shell-bark

[Joel S. Berson]

At 2/13/2012 10:22 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>Andrew Jackson was called "Old Hickory" because he was tough (consider
>his duel with Charles Dickinson, in which he stood still and took
>Dickinson's shot, so that he was able to fire an aimed fatal shot back),
>and hickory is a tough wood (try and chop it with an axe sometime).
>
>Why wouldn't "shell bark" simply mean "tough"?

Perhaps, perhaps not.  I too do not see the foot-note writer's logic
leading to "sly".  But -- The lawyer in the first story I found
walked out on his client.  It ends,

>"I'm done with all sich infernal fools." And he left the
>conscientious one [the defendant, who wouldn't lie] to his fate.

In the second story, "Old Shell" induces two Justices of the Peace
"for a mountain district" into moving the trial outdoors, starts to
ride off under the excuse that he has forgotten his law book, and
says to the defendant
>"Jist as soon es the top of my hat sinks behind yan hill, du you
>jist run like hounds wer arter you, and mix yerself in that ar
>thicket an never bee seed in these parts agin."  Which order was
>fully obeyed.

The prisoner escaped, because the constable thought it was best to
stay and guard the other three defendants.  This tale ends,

>It is needless to add that old Shell has not practices before that
>court since, nor has he been on that circuit. Old Shell is prudent
>as well as sagacious.

Sounds more like slippery (elm) than tough (shell-bark hickory).  But
there must be some reason for George
Washington Harris to have called the lawyer in these tales "Old Shell[bark]".

Joel

> > -----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

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