"Meerns" query

[Laurence Horn]

>Could it possibly be related to "Mijnheer(n)"?
>
>This is just what sprang to mind; an uneducated guess, as it were.
>
>Erin McKean
>editor at verbatimmag.com

I think Erin's suggestion of Dutch may be on the right track, to
judge from this web posting (the only one that google turns up for
"Meerns").  Unfortunately, my Dutch isn't really up to it, and my
dictionary isn't on me at the moment.  Anyone else?  Would a San
Francisco newspaper in 1913 really have been in a position to
presuppose familiarity with Dutch category or address labels?  Well,
this WAS some years ago...

larry

  ===============
http://www.xs4all.nl/~odyssey/vm/persoonlijkspelweek5.html
Typisch Meerns:

                                       Heel fanatiek zijn in de dingen
waar je van houdt. Zo
                                       komen er iedere week weer
duizenden mensen
                                       naar het stadion om ons aan te moedigen.
                                       Dat zijn toch mooie dingen.
=================
>
>>     I have come across "Meerns" as a term of address in a 1913
>>sports article but am unable to determine its exact meaning.  It
>>does not seem to be listed in the dictionaries.
>>
>>     The word appears in the newspaper _San Francisco Bulletin_,
>>March 11, 1913, p. 18, cols. 5-6, over the photograph of former
>>baseball player Bill Lange. The relevant sentence is:
>>
>>'As Pop Anson would pause to remark, "I knew him when he was the
>>equal of a bum baseball player they call Tyrus Raymond Cobb." Yes,
>>Meerns, that was some years ago.'
>>
>>     Would anyone have any suggestions?
>>
>>---Gerald Cohen
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