king-pin Part III

Mon May 21 10:48:10 UTC 2012

These are all going with king-pin 1., but what about king-pin 2.? If my
guess is correct, there should be earlier instances of the figurative
expression, irrespectively if the mechanical one existed. And we have a
winner (sort of).

http://goo.gl/lUmUH
The old merchants of New York City. By Walter Barrett. New York: 1862
[GB: 1864]
p. 140
 > It is a very curious fact, that while E. D. Morgan made his wealth out
 > of the Southern planters, he should have turned against them in after
 > years, and became a King Pin in the ranks of the Republicans. Of late
 > years grocer and Governor E. D. Morgan has engaged in various
 > speculations, especially in railroads. He has the credit of being, to
 > a certain extent, intimate with both Democrats and Republicans.

As the Governor of New York, E. D. Morgan became the de facto leader of
the New York Republican Party.

p. 196
 > Peter Bayard could furnish a list of the old school Battery walkers,
 > for /Peter Bayard's /place on State street next to the old Morton
 > House, was one of the institutions of New York before the Battery,
 > once lively and respectable, became the resort of all that is vile and
 > murderous. The decline of Bayard's House and the Battery began at the
 > same moment, and when both culminated, Peter took it very quietly, and
 > one of our most esteemed New Yorkers, a perfect philosopher in his
 > way, can be seen near the neighborhood of old St. Paul's, noting the
 > cars of the useful Eighth Avenue, as though he had entirely forgotten
 > what a King Pin he ever was, when New York was a moderate city of a
 > quarter of a million of good people, and before the populations of
 > Germany and Ireland had precipitated themselves upon us, and made a
 > monster city of a million who don't. know anything about each other,
 > or who is who!

Again, Peter Bayard is listed as once-King-Pin, one of the leaders of
the city.

p. 220
 > All the rich people were to live in " castles." Mr. Ward built the
 > first one. It is sixty feet square, and modelled after one in
 > Switzerland. It still stands as a land mark of old times -- still
 > called "Ward's Castle," and he still resides in it.
 > Those were white days, and Mr. Ward was a king-pin at New Brighton. I
 > recollect on one occasion a grand fancy ball came off. Mr. Ward
 > appeared as General Washington. He was dressed precisely as the old
 > hero, even to the dress when he took the oath as President at the
 > corner of Nassau and Wall street. Anybody who was not posted would
 > have supposed that Mr. Ward was the real General Washington.

Mr. Ward is yet another city /leader/, not merely an important cog in
the city machinery.

http://goo.gl/PMmqa
Garret van Horn: or, The beggar on horseback. By John S. Sauzade. New
York: 1863
p. 124
 > Off we trudged through Chatham Square and up the Bowery, smoking
 > cinnamon cigars, and discussing the relative merits of Tom Hamblin and
 > Jim Wallack, until we arrived at a tavern called the "King-Pin House,"
 > situated in one of the eastern avenues.

This one is utterly inconclusive. But both books were printed by the
same publisher, Carleton, at 413 Broadway. So was Walter Barrett's novel
Vigor! One of the copies of Barrett's book above and the copy of Vigor
GB lists as authored by Joseph Alfred Scoville. Was "Walter Barrett" a
pseudonym? Indeed that appears to be the case.

http://goo.gl/3jqbB
Vigor: A novel. By Walter Barrett. New York: 1864
p. 174
 > His mistress knew his determined character, and that it would be
 > useless to attempt to interfere with his determination. She was a
 > woman of sound sense also, and loved her children. She looked to the
 > future for them alone, and knowing that the provision the Colonel had
 > secured to her and them would be but a drop to him with his
 > extravagant habits, she forbore to urge his taking the income. So
 > Colonel Mac Neil travelled the world almost alone. He was no longer
 > invited to parties or dinners, and he withdrew from fashiorable
 > society. At last he found he could not keep a room, or board at the
 > City Hotel. He paid his bill and removed; he told no one where he was
 > going. He had an old-fashioned bureau that had belonged to his
 > father—that and his trunk were all his baggage. The cartman that he
 > employed was a strange one, and could not be found after he had
 > removed the Colonel's things. Could one of those fashionable
 > associates have followed Mac, or found him within a week after he left
 > the City Hotel, it would have been in a small, badly-furnished room in
 > a little tenement in Cross, near Pearl street. There was he and his
 > trunks, and he had made an arrangement with the proprietor that he
 > could have that room for a dollar a week, or fifty dollars per annum.
 > The bureau was too large for the room, but the landlord had also a
 > store only a few doors from his house. It was in Centre street, and
 > extended through from Centre to Cross, only a few doors from Pearl. He
 > had been a porter in the Colonel's store in former days, and had got
 > up to be proprietor of a three cent grog shop. It was in the rear of
 > this store that Mac had his bureau. Harry Mercer, the proprietor, was
 > much grieved when Mac told him his situation, but Mac would accept no
 > favors. He was grateful for a home where his poverty would not he
 > exposed, and where it came within his means. Harry Mercer was glad to
 > have Mac there. The bureau took up but little room, and was placed
 > near the rear door. The store was always open at daylight, and Colonel
 > Mac Neil soon after came, opened his bureau, proceeded to shave
 > himself, and after half an hour would be ready to go to take his
 > morning draught. Jemmy the clerk had a bottle of rather choice brandy
 > which was kept exclusively for Mac's own use. Then he would
 > deliberately read the paper with as much satisfaction as when he was
 > spending twenty thousand dollars a year. His old porter respected him
 > and his dignified appearance, for he was scrupulously neat, and his
 > intelligent conversation made him respected by the regular customers
 > of the store, who it is needless to say, were a new set of acquaintances.
 > Colonel Mac Neil was a king-pin among these new people. When he had
 > read the morning papers, he went and procured breakfast somewhere, and
 > then returned. At about eleven o'clock, the same hour that he used to
 > show himself to his fashionable friends, the Colonel would go up to
 > Washington Hall, down in Barclay street, or some other well known
 > resort, where he could mix freely but independently with the old set.

The same text appears a bit earlier and with some minor changes in
another 1864 novel, but one published in London: Marion. By
"Manhattan"--whom WorldCat and GB also list as Joseph Alfred Scoville.
http://goo.gl/55XYn

Whatever Barrett/Scoville implied about the relationship between Mac
Neil and "these new people", it was not one in which they relied on him
as a linchpin in some special arrangement. Is it possible that this
Walter Barrett/James Alfred Scoville might have singlehandedly coined
this particular usage that persists to this day? It's certainly an
intriguing possibility. In fact, only a year later (that would the
fourth year in succession that a record exists of the term being used by
a New York writer), Henry Sedley (perhaps another pseudonym?) offered up
another "king-pin" (albeit through a different publisher, Sheldon &
Company, whose address is not given, but there is a listing for the
printer: A. S. N. Beman & Co., 92-94 Grand Street).

http://goo.gl/o05lk
Marian Rooke; or, The Quest for Fortune: A Tale of the Younger World. By
Henry D. Sedley. New York: 1865
p. 396
 > "Niggers is niggers," muttered Mr. Doke, not relishing the attack on a
 > class always in alliance with his party. "Niggers is niggers; and
 > blowin' won't make 'em white. What do /you /think of it, Colonel
Gollop ?"
 > "Let him cackle," replied Gollop, cautiously, and quite in sympathy
 > politically with his questioner, "if it makes him feel good; for it
 > won't make any difference, no how, and blowin' and bein' king-pin is
 > his baits. Interdoose me to that man--that /rich /man who's fetcht his
 > pile from Californy. I've been tryin' to spot him more 'n a month!"

Again, in my mind, there is no question that this is closer to the
modern usage than it is to the generic one suggested in the OED definition.

The Scoville coinage theory may well be scuttled, however, by yet
another novel from the same period, but published earlier than the rest
and by yet another New York publisher. But that's not quite the
case--this one uses the mechanical idiom, in no way contradicting other
usage.

http://goo.gl/LpJ8y
Philip Thaxter: A novel. By Charles Ames Washburn. New York: 1861
p. 176
 > The roads were wretched, the rain having made deep gullies in an
 > incredibly short space of time, and rendering the earth so soft and
 > pulpy that the wheels sunk in half way to the hubs. They passed
 > several teams that were stuck fast. The teamsters were, nevertheless,
 > in good spirits, and laughed and joked their more fortunate
 > fellow-travelers. One had broken his hind-axle, and was in high glee
 > because he had a spare one in his wagon. He said he knew it would take
 > him a day to unload and fix it and load up again, but he was glad of
 > it, for it would give his team a chance to rest. Another had got fast
 > in the mud, and had got his friend to double teams with him, to help
 > him out. But the king-pin breaking, the fore, part of his wagon
 > dropped in the mud, at which disaster they knew not what to do, but
 > that in the meanwhile they might not get discouraged, they sought
 > consolation from a demijohn of whiskey which was on board the wagon.

The publisher? Rudd & Carleton, of 130 Grand Street. This is the same
Carleton and this book connected to the other three (the Sedley novel
had been printed at 92 Grand Street).

The only remaining item in GB is a 1858 report in Scientific American.
But this item is actually intriguing for an unexpected reason. Here,
"king-pin" unquestionably refers to a piece of hardware.

http://goo.gl/20Xd9
Scientific American. Volume 13 (46). July 24 1858
Science and Art. Lord's Perch Coupling. p. 368/3
 > The king bolt by which the axles of vehicles are connected to the
 > body, and on which they turn, is a very inconvenient appendage, not on
 > account of the space which it occupies, or its shape, but from the
 > fact that it is very liable to break; and as a vehicle changes its
 > center in turning a curve, the king pin being rigid, does not allow
 > the center to change, so that the vehicle is very liable to overturn
 > when rounding a sharp angle. This invention obviates these
 > difficulties, and compels the perch always to traverse the axle,
 > thereby adding to its strength, and lessening the liability to upset,
 > while at the same time it greatly reduces the circle in which the
 > buggy or other vehicle can turn.
 > Fig. 1 shows the perch and front axle of a buggy when straight, and
 > Fig. 2 shows the same when turning a curve, the lines, A A',
 > illustrating the deviation from the center, which the king pin will
 > not allow. A is the perch, the end of which, /b, /slides on a metal
 > plate, I, that has catches or projections, /a, /to prevent the perch
 > sliding too far, and it is secured on to the front axle, H. G are the
 > wheels. To the perch is attached a cross bar, B, to each end of which
 > is pivoted, by pivots, C, a lever, D, also pivoted at E to clips, F,
 > which are firmly secured to the axle, H.
 > It will be seen from the illustration that a steady draft is obtained,
 > and the pull is always directed in the best manner to turn the vehicle
 > in the way desired.
 > This efficient coupling is the invention of W. S. Lord, of Pulaski,
 > Tenn., and was patented by him October 28, 1856. Any further
 > particulars can be obtained from the agent, E. G. Chant, corner of
 > Broadway and Broome St., New York.

Aside from confirming the identification of the king-bolt with the
king-pin (and essentially describing the early patent for struts), there
another interesting moment--the office the agent E. G. Chant is only a
block away from the original offices of Rudd & Carleton and Sheldon &
Co. 413 Broadway (Carleton) currently is the corner of Broadway and
Canal, one block south of 120 Grand Street, and two block south of the
intersection of Broome and Broadway. All four addresses are within two
city blocks of each other (and these are short blocks by NYC
standards!). This looks to be a highly unlikely coincidence. For good
measure, Charles Amos Washburn is the inventor of the typewriter, but
from 1861 to 1863, he was in the US diplomatic mission to Paraguay, and
prior to 1860 he was in California. Apparently, in that short span
between his residence in California and the sojourn to Paraguay, he had
submitted a novel that was published in NYC by the same publisher that
later published Scoville's books. King-bolt and king-pin certainly must
have been in use prior to Lord's patent, but there is little evidence to
suggest figurative use prior to Scoville.

While the use of "king-pin" differed significantly between US and
England--the former only shows a couple of carriage bolts and several
figurative uses--all associated with king-pin 2.--the English usage is
almost exclusively associated with a variety of bowling games, as in
king-pin 1. The meaning appears to change around 1861 in the former and
at about the same time in the latter, although evidence only exists from
1868 (Ten-pins). The earliest UK figurative usage of king-pin OED
identifies as 1898--nearly 40 years after such usage in the US (and it's
by Kipling, so draw your own conclusions--and, in fact, the English
usage appears to conform to the definition given, while the US usage
does not).

I shall only give the URL for 1813 antedating of king-bolt (1825):
http://goo.gl/TNSl6

Also from 1793: http://goo.gl/GSv31

Both are English.

The intriguing piece is from 1890, when the same usage of "king-bolt"
shows up that Kipling used as "king-pin" 8 years later!

http://goo.gl/FdzCs
The Electrical engineer. Volume 5. London: March 28, 1890
Prodigality in Economy. By C. C. Haskins. p. 256/1
 > There is excellent economy in the encouragement of the expert and his
 > assistants, who are, when worthy, the prime support and king-bolt of
 > the business. The hours of such an employee are almost
 > undefined--undefinable.

This coincidental use of both "king-bolt" and "king-pin" with the same
metaphoric intent suggests a very different picture in English usage
from that in US (although Haskins's paper was delivered as an address at
a conference in Kansas City). The Scoville/Selbey usage in NYC in the
1860s suggests that there is a continuous line of such usage in the US.
Furthermore, it seems quite likely that a detailed accounting will show
that the usage of "king-bolt" is quite distinct as well, with early
English terminology applying to architectural designs (buildings and
bridges), while US patents from mid-1800s point to carriages, railroad
cars and farm equipment. Most of my questions remain unanswered,
although some issues have been clarified. It might be interesting to try
to figure out when 10-pin bowling crossed the Atlantic, or, for that
matter, when it was invented. Figurative usage of "king-pin" likely
would show up in NYC and perhaps other American newspapers from 1850s
and 60s, and any discoveries along those lines should establish once and
for all if the meaning is distinct from that used later by Kipling (as I
believe it is).

VS-)

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