fly up the Creeks ; Wisconsin,
; Iowa,
Badgers
Indeed I am not sure but slang
; Oregon, Hard Cases.
Hawkeyes

THE NOBTH

434

have more

names

(Gen. Jackson)

BEVIEW.

AMEBICAN

"
Old Hickory,"
than once made Presidents.
one
case
and Tyler
in
is
"Tippecanoe,
point.

another.

too,"

I find the same rule in the people's conversations

everywhere.
I heard this among the men of the city horse-cars, where the con
ductor is often called a "snateher"
(i. e. because his characteris
tic duty is to constantly pull or snatch the bell-strap, to stop or go
Two young fellows are having a friendly talk, amid which,
on.)
did you do before you was a
"What
says 1st Conductor,
"Nailed."
of 2d Conductor,
Answer
snatcher?"
(Translation
"
"
is a
boom
What
? says
of answer : "I worked as carpenter.")
"
the
one editor to another.
Esteemed
says
other,
contemporary,"
"
"
" a
name
is the Tennessee
Barefoot whiskey
boom is a bulge."
In the slang of the New York com
stimulant.
for the undiluted
mon restaurant waiters a plate of ham and beans is known as
" stars and
and hash as
stripes," codfish balls as "sleeve-buttons,"
"

mystery."

States of the Union

The Western
are, however, as may be sup
areas
not
but in
of
slang,
only in conversation,
posed the special
names of localities, towns, rivers, &c. A late Oregon traveler says :
a river called
the Shookum
to Olympia
by rail, you cross
your way
and Toutle
Tumwater,
; your train stops at places named Newaukum,
labelled Wahkiakum,
hear of whole
counties
and if you seek further you will
or Klikatat
or Kitsar,
and Nenolelops
or Snohomish,
; and Cowlitz,
Hookium,
"On

Chuck

greet

in Olympia
that Washington
you.
complain
Territory
They
? What
the whole
man,
; but what wonder
having
immigration
date his letters
from the
to choose from, would
continent
willingly
in the city of Nenolelops
or bring
? The
of Snohomish
up his children
indeed
of Tumwater
; but
very pretty
is, as I am ready to bear witness,
offend

and

gets but
American
county
village

little

himself
either there
think twice before he established
surely an emigrant would
barbarous
is no better
or at Toutle.
is sufficiently
Seattle
; Stelicoom
; and I
terminus
has been fixed at Tacoma
Railroad
Pacific
the
Northern
that
suspect
because

it is one of the few places

on Puget

Sound

whose

name

does

not

inspire

horror."

the departure of a mining

Then a Nevada
paper chronicles
: "The
of
roosters that ever shook
set
Reno
from
toughest
party
the dust of any town left Eeno yesterday for the new mining dis
the
trict of Cornucopia.
Among
They came here from Virginia.
two
crowd were four New-York
murderers,
Chicago
cock-fighters,
four San
three Baltimore bruisers, one Philadelphia
prize-fighter,
Francisco

hoodlums,

three Virginia

beats,

two Union

Pacific

SLANG

IN AMERICA.

435

"

roughs, and two check guerrillas.

Among the far-west newspapers,
have been, or are, The Fairplay
The Solid
(Colorado) Flume,
of Ouray, The Tombstone Epitaph,
of Nevada,
The
Muldoon,
and
of
of
The
Shirttail
Missouri.
Texas,
Jimplecute,
Bazoo,
Bend,
Wild Yankee
Flat, Puppytown,
Ranch,
Whiskey
Squaw Flat,
Rawhide Ranch, Loafer's Ravine,
Lake
Squitch Gulch, Toenail
are a few of the names of places in Butte county, Cal.
Perhaps indeed no place or term gives more luxuriant illustra
tions of the fermentation processes I have mentioned,
and their froth
and specks than our Mississippi
and Pacific coast regions, at the
present day. Hasty and grotesque as are some of the names, others
are of an appropriateness
and originality
This
unsurpassable.
to
are
the
Indian
which
often
Oklahoma
words,
applies
perfect.
is proposed in Congress for the name of one of our new Territories.
and Steal-easy are the names
Lick-skillet,
Hog-eye,
Rake-pocket
of some Texan towns. Miss Bremer found among the aborigines
the following names :Men's, Horn-point
; Stand
; Round-Wind
and-look-out
Iron-toe
Seek-the
; The-Cloud-that-goes-aside
;
;
sun ; Iron-flash ; Red-bottle
;White-spindle
; Black-dog
; Two
feathers-of-honor
;Thunder-face
; Gray-grass
;Bushy-tail
; Go-on
; Spirits-of-the-dead.
Women's,
;
the-burning-sod
Keep-the-fire
; Second-daughter-of-the-house
; Blue-bird.
Spiritual-woman
have not given enough attention to this
Certainly
philologists
element and its results, which, I repeat, can probably be found
working every where to-day, amid modern conditions, with as much
ufe and activity as in far-back Greece or India, under pre-historic
ones.
Then the wit?the
rich flashes of humor and genius and
a gang of laborers, railroad-men,
out
often
from
poetry?darting
drivers or boatmen ! How often have I hovered at the
miners,
!
edge of a crowd of them, to hear their repartees and impromptus
You get more real fun from half an hour with them than from the
"
books of all
the American
humorists."
The science of language has large and close analogies
in geo
with
its
num
ceaseless
and
its
its
evolution,
fossils,
logical science,
berless submerged layers and hidden strata, the infinite go-before
of the present.
like some vast
is more
Or, perhaps Language
or
of
And
bodies.
perennial
living body,
body
slang not only
brings the first feeders of it, but is afterward the start of fancy,
and humor, breathing
into its nostrils
the breath of
imagination
life*
Whitmak.
Walt