Kangaroo

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Dave,
See Comments on Etymology (vol. 40, #4-5, Jan./Feb. 2011, pp. 7-14): "'Kangaroo Court' --Recent Antedatings and  a Look at Barry Popik's Tentative Suggestion."

Gerald

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 Dave Wilton [dave at WILTON.NET]  wrote,Tuesday, October 15, 2013 5:05 PM:
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I'm trying to track down a 19th century American slang usage of "kangaroo."
It appears in HDAS under the entry for "kangaroo court":
"[1862 in A.P. Hudson _Humor of Old So. 376: As in the case of the Kangaroo,
the law was altogether inoperative against this dangerous class of man.]"
I've looked at _Humor of the Old Deep South and that's a collection of
newspaper articles. The original article in question was originally from the
Southern Illustrated News, Richmond, VA, 1:12, 12 Nov 1862, p. 2.
The trouble is that I've no clue what the "Kangaroo" is. The sentence is at
the end of the article and there is no other reference to the "Kangaroo" in
the piece. It may be a reference to those who constitute a kangaroo court,
but that isn't clear from the (lack of) context.
I can't find a collection of Southern Illustrated News online to see if the
word appears in earlier issues.
Any clues on where I might look?

--Dave Wilton
   Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
   University of Toronto
   dave.wilton at utoronto.ca / dave at wilton.net

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