[Ads-l] Remarkable Antedating of "Tell It Like It Is"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I have to say that I find the antedating below to be more remarkable than the usual antedating.

Fred Shapiro


tell it like it is (OED 1899)

1896 New Daily Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) 3 Jan. 3/2 (GenealogyBank)

We have discovered in Portsmouth a natural poet, in the form of a black boy about 19 years of age.  Washington Weaver is his name. ...

WASHINGTON WEAVER'S WOE.  He Wants the Courts to Compel the Policemen to Tell It Right ...

They will tell the bigest [sic] lie
To make you pay a fine
They will not tell it like it is.
.... Have mercy Lord on Washington
And teach him how to go
And force the colored also white
To speak just what they no [sic]

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