Carny Slang, 1886

[George Thompson]

Disclaimer: this article does not contain the word "carny" -- it would be a 50 year antedating if it did.

Contains some other nice stuff, though.

        The speaker formed one of a group who sat at a round table in "a beer joint" much frequented by "showmen."  They had been relating their experiences of last season "on the road" with [a circus or carnival] with which most of them had been more or less associated.  One had related how he had "downed an old guy wot was a merchant in der town" by steering him into a "bunco game."  Another had delighted his hearers by recounting how he had "laid out the jays" with a "jewelry case."  A third gloried in the way the played "the push-back game". . . .
         ***  They were all slangy.  They called everybody of whom they spoke "Guys."  Some -- the more important persons -- were designated as "Main Guys."  Countrymen were "Jays," "Hayseeds," "Blokes" and "Suckers."  Money was called "Blunt," "Tin," or "Cases."  "Beer" or other drinks were spoken of as "Lush," clothes as "Togs" or "Harness," food as "Grub," conversation as "Weedings," their verb to see was rendered "Stag," eyes were called "Ogles," a hat a "Dicer" or a "Cady," while ladies were spoken of as "Dames," girls as "Molls," arguments as "Guff," clowns as "Joeys" and bank bills as "Flimsies."
        ***  "***  Den I got in wid der candy butchers, and I was hired to peddle lemonade on de seats by der man wot had der privileges."
        "What are the privileges?"
        "Well, der privileges is wot dey pays der money for to run on der lot wid the big show, such as der side shows, der concert, der candy stands, . . . jewelry cases, weighing machines, and der fakin' generally."
        "Are there privilege men will all shows?"
        "Of course dey is!  ***"
        "And they all make money by 'faking," as you call it?"
        [Yes]  ***  But what I say goes.  You hear me!   ***
        [a long explanation of a scam]  "Let's call 'em Smith and Brown.  You see Smith works the racket and Brown caps for him.  ***  . . . there is always a real nice gentleman there in good togs and a gold chain, and a smile, and I tell you he's a daisy, he is!  ***   . . . Smith and de old guy stop to look at the pictures and listen to de cacklers and cappers outside de side-show tent.  ***  You see how the old guy tryin' to get somethin' for nothin', and that's the way he got done.  He thought he was smart!'
        "What do you mean by 'turn back?'  ***'  "Oh, that's an old fake.  Everybody plays it.  ***"  [In giving out paper money in change, the carny folds over one of the bills so that it is counted twice.]
                THE "THROUGH TICKET" GAME.
        "Are there any more schemes for plucking the jays?"  "Lots!  There's the jewelry case and envelope game.  You know all about them, and then there's the through ticket dodge."  [The jay buys a ticket; when he shows it at the entrance,] "Pshaw," says the fakir, "that's only a ticket of admission.  You want to get a through ticket. ***  [It gets you] in everywheres -- menagerie, reserved seats, dressing room -- any place about the tent.  [If the jay falls for this, he's given a bit of cardboard to put in his hatband.]  Well, the ticket in the jay's hat is a steer for any one else in the job.  It marks him down fine [?], and every feller drops onto him as a sucker. . . .  He's everybody's sucker after that."
        ***  "Well, dere's lots of [country dudes], and them's the fellers the boys play the
                PHOTOGRAPH GAME
On.  That's lots of fun, too!  You see most all shows has got a handsome lady rider. . . .  Well, a country dude gets mashed on her and then the photograph fiend goes for him.  [The fiend offers to sell the dude a photograph of the lass for $10 or $25; the dude says that there are photos of her being sold inside for a quarter; the fiend says that his photos are "introduction photographs" -- if the dude takes it to her dressing room, she will let him show her back to her hotel that night.]  Nine times out of ten the dude bites, gives up his money, gets kicked out of the dressing-room and has der stuffin' kicked out of him by der boys. . . .
        [The reporter: it's no wonder that these shows are sometimes attacked by mobs.]  "Oh, der shows git der best of it," the fakir replied.  "We just shout, 'Hey, rube," when dere's a muss, and der boys lay 'em out and don't stop to count der dead and wounded.
        It ain't no use to talk, yer can't run a show widout fakin' any more den yer can talk widout wind.  Yer hear me!
        The World, April 25, 1886, p. 11, cols. 1-2

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In order of appearance:

"push-back game": doesn't appear elsewhere in the story; CDS lacks
"bloke": HDAS: sense 2,, foolish or worthless person, 1887, 1889, 1893, &c.
"weeding": CDS: lacks noun, has verb "to talk" from late 18th C  "dicer": HDAS: 1887    CDS: late 19th C
"joey": HDAS has 1889, from British source; first U. S. citation is 1925; CDS: late 19th C
        If this is derived from the first name of Joseph Grimaldi, the famous early 19th C English clown -- the usual explanation -- it's remarkable that it's not recorded until about 50 years after his death.
"privileges": This is a special application of a common word; but I don't see in the OED a citation in this context; CDS lacks this sense
"faking": HDAS: (5a) *1859, 1889, 1895  CDS: mid 19th C
"privilege men": CDS lacks this sense
"But what I say goes."  HDAS: 1890; CDS: late 19th C
"You hear me!"  HDAS has "I hear you", from the mid 20th C; CDS has similar.
        This differs in implication from "Do you hear me?" as might be said by a mommy who wants to make make an order emphatic.  Here this seems to = "Believe it!"  It appears in the last sentence, also, where this sense is quite clear.
"caps for": HDAS: 1811 (British), 1859, 1889 (British), and all from dictionaries; the first free-range citation is from 1906; adds the comment "usu. with 'in'"
"cackler": HDAS lacks this sense, as does CDS   I take this to refer to the talkers who are giving the pitch to get the suckers to buy a ticket.
"capper": HDAS: "a person who decoys victims into a crooked gambling game or other swindle", from 1849 in the U. S.
        It's true that this article is about the crookedness of the circus/carnival operation, but the word seems the mean here the outside talker who sells tickets to the sideshow.
        In any event, for a passage in which the capper lures customers into a more-or-less legitimate business, compare:
        A young man who acts as “capper” for a photograph gallery was very suddenly squelched yesterday afternoon.  [He stands in front of the gallery, addresses passing young women as “Girlie”, invites them to have their picture taken; one of the girlies whacks him with her parasol.]  The World, May 31, 1886, p. 5, col. 1
"envelope game": Not explained in the text.
"through ticket dodge": CDS lacks this.
"steer": CDS: sense #1, information, late 19th C
"drop onto": HDAS, sense 4c, recognize, 1928, but lacks "drop onto"; CDS has drop, drop on drop to
"photograph game": CDS lacks
"mashed on": HDAS: (2) has the sense of "to flirt with", lacks this sense of "to be smitten with"
"photograph fiend": HDAS & CDS lacks an applicable sense.
        Compare HOW BAGGAGE IS HANDLED.  An Hour with the Trunk Fiend at a Railroad Depot.  The World, January 20, 1884, p. 11, col. 6
        Also: The men-about-town are getting to be notorious lunch fiends. . . .  New York Globe, May 12, 1883, p. 3, col. 2.  For what it's worth, the Globe was edited by T. Thomas Fortune and intended to serve the black population of NYC and elsewhere.
"introduction photograph": not in HDAS or CDS  "stuffing": OED (2d): 1887, 1895; CDS: late 19th C
"hey, rube": OED: 1882; CDS: late 19th C

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