short change

[Jonathan Lighter]

My grandparents used "shortchange," v., in the innocent sense Bill mentions.  In fact, I use it this way too.

 JL

"Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL> wrote:
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Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: "Mullins, Bill"
Subject: short change
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short change OED has 1874
short change artist OED has 1928

"Short Change" seemed to originate as simply giving a customer too
little change and hoping it was not noticed. It is associated with
ticket agents, train and ferry conductors, etc. in the mid-1800s. It
evolved later into a con in which the victim is intentionally
disctracted, or sleight of hand is used to effect the theft (see 1909
cite below).


"Newspaper Correspondents" Brooklyn Daily Eagle 5 Aug 1856 p. 2 col 2.
"If their neighbors [sic] cats keep up a series of nocturnal serenades,
or the
Dutchman at the corner grocery gives them short change for a quarter, or
the
railroad cards are crowded when they wish to ride and everybody else is
not
ejected to make room for them, or any fellow passenger emits the odor of

tobacco or rum; a fiery epistle is sure to reach the editor at the
earliest
possible moment."


"Got Off Easy" Ohio | Newark | Newark Daily Advocate | 1891-10-12 p. 1
col 1.
"Kent, O., Oct. 12. -- A stranger giving his name as W. A. Kemlar was
arrested here Saturday night for robbing an Erie passenger of $35 by
the short change racket."



[no title] Daily Journal (Telluride, San Miguel County, CO) 1897 Jun 11
p. 4 col 1.
"The Walter L. Main circus is certainly original in one feature. There
wasn't a nut-shell game or a "short change" man in sight on the
grounds."




"Pencil Sketches" Nebraska | Lincoln | The Nebraska State Journal |
1898-07-03 p. 14 col 7
""Just opened up, uncle," briskly replied the flashily dressed,
short change artist in the wagon."

"He Was Released And Was Rearrested" Wisconsin | Oshkosh | The Daily
Northwestern | 1899-10-21 p. 1 col 4.
"Higgins, the alleged short change artist arrested yesterday on the
charge
of larceny, on complaint of Henry Monihan, was arraigned before Justice
Bradley this morning and was discharged, the defense showeing that the
plaintiff did not have any right to commence proceedings, as the place
where the alleged larceny was committed was owned by M. J. Riley,
proprietor."

_The Wretches of Povertyville : A Sociological Study of the Bowery_,
Nascher, Ignatz Leo, Jos. J. Lanzit: Chicago, 1909, p. 220
"Of the many small schemes practiced in Povertyville to fleece the
unwary, flim-flam is the most prevalent. This is a sleight-of-hand
trick in making change, by which a waiter will extract a bill after the
change has been counted to the victim, or he may fold a bill in half and
count the two ends. It cannot succeed, if one will count the bills after
receiving them from the waiter, but the latter has a way of disappearing
immediately after he has given a customer short change.
If the person has given the waiter a large bill, the waiter counts
the change in the patron's presence, then extracts the bottom bill as he
hands it over. If the victim finds he is flim-flammed and complains,
the waiter will again take the money, count it, make good the
deficiency, and in returning it will again extract the bottom bill.
Having seen the waiter return the bill, the patron is generally
satisfied and puts the change in his pocket without recounting it. "

"A Circus List," Percy W. White. American Speech, Vol. 1, No. 5 (Feb.,
1926), pp. 282

"Grifter -- The old time gamblers and short-change artists who followed
the circus in days gone by."




"Carnival Cant: A Glossary of Circus and Carnival Slang," David W.
Maurer. American Speech, Vol. 6, No. 5.(Jun., 1931), p. 332
"grift, n. Concessions of crooked gambling joints, short-change, etc.,
which used to be sold by circuses and carnivals to men known as
"grifters" who were well-organized and successful."

"The Argot of the Underworld," David W. Maurer. American Speech, Vol. 7,
No. 2 (Dec., 1931), p. 111
"(to be on) the hipe, prep. phr. To be practising the short change
racket."

"The Argot of Confidence Men", D. W. Maurer. American Speech, Vol. 15,
No. 2 (Apr., 1940), p. 121 col 2.
"To SEW A MAN UP. 1. To caution a mark, who has just been beaten with a
short-change racket (but doesn't know it), against pickpockets, then sew
his wallet in his pocket with needle and thread carried for the
purpose."


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