LL-L "Etymology" 2002.12.11 (06) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 11.DEC.2002 (06) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Thomas Byro <thbyro at earthlink.net>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2002.12.11 (01) [E]

To Glenn Simpson:

In a book, "The Gangs of New York", there is a description of a female
bouncer in one of the most dangerous waterside bars of New York of the mid
19th century, "The Hole in the Wall Bar."  Her name was given as either
Gallus Nag or Gallus Meg ( I don't have the book handy.  She was reportedly
over 6 feet tall and from England and carried a club tucked into a sash
around her waist.  When someone displeased her, she would knock them down
with her club and drop down to all fours, bite an ear of the unfortunate
person and drag them out by the ear.  If they protested or screamed in pain,
she would cut the ear off and add it to her collection of human ears
maintained in a jar behind the bar (presumably preserved in alcohol).  I
used to wonder about her strange first name but it appears that it might
have been a nickname rather than a proper first name.

Are there a lot of very tough female bouncers in Northumberland?

By the way, the Hole in the Wall bar is now the sedate Bridge Cafe, and is
where the Brooklyn Bridge enters Manhattan.  It is noteworthy in being one
of the few wooden buildings in Manhattan.  Most of the old wooden buildings
got burned down by arsonists sent in by George Washington to punish New
Yorkers for taking the side of the king during the Revolutionary War.
According to a book I saw at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 80% of New
Yorkers were deprived of their citizenship and nearly deprived of their
property after the Revolutionary War for having sided with the king.  New
York has allways been out of sorts with the rest of the country and could
with some justice be described as not being a part of the states at all but
rather an island in between America and Europe.  Some two months before the
South attempted to seccede from the United States, our major, Fernando
Woods, attempted to read a declaration of independence from the United
States for New York City, when he got busted by federal troops. I love the
city and I wish I was still living there.

Tom Byro

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