on the bug

[Grant Barrett]

Bingo. I think Doug has it it. The McCuller book is set in the South;
she was born in Georgia. Doug's cite is from a Fulton County, Ga.,
court. And there's this cite from the Chicago Tribune (part of a long
series about gambling in the U.S.) which links the term to Atlanta:


1936 Chicago Tribune (Oct. 25) p. E10:

[col. 1]: "The lottery is a poor man's game. Its operators are the
slummers of the gambling industry. There are, of course, exceptions.
Society women play the 'bug,' as the numbers game is called in
Atlanta....

[col. 5] Atlanta arrests an average of a hundred 'bug' agents a month.


So bug is, probably, a variant of the numbers game or illegal lottery
in Georgia.

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org

On Jul 9, 2005, at 12:46, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:

> I believe this refers to a lottery or "numbers game".
>
> http://www.lawskills.com/case/ga/id/68027/
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>