More Railroad slang and sporting slang

[Mullins, Bill]

"Jim Coleman"
Alberta | Lethbridge | The Lethbridge Herald | 1952-03-22 p. 14 col 4.

DUE to the popularity of a new dance called "The Gandy Dancers' Ball," a
large section of the public suddenly has become aware of the fact that
gandy-dancer is a railway term used to describe a section-hand. Next to
newspapering, railroading probably is the most fascinating business in
the world and the transportation industry has made many notable
contributions to the North American slanguage. Since the eports page is
the only section of a  newspaper where slang is employed habitually and
with impunity, this might be a good place to mention a few more samples
of the railroader's argot - in addition to some sporting terms.


Railway employees regularly refer to the locomotive engineer as the
hogger or boghead and the locomotive is a hog or, in some, cases, a
battleship. A telegraph operator is a brass-pounder, and, if he is in
the habit of drifting from job to job, he is a boomer. The conductor is
the con or the brain and a passenger brakeman sometimes is known as the
baby-lifter.  Hoboes often refer to a freight brakeman as a shack
although the same word is used to describe a a caboose which also is
known as the shanty, hut or crummy.

A freight-yard sometimes is called the garden and a train-order which is
issued by the dispatcher (or detainer) is called a flimsy.  The
auxiliary locomotive which is used to assist the regular locomotive on
steep grades is a pusher and, when the locomotives are operating in
tandem, they are double-heading.  When the conductor pulls the emergency
brake cord, he hits the air and when a member of the train crew jumps
from a moving train, he hits the grit.  A freight train is a drag and a
railway detective is Big Eyes.  The signal for the train to get underway
is the high-ball.

There isn't space ehre to go into all the phases of sporting slang but a
mention of horse racing will suffice.  Horse-racing has added many
expressions to the North American language and one of the most common is
morning glory which is employed to describe a horse who performs
spectacularly in morning workouts but fails to equal those performances
in actual competition with other horses.

A gyp isn't a dishonest person byt the word is an abbreviation of gypsy
which describs a horseman who travels from track to track operating a
small stable of cheap horses. The automatic starting-gate is the box and
a whip invariably is a stick.  A wind-broken horse is a roarer or a
blower, and a groom is a ginny or a swipe.  An apprentice-jockey is a
bug-boy.  A horse's legs are referred to as his wheels and, if he is
beaten, he runs in the can.  A horse which runs in the can because his
owner didn't wish him to win that particular afternoon is a stiff.  In
such circumstances, it is likely that he was snaggeed by the rider.
Some horses don't have to be snagged, however, because they just
naturally suffer from the slows.

A steeplechase horse is a lepper and trainers of thoroughbreds refer to
trotters and pacers as jugheads while trainers of pacers and trotters
refer to the thoroughbreds as turkey-legs.  A horse is breezed in the
mornings to prepare him for his races and, on the mornings of the race,
his exercise boy blows him out.  If the track is muddy in the morning,
saw-horses are placed near the inner rail to protect that portion of the
racing surface and these obstructions are known as dogs.

The judge's stand is the crow's nest and a jockey who gets his moutn
trapped on the rail without racing room runs into a blind switch.  A
horse which appears certain to win is a a gut and a horse which
consistently disappoints his handlers becomes known as a meat-eater.

Such larcenous jockeys as used a small hand-batter to stimulate a steed
to greater speed, used a joint or a machine and a trainer who stimulated
his horses, internally or externally, was a mechanic.  An overly is a
nice fat price on an outstanding horse which, in some manner, has bee
overlooked by the wagering public and a joe-joe is a parlay wager on two
horses with similar names (example:  Curly J and Curly M.)

A tout who is persuading an unsophisticated spectator to make bets for
him refers to his patron as a mark and a stooper is a fellow who wanders
around looking for cashable pari-mutuel tickets which may have been
dropped carelessly. The harness-racing fraternity has its own lexicon
and the sulky often is a fire-wagon while a bad-tempered pacer or
trotter is an orangutang.

Many of the touts around race tracks are former carnival hustlers or
carnies whose gambling concessions were known as flat-joints.  Of
course, you'll find many gazooneys and guntzels around the race tracks
as well as the carnivals.

We cant' deal with professional boxing and other sports unless the paper
sets this column in rubber type.  Boxing has contributed innumerable
sland expressions such as kayo and palooka and the opprobrious term
tanker which describes a pugilist who is fond of taking a high dive into
a dry pool without being struck with undue vigor.  Then there's that
expression, bleeder, which is applied to a boxer who cuts easily.  Yup
-- and bleeder also is a baseball term for a very weak hit which falls
just out of the reach of the players.  The type of ballplayer who hits
bleeders seldom reaches the Major Leagues and, in any event, he's "only
up for a cup of coffee."

Pardon me, but I feel lucky today.  I'll just go over to see the beezock
in the mitt-joint and get her to read my palm.  She might be able to
tell me the name of an eagle-bird in the fourth at Oaklawn."