"little joe from kokomo" and "african billiards"

[Jonathan Lighter]

According to HDAS ( " It's Expert Recommended ! " ), "African dominoes" and "African billiards" are close contemporaries.

Google has a very few exx. of the former, and nothing current on the latter except in the sense of "a game of billiards that's being played in Africa."

JL

Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Wilson Gray
Subject: Re: "little joe from kokomo" and "african billiards"
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Was "African dominoes" already obsolete or simply not invented yet?

-Wilson Gray

On Jul 13, 2005, at 3:16 PM, Mullins, Bill wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
> Subject: "little joe from kokomo" and "african billiards"
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> The phrase appears in American Speech Vol. 7, No. 5 (Jun., 1932) as
> craps/dice slang. Not in OED.
>
> "An Ex-Buck Private Goes Back to France" by Paul Adams (NEA Service
> (syndicate))
> Texas | Port Arthur | The Port Arthur News | 1927-04-10 p. 7 col 2.
> "How the galloping dominoes led by Little Joe from Kokomo would roll on
> that smooth linoleum on the floor of the smoking room on a liner such
> as
> those that will carry "The Second A. E. F." back to France!"
>
> "The Conning Tower"
> California | Oakland | The Oakland Tribune | 1925-01-22 p. 16 col 3.
> "As to the loud and boisterous language, Mr. Hugh Wiley says that Mr.
> Vitus Marsden's "Shoot six bits. I reads fo'. Little Joe from Kokomo.
> And I reads a trey an' a one. I'm a wilecat an' I'm on my prowl" can be
> heard six blocks on a clear day."
>
> Little Joe from Kokomo evolved from Little Joe:
>
> RIVER-BANK GAMING.
> Chicago Daily; Sep 10, 1892; pg. 3 col 4
> "The crap games were patronized principally by the colored
> 'longshoremen, who rolled the "bones" out on the wharf, and called out
> for "little Joe" and "Kans' City seben" until they could be heard
> across
> the river."
>
> CRAPS TERMS BRING FINE
> The Washington Post (1877-1954); Jul 25, 1922; pg. 2 col 3.
> ""Baby needs shoes," "little Joe," "snake eyes" and "let it lay, I
> shoots the works" does not necessarily indicate that the D.C. code is
> being fractured by the running of a game of African billiards,
> according
> to Attorney Royal A. Hughes, who yesterday noted an appeal from the
> decision of Police Judge Hardison in fining Lawrence A. Bell, colored,
> $50 for conducting a gaming establishment."
>
> [OED does not have "African Billiards" for dice game, nor "baby needs
> shoes"]
>
> more African billiards:
>
> "Letter from Leonard McEnroy"
> Pennsylvania | Wellsboro | The Wellsboro Agitator | 1918-09-11 p. 2 col
> 2.
> "The climax of this story is though, that the other day I saw a couple
> of Doughboys in the top of tbe thing playing African billiards. You
> savvy African billiards? In plain every day English it's shooting
> craps."
>
>
> PAY DAY FOR TIDE RUM FLEET'S SAILORMEN
> By JAMES C. YOUNG
> New York Times Magazine (1857-Current file); Jan 4, 1931; pg. 12 col 4.
> "In the center of the room stand two billiard tables, a croupier at the
> head of each. One is given over to a pastime described as African
> billiards or golf, the other to that deadly game of picquet."
>


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