"phat slush", 1872

[Joel S. Berson]

Apparently "Phat Slush" was a nearly daily column in the Little Rock
Daily Republican from Nov., 20 through Dec. 25, 1872.

Joel

At 12/2/2011 12:57 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>What do the experts make of "phat" in the following?  (Found entirely
>by accident -- I was looking for "biting money"; can you find it below?)
>
> From the Little Rock Daily Republican, (Little Rock, AR) Friday,
>December 27, 1872; Issue 225; col A (19th Century U.S. Newspapers):
>
>PHAT SLUSH.
>_____
>
>--No fun.
>--No coal.
>--No mail.
>--St. John.
>--No news.
>--No money.
>--Biting cold weather.
>--Dardanelle [a city in Arkansas] is full of cotton.
>--No trains to or from the east.
>--The mails are very irregular.
>--Yesterday was St. Stephen's day.
>--Ball at "Papa" Geyer's last night.
>--Trains are provokingly unpunctual.
>--No common council this evening.
>--State-house items are wofully scarce.
>--One of the dullest Christmases we ever saw.
>--The river has not been frozen over since 1864.
>--A couple of drunks in the police court yesterday.
>
>[Etc., etc., gradually becoming more and more lengthy, informative,
>and reportorial -- or are they still satirical? -- such as:]
>
>--The Erosophian Adelphi society of St. John's college gives an
>entertainment to-night at City hall for the benefit of its
>library.  The programme is very attractive, and among its features we
>observe "tondraonmiphilipinotrassianento" [sic] by Prof. Bill Smith's
>band, and "M[a?]zeppa with the Epizooty."  The admission cards are
>fifty cents for children, and seventy-five for the dress-circle.  The
>gallery rates are fifty cents.
>      ["Erosophian" =? a portmanteau of "eros" and
>"soph-"?  "Mazeppa" = "A person likened in some way to Mazeppa, esp.
>in being the unwilling rider of a wild horse.", "epizootic = "An
>epizootic disease". (OED.)]
>...
>--A reception was given Stanley, the discoverer of Livingston, on the
>17th, in Boston, by Curtis Guild, of the Commercial Bulletin, at his
>residence, 26 Vernon street.  [Mount Vernon St. is on Beacon
>Hill.]  The affair was quite informal, but very pleasant.  Among
>those present, together with many of the principal newspaper editors
>and proprietors, were Gov. Washburn [William B. was governor in
>1872], Mayor Gaston [William was mayor in 1872], M. P. Wilder, Rev.
>E. Hale, Collector Russell [I have not tried to identify the last
>three] and many distinguished citizens and member of the city
>government.  There were also several ladies present.
>...
>--Little Billy Wagstaff won't tie fire-crackers to his father's bull
>dog's tail any more.  L. B. W. coaxed the pup into an alley which
>runs through to Third street, and he and two or three boon
>cellar-door sliders-down secured the explosive cylinders to the
>stubby tail.  The fusee was ignited, and Billy held Bully, until the
>fizz-z-z! warned him to left go, which he did.  With a popping like
>unto seventeen boxes of Zeisler's soda-water in summer, that
>melancholy dog bounded adown the alley, spreading dismay and burnt
>crackers.  He leaped into some man's cow-stable, and squatted down in
>a pile of straw to nurse his singed tail and his
>wrath.  Unfortunately, a coal of a cracker set fire to the straw, and
>that settled the stable.  Mr. Wagstaff paid the damages, and now
>Billy stands up when he eats.
>      [End of article.]
>
>Ah, the mysteries of 19th-century southwestern journalism!  But what
>does one make of "phat" and "slush" here?
>
>"slush" = (probably) n.1, 4.a., "Rubbishy discourse or literature.
>Also gen., nonsense, drivel; sentimental rubbish."  The OED's
>earliest citation is:
>      1869    'M. Twain' Innocents Abroad x. 91   He'll grind out
>about four reams of the awfullest slush.
>
>Given this, who could argue against the claim that "phat" here means
>"excellent, admirable, 'cool'", and is an antedating by 90 years of
>the OED's 1963?
>
>But I suspect I know whom.  :-)  "Whom" might argue that it is merely
>a fanciful spelling for "fat", adj., a variant of sense 9, perhaps
>9.e., "Typogr. fat take, fat work, in type-setting, work or a piece
>of work especially profitable to the compositor who works by the
>piece. Hence, fat page: one having many blank lines or spaces."  Or
>perhaps 10., "Well supplied with what is needful or desirable.",
>10.b., "Of things: Abundant, plentiful; ...";
>
>Joel
>
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