Why is it that a free lunch is never free (1898 Oct 22) and other citations

[Garson O'Toole]

The economic maxim "There is no so thing as a free lunch" has been
discussed on ADS-L a few times and is listed in the YBQ. Fred Shapiro
discusses it on 2009 May 7th in his New York Times blog and says: "… I
traced "There ain’t no such thing as free lunch" back to the El Paso
Herald-Post, June 27, 1938, where it appeared as the punch line of an
economics joke."

 I think that I have found an interesting antecedent in the form of a
one-liner joke.

"Why is it that a free lunch is never free?" Citation: "Why?" Trenton
Evening Times, Trenton, New Jersey, page 6, October 22, 1898. The
article also appears on page 4 of another edition of Trenton Evening
Times published on the same day.

The context of the citation is an article consisting of a series of
one line joke-maxim combinations. Here are a few of the jests from the
article entitled "WHY?":

Why is it that a free lunch is never free?
Why isn't the bride well dressed who is well groomed.
Why shouldn't a man be excused for being bigoted against bigotry?

The source is given as "Chicago Daily News" in a version of the story
published 1898-10-23 in The Nebraska State Journal. So there is a
chance that the article appeared earlier in a Chicago paper or
somewhere else.

On the same date above, 1898-10-22, in another newspaper there is a
joke with a punch line saying that a free lunch is not a very cheap
thing. The joke is written with deliberately altered spelling to
indicate a pseudo-Swedish accent and dialect:

A free lunch es not very cheap teng
after all, ven von consider how many
faller get poor eatin' 'em.

Citation: "Our Swedish Philosopher", page 5, The Decatur Evening
Republican, Decatur, Illinois, 1898-10-22.

In 1917 there is a literal use of the canonical phrase in an article
about an ordinance forbidding free lunch in saloons. The article
discusses one person who opposes the ordinance.

"There is no such thing as a free lunch," he said. First of all you
have to buy something from the saloonkeeper before you can partake of
the lunch."

Citation: "Says Saloon Free Lunch is Redeeming Feature", page 7, Eau
Claire Leader, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1917-05-27.

I hope that these references help to illuminate the history of the phrase.
Garson O'Toole

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