[Ads-l] 196 years o' braggin'

[Jonathan Lighter]

An earlier "half horse, half alligator," from GenealogyBank:

1808 _North American and Mercantile Daily Advertiser_ (Baltimore, Md.)
(July 14) 2:  See him now -- Heavens, what a metamorphose! --"Half
Horse, half [sic] Alligator," mounted on the stump of a tree, with a
barrel of whiskey before him, making a loud noise, half neigh half
bray, and a mob of monsters like himself, roaring drunk about him.

Also "alligator horse," ibid. Surprisingly, it refers to a new
velocipede designed in Kentucky:

1820 _Boston Intelligencer & Evening Gazette_ (Jan. 1) 2: This
wonderful _creature_ has been named the _Alligator Horse_.

JL

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 11:13 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: 196 years o' braggin'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I reckon, Larry, you must recall,
>
> Girls run and hide!
> Brave men shiver!
> I'm Mike Fink!
> King of the River!
>
> 'Course that was jist afore he met up with ol' Davy , who had a leetle bit
> o' the snappin' turtle hisself.  The way Davy caught that bullet in
> his teeth were awesome tu behold.
>
> JL
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 9:46 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> > Subject:      Re: 196 years o' braggin'
> >
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > At 5:44 PM -0400 8/7/09, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> > >  What follows was drafted in the summer of 2004, but never sent so far as
> > I
> > >can tell. The phone must have rung or something:
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >I was passing through Houston International last month when I happened to
> > >fall in with a trio of welders back home from a Vegas vacation.
> > >
> > >At one point the eldest man, who'd been talking about retirement, casually
> > >said, "I can weld anything but a broken heart."
> > >
> > >The second eldest said, "I can weld anything I can jump across."
> > >
> > >The youngest, who looked to be in his late thirties, said, "I can weld the
> > >crack of dawn."
> > >
> > >  Cool enough, right?  Now get a load of this:
> >
> > Shades of Mike Fink, keelboater of legend, who also had an
> > interesting heritage, as reported e.g. at:
> >
> > http://www.bartonpara.com/discog/today/mikefink.html
> >
> > Well, my daddy was a bear in the Allegheny Mountains
> > And my mother was a 'gator in the Ohio.
> > I was born full-growed at the forks of the river
> > And I cut my teeth on a catfish bone.
> >
> > Oh, my name is Mike Fink, I'm a keelboat poler,
> > I'm a half-alligator and I ride tornaders,
> > And I can out-feather, out-jump, out-hop, out-skip,
> > Throw down and lick any man on the river.
> >
> > LH
> >
> >
> >
> > >
> > >1810 Christian Schultz, Jr.,  _Travels on an Inland Voyage through the
> > >States of New-York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee;
> > >and through the Territories of Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, and
> > >New-Orleans, Performed in the Years 1807 and 1808 _ (N.Y.: Isaac Riley)
> > >145: * *In passing two [keel] boats next to mine, I heard some very warm
> > >words; which, my men informed me, proceeded from some drunken sailors who
> > >had had a dispute respecting a _Choctaw Lady*_.* Although I might fill
> > half
> > >a dozen pages with the curious slang made use of on this occasion, yet I
> > >prefer selecting a few of the most brilliant expressions by way of sample.
> > >One said, 'I am a man; I am a horse; I am a team; I can whip any man _in
> > all
> > >Kentucky_*, *
> > >by G-d.' The other replied, 'I am an alligator; half man, half horse; I
> > can
> > >whip any _on the Mississippi_,* *by G-d.' The first one again: 'I am a
> > man,
> > >have the best horse, best dog, best gun, and handsomest wife _in all
> > >Kentucky_,* *by G-d.' The other, ' I am a Mississippi snapping turtle;
> > have
> > >bear's claws, alligator's teeth, and the devil's tail; can whip _any
> > >man_*,*by G-d.' This was too much for the first, and at it they went
> > >like two
> > >bulls, and continued for half an hour, when the alligator was fairly
> > >vanquished by the horse."
> > >
> > >That was in Natchez.
> > >
> > >JL
> > >
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> >
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> >
>
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