Antedating of "yegg." (1900)

[Sam Clements]

I believe that Barry is responsible for tracing this word back to 1903, the
current earliest dates used by both OED and M-W.  He did the work.

I just did the easier part, using his new-found tool, Ancestry.com, and
antedated it to 1900.

>From The June 28, 1900, Fort Wayne(IN) News, page  XXX?(Ancestry's images
are for SHIT), column 2:

     Their lingo is the language of the "yegg."  No other crook uses it, and
their phrases would be Greek to the average citizen.

I can give you two additional cites from 1900.  And more from 1901/02.  The
word was used both for a safecracker and a general criminal.

SC