"going it like cripples"

[Wilson Gray]

WRT seldom-heard (wasn't there once a character named "Seldom-Seen
Smith," who was seldom seen?) exclamations:

"Outhouse mouse! Let's get this show on the road!"

That's the only thing that I took away from a story that I read in the
Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, somewhere 'nother, back in the day.
This is the only time that I've seen this exclamation and I've nver
heard any one say it. Of course, I have heard and read,

"Let's get this show on the road!"

> 1838 _Morning Herald_ (NYC) (Aug. 6) [19th C. US Newsp.]: Jim _goes to_ jump,
> Frank _goes to_ fiddle, and George _[goes] to_ learn to dance. - "Go it ye cripples!"
>

This looks like the same _go to_ " have the intention to" or some
such, (don't see it in HDAS, but, then, it's a regionalism, not slang)
that's still around in BE and SE. I'm not certain, needless to say,
but I think that it's now extinct in the North.

While looking for -Go to_, I came across _gnarly_. Anybody else recall
Lyon S. de Camp's SF story, The _Gnarly_ Man? IIRC, it was about a
Neanderthal man who had somehow survived into modern times.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain


On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 7:25 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: "going it like cripples"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> HDAS was supposed to have "Go it, you cripples!" from the same era, but it
> seems to have
> fallen through the cracks. (ISTR that I couldn't decide whether it should go
> under "go" or "cripple." Â It was set aside in the confusion.
>
> However:
>
> 1834 _New Sporting Magazine_ (London) (Jan.) VI 204: Â The Chase...go it you
> cripples!
>
> 1838 _Morning Herald_ (NYC) (Aug. 6) [19th C. US Newsp.]: Jim goes to jump,
> Frank goes to fiddle, and George to learn to dance. - "Go it ye cripples!"
>
> 1839 _Ohio Statesman_ (Columbus, O.) (Aug. 21) [ibid.]: We again repeat, "go
> it, cripples."
>
> 1840 _Ohio Statesman_ (Columbus, O.) (July 1) [ibid.]: Too much corruption
> to hang on one stem, eh. Go it cripples, and old nick take the cast offs.
>
> 1852 John Morgan _The Life and Adventures of William Buckley_ (Hobart, Tas.:
> MacDougall) 166 [ref. to ca1832]: Captain Preston...was somewhat remarkable
> amongst us for odd expressions,=97made applicable by him, to all things, all
> times, and all circumstances. The one most general with him was, "Go it ye
> cripples." If the wine bottle was to be pushed about, the pass-word was, "Go
> it ye cripples; " if at a rubber of whist, and the next player was a slow
> coach, it was "Go it ye cripples; "=97if anything was to be said or done, the
> cry was the same, "Go it ye cripples."
>
> 1860 [
> http://www.christies.com/LotFinder/LotDetailsPrintable.aspx?intObjectID=3D4=
> 713759]:
> Go it, ye cripples, wooden legs are cheap.
>
> 1863 "C.D." _From Matter to Spirit_ (London: Longman) xxxviii: Manners
> before everything - a slang line which I suppose is part of a modern song:
> Go it, ye cripples! crutches are cheap!
>
> 1891 _Milwaukee Sentinel_ (Jan. 4) 7 [ibid.]: A race! A race! Go it,
> cripples! Ten thousand to nothing on the winner!
>
> Quaint, and GB has hundreds of ex. Â The expression was in use on three
> continents. It is said that it originated in William Moncrieff's play of
> Pierce Egan's "Tom and Jerry" (1821), but I haven't been able to verify
> this.
>
> Since this is not HDAS, I save the best and currently earliest ex. for last=
> .
>
>
> 1833 William H. Breton _Excursions in New South Wales_ (London: Bentley) 27=
> :
> At a spot where they had no expectation of meeting with any person, they
> heard a cry of  "Go it, ye cripples, crutches are cheap!"  On looking about
> them, they observed some of the natives emerge from the forest, one of whom
> must have heard an officer use the expression when exploring the country,
> and not improbably fancied it was our mode of salutation.
>
> JL
>
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2011 at 9:48 PM, George Thompson <george.thompson at nyu.edu>wr=
> ote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Â  Â  Â  George Thompson <george.thompson at NYU.EDU>
>> Subject: Â  Â  Â "going it like cripples"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> ------
>>
>> A wagon was broken in Chatham square yesterday -- the axletree giving way=
> .
>> Â The wagon was fully freighted with some half dozen jolly young gallants
>> who
>> were "going it like cripples" at the time.
>> New York Herald, January 11, 1847, p. 2, col. 3
>>
>> Full text. Â No doubt the gallants were drunk; probably speeding, too (i.
>> e.,
>> driving more than 8 mph). Â Still. . . .
>>
>> GAT
>>
>> --
>> George A. Thompson
>> Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
>> Univ.
>> Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.
>>
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>
>
>
> --=20
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org