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

Wed Sep 25 16:13:24 UTC 2019

One reading of this is that the "Mulligan" refers to the turmoil - everything jumbled together, like a cluster[eff] or a Mulligan Stew.

"Mulligan stew" grew out of the Coxey's Army labor movement in the 1890s.

I posted about it here -

https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2016/06/irish-stew-irish-militias-and-chowder.html

- I speculated that Mulligan stew came from the famous Mulligan Guard's chowder.

The Mulligan Guard was a fictional rag-tag militia in a series of musical comedies.  In one of the shows, they went on a training excursion to a chowder picnic.

Coxey's Army were a rag-tag "army" of unemployed laborers/hobos in the 1890s who marched on Washington and set up camp on the mall.  Many of the earliest  references to "Mulligan Stew" showed up in reporting on various groups associated with Coxey's Army.

There's no smoking gun, but several similarities.

Mulligan chowder, Mulligan stew; rag-tag army of laborers, rag-tag local militia of Irishmen who eat Mulligan stew; a stew made with whatever is available, a stew-like chowder made by the Mulligan Guard military unit.

------ Original Message ------
From: "Stephen Goranson" <goranson at duke.edu>
To: ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu
Sent: 9/25/2019 6:26:26 AM
Subject: Re: and 1922? Re: maybe not worth a second look: "a 'Mulligan'" 1926

---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Poster: Stephen Goranson <goranson at DUKE.EDU>
Subject: Re: and 1922? Re: maybe not worth a second look: "a 'Mulligan'"
1926
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More 1922 (railroad) labor union use of Mulligan/mulligan e.g. p. 408:

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt/search?q1=3Dmulligan;id=3Duc1.b3997971;=
view=3D1up;seq=3D1;start=3D1;sz=3D10;page=3Dsearch;orient=3D0

Stephen

________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <...> on behalf of Stephen Goranson <...>
Sent: Wednesday, September 25, 2019 9:02 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <...>
Subject: [ADS-L] and 1922? Re: maybe not worth a second look: "a 'Mulligan'=
" 1926

Concerning a union strike vote and whether to rescind it, apparently.
[quote start]
Undoubtedly this would have resulted in a great misunderstanding and turmoi=
l, and we would then have had, in slang expression a "mulligan" on our hand=
s, as it would have been most impossible to explain satisfactorily to our m=
embership why we had withdrawn the strike sanction, and many of the men pos=
sibly would not have returned to work. [end quote]

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

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttps-3A__books.google.com_boo=
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[https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttps-3A__books.google.com_bo=
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International Brotherhood of Blacksmiths, Drop Forgers and Helpers Monthly =
Journal<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=3Dhttps-3A__books.google=
.com_books-3Fid-3Dj3s2AQAAIAAJ-26pg-3DRA7-2DPA30-26dq-3D-2522a-2Bmulligan-2=
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gKhQhjCbbVjw0uclitiepU&e=3D >
/
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-of=
f.

[quote]
[...]what chance has a man in San Francisco against this infernal patent bo=
x which they have brought into use? Honest people may go and vote, but a "M=
ulligan" can neutralize all their votes by a single touch of this complicat=
ed 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 ge=
t fairness when these fellows use these boxes. [end quote]

Billy Mulligan long ago was charged with ballot box tampering. This text ap=
parently warns of a new-fangled way of vote miscounting. Snippet at GB. Sea=
rch-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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