Language of Waiters; Lamb (Wall Street slang)

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LANGUAGE OF WAITERS

     From the NEW YORK DISPATCH, 1 August 1886, pg. 7, col. 6:

     When we want to know anything about home, it is said, we must go abroad.
 The New York correspondent of the Indianapolis _News_ has made discoveries
here which have escaped us.  They are, however, amusing, and relate to
     THE PECULIAR LANGUAGE OF WAITERS.
     The waiters have a language of their own.  Having to catch a lunch in a
restaurant near the wharves, on the west side, I determined to enjoy a
favorite plebian dish, that can be prepared well anywhere--fishballs.  As I
sat down, a man next to my table ordered an oyster stew.  The waiter
immediately sang out:
     "Two in a bowl."
     "Hold on," said the customer.  "I guess I'll have corned beef hash
instead."
     "Blockade that two in a bowl," shouted the waiter; "make it brown stone
front."
     "Waiter," said I, when it was my turn, "get me two fat fishballs with a
dropped egg perched on top of each one."
     "Two soldiers on horseback riding by," he bawled out at the top of his
voice, and hurried away.
     I presumed that he knew his business and would serve me properly, and he
did.  The fishballs and eggs were as good as I ever ate anywhere.
     "We never say dropped eggs on fishballs," he explained.  "'Soldiers on
horseback riding by' is shorter and plainer."
     "Would you call dropped eggs alone 'soldiers?'"
     "Oh, no, that's 'sleeve buttons.'  Beefsteak is 'patent leather;' mutton
chops is 'whiskers,' of course, and there's lots more like it."

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LAMB

     The RHHDAS has 1666, then 1886 for "lamb" (a stock market "sucker").
The 1666 cite seems a bit early.
     From the NEW YORK DISPATCH, 19 August 1883, pg. 7, col. 6:

     The Wall street sandwich--Bull on one side, bear on the other, and a
little lamb in the middle.