"I'm from Missouri--Show Me" (1894)

Sun Aug 27 15:45:37 UTC 2006

   If the 1894-1896 dates are in fact accurate, their "show-me" quotes would indeed be startling.  The earliest previously noticed "show-me" attestation--discovered by Barry Popik--is May 9, 1897.  Until now the rationale for the expression lay in the 1896 miners strike in Leadville, Colorado, with Missouri miners brought in as strikebreakers.  The mining techniques were a bit different in Colorado than in Missouri, and the Missouri miners often had to be shown (key word) the new techniques. "He's from Missouri, you've got to show him" spread above ground, and in the spirit of hatred against the Missouri strikebreakers (there was a full-scale labor-riot that required the state militia to get control of the situation), the expression was adopted in Colorado as a put-down on Missourians, i.e., they were mentally a bit slow and had to be shown. When the expression got back to Missouri, the Missourians gave it their own twist: hard-minded scepticism.

     This lovely interpretation will now be blown out of the water by the pre-1896 information spotted below by Barry, and no new interpretation comes to mind to replace it.  BUT, before this upheaval occurs, let's be sure that the dates are in fact accurate and not the result of some glitch in the database.  Tomorrow I'll order microfilms of the 1894-1896 "show-me" items to check on this.

      My concern is that all 1894-1896 "show-me" quotes appear in an Omaha, Nebraska newspaper. Now, as Barry is well aware (he discovered this material), the "show-me" expression was the slogan of the Kansas City delegation at the 1898 Transmississippi Exposition at Omaha, Nebraska (August 6, 1898ff.).  The "show-me" slogan caused a bit of a sensation there, and the 1898 Exposition no doubt played a role in spreading the expression.  

     So, I suspect that the 1894-1896 Omaha quotes fit better into a time frame of 1898 or later than into an earlier one.  Let's see. If the 1894-1896 attestations do pan out, it's back to the drawing-board for an explanation.

Gerald Cohen

________________________________

From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Bapopik at AOL.COM
Sent: Sat 8/26/2006 6:00 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "I'm from Missouri--Show Me" (1894)

My wife actually let me out of the house to go to the library this Saturday.
I checked the America's Historical Newspapers database (from Readex and the
American Antiquarian Society) and have new "show me" information.
...
This all sinks Congressman Willard Van Diver and his 1900 alleged use, and
the 1896 use by Colorado miners.
...
...
...
28 October 1894, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 10:
Johnson (John S. Johnson, a bicycle rider --ed.) says that he can cover a
mile in 1:30 flat, but being from Missouri he will have to show me.
EATON.
...
...
13 November 1894, Morning World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 3:
They're From Missouri.
Fowler, Dick & Walker, against whom P. H. Fotheringham has brought a $10,000
damage suit, are from Missouri and want to be shown. They have filed in the
district court a motion for a more specified statement on the part of
Fotheringham.
...
...
23 December 1894, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 18:
A few days after that "a tall, long, lank, underfed, wall-eyed, slab-sided,
hatchet-faced girl" from the state where you have to "show me" came up to the
window with an "I say, mister, what's the fare down home again?"
...
...
1 December 1895, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 19:
Your uncle will not believe that Omaha will be in the Western league until
along in the shank of next season, when a team with the word "Omaha" emblazoned
 upon the shirts of players in actual service can be shown to him. And he is
not from Missouri, either.
...
...
21 February 1896, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 3:
This ballot was also made formal and Mr. (W. H. --ed.) Bradley was called
for. He was bashful, but the convention howled until he mounted the platform
declaring, "I'm from Missouri and have to be shown."

------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org