shell-bark (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Besides Shellbark Hickory, there are other varieties such as pignut,
mockernut, shagbark . . .

Have you ever run across any of these terms used the same was as you've
been seeing "shell bark"?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
Behalf Of
> Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2012 10:27 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: shell-bark
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
----------------------
> -
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: shell-bark
>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
> -
>
> 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=rFE
lqc&re
> sult=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" --- ???
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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