[Ads-l] "dope check"

[Grant Barrett]

Here's another one, this time a soda counter dope check, but given that the
character is leaving the soda shop when he uses the expression, it might
mean a bill for items purchased and consumed.

https://archive.org/details/universityofnort19091910m/page/n119/mode/2up?q=dope

1909 Oct (Chapel Hill NC) _University of North Carolina Magazine_ p.
52: Things weren't just right ... wouldn't work out just right for Billy
... so Billy tacked into a milkshake shop and sat indifferently together at
a table in a corner under a fan. He wanted cooling and he wanted "A dope,
young lady; and make it strong, please." "Yes, sir." And Billy's dope,
strong and with a head on it, was presently served and then listlessly
sipped by that individual. [...] I guess I'll quit the place. The fellow
torments me — actually torments me — and here I am trying to take, in a
gentlemanly fashion, a sort of inventory of a good-looking stranger.
Where's that dope check? Thunder! And my hat? And my hat? On the floor, of
course. Well, I'll wait outside and get another squint when she comes  out.

By the way, the story also includes "dope stick" for cigarette.

GB

On Jul 17, 2026 at 06:56:47, Grant Barrett <grantbarrett at gmail.com> wrote:

> Besides the more obvious sense of "a search or examination for the
> presence or use of drugs" or "a bank check payment for drugs," some
> citations suggest a dope check is any of these, depending on context:
>
>
>    - a coupon for a soft drink at a soda counter
>    - an employer scrip or emergency bank credit slip
>    - packet of drugs
>    - verification of inside information or sporting predictions
>
>
> 1904 June 21 (Trenton NJ) _Times_ p.9: If the fellows keep up this style
> of ball Manager Richard will have to get up a system of "dope" checks. It
> isn't right to charge a quarter for such a game as yesterday. The players
> should be fined the amount of their salary for one game and the crowd given
> "dope" checks.
>
> 1908 May 13 (Augusta GA) _Chronicle_ p. 4: Emory College, Oxford, Ga, May
> 12—Few and Phi Gamma Literary societies in joint session yesterday debated
> the gubernatorial campaign from start to finish in an effort to find who
> should be our next governor. ¶Despite the fact that only one man spoke for
> Mr. Brown the decision was rendered in his favor. ¶The Hoke Smith men have
> maliciously declared that the judges already in favor of Mr. Brown, and
> some real vicious ones, fully acquainted with a college boy's weakness,
> have declared that "dope" checks were used as a means of bribery.
>
> 1908 Sep 21 (St. Louis MO) _Post-Dispatch_ p. 10: Herewith is a clipping
> taken from the Baltimore American, a Republican paper, relating to bank
> guarantees. Banks guarantee the big depositors, "why not the small ones?
> "It is the small one who requires absolute confidence before he leaves his
> money in a bank and is also the first one to start a run. Give him a
> guarantee, backed up by a stronger power than the bank itself, and there
> will be no more runs, as the primary cause will be removed. Fear is the
> cause of runs on banks. Fear is the cause of 50, yea, 75 millions of money
> being hid in all sorts of hiding places in this broad land of ours, that
> with an absolute guarantee of safety will go into the banks and through
> them our circulation be increased, our land be benefited and no more use
> for John Smith dope checks.
>
> 1916 Sep 8 (Marysville CA) _Evening Democrat_ p. 7: He goes to the cabaret
> and enlists the help of Cleo, who finds Audrey a dope fiend, and also finds
> out she is getting the dope from Max, the piano player. Fourneri, with her
> help, discovers the address of the "dope" checks to  be No. 16 Martin
> street. The next day Cleo, dressed as a slavey, applies for work at No. 16
> Martin street. She discovers the maker of the cocaine decks [sic] and
> incidentally Fourneri with her help discovers the murderer he is looking
> for. Needless to say, Cleo becomes Fourneri's partner, both in business and
> in private life.
>
> 1916 Sep 26 (Americus GA) _Times-Recorder_ p.4: We offer a dope check to
> the first person who will intelligently explain the W. & A. proposition—all
> about it.
>
> 1923 April 30 (Charlotte NC) _Observer_ p. 10: The Murray Tailoring
> Company is gaining customers every day. These boys in the Charlotte
> association seem to have improved very much with the stick, and Harry
> Murray is being sent several new customers this week. ¶The Martha
> Washington, run by those two clever boys (Penry and Burton) are not being
> slighted [...] Gray of the Bell Telephone, and Moore of the Southern Power
> are coming around this week to collect their "dope" checks.
>
> 1929 (Detroit MI) _Free Press_ p. 4: Sheriff Ira Wilson Sunday afternoon
> lay in wait for and captured a woman dope smuggler carrying narcotics to
> her husband, a county jail prisoner, it was disclosed yesterday. The
> prisoner is Harry Oxley, held pending trial as a federal drug law violator.
> ¶Jail attaches [sic] have for some time been aware that Oxley has been
> receiving narcotics at regular intervals, but have been unable to detect
> their carrier. Sunday, Sheriff Wilson concealed himself near Oxley's cell
> and watched during Mrs. Oxley's visit. Convinced that the wife was the dope
> smuggler, Sheriff Wilson called John Hastings, the turnkey, and Mrs. Oxley
> was arrested. ¶Before the officers could seize her, she swallowed two of
> the 14 dope "checks" she had smuggled into the jail and chewed a letter she
> was carrying to her husband so badly that deputies have been unable to
> learn its contents. ¶Mrs. Oxley, who gives her first name as Babe, is held
> at the jail.
>
> 1930 Sep 29 (Bend OR) _Bulletin_ p. 2: [headline] Football Games Of
> Week-End Give Pre-Season Dope Check [article] (United Press Staff
> Correspondent) San Francisco, Sept. 29. (UP) The big football teams of the
> west coast came through Saturday's and Sunday's trial encounters exactly on
> schedule with one exception at Berkeley, where what looked like a sound,
> well-balanced California team managed to outreserve a hard-fighting eleven
> from Santa Clara, 19-7. The Broncos held the Bears to better than even
> terms for three-quarters, but "Nibs" Price's substitutions kept coming in
> eleven-men lots, and a fresh California team was cutting the weary Bronco
> line to shreds at the close.
>
> GB
>
> On Jul 16, 2026 at 17:13:49, dave at wilton.net <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm trying to figure out what a "dope check" is. I know that it is some
>> kind of scrip or coupon (and has nothing to do with drugs), but beyond that
>> I have no clue. I'm pretty sure the term dates to the 1930s.
>>
>> Here it is in the Code of Federal Regulations:
>>
>> “29 CFR § 531.34 - Payment in scrip or similar medium not authorized.
>>
>> “Scrip, tokens, credit cards, 'dope checks,' coupons, and similar devices
>> are not proper mediums of payment under the Act.”
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>

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