hooch

[Jeffrey Kopp]

On Sat, 30 Jan 1999 00:20:43 -0800, you wrote:

>Hmmm.  I began hitting "reply" here to mention that Robert Service uses
>"hooch" in a couple of places; now I'm wondering if the above lines are
>from one of his more obscure poems.  Have to dig my Service books out
>somewhere; he uses "cheechako", of course, but I'm wondering what other
>Jargon he might have used.....
>
>Anyone know if Jack London uses it anywhere in the short stories or the
>novels?

Well, get thee to the Web, Mike!  An Alta Vista search for "hooch"
turned up its occurrence on 5,000 pages.  (About 300 of these refer to
some movie apparently about a dog named "Turner and Hooch.")  A search
for 'hooch and "robert service"' came back with 31 hits, which included
these:

http://www.ecis.com/~spbart/TService.htm

The Shooting of Dan McGrew

. . . . Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, 
        was Dangerous Dan McGrew, 
    While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast 
        of the lady that's known as Lou. 
    These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.

    They say the stranger was crazed with "hooch", 
        and I'm not denying it's so. 
    I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two --
The woman that kissed him and -- pinched his poke -- 
        was the lady that's known as Lou. 

        Robert W. Service 

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Bluffs/8336/robertservice/bill.html

The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill

I took a contract to bury the body of blasphemous Bill MacKie,
Whenever, wherever or whatsoever the manner of death he die --
Whether he die in the light o' day or under the peak-faced moon;
In cabin or dance-hall, camp or dive, mucklucks or patent shoon;
On velvet tundra or virgin peak, by glacier, drift or draw;
In muskeg hollow or canyon gloom, by avalanche, fang or claw;
By battle, murder or sudden wealth, by pestilence, hooch or lead --
I swore on the Book I would follow and look till I found my tombless
dead. . . . .


While running this search I ran across this from "Flash in the Pan
(Script Excerpt), A KLONDIKE MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENT Adapted and Composed
by HANK STINSON, First Produced by THE CHARLOTTETOWN SUMMER FESTIVAL
1980."   I am including it as the broad attribution of "cheechako" as
being "the Indian word for Greenhorn" might interest some.

http://www3.pei.sympatico.ca/hstinson/flashscript.html

        They also discovered that a mixture of sourdough and
black-strap molasses could be distilled into an alcoholic
beverage called barbed-wire hooch; named hooch, for the booze
and barbed wire, for the way it felt in your stomach.
        Thus hardship was turned into a way of life, these men wearing
their adversity like a badge of honour; calling themselves
Sourdoughs and holding regular meetings in what became known as
Arctic Sourdough Saloons. A saloon might not have been anything
more than a tent, but to the Sourdough, it was a very exclusive
club; very difficult for newcomers to break in.
        Newcomers were called Cheechakos. It's the Indian word for
Greenhorn, and down at the Malamute Saloon they put these
Greenhorns to the test...



Much of Jack London's writings are on the Sierra Club site, and though I
didn't get anything back from a search for 'hooch and "Jack London",'
perhaps someone might like to surf those pages to double-check.

Regards,

Jeff