"No noose is good news" (1870)

[Barry Popik]

No news is good news.
James Howell, _Familiar Letters, 3 June 1640.
--_Yale Book of Quotations_ (2006), pg. 617.
...
...
11 December 1866, Waukesha (WI) Plaindealer, pg. 4, col. 1:
The Boston _Post_ says: "Hanging a priest and a reporter will not
obliterate Fenianism." It evidently forgets that a reporter cannot be
hanged. Where would they get the _noose_? (news.)
...
13 January 1870, Decatur (IL) Republican, pg. 1, col. 1:
To the condemned man no noose is good news.
...
4 April 1872, Iowa State Reporter (Waterloo, Iowa), pg. 2, col. 4:
No noose is good news, as the man said when he was reprieved.
...
13 April 1872, Portsmouth (OH) Times, pg. 1, col. 8:
To the condemned man no noose is good news.
...
12 September 1882, Chicago (IL) Daily Trobune, pg. ?:
Mr. Tracey is beginning to think that no noose is good noose.
...
17 October 1894, Monroe (WI) Evening Times, pg. 4, col. 1:
When lynchings are finally suppressed no noose will be good news.
...
13 June 1895, Brooklyn (NY) Daily Eagle, pg. 6:
No noose is good news to him. As the rope here has given way to the
electric chair, the foregoing remark is withdrawn.
...
8 May 1912, Daily Northwestern (Oshkosh, WI), "Notes by the Funny
Men," pg. 7, col. 2:
"I have held a reprieve for you from the home secretary," said the
governor of the prison to the callous murderer. "Ah!" replied the
latter, "No noose is good news, as the proverb says."
...
17 April 1926, Logansport (IN) Morning Press, pg. 4, col. 4:
CHAIRMAN--What, Mr. Tinder, would you deem an ideal penalty for those
who flaunt the Volstead law?
TINDER--Hanging for first offense.
CHAIRMAN--What? Hanging for first offenders?
TINDER--Yes. hanging! No noose is good noose without a penalty like that.
...
13 April 1927, Coshocton (OH) Tribune, pg. 6, col. 6:
_As He Left the Pen_
"No noose is good noose," said the pardoned murderer. -- Cornell Widow.
...
1 June 1928, Kingsport (TN) Times, "Jokes," pg. 4, col. 3:
Counsel (to condemned)--You are not going to be hanged after all.
Killer--No noose is good news.
...
27 January 1930, Tyrone (PA) Daily Herald, pg. 6, col. 6:
_Getting the Hang of It_
"Even the bluest of the bluebloods," says the warden of Sing Sing
prison, "cannot trace their ancestry far back without encountering the
gallows or a prison." In studying the family tree no noose is good
news.--South Bend Tribune.
...
25 June 1930, Charleston (WV) Gazette, pg. 6, col. 5:
_Or Hanged_
Montgomery News
One is being told of the fellow that was about to be hung. Just as the
trap was about to be sprung a message was received granting him a
reprieve. Hearing the message he remarked: "No noose is good noose."
And they hanged him anyway.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org