[Ads-l] Quip: You can always tell a Harvard / Yale man, but you can't tell him much

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The rivalry between the universities Yale and Harvard exists in the
domain of quips. The latest Quote Investigator article explores a
family of jokes of this type: You can always tell an X, but you can't
tell them much.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/10/23/tell-much/

Barry Popik has an entry on this topic tailored to Texas with a first
citation dated January 1, 1887.

https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/you_can_always_tell_a_texan_but_you_cant_tell_him_much

The New Yale Book of Quotations has a citation dated May 27,1906 for
the Harvard version of this joke.

Barry and Fred are acknowledged in the QI article. The updated article
should be visible within 48 hours.

The piece presents the earliest family member dated December 3, 1886.
It also presents the earliest barb aimed at Yale dated June 30, 1895
and the earliest barb aimed at Harvard dated February 25, 1906.

Here are details for these three citations. More information is
available in the QI article.

The first target of this joke was a hotel clerk and not a college student.

[ref] 1886 December 3, Democrat and Chronicle, Came With the Cold
Wave, Quote Page 5, Column 3, Rochester, New York. (Newspapers_com)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
"You can always tell a man who has once been a clerk in a hotel," says
an exchange. Our experience has always been that you can't tell him
much. He thinks he knows it all.-Somerville Journal.
[End excerpt]

In June 1895 "The Boston Sunday Globe" of Massachusetts published a
collection of witty remarks under the title "Editorial Points"
including the following:

[ref] 1895 June 30, The Boston Sunday Globe, Editorial Points
(continued), Quote Page 20, Column 6, Boston, Massachusetts.
(ProQuest) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
It's easy enough to tell a Yale man anywhere this year, but you can't
tell him much.
[End excerpt]

In February 1906 Yale graduate William Howard Taft employed the joke
while addressing a banquet of the Associated Western Yale Clubs in St.
Louis, Missouri. Taft had recently been the U.S. Secretary of War
under President Theodore Roosevelt who was a Harvard graduate. Taft
was soon to become President himself in 1909:

[ref] 1906 February 25, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Taft Presidential
Boom Is Successful on His St. Louis Trip (Continuation title: Yale
Alum Elect Taft), Section 3, Start Page 1, Quote Page 3, Column 3, St.
Louis, Missouri. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
By way of a jest at Harvard, the speaker told of "culture which fits a
man to shine in Boston and makes him intolerable anywhere else." He
also said one could always tell a Harvard man, "but you can't tell him
much." This brought a roar from his auditors, who recalled that
President Roosevelt is a Harvard man.

He then spoke of President Roosevelt's appreciation of Yale men, as
shown by the number of them whom he has appointed to office.
[End excerpt]

Garson

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