[Ads-l] high-jacks, one negative result, 1915

[Dan Goncharoff]

Is "cut up high jacks" a term that evolved into "high jinx"?

On Fri, Nov 6, 2020, 4:25 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for carefully double checking leads, Stephen. I have not been
> exploring this topic, but here is "high jacks" with the pertinent
> sense in November 1915.
>
> Date: November 19, 1915
> Newspaper: Detroit Times
> Newspaper Location: Detroit, Michigan
> Article: Hoboes Go South With Fall
> Author: A "Workin' Stiff"
> Quote Page 7, Column 3
> Database: GenealogyBank
>
> [Begin excerpt - check for OCR errors]
> Four cities of the Middle west owe much of their wealth to the Kansas
> harvest and the harvest hands. When the "stiff" has made his stake,
> providing he successfully escapes the hundreds of "high-jacks" and
> "stick-up men" that hold up and rob whole train loads of men, and
> manages to deafen his ears to the siren calls of the men who are out
> each year to harvest the harvesters by means of poker and crap games,
> he "blows” for Kansas City, St. Joseph, Omaha or Sioux City, Ia.
> [End excerpt]
>
> While searching I came across an odd expression: "cut up high jacks"
> "cutting up high jacks" "kicking up high jacks". Not sure what it
> means or if it is relevant. Perhaps it means "caused a ruckus".
>
> "cut up high Jacks" Sep 6, 1879
> "cut up high jacks" Jun 21, 1888
> "kicking up high jacks" Nov 22, 1903
>
> Garson
>
> On Fri, Nov 6, 2020 at 9:28 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:
> >
> > In History of Labor in the United States, 1896-1932, vol. 4, Labor
> Movements, by Selig Perlman and Philip Talt (1935) 286-7:
> >
> >
> > A far more serious menace to the harvest hand’s earnings were the
> “high-jacks,” or hold-up men, bootleggers, and “tin-horn” gamblers [p.
> 387], who preyed on them while on the train and in the “jungles,” their
> resting places between jobs. [Footnote 4:
> >
> > Ibid. {that is, Solidarity}, July 10, 1915]
> >
> >
> > For the record, I have received a scan of that Solidarity issue (no.
> 287, 4 pages). It does discuss this menace, but without, unless I missed
> it, the term "high-jacks," though that term is surely found in Wobbly
> reports later, and at least potentially earlier.
> >
> >
> > I don't know if anyone other than Jerry Cohen is on this case, but let
> me know if you'd like a pdf. Limited time offer. While supplies last, etc.
> >
> >
> > Stephen Goranson
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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