cut the mustard

[Jonathan Lighter]

This looks like a valid ex. to me. Justas Shank is a "ladies' man"
(self-explanatory), Downey is a "wind-splitter" (someone who can move very
rapidly: see HDAS IV on some parallel world not quite identical to Earth),
and Cox a "mustard cutter" (someone who gets things done efficiently).

JL

On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 7:49 PM, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: cut the mustard
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In 1888 a letter to The Railroad Brakemen's Journal from someone in
> Trenton, Missouri includes some nicknames assigned to workers. A
> person named Cox is called the "mustard cutter", and a person named
> Downey is called the "wind splitter". Unfortunately, this seems to be
> an isolated example, so I do not know if it is related to the
> expression "cut the mustard". I submit it as a curiosity. Perhaps
> another example with additional context will be found in the future.
>
> OED3 cites "cut the mustard" from 1891 as Ben notes.
>
> Cite: 1888 July, The Railroad Brakemen's Journal (The Railroad
> Trainman), Communications, "Yours in B., S. & I., Guess Who", Page
> 314, Column 2, Number 7, Volume V,  Official Organ of the Brotherhood
> of Railroad Brakemen.
>
> Editor Journal: - We have a good lodge here, with twenty-nine members
> in good standing, and have four more applicants for membership. ...
> The boys who wear the signs on chain-gang are J. J. Jones, Hough,
> Phillips, M. B. Howard, Key, Carter, Miller, Blanchard, Nicholson,
> Shank (the ladies' man), Hinkins, Dow, Jacks, Mathews, Cox (the
> "mustard cutter"), and Downey (the "wind splitter"). The west end K.
> C. captains are Finch, Hatch, Rodgers, Simpson, Hurless and
> Harrington.
>
> http://books.google.com/books?id=NNDNAAAAMAAJ&q=mustard#v=snippet&
>
> Garson
>
> On Wed, Jul 6, 2011 at 5:47 AM, Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu>
> wrote:
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> -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
> > Subject:      cut the mustard
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Might "cut the mustard" once have meant cutting a path through overgrown
> mustard weeds,
> > getting out of a rough patch, ability to escape a fix? If so, comparisons
> to
> > mustard quality and to muster may have come later.
> >
> > The 19th-century US West left stories sf mustard thickets. The Nation 49
> (1889) 308 tells of mustard plants eleven feet high.
> > A fellow reportedly "once got lost _on horseback_ in a wild-mustard
> field."
> > In another history,"Undaunted, Spurgeon [circa 1874?] cut a road through
> the wild mustard
> > and induced the stage operators to come to his city."
> > (Orange County through four centuries, 60.)
> >
> > The OED' s first quote in context:
> > 1891 The Galveston Daily News,  April 9; pg. 4;  col C
> >  "The Nebraska legislators ran high jinks out of the city on the night of
> their adjournment.
> > They applied several coats of carmine hue and cut the mustard over all
> their predecessors."
> > Did they "paint the town red," then quickly leave?
> >
> > 1894 McClure's magazine, Volume 2, p.253
> > "I never killed anybody, though they say I did. It was a frame on me,
> absotively. I cut the mustard, and
> > they caught me in Key West." [escaped]
> >
> > 1907 Agricultural advertising: Volume 18 - Page 199
> > "Loosen up and let the politicians, the bulls and bears of Wall Street,
> and calamity magazine publishers
> >  go over in the back lot and kick each others' slats in while we cut the
> mustard." [while we get out of there?]
> >
> > 1909 Hunter-trader-trapper: Volume 17, Issue 5 - Page 101
> > "The live coyote we tied to the buggy wheel, and while I was gone after a
> strap and chain he bit the rope off
> > and "cut the mustard" for parts unknown with about a foot of rope still
> hanging to him." [escaped]
> >
> > Stephen Goranson
> > http://www.duke.edu/~goranson
> >
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> >
>
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