Ladino (1840); Soup House (1850); Ice House (1859)

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   A few notes before I travel across four states at 4 a.m. to get a visa for Ghana.
   NYU is open until 3 a.m. during finals week, but when I came here yesterday, ProQuest was down for maintenance.  I now see that the databases haven't been improved.  I'll check the LOS ANGELES TIMES again later this week...I'm expecting 1950s "Margarita" and "Screwdriver."

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LADINO

A WINTER IN THE WEST INDIES,
DESCRIBED IN FAMILIAR LETTERS TO HENRY CLAY, OF KENTUCKY,
BY JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY
Second Edition
New York: Negro Universities Press
1969
Originally published in 1840
by John Murray, London

Pg. 6 (June 1, 1840):  We were amused, one morning, by watching the motions of a great shark, called, from its known discernment and cunning, the "Sea lawyer."
   (OED has 1811, then 1876 for "sea lawyer"--ed.)

Pg. 220 (July 1, 1840):  In the much agitated case of the Amistad, the decision of the local courts of Connecticut, against the delivering up of the slaves, was grounded, as I understood, on the fact that these persons were not Ladinos--i. e. true Cuban slaves--but Bozals, who are no slaves at all, in the eye of the Spanish law.
   (OED's "ladino" has 1863 for "a stray animal," 1877 for "in Central America, a mestizo or a white person," and 1889 for the Sephardic Jewish language.  Is the Amistad decision/"ladino" on WESTLAW?--ed.)

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SOUP HOUSE

IMPRESSIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF THE WEST INDIES AND NORTH AMERICA IN 1849
by Robert Baird
Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard
1850

   OED has 1861 for "soup house" and 1839 for "soup kitchen" (see ADS-L archives).

Pg. 52 (Antigua):  The stranger visiting St. John's should certainly visit an institution there, denominated the Soup House--an institution which is, all circumstances considered, one of the most creditable to be found in the West Indies.  Like most other establishments in St. John's having for their beneficent object the relief of human want, and the alleviation of human suffering, or the improvement of human nature, this institution is mainly indebted for its origin and foundation, and subsequent progress, to the exertions of the Rev. Archdeacon Hal- (Pg. 53--ed.) berton--a clergyman whose beneficent efforts, in the cause of Christian benevolence, all classes in the island agree in eulogising.
   The Soup House is so called from its having originated in a humble endeavour to supply soup to the indigent--its origin being so lowly that the first boiling or brewing took place under the shade of a tamarind-tree still in existence.  To the soup or kitchen department there has been added an infirmary, a separate sailor's hospital in a different part of the town, and near the sea, and a lazar-house for the reception of patients deformed by that awful species of leprosy which attacks the black population (at least I did not see any white or coloured victims) in these islands.  When I visited the institution, there were one hundred and thirty patients in the infirmary and sailors' hospital, and nearly thirty in the lazar-house; but these are of course in addition to the numerous body receiving outdoor relief.

Pg. 135:  ...--was asked by a genuine Yankee whether any of "these fixings"--pointing to a dish of tolerably cooked artichokes--was grown in the "old country."

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ICE HOUSE

THE WEST INDIES AND THE SPANISH MAIN
by Anthony Trollope
Gloucester: Alan Sutton Publishing Limited
1985
First Published 1859

   OED's "ice house" has 1687 for "a structure..in which ice is stored," and 1857 for "a hut made of ice or snow."

Pg. 155:  And here it may be well to explain this very peculiar, delightful, but too dangerous West Indian institution.  Ny-the-by, I do not know that there was any ice-house in Kingston, Jamaica.  If there be one there, my friends were peculiarly backward, for I certainly was not made acquainted with it.  But everywhere else--at Demerara, Trinidad, Barbados, and St. Thomas--I was duly introduced to the ice-house.
   There is something cool and mild in the name, which makes one fancy that ladies would delight to frequent it.  But alas! a West Indian ice-house is but a drinking-shop--a place where one goes to liquor, as the Americans call it, without the knowledge of the feminine creation.  It is a drinking-shop, at which the draughts are all cool, are all iced, but at which, alas! they are also all strong.  The brandy, I fear, is as essential as the ice.  A man may, it is true, drink iced soda-water without any concomitant, or he may simply have a few drops of raspberry vinegar to flavour it.  No doubt many an easy-tempered wife so imagines.  But if so, I fear that they are deceived.  Now the ice-house in Bridgetown seemed to me to be peculiarly well attended.  I look upon this as the effect of the white streets and the fusty shops.


A GLIMPSE OF THE TROPICS
OR, FOUR MONTHS CRUISING IN THE WEST INDIES
by E. A. Hastings Jay
London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Limited
1900

Pg. 28 (Barbados):  We drove to the Ice-house in the centre of the town (famous for flying-fish and West Indian cocktails), where I was to spend the first night before moving to Harrison College, which, through the kindness of the masters, was my headquarters during my visit to the islands.

Pg. 277 (The Blue Mountains):  On the broad platform or "barbecue" used for drying the coffee we performed our toilet, shivering with cold in the mountain air.

   (So much for West Indian BBQ--ed.)