"guineas"; also "dagoes"; and a quiz

George Thompson george.thompson at NYU.EDU
Mon Oct 30 16:19:21 UTC 2006


        The following is from the New-York Daily Tribune, July 17, 1882, p. 8,
col. 1:
        THE ITALIAN QUARTER.  STRANGE NIGHT SCENES IN NEW-YORK.  LOCAL
GEOGRAPHY – HOW ITALIANS LIVE IN AMERICA – SOMETHING TO ADMIRE.  The
“Hoodlum” of New-York, with his senses deadened to the beauty of the
Latin tongue and the mellow Neapolitan accent, has bestowed upon the
races that use it with such volubility the names of “Guineas” and
“Dagoes.”  ***

        HDAS has 1890 & 1894, &c. for “Guinea" as applied to Italians; “Dago"
is there in that sense from 1875, 1877 & 1882.  The 1877 citation
localizes “Dago" to Louisiana, so the citation above at least shows it
was more widely spread and probably a deal older than the 1870s.

        Now for the quiz:
        The following is from the New-York Daily Tribune, November 23, 1884, p.
10, cols. 1-3
        THE CRADLE OF CHOLERA.  A SANITARY STUDY OF THE SLUMS.  THE FEATURES OF
THE ITALIAN QUARTER OF NEW-YORK.  By  Charles F. Wingate.
        ***  Stand on the beach at Rockaway and watch the magnificent rollers
sweeping in straight from across the Atlantic, and dashing against the
pebbly shore, their white crests shining in the sunlight; then visit
Coney Island after the garbage scows have dumped their pestilential
loads into the sea, covering the whole beach with rotting, reeking
masses gathered from the gutters and sinks of the metropolis.  This
first scene fairly typifies the early emigration to tbis country. . . .
  The other scene typifies the wretched off-scourings of Europe now
being cast on our chores, ignorant, degraded, decrepit, untrained and
reduced to the lowest moral, physical and mental state.  ***

On which beach did the ancestors of Charles F. Wingate first wash up?
        a: Rockaway
        b: Coney Island
        c: Botany Bay
        d: I don't know

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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