antedating "coon-can"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: 1889.

1877 _The Weekly Arizona Miner_ (Prescott, Ariz.) (Nov. 30) [Gale 19th
Century U.S. Newspapers]:
Many of [the San Carlos Apaches] are old scouts who have already served a
term with Lieutenant Rucker, and who having got rid of their 'gweenbacks,'
as they call it at "coon-can" or monte, made up their minds to go
soldiering again for Chiricahua scalps and U.S. paper currency.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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