Antedatings and new sense of "cut the stick"

[Hugo]

> I'll be blowed if the below'd is Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I couldn't find the quoted text in any works.

There are several other references to an N. Hawthorne in the book,
including some with May Pole of Merry Mount (twice), Mr Higginbotham's
Catastrophe, The Great Carbuncle, Scarlett Letter, The Toll-Gatherer's
Day, all by Nathaniel H.

https://archive.org/stream/americanismseng00unkngoog#page/n175/mode/2up/search/hawthorne

So it's clear the author meant Nathaniel, whether or not it's correct.

There's one other bit attributed to an N. Hawthorne but not to a
particular work:

" What became of the particularly 'cute Yankee child, who left his
home and native parish at the age of fifteen months, because he was
given to understand that his parents intended to call him Caleb ? "
(N. Hawthorne.)

https://archive.org/stream/americanismseng00unkngoog#page/n469/mode/2up/search/hawthorne

I couldn't find a source for this, but it does show up quoted in an
essay on Yankee humour. Asterisks indicate italics in the original,
and denote the quoted text:

Mr. Hawthorne found one of his consolations in this fact. We have
never heard, however, what become of that particularly acute child
(Yankee of course) who left his home and native parish at the age of
fifteen months, because *he was given to understand that his parents
intended to call him 'Caleb.'*

Here's a plain text copy, it's also in several Google Books magazines:
http://gerald-massey.org.uk/massey/cpr_yankee_humour.htm and partly
repeated in some newspapers.

Hugo

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