hoeboy (?)

[Dennis R. Preston]

How bout "hobo'?

dInIs

>---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>Subject:      hoeboy (?)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>An unprincipled scoundrel, named Conrad Sweidenmeyer, or some such
>outlandish name, has long been in the habit of making sausages and
>Bologna puddings out of dead rats, cats, dogs, and even horses, by
>which abominable villainy he has realized a considerable fortune.
>***  People can not be too cautious how they even touch sausages --
>even when made properly and by Christians, there is something
>disgusting about them; but as they are now made, by hoeboys, and out
>of putrid dogs and rats, they are truly horrifying.  The sale of
>them ought to be interdicted by law.
>         Subterranean, June 28, 1845, p. 2, col. 3
>
>Is this perhaps "hoe-boy", i. e., farmer?   Sweidenmeyer seems like
>a typical city guy, though.  But perhaps other sausage vendors at
>the time were from the country.  Otherwise, I'm baffled.
>
>Bon appetit.
>
>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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>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of English
15C Morrill Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517-353-4736
preston at msu.edu

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