Smoke-Chewer & Once a Fireman (1884)

[Wilson Gray]

On May 18, 2005, at 8:53 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Smoke-Chewer & Once a Fireman (1884)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> "Calipers" is good.
>
> JL
>
> Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Bapopik at AOL.COM
> Subject: Smoke-Chewer & Once a Fireman (1884)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --------
>
> "NINE YARDS" CORRESPONDENCE
> ...
>
> As I recall the fifty-calipers in the P-51 were each equipped with nine
> yards of belted ammo.
>
> Mo Baker
> ...
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> --------------------------------------------------------
> SCOTSMAN
> ...
> Yes, I subscribe for free to the Scotsman. I e-mail the publication
> about
> the "nine yards" kilt story...Somehow, they now send me daily e-mails
> like
> Newspaperarchive.
> ...
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> --------------------------------------------------------
> ONCE A FIREMAN, ALWAYS A FIREMAN
> ...
> 16 August 1884, The Fireman's Journal, pg. 131, col. 2:
> Mr. Tarbell, who at present is a Custom House official at Boston, was,
> in
> his younger days, one of the "b'hoys" you read about, and in him the
> maxim
> "Once a fireman always a firemen" (sic) in heart if nothing more, is
> most
> truthfully exemplified. He was a member of Frank Whitney's famous
> crowd that made
> notorious old "Hero No. 6" the terror of "Nigger Hill."
>

Historical note.

"Nigger Hill" was a neighborhood on what is now known only as "Beacon
Hill."

-Wilson Gray

> ...
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> -------------------------------------------------------
> SMOKE-CHEWER
> ...
> 25 October 1884, The Fireman's Journal, pg. 337, col. 1:
> In the afternoon a game of baseball was played by a nine from the
> Easton
> Fire Department and the New York Fire Department nine, which was part
> of the
> visiting New Yorkers. The game resulted in victory for the New York
> "smoke
> chewers" by a score of twenty to five.
> ...
> ...
> MISC.:
> ...
> This is much before my first "smoke eater."
> ...
> I didn't see "fire buff" in the three 1800s fire department books that
> I
> went through. I also didn't see it in the Nineteenth Century
> Masterfile (NY
> Times & NY Tribune), or in the handwritten index the NYPL has. I'll
> try to visit
> the Fire Department Museum on Spring Street on Wednesday (tomorrow).
> I'll ask
> where the Brentano fire collection now is; "buff" is surely there
> somewhere.
> ...
> THE FIREMAN'S JOURNAL in a national publication from New York. I
> didn't see
> "buff," but the six microfilms was just too much for my tiny sliver of
> spare
> time.
> ...
> I also looked through the Brooklyn Eagle for "Once a Dodger," without
> success.
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>