"Lead-pipe cinch" (1889)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

Here is an early example of "lead-pipe cinch" = "sure bet":

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_Decatur Morning Review_ (Decatur IL), 17 Dec. 1889: p. 5(?), col. 3:

[legislators are bribed by deliberately losing to them at poker]

<<The money was transferred in a unique way. The briber and bribed would
sit down to a game of poker and a "lead-pipe cinch" was nothing to the sure
thing the legislators had.>>

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As a possible irrelevancy, I note that a card game called "cinch" was
popular around this time.

-- Doug Wilson