hash-house lingo (1889)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

In an 1889 Boston Globe article, a recent Harvard grad describes his
experience working in a Bowery hash house. A lot of his examples of
short-order slang don't appear in the various other hash-house articles
uncovered by Barry and others (including our old friend "pogie" which
evidently meant "bread").

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http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=567819752
Boston Globe, Feb 24, 1889, p. 18
"Pair er cuff buttons and a querrium" (aquarium).
"Gimme a two-eyed beefsteak and a 17th of March."
"Five and one and a black-and-tan."
[...]
I fired the orders and here is what came to me.
A couple of fish balls and a glass of water.
A plate of boiled salt codfish. An Irish stew.
A plate of doughnuts and a cup of coffee.
[...]
The next order was for raw on the side, coffee in the dark and plenty of
pogie. In response to this came rare roast beef, black coffee and a double
allowance of bread. Worms-in-the-teet[h] meant baked macaroni; slaughter
house, a beefsteak rare; freckles on the side with sawdust, was baked
beans and brown bread.
Potatoes had as many names as a Spanish princess or a bank cashier in
Canada. Here are a few of them: Spuds, Murphies, T.D.'s, ancient orders or
A.O.H.'s and St. Clairs.
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--Ben Zimmer