[Ads-l] Antedating "tarantula juice."

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: 1861

1858 _Daily Evening Bulletin_ (San Francisco) 1: The contents were of too
villainous a quantity [sic] for anyone's use, though called whisky. It
should have been called "Tarantula juice."

1859 _Placer Herald_ (Auburn, Calif.) (Jan. 22) 2: Your Senators and
Representatives...are perfect Salamanders; the ("Tarantula juice") whiskey
having no more effect on them than fire on a turtle's back.

1859 _Nevada National_ (Grass Valley, Calif.) (Feb. 19) 1: "Those members
are not _always_...convenient, on drinking occasions, to warn a man against
Tarantula juice.

1859 _Nevada Journal_ (Nevada City, Calif.) (Aug. 12) 3: If men will drink,
and wish to avoid "tarantula juice," "instanter," "forty rod," or "minnie
rifle," we recommend them to visit the first class saloons such as we
advertise.

1859 _New-York Atlas_ (N.Y.C.) (Oct. 9) 5: "Imbibing huge snifters of
'tarantula juice.'...'Tarantula' [sic] and 'Tanglefoot'...are the
[Virginia] definitions for that style of northern whisky otherwise known
here as Jersey lightning.

Etc, etc.

JL

-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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