Panhandler (1898); Cincinnati Enquirer & Chicago (1885)

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CINCINNATI ENQUIRER & CHICAGO

   Make that three of the four earliest "Windy City" cites in the LOS ANGELES TIMES (ProQuest Historical Newspapers) from Cincinnati.  I missed this second one because there's a lot of white space and it's way at the bottom of the page.  The article is directly from the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER.
   Can there be any more doubt where "Windy City" is from?


2.
      S0 MANY AIR LINES.
              Los Angeles Times (1881-1886).       Los Angeles, Calif.: Aug 8, 1885.                   p. 5 (1 page) :
   The speaker was decidedly an Englishman.  He had traveled extensively on this continent, and had occasion to make frequent visits between Cincinnati and Chicago.  Happening to occupy a seat with an Enquirer reporter on one of the incoming trains from the Windy city, he gave vigorous expression to his idea of one feature of American railroad methods.

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PANHANDLER

   OED lists this as slang and has it from only 1897.  The HDAS currently stops at "O."  Perhaps this is true and helps?


   4 May 1898, LOS ANGELES TIMES, pg. 8:
   _ORIGIN OF PANHANDLER._
_Its Invention Attributed to Dusen-_
   _hoffer of San Francisco._
   (New York Sun:)  One of these slang words which, at first frowned upon, become regular and recognized individuals in the verbal community because they express something for which there is no other adequate expression, is the noun "panhandles," and its off-shoot is the verb "to panhandle."  A number of letters have recently been received asking by what authority the word panhandler was used, and whence it came.  The answer was that is established itself by its being the only word to express that form of beggary which is characterized by the implied or actual threat of violence.  As for the source of the word, the suggestion was made that a panhandler is one who handles a pan or can or growler, something used for carrying drinks.
   Other correspondents objected to this on the ground that in this city, at least, a growler is frequently called "can" or "duck," or "pitcher," but never a "pan."  On shipboard the term pan might be used in this sense, but panhandle is not a marine word.  Another suggestion was that the word came from the West where the tough tramps who follow the line of the Panhandle railroad are called panhandlers.  From a Californian who is visiting in town a Sun reporter got another version of that word's origin.
   "About ten years ago," said the Californian, "there was a chap called Mink Dusenhoffer in San Francisco who started a bar and 'caffy,' as he called it, down near the water front.  His place was pretty tough, but he had good things to eat, and the 'caffy' did a big business.  One night his entire force of waiters struck for higher wages and Mink turned 'em out.  In their places he got a gang of scattermouches and mulligrabbers who didn't know bean soup from charlotte russe, commonly ordered under the name of Charley Ross.  Dusenhoffer undertook to train 'em by disciplinarian methods, chiefly enforced with a beer mallet.  On the third night here were five fights in the place between customers and waiters; one man was shot and the whole gang of recruits fell on Mink and broke his head.  Then they looted the bar and got drunk.  That night about three dozen people were held up in that part of the city.  Mink put out a placard that read:
  "'The public is warned against the gang of slush-slingers, dish-swabbers and panhandlers that left my place yesterday.  They are thieves and murderers, and there is enough buckshot waiting for them here to blow them all to hell, where they belong.
      "'MINK DUSENHOFFER.'
   "That gang made things lively for awhile, but they didn't tackle the 'caffy.'  Every time there was an arrest for a hold-up or assault during the month the word went along the water front:
   "'There's another of Mink's panhandlers.'
   "Pretty soon the word became a fixture for any tough character that was out of a job, particularly if he went into the hold-up business.  I heard it there as long as ten years ago, and I suppose it's been revived lately and came East."