Siamese Connection (1879, 1884); Underdog (1884)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Thu, 19 May 2005 15:13:37 -0400, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:

>Here's still earlier for "underdog":
>
>1859 David Barker [is that name for real?]

Yep... He was known as "the Burns of Maine", apparently.  See:

http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/me/penobscot/exeter/barker/sj3p183.txt

MoA has his collected _Poems_ (1876), with a biographical sketch:

http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;g=moagrp;idno=aam7861.0001.001

>[poem entitled "The Under Dog
>in the Fight"] in _Liberator_ 28 Oct. 172 [American Periodical Series]
>But for _me_ -- and I care not a single fig If they say I am wrong or
>right -- I shall always go in for the _weaker_ dog, For the under dog in
>the fight.


--Ben Zimmer