SLANG.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 4

SLANG.

The Cockney has a really fine collection of saroastic epitaphs with which in an encounter to belabour an opponent, with the Colonial the verbal preliminaries to the argumentum ad hom-mem-are usually of the briefest. He watches a game of chess in which one player has the ' game comfortably in and and remarks, "This chap has the .other one .wet/ referring probably to the fact than an Over-driven horse perspires, profusely-. A successful scandal-monger is said to, "Put one's' pot on." A person who continually interrupts the -conversation of others is told not "to keep- putting in his pie. In whatever business colonials may be engaged, if dismissed . they- ; "get their walking ticket." If they resign "they ask for their time" or "pass in their shovel." It struck me as a little quaint once to 'hear a slip of a seventeen-year-old girl/ say to hor companion, "I couldn't put up with it any longer, so I passed in my shovel." People do not look for employment in the colonies, by the way j "they seek toil" or go out after graft.'.' . The "Americanisms" "hoboe," "stiff" "dead-beat," etc., have to be called in to describe a man who will not work; but if such a one sees a tempting article outside a shop and ■ '-'shakes" it, the policeman ''shoots him in," the S.M. (stipendiary magistrate) "sends him up, ' and thj judge "puts him, away." If 'he falls ill he is "crook," then "dead cicok." If dangerously ill, he is said to bo "sent for," and finally "passes out." -The bar-room is well-furnished with slang expressions. The house is expected to. "shout" -for good customers. "If the barmaid appears "a bit slow," she is requested to "turn' it .011" or to twist his tail." A backward customer is advised to "back in his cart," and if lie refuses in toto . is warned not to "take a shingle off the roof." If a man drinks. alone he is said to have a "Jimmy Woods-er."' In English examinations a candidate _is sometimes asked, "Who was Hobson of Hobson's Choice?" The next generation of Australians may find themselves called upon to '■■.■ give a short account of Jimmy Woods, but it will be a difficult matter. - Another, famous man ..whose identity is be-* coming lost beyond recall is Buckley of .''Buckley's Chance," a very^ small chance indeed. Another is "Larry," quoted in the expression., ''As happy as Larry."* Since _this is used indiscriminately with' "As happy as- the boy that killed. his father," it is possible that Larry was a parricide of jovial disposition. — James B. Williams, in "St. James' Budget." \ - -