Antedating of "darktown" (1912)

[Sam Clements]

Jonathon Green nicely emailed me that I have NOT antedated the term
"Darktown."  Mathews had it from 1884, cited in AS.  <The Darktown Fire
Brigade---Saved>

l.  Why did HDAS cite 1916?  They had the AS/Mathews cite.

2.  An observation:  I read an 1884 Ancestry.com hit from the Olean, NY,
paper saying that the local fire department had a set of prints of such
things called "Darktown Fire Brigade." I searched the previous ten years or
so and found no hits for darktown.  So I conclude that the set of prints
available about 1884 popularized the term "darktown."

SC


----- Original Message -----
From: "Sam Clements" <sclements at NEO.RR.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 9:18 PM
Subject: Antedating of "darktown" (1912)


> I can't find the word in OED nor M-W.  I may have missed it.
>
> HDAS has 1916.  Meaning, "a neighborhood inhabited principaly by blacks."
> From the song, "Dark-Town Strutter's Ball."
>
> I couldn't help searching up some more articles by James Meade from the
> Atlanta Constitution--the fellow who wrote the "hot dog" article I sent to
> Gerald Cohen.  Mr. Meade has a nice, slangy, writing style.
>
> From the Atlanta Constitution,  May 5, 1912, page (hard to read), column
> four.  This is probably another of those Sunday feature section articles.
>
>       <"He's a Bear!  He's a Bear--"     And to the riotous accompaniment
of
> a careless orchestra, Darktown danced.  It was the grand opening of a new
> cafe and ball room on the rue de Collins.  Bright the lamps shone o'er
dusky
> belies, and gallant sable men.>
>
> Wowzzer.  This article starts out gangbusters!  I'll have to read it in
it's
> entirety.  Stay tuned.
>
> SC
>