boarding-house reach (1909)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 20:02:47 -0500, Barnhart <barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> wrote:

>Found today (I should say refound, as I had lost it):
>
>The subject was not mentioned at breakfast; nor was anything else, in
>particular, mentioned.  Duncan was extremely polite, and passed here the
>toast when ordinarily he would have permitted her to help herself (true,
>it was a small table, for two, and easily spanned, but she objected to a
>"boarding-house reach"), as was wholly affable.  Edwin L. Sabin, "What Did
>Duncan Do?" Lippincott's Monthly Magazine (APS Online), Dec. 1909, p 724
>
>Any examples from further back would be much appreciated.

Slightly earlier, from the LA Times:

     A MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP JOKE.
     Los Angeles Times, Jan 7, 1908. p. II4
     So-called reformers who have a "boarding-house reach" for all
     the municipal pie in sight, object to the term "half-baked."


--Ben Zimmer