[Ads-l] and 1922? Re: maybe not worth a second look: "a 'Mulligan'" 1926

[Stephen Goranson]

Concerning a union strike vote and whether to rescind it, apparently.
[quote start]
Undoubtedly this would have resulted in a great misunderstanding and turmoil, and we would then have had, in slang expression a "mulligan" on our hands, as it would have been most impossible to explain satisfactorily to our membership why we had withdrawn the strike sanction, and many of the men possibly would not have returned to work. [end quote]

International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Foorgers [etc.] August 1922 page 30 col. a.

https://books.google.com/books?id=j3s2AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA7-PA30&dq=%22a+mulligan%22+ballot+OR+box+OR+vote+OR+count+OR+golf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF0ZbpgezkAhVFm-AKHc0SCO8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22a%20mulligan%22&f=false
[https://books.google.com/books/content?id=j3s2AQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&img=1&zoom=1&edge=curl&imgtk=AFLRE73QRXTajQRJ5WmagWytQQs3PLjXswwusoNvkyMP4sFMe-jxZXrQqVjhrK-EwMxV02InFRgAT-1jSlDdtms0yuCa6ngSQkUy4vIB4Wt77bigHRz9w77H0yMEzsG5_OzHPMF4LQD7]<https://books.google.com/books?id=j3s2AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA7-PA30&dq=%22a+mulligan%22+ballot+OR+box+OR+vote+OR+count+OR+golf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF0ZbpgezkAhVFm-AKHc0SCO8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22a%20mulligan%22&f=false>
International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers Monthly Journal<https://books.google.com/books?id=j3s2AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA7-PA30&dq=%22a+mulligan%22+ballot+OR+box+OR+vote+OR+count+OR+golf&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF0ZbpgezkAhVFm-AKHc0SCO8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=%22a%20mulligan%22&f=false>
/
books.google.com



Stephen Goranson
________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <...>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 7:15 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <...>
Subject: [ADS-L] maybe not worth a second look: "a 'Mulligan'" 1926

Maybe not related to the (later-attested [1931ff]) golf use. Maybe a one-off.

[quote]
[...]what chance has a man in San Francisco against this infernal patent box which they have brought into use? Honest people may go and vote, but a "Mulligan" can neutralize all their votes by a single touch of this complicated machinery. You might as well go into a harvest field with an old, common, rusty, primitive reaping sickel, against one of McCormick's double-horse, patent, improved reaping machines, and expect to compete with it, as to get fairness when these fellows use these boxes. [end quote]

Billy Mulligan long ago was charged with ballot box tampering. This text apparently warns of a new-fangled way of vote miscounting. Snippet at GB. Search-only at HT. Full text, HeinOnline subscription.

"Trial of Various Criminals by the Second Vigilance Committee San Francisco, California, 1856,"
American State Trials (Thomas Law Books) vol. 15, 1926, page 83.

Stephen Goranson
http://people.duke.edu/~goranson/



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