"Oh fay" = "au fait" (1899)--(Request for Douglas Wilson's additional examples)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>A few more examples? By all means, please share them with ads-l.

Okay.

(1) _Newark [OH] Daily Advocate_ (21 July 1899) shows (p. 6, col. 5) what
appears to be exactly the same article which I quoted before.

(2) Here is an example of "oh fay" = "proper"/"fashionable", along with
some other casual or jocular misspellings of Frenchy expressions, I think.
I believe the partly illegible items are probably "ho tong" (= "haut ton")
[less likely "bo tong" (?= "bon ton")] and "bo mong" (= "beau monde"). The
name of the valet is only questionably legible (it could be "Piffin").

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_Decatur [IL] Daily Republican_, 11 Feb. 1891: p. 4(?), col. 5:

[description of a comic play about a bumpkin who 'comes up in the world']

<<... poor Allen is checked at every attempt to make a "square meal," by
the awe he feels for the superior wisdom of his valet, Mr. Puffin[?] as to
the ways of the [illeg.]o tong" as to what is "oh fay" and as to what is
proper deportment for a member of the [illeg.] mong [illeg.] When Allen
starts to drink from his saucer Puffin[?] stops him with a warning cough ....>>

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(3) Here "oh fay" = "au fait" in its earlier and more 'correct' meaning
"expert", possibly considered a French (non-English) expression in this
humorous item:

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_Marion Daily Star_, 18 May 1887: p. 3(?), col. 4:

<<"I thought you didn't speak French," said Gen. Stiles .... / "Oh, well,"
the judge explained, apologetically. "I'm not what you and the colonel
would call oh fay -- I'm a june primmer at the business, but when the wind
is southerly I reckon I can tell a grizet from a garsong.">>

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-- Doug Wilson