"The Big Apple" revisited: More on the non-existence of this sobriquet for NYC prior to the 1920s

[Gerald Cohen]

    Yesterday I noticed an excellent source for finding "the big
apple" as a  pre-1920s sobriquet for NYC, if the sobriquet in fact
existed then (and all evidence to date indicates that it did not!):
out-of-town newspapers telling of their local citizens traveling to
NYC for the World Series there.  The excitement of the trip almost
cries out for mention of "the big apple", and if the sobriquet
existed, it should turn up there.

    Note that Edward Martin's 1909  "It [the Mid-West] inclines to
think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the
national sap" is misleading.
The meaning of "the big apple" here is almost certainly "overweening
big shot" (with reference to NYC), much as "the big enchilada" could
be used in reference to Washington, D.C. in a discussion of political
power without being a sobriquet of that city.

    In 1913 a San Franciscan went to NYC for the World Series (NY
Giants vs. Philadelphia Athletics), and the _San Francisco Bulletin_
(Oct. 2, 1913, p. 14, col. 5) published a long letter from him. That
letter refers to NYC as "Gotham" and "the big city", while the
article title describes it as "Little Old Town of New York.":
"GRIFFIN TELLS ABOUT LITTLE OLD TOWN OF NEW YORK". (subtitle): "Local
Referee Arrives in Gotham And Is Seeing High Buildings."
    "...New York, Sept. 27, 1913
        "Friend Salazar:
  "Just a line to let you know that I am having the time of my life,
the first trip away from the old town [San Francisco--G. Cohen], and
I am making the best of it. ...
    "I have been royally entertained by some of the best fellows in
the big city and think I will stop here about two weeks longer before
I start back to the old town. ..."

***

On Oct. 6, 1913 (p.1/6-7), the _S.F. Bulletin_ carried the headline:
"FANS POUR INTO GOTHAM TO SEE FIRST BIG GAME."

    Bottom line: Looking for "the big apple" as NYC's sobriquet prior
to the 1920s is a search for the will o' the wisp. And when "the big
apple" did emerge in print in 1921 (thanks to turf writer John J.
Fitz Gerald), the original reference was to the NYC racetracks, not
to NYC as a whole.  Barry Popik and I have already written
extensively on this.

Gerald Cohen