[Ads-l] Raising Cain

[Wilson Gray]

On Wed, Apr 6, 2016 at 9:04 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> "They all came in for a share at night, excepting Jo - a ragged little
> urchin, who cared more for raising Cain than for nick-nacks."
>
> The Long Island Farmer, and Queen's County Advertiser (Jamaica, New York),
> September 25, 1839, page 3.
>

That's much older than a related expression: to raise sand.

Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi - Page 74
https://books.google.com/books?id=wKAVAAAAYAAJ
Hubert Anthony Shands - 1893
"Raise sand. This expression is very common, meaning to _create a
disturbance, to raise a row_. The Century Dictionary does not give _to
raise sand_, but mentions the kindred expressions, _to raise the dust_ and
_to raise the land_. Both of these mean the same thing as _to raise
sand_..."

Needless to say, this expression isn't a peculiarity of speech only in
Mississippi, being a commonplace in the speech of East Texas (black
speakers only?). Everybody that I knew used the expression.

Can't a woman act funny, when she's got another man?
Can't a woman act funny, when she's got another man?
She won't look you in the eye
And she's always _raising sand_
_Mojo Hand_
by Lightning Hopkins
-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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