Red Hots (1874, 1892, 1893)

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

And it was New York Polo Grounds concessionaire Harry Stevens who gets some
recognition for coining the phrase "red hots." On a cold April day in 1901...
--July 4th "hot dog" article in previous post

   The OED has 1892 for "red hots," citing a Chicago publication.  This "hot
dog" stuff is just awful, year after year.
   The next HDAS hasn't come out to look up "red hots."
   The latest DARE has 1942 for the candy and 1968 for a bat-and-ball game.
That's it.
   It seems clear that "red hots" was popularized by Chicago in 1893, but
existed earlier.  I'll check the CHICAGO TRIBUNE when that becomes available,
perhaps within 60 days.  The following is from ancestry.com historical
newspapers.


   20 July 1874, DAILY REPUBLICAN (Decatur, Illinois), pg.3?, col. 1:
   Maroa has a base ball club called the "Tidal Waves."  Long may they wave!
What has become of the "Red Hots?"


   2 June 1893, BISMARCK DAILY TRIBUNE (Bismarck, North Dakota), pg. 2, col.
2:
   ...a rapid walk down Midway Plaisance made me enjoy the Turkish lunch.
They called it the celebrated Turkish kaba with the accent on the bah, but in
Germany they have a more familiar name and the street Arabs call 'em red-hots.


   16 February 1900, DAILY REGISTER (Decatur, Illinois), pg. 8?, col. 4:
   _RED HOT RED HOTS._
_Scare for Everybody for Just a Minute._
   Tom Busby, the red hot and tamale vendor at Bradley Bros.' corner, had
some of the reddest hot red hots that the Decatur market ever knew last night for
a short time.
   The fire department had to be called to cool them off and then Tom went
out of business. (...)


   5 February 1903, WAUKESHA FREEMAN (Waukesha, Wisconsin), pg. 1, col. 1:
   The gymnasium will be turne into an unobjectionable Midway, where there
will be shows and fakirs, and peanuts and popcorn and red-hots and other nice
things.


   16 June 1903, DAILY CHRONICLE (Elyria, Ohio), pg. 8, col. 4:
   "It's the one that has the 'red hots' growing on it."
   The source of the witticism lies in the fact that in preparing the tree
for setting out it was necessary to attach wires to the main stem of the tree at
the top, their purpose being to steady it and bring it to an upright
position.  To protect the tree from abrasion of these wires, they were run through
sections of rubber hose and three of these short pieces of tubing still encircle
the tree.
   These are the red hots of the joke.
(It appears that this article is from the CHICAGO TRIBUNE--ed.)