Combination: kangaroo court (antedating 1841 August 24)

[Garson O'Toole]

The 1841 cite I posted is already known. Barry Popik found it and
posted it at his important website The Big Apple. Here is the link to
his research on the term "kangaroo court". Apologies to Barry and list
members for missing it:

http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/kangaroo_court/

The text of the Daily Picayune story suggests there is an article
using the term "kangaroo court" in June, July, or August of 1941 in
the Concordia Intelligencer. There is a searchable digital copy of the
June 16, 1841 Concordia Intelligencer at the LOUISiana Digital
Library. But I could not find "kangaroo" in that issue. Here is a
link:

http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/LSU_LNP&CISOPTR=242&REC=16

The Chronicling America website has a list of libraries that have the
newspaper Concordia Intelligencer.

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83016573/holdings/

Very few libraries have coverage in the relevant months of 1941. These
two institutions might:
Center For Res Libr, Newsp Proj, Chicago, IL
Tulane Univ, New Orleans, LA

On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 12:05 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Combination: kangaroo court (antedating 1841 August 24)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> OED (1989) kangaroo, n. 4. b. Special combs. kangaroo court
>
> The first citation given in the OED is 1853 'P. PAXTON' Stray Yankee in Texas.
>
> The ADS list archive has several citations. The earliest seems to be
> 1849 January 12 (reprinting an article dated of 1948 December 1).
>
> Here is a newspaper article from 1841. The author is reprinting
> information from another newspaper, and the piece ends with a question
> asking about the term "Kangaroo court".
>
> Cite: 1841 August 24, The Daily Picayune (Times-Picayune), Don't
> Comprehend, Page 2, Column 5, New Orleans, Louisiana. (GenealogyBank)
>
> DON'T COMPREHEND.--The Concordia Intel-
> ligencer says "several loafers were lynched in
> Natchez last week upon various charges insti-
> tuted by the Kangaroo court. The times grow
> warm; we can see another storm coming, not
> unlike that which prevailed in the days of the
> Murrel excitement. In Natchez, as in New
> Orleans, they are driving away all of the free
> negroes." What is a Kangaroo court, neigh-
> bor?
>
> (Errors in transcription are possible. Please check original documents
> or scans. The word "Murrel" might be "Marrel".)
>
> The Chronicling America website has some information about the
> publication mentioned but it is not available in the online full-text
> Chronicling America database.
>
> Title: Concordia intelligencer. : (Vidalia, Parish of Concordia, La.) 1841-187?
> Place of publication: Vidalia, Parish of Concordia, La.
> Publisher:  C.S. Smith
> Dates of publication: 1841-187?
> Description: Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 16, 1841)-
>
> Based on this date of inception the original story appeared in June,
> July, or August of 1941 in the Concordia Intelligencer.
>
> Garson
>
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>

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