Boston Globe 1889 article on hash-house lingo; questions

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>1) Why does a bank cashier in Canada have many names?

Presumably this refers to some item peculiar to the time.

Here is one possibility.

According to the newspapers, a cashier -- variously named in the papers but
often "Alphonse Parant" -- of the Hochelaga Bank in Montreal absconded with
some funds and was arrested in the US in 1887 -- after trying to convert
his money through tactics involving use of pseudonyms, according to the papers.

If this event was not the origin, something like it probably was ... after
all, why would a bank cashier become involved in a figure of speech?

-- Doug Wilson


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