A Conversation in Flash

[George Thompson]

        Dialogue in a famous Five Point Crib.
A Cockney pick-pocket enters, and calls out to the bar boy.
        "Here, my tulip, can you patter flash?"
        "Like a knife."
        "Vell, then, vere are the larkies?"
        "Rumbling the flat, upsides."
        "'Ave they wing'd a pigeon?"
        "No, when you don't mean it."
        "Then pass the grammar to feather him quick; for the traps have been
ogling the ken for the last half hour."
        Whereon, Cockney polishes of[f] a small of max, while the boy goes
upstairs with his message.
        The Wag, November 30, 1839, p. 2, col. 4

        crib: HDAS (sense 2a) *1823, 1848 U. S.  my notes: 1845
        feather (v): not in HDAS, Cassell's 2nd
        flash (n): HDAS *1673, &c.; 1805, 1840, U. S.
        flat: HDAS *1753, &c.; 1791, &c., U. S.
        grammar (n): not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
        ken: HDAS *1739 - *1822, &c.; 1859 U. S.  GAT: 1827
        knife:  not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
        larkies: HDAS (sense 2) 1833
        max: HDAS *1739 - *1822, &c.; 1859 U. S.
        mean it: not in HDAS or Cassell's 2nd
        ogling: HDAS *1682, &c; 1806, 1848 U. S.  GAT: 1834
        patter (v) Cassell's 2nd late 18th C
        pigeon: Cassell's 2nd late 16th C
        rumbling (v): Cassell's 2nd (sense 1, to pick a pocket) early 19th C
        smaller: Cassell's 2nd mid 19th C (U. S.)
        trap: Cassell's 2nd (sense 2) 18th C
        tulip: Cassell's 2nd mid 19th C
        upsides: not in Cassell's 2nd
        wing'd: forgot to look for this

I don't know what the statement "No, when you don't mean it." means.

GAT

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

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