[Ads-l] Do we do gestures here?

[George Thompson]

In the spirit of the Holidays:

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk,
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose

It wasn't just Jolly Old St. Nicholas ---

            A black Rogue who says his name is John, and nothing else, was
yesterday afternoon observed with a box of Tea under his arm; being in the
neighborhood of the Five Points he excited the suspicion of an officer, but
the fellow knowing the person of the Law's *attache*, and seeing that he
was coming towards him, placed his finger to his nose in the style of that
neighborhood and started off on a run, saying -- "Mr. Officer you can't
come to Tea."
Evening Star (New York, N. Y.), January 28, 1837, p. 2, col. 2

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998.

But when aroused at the Trump of Doom / Ye shall start, bold kings, from
your lowly tomb. . .
L. H. Sigourney, "Burial of Mazeen", Poems.  Boston, 1827, p. 112

The Trump of Doom -- also known as The Dunghill Toadstool.  (Here's a
picture of his great-grandfather.)
http://www.parliament.uk/worksofart/artwork/james-gillray/an-excrescence---a-fungus-alias-a-toadstool-upon-a-dunghill/3851

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