Hunkie (1906)

[Dave Wilton]

HDAS has 1909.

Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 May 1906, p.1:
"STEEL MILL CITY LOCKS OUT POLICE
"Accidents in Illinois Company Plant Are Known Officially Only When the
'Dead Wagon' Is Wanted
"HOSPITAL IS A MYSTERY
"Between Railroad Tracks and Great Furnaces It Stands a Terror to the Army
of 'Hunkies.'"

"Hun, Pole, Austrian, Bulgarian, Bohemian--the 'Hunkies' of Illinois Steel
colloquialism--indifferent to pain of shattered, burned, mangled body grow
frantic as the stretcher bearers near this fortress hospital [...] South
Chicago distinctly doesn't like the 'Hunkie.' [...] A 'Hunkie' who has been
'hunked' in Illinois Steel makes a lot of strictly corporation trouble."

I'm not clear on what the verb "hunk" is supposed to mean. It may mean being
injured on the job.

--Dave Wilton
  dave at wilton.net

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