Prosch 1904

[Dave Robertson]

"Reminiscences of Washington Territory" is the book's title.

I've mentioned it before, but haven't noted details about its Jargon content.

Page 28, "Lines to a Klootchman" by Sitkum Siwash, Esq.  (A long doggerel
poem writtten in English "by Horace R. Wirtz, a highly gifted surgeon at
Fort Steilacoom, in 1858."  Originally published in the _Puget Sound Herald_
in 1858, reprinted by popular demand in 1859.)

Page 43, a Native man calling out "Cla-ha-yu, tillicum!" to Prosch in Seattle.  

(Same page: interesting explanation of how 12.5 cents came to be called a
"bit", and due to a shortage of currency in the Pacific NW, a dime came to
be known as a "short bit" and 15 cents a "long bit".)

Page 84, another pidgin language, Chinese Pidgin English.  A Chinese cook
for Silas Galliher, somewhere on Puget Sound, was spitting milk on crusts of
pies about to be baked.  Asked why, he said "Me make him shine."

--Dave R

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