slum

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>Here it transparently means "a dollar."  But why?  I don't believe
>I've seen this sense before.
>
>   1863 _Hooley's Opera House Songster_ (N.Y.: Dick & FitzGerald)
> 32: "So I‭'‭ll go and jump a bounty, / And have a
> little spree." / Joe went and put his name down,/  And got three
> hundred " slums," / And then skedaddled and ran away.

I don't find any such word right away. What is the evidence for
"slum" = "dollar"? From the above limited context, I suppose maybe
the reference is to an army enlistment bonus or something like that.
Possibly the "slums" were not really dollars per se, even if they
were called "dollars" elsewhere in the text; perhaps they were "slum
dollars" meaning dollar-denominated commissary tokens, or some sort
of scrip dollars of doubtful value, or Confederate paper dollars, or
something like that (with "slum" = "cheap"/"bogus" as in some other
contexts). Just woolgathering.

-- Doug Wilson


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