"Big Apple" prostitution etymology, pt. 2

[Gerald Cohen]

    Here is the second installment of my look at the prostitution-etymology
of "The Big Apple," as it appears in http://salwen.com/apple.html
In my last message I discussed his introductory remarks to the etymology.

    The prostitution etymology itself begins by salwen's drawing
attention to a French refugee, Mlle. Evelyn Claudine de
Saint-Évremond, who supposedly arrived in the U.S. in late 1803 or
1804. Beautiful, vivacious, well-educated a favorite of Marie
Antoinette, but one of those refugees who was forced to survive "by
their wits or worse," she opened a brothel in a very exclusive
residential district. Activities included not only prostitution but
"elegant dinners, high-stakes gambling and witty conversation."
Clearly, this was a high-class place. So far, so good.

        New Yorkers shortened Evelyn's name to "Eve," and she
"apparently found the biblical reference highly amusing, and for her
part would refer to the temptresses in her employ as 'my irresistible
apples.'" The customers began referring to their amorous activities
at the brothel as "having a taste of Eve's Apples." And: "The
enigmatic reference in Philip Hone's famous diary to 'Ida, sweet as
apple cider' (Oct. 4, 1838) has been described as an oblique
reference to a visit to what had by then become a notorious but
cherished civic institution."

        Salwen continues with the following argumentation:

1) "The sexual connotation of the word 'apple' was well known in New
York and throughout the country until around World War I. The
Gentleman's Directory of New York City, a privately published (1870)
guide to the town's 'houses of assignation,' confidently asserted
that 'in freshness, sweetness, beauty, and firmness to the touch, New
York's apples are superior to any in the New World or indeed the Old."
        [Actually, though, Jonathan Lighter's _Historical Dictionary
of American Slang_ shows no special sexual connotations for "apples"
in the 19th or early 20th centuries. If anything, "tomatoes" and
"peaches" are more common than "apples" as fruit metaphors for young,
attractive women.]

2) Salwen continues immediately afterwards: "Meanwhile, various
'apple' catch-phrases--'the Apple Tree,' 'the Real Apple,' etc.--were
used for New York City itself." He adds that this city boasted more
brothels per capita than any other major U.S. municipality.
        [At this point, salwen is starting to make a stretch. He goes
from "apples" as high-class prostitutes (not proven as a general
term) to "apples" as having sexual connotations (not demonstrated
beyond a possibly very limited use)
to "apples" as somehow figuratively indicating NYC's numerous
brothels. None of this semantic development sounds convincing.  And
yet the weakest part is yet to come, with his assertion that "The
term 'Big Apple' or 'The Apple' had already passed into general use
as a sobriquet for New York City by 1907."  This is flat-out wrong,
and I'll pick up on this in my next message.

----Gerald Cohen