going down on someone in 1859

[George Thompson]

Larry Horn writes: From the context, it sounds like it must involve
ripping
> off the client rather than performing any pleasurable act for the
> benefit of the go-downee.

Well, yes, that is what it does mean, so it seems.  This sense isn't in
the dictionaries.

I notice a typo escaped me: "wend" should be "went".

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

----- Original Message -----
From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 7:30 pm
Subject: Re: going down on someone in 1859

> >Mary Barrett [a whore] . . . is not content with driving her
> >illegitimate trade, but must needs "go down" occasionally on
> >her "lovers."  Last week while a drunken fool was engaged in
> surveying>three dollars worth of beauty, she "wend down" and got
> his pocket-book
> >containing about forty dollars.
> >California Police Gazette, January 23, 1859, p. 2, col. 4
> >
> >GAT
>
> Is there any way to be sure just what is entailed by this kind of
> down-going?
>
> L
>