king-pin Part III

[George Thompson]

"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."

It seems that J. A. Scoville was a businessman whose career foundered
because he was a drunk.  He became a journalist and the founder-editor of
the New York Pick, "A Journal of Fun and Temperance", in 1852.  I don't
think it thrived much: only a few issues survive.  You may have met it here
-- I may have posted a word or two from it, a few years ago.    He did his
journalism under his own name, his book on the Old Merchants under the
pseudonym.  (I didn't know he had written novels: thanks, Victor.)

GAT

On Mon, May 21, 2012 at 6:48 AM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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. 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
> ***
>


> 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.




> ***
>



> 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 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).
>
> ***

>
> 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.
>
> ***

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



--
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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