[Ads-l] "Katy, bar the door" (1872-1887)

Sun Feb 7 02:13:50 UTC 2016

Great citations, Bonnie.

Below is an 1887 citation that seems to support the connection of the
phrase to a song. A woman says she will sing 'Katie, bar the door'
while preventing unwanted visitors from entering her house. (That is
my interpretation.)

Date: October 12, 1887
Newspaper: Utica Morning Herald
Newspaper Location: Utica, New York
Quote Page 3, Column 3
Database: Fulton History

[Begin excerpt]
"No, Mr. Kelly," she said, "You will entertain no
cabinet ministers or presidents nor first ladies
in this house while your daughter is being
married like a kitchen girl in the house of a
stranger. Act like a father, give your
daughter such a wedding as she deserves,
poor dear, in her own home, or when your
great friends come to lunch with you they'll
hear me singing: 'Katie, bar the door.'"
[End excerpt]

Below is tangentially related citation in 1850. A line in a song that
requests a "jolly old man" named "Jock" to "get up and bar the door".

Date: November 23, 1850
Newspaper: Anti-Slavery Bugle
Quote Page 40, (Page 4 of issue), Column 2
Newspaper Location: Salem, Columbiana County, Ohio (New-Lisbon, Ohio)
Database: Chronicling America

[Begin excerpt]
>From the University Magazine.
A Christmas Song.
A Song of a pleasant Old Woodman, and his Wife
Joan, at a Christmas Fire
BY F. J. PALMER.

Come! Jock o' the wood, my jolly old man!
  get up and bar the door!
The feathery sleet with frosty foot, is dancing on
  the moor;
With a whoop and a call, in every hall, the
  Christmas sports abound,
And ditties are sung, and the sweet bells rung,
  the simple village round.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 1:05 PM, Bonnie Taylor-Blake
<b.taylorblake at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Bonnie Taylor-Blake <b.taylorblake at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      "Katy, bar the door" (1872-1887)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In 2007 Ben Zimmer and Stephan Goranson came up with 1888 and 1890
> sightings (respectively) of "Katy, bar the door."  Michael Quinion,
> incorporating these finds, summarized what's known about the
> expression here,
>
> http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm
>
> Michael discussed an old Scottish song, "Get Up and Bar the Door," as
> a possible point of origin for the expression, though he touched on
> other possibilities, too.
>
> The earliest sighting of the phrase I've managed to locate (1872,
> below) suggests that "Katy, Bar the Door" was the title of a song
> (especially because letters there are capitalized), though it may well
> be that the song title was inspired by an pre-existing expression.
>
> Virginia fiddler/banjoist Roscoe Parish (Parrish?; 1897-1984) is said
> to have composed a song by the name "Katy, Bar the Door," but he
> obviously wasn't responsible for the earlier version (mentioned in the
> 1872 piece).  It's at least possible, though, that he borrowed from
> the earlier version or merely put that version to paper.  For what
> it's worth, then, see
> http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Katie_Bar_the_Door.  (You'll find
> clips on YouTube of musicians playing numbers that are said to be
> based on Parish's version.)
>
> I haven't been successful at finding 19th-century sheet music/lyrics
> for a song called "Katy, Bar the Door."  If that song existed, it
> might be helpful in clarifying the origin of the expression.
>
> -- Bonnie
>
> ---------------
>
> The Custom House Packet, with the Custom House colored band, U.S.
> Marshal Packard, in command, with the old flag triumphantly kissing
> the breeze of old Red, the band playing "Katie, Bar The Door," and
> with waving rags touched the wharf and proceeded to land her precious
> cargo.
>
> [From "The Radical Barbecue," The (Alexandria) Louisiana Democrat, 2
> October 1872, p. 2, via Chronicling of America.]
>
> -----------
>
> This winsome maid had lovers many,
> Whose love she did implore,
> There was George and Fred and Harry,
> And Ed who numbered with the score,
> But when the soldier came in,
> It was "Katie bar the door."
>
> [From "A Soldier's Wedding," The Sedalia (Missouri) Weekly Bazoo, 26
> March 1878, p. 3, via Chronicling of America.]
>
> -----------
>
> To sum it all up, my advice to anyone thinking of going there would be
> "don't," unless they have a pocketfull of the "rhino" which they can
> afford to lose.  I saw it was "Katy bar the door" with me unless I
> skipped, and I lost no time in skipping.
>
> [From "A Limaite Just from Leadville," The Democrat (Lima, Ohio), 30
> October 1879, p. 3, via newspapers.com.]
>
> -----------
>
> But if we get up a reputation for freezing to everything that comes in
> our way, instead of a Democratic inauguration at the capitol on the
> 8th of next January, we may expect to be confronted with an array of
> the honest yeomanry in the land, armed with shot guns, the muzzles of
> which will say in language too plain to be unmistakable, "Katy, bar
> the door," and there will be no inauguration.
>
> [From "Who Stole the Money?," The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, 27
> October 1882, p. 5, via genealogybank.com.]
>
> -----------
>
> Mr. Nash's friends feel very sore over his defeat, and some of the
> most inconsolable declare it to be their purpose to bring him out as a
> candidate for re-election to the lower house of the legislature.  It
> will be "Katy, bar the door," with him if they do.
>
> [From "Dallas," The Fort Worth (Texas) Daily Gazette, 27 July 1884, p.
> 5, via Chronicling of America.]
>
> -----------
>
> The prisoners gave no special trouble en route, and Whiting was
> cordially welcomed by the prison attaches, who will take care that he
> does not escape.  When he came within sight of the prison walls
> Whiting remarked, "Well, it's Katie bar the door."
>
> [From "Curbstone Notes," The Indianapolis (Indiana) News, 20 June
> 1885, p. 1, via newspapers.com.]
>
>
> -----------
>
> As [Dick Williamson] left Happy Hollow he began singing "Good by My
> Lover, Good by." and when the wagon stopped in front of his home they
> started to take him out, he raised up and said: "I guess it is Katy
> bar the door with Dick."
>
> [From "Double Murder; Happy Hollow the Scene of a Fatal Shooting
> Scrape," The Hocking Sentinel (Logan, Ohio), 12 November 1886, p. 2,
> via Chronicling of America.]
>
> -----------
>
> "Yes, Tom, but by Jove, I thought it was bar-the-door-Katie on my
> coming; the little woman begins to object to it."
>
> [From "A Letter from Evans," The Greensboro (North Carolina) North
> State, 15 September 1887, p. 7, via newspapers.com.]
>
> -----------
>
> "Behave like a father and give her the sort of a wedding she deserves,
> poor dear, or when your guests arrive they'll hear me sing, 'Katie,
> bar the door.'"
>
> [From "An Incident of the Trip," The Alton (Illinois) Daily Telegraph,
> 12 October 1887, p. 4, via newspapers.com.]
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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