"I am from Missouri and they have got to show me" antedated (?) to 1896

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU
Sat Oct 13 15:48:58 UTC 2012


On his site, Barry Popik lists examples back to 1894, also from the
Omaha World-Herald:

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/summary3/
28 October 1894, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 10:
Johnson (John S. Johnson, a bicycle rider --ed.) says that he can
cover a mile in 1:30 flat, but being from Missouri he will have to
show me.
EATON.

--bgz


On Sat, Oct 13, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
>
> OED has 1897   Washington Post 9 May 27   ‘I'm from Missouri, and they'll
> have to show me.’ That is what John Duffer, of Pike County, Missouri,
> remarked as he was being patched up in the office of Dr. Creighton at
> Manitou.
>
> Headline: On to Victory;; Article Type: News/Opinion
> Paper: Omaha World Herald, published as Morning World-Herald; Date:
> 11-07-1896; Volume: XXXII; Issue: 38; Page: [1]; col. 4. Location: Omaha,
> Nebraska [America's Historical Newspapers]
>
> "Mr. Bryan could better afford to be defeated than the people could afford
> to have him defeated," said D. Clem Deaver [Nebraska Populist congress
> candidate] today."....
> "They say Mr. McKinley is the advance agent of prosperity but I am from
> Missouri and they have got to show me."

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