shell-bark

[Joel S. Berson]

A discovery prompted during deleting of old mail.  I tried Google
Books for shellbark + jury + old + hickory, and found the following:
---------
http://tinyurl.com/7z6mure

Letter from S---l, of Tennessee, Knoxville, July 3d, 1858

Jim H--- tells a good yarn about one of our "shell bark lawyers."[1]
His client was upon two small charges, "frivolous charges," as shell
bark designated them ...  Old shell inflated and exploded loud enough ...

[1]  "Shell bark" refers either to a species of tree, such as the
scaly-bark hickory, or to any tree bark that is scaly or flaky.
Presumably, a "shell bark lawyer," therefore, would be a sly,
untrustworthy, questionable member of the profession, one who today
might be called a "shyster."

[An unnumbered footnote says] "This letter appeared in the Nashville
Union and American, XXIX (July 7, 1858), 2."
----------

In "High Times and Hard Times: Sketches and Tales by George
Washington Harris". Drawings by Mary Alice Babler.  Copyright 1964,
1967 by M. Thomas Inge. Printed by ... Kingsport Press, Inc.  [Title
page not included in preview.]  Page 89.

There is another tale of "old SHELL BARK" at the bottom of page 89,
continuing onto 90; and two more instances of "shell bark" on pages 6 and 42.

This may be High times and hard times; sketches and tales. Edited,
with introductory essays, by M. Thomas Inge. Drawings by Mary Alice
Bahler.  [Nashville] Vanderbilt University Press, 1967.
---------

The footnote-writer seems to be puzzled, too.  And I don't follow his
connection between "scaly and flaky" and "sly, untrustworthy,
questionable" -- is there one?

But the connection to George Washington Harris, as well as to his
(Knoxville) and "Old Hickory"s Tennessee, may be useful.  However,
George's "shell-bark" is 1837, before the 1858 of the above
letter.  And 1837 is a little early for Harris? (he would have been
23).  Wikipedia says "His earliest works were political satires
published in the Knoxville Argus around 1840, and his earliest
attributable works were four sporting stories published in the New
York <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Times>Spirit of the
Times in 1843."

Joel

At 2/6/2012 09:51 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>      The Forcible Argument. -- "Gentlemen of the jury," said a hoosier
>lawyer, addressing a real shell-bark jury, "I say that ere magnanimous sun
>shines in the heavens, though you can't see it, kase it's behind a cloud;
>but you know it, though I can't prove it; so my client, who rises airly and
>hunts coons like an honest man, has a good case, though he can't
>prove it.  Now
>if you believe what I tell you a bout the sun, you are bound on your bible
>oaths to believe what I tell you about my client's case, and if you don't
>then you call me a liar, and that I'll be squatawa'd if I'll stand it
>anyhow; so if you don't want to swear false and have no trouble, you'd
>better give us our case."
>
>      New-York Daily Express, August 11, 1837, p. 2, col. 5
>
>
>"Shell-bark" seems not to be in the OED; I think it is in DARE.
>"Hoosier" is in the OED from 1826, but note the typo in the quotation:
>1826    in *Chicago
>Tribune<http://ezproxy.library.nyu.edu:32445/view/Entry/88346?rskey=rFElqc&result=1&isAdvanced=true>
>* (1949) 2 June 20/3   The Indiana hoosiers that came out last fall is
>settled from 2 to 4 milds of us.
>"squatawa'd" --- ???

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