"lobster back", puzzling meaning

[Douglas G. Wilson]

> I forgot to mention an interesting quotation revealed by Google
> Books, with a possibly different sense:
>
> 1847, in Historical Collections of Ohio: Containing a Collection of
> the Most ... by Henry Howe - Ohio - 1847 - 581 pages, Page 254 "If
> any traveller, in passing through Ohio, should chance to see a large
> number of " lobster back" people on the farms, or about the village
> taverns, ...".
>
The reference is to people wearing a certain red flannel garment: looks
like it probably just means "[people] dressed in red" or so.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ri8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA254&dq=%22lobster+back+people%22&lr=&num=100&as_brr=0#PPA254,M1

-- Doug Wilson

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