"Flashbacks" on "Free Lunches" and "Freeloader"

[Baker, John]

        "Flashbacks" is a Sunday comic strip, produced by Patrick M. Reynolds and running in the Washington Post, that provides historical vignettes of the D.C. area.  Today's comic, entitled "May I Have a Word?," discusses the "free lunches" of the nineteenth century.

        Panel 1:  A well-dressed couple, plus a not-quite-so-well-dressed fellow who needs a shave, are loading up at a buffet in a 19th-century saloon under the watchful eye of a bartender.  The buffet is a sumptuous repast that includes ham, turkey, and vegetables, unlike the historical free lunches of cheese, crackers, sausage, and soup.  Main text: "During the 1840s saloons and hotels offered "free" lunches to attract beer and liquor customers.  A person who loaded a plate with food but did not buy a drink or two was called a FREELOADER."  I use all caps to indicate emphasis; the main text is all in caps in normal comic strip style, although the reference information is apparently typeset in a sans serif font:  "Reference:  THE CITY IN SLANG - NEW YORK LIFE & POPULAR SPEECH by Irving Lewis Allen, $27.95; WHY YOU SAY IT - STORIES BEHIND OVER 600 EVERYDAY WORDS & PHRASES by Webb Garrison, $17.95, or get both for $43.90 from the Red Rose Studio, 358 Flintlock Dr., Willow Street, PA  17584.  Call toll free 1-888-839-5673.  Website:  www.redrosestudio.com"  Red Rose Studio is the cartoonist's website, I believe; the Post seemingly is comfortable with this form of self-promotion.

        Panel 2:  A large individual, at the direction of the bartender, is tapping the unshaven fellow on the shoulder.  Main text:  On spotting the FREELOADER the owner told his CHUCKER-OUT to throw, or BOUNCE, him out."

        Panel 3:  The unshaven fellow is ignominiously removed by the bouncer.  Main text:  "The BOUNCER used a technique shown here known as the BUM'S RUSH.  Forced to walk tip-toe like a flamenco dancer, the MOOCHER* was said to be doing the SPANISH WALK."  Footnote:  "*Mooch - From Old Middle English mowche, to beg."

        The comic strip is at http://www.redrosestudio.com/Cat%2020%20This%20wks%20ref.html.

        I don't think anyone has taken "free lunch" back to the 1840s, but they were certainly around by the 1850s, so a few years earlier is plausible.  For "freeload," Merriam-Webster has 1934 (but then M-W has 1949, almost a century late, for "free lunch").  I can antedate that:  "Moreover, if the case admitted the principle of quantum meruit, the administrator might have offered proof that the services were worth less than $1,360, or that the value of the free loading afforded to the claimant and her husband was an offset, wholly or partially, to any recovery against the estate."  In re Bayles' Estate, 184 N.Y.S. 273, 274 (N.Y. App. Dev. Oct 22, 1920).  I don't think a connection between "freeloader" and "free lunch" is particularly likely.

John Baker