"Cracker Jack" (1870, 1884...)

[Stephen Goranson]

Is this relevant or not for the origin of "cracker jack"?

1870 The Milwaukee Sentinel, (Milwaukee, WI) Thursday, October 06, 1870; Issue
235; page 3, col A. A Cup of Cold Water Category: News [19th C US N]
[col. D]....Chicago has lately seen an Indian half-breed who played at
billiards so well, that he beat even "Cracker Jack," "Pete Snyder," and other
billiard sharps.

1879 Inter Ocean, (Chicago, IL) Friday, October 10, 1879; pg. 5; Issue
163; col
E. Paying the Penalty Execution of McManus, the Molly Maguire?The Crime for
Which He Suffered Category: News [col. F]
Bloomingtin Ill. Oct. 9--Deputy Sheriff Cook arrived from Kansas City this
morning with Jack McKeern, alias "Cracker Jack," who was recently indicted for
highway robbery.

1884 St. Louis Globe-Democrat, (St. Louis, MO) Wednesday, October 15,
1884; pg.
6; Issue 146; col E      Murdered by a Mob Two Terrible Crimes Stain
the Annals
of Callaway County Category: News [col. F] ....Jack McKern, a noted
rough, known as "Cracker Jack," was sentenced to one tear in the Penitentiary
for burglary.

1888 The Daily Inter Ocean, (Chicago, IL) Sunday, September 02, 1888; pg. 12;
Issue 165; col A.
Celestials on the Diamond San Francisco Mongolians Wallop the Chicago
Contingent by a Large Majority Category: News
....Then came the slugger, the shot-stop [sic], Wung Fung. He would get eighth
money in a field of nine ordinary, corner-lot, street-gamins, as a
batsman, but he was a "cracker jack" in this class." Lifting the willow, with
that easy grace with which a coal-heaver would handle a billiard-cue, he "lined
her out.

1888ff it spread into horse racing (cf ads-l archives, and stayed in baseball,
and still in billiards:)

1891 The Daily Inter Ocean, (Chicago, IL) Monday, November 23, 1891; pg. 6;
Issue 244; col C
     Billiardist Berger Michael Geary on the First Great Ivory Pusher
Category: News
....he was a billiard-player...and a cracker-jack.

1892 Bismarck Daily Tribune, (Bismarck, ND) Tuesday, February 09, 1892; pg. 2;
col A
     It seems, according to goosipy newspaper reports, that Congressman Johnson
was not the only gentleman taken in by "Cracker Jack" a noted character about
Washington

1892 Morning Oregonian, (Portland, OR) Sunday, March 20, 1892; pg. 16; Issue 8;
col C
     Gossip of Sports The Dudley Medal Contest Today
Category: Sports
Mitchell says he [a boxer] is a cracker jack and thinks he can beat Bogan.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

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