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Show I SLANG TERMS OF WESTERN ORIGIN I discussing measures to stop it. One night a big cowpuncher from the Nio-btaca Nio-btaca blew into town, and we took him up to the club. When he heard the fairy tales being hurled back and forth, he seemed surprised,, then he laughed and winked at the rest of us. "I have Just come from your country, gents,' he remarked, genially, 'and I was treated so white there that when I see an Englishman I say: "Podner. shake." With that hv? got up and gravely made the circuit of our English friends, who graciously extended their hands and winced at the grip he gave them. " 'I shipped two thousand bulls over, he resumed, 'and when Vic heard I was coming she sent some of the Horse Guards down to meet me, and I went right up to Windsor on a special train." "The Englishmen stared, their mouths wide open. " 'I told the boys where to take the bulls,' he continued, 'but one of the Guards said Vie would like to see an American herd, so I just ordered the punchers to drive 'em up to the castle kfrom the Albert docks. " 'When I got to the castle and rung the bell, Vic opened the door herself, and they were Just settln' down to supper, sup-per, eo I washed up and went right in to the table. " 'Al was there, and Beatty, and the rest ' " "Oo do" ycu mean?' gasped one Eriton. " 'Why, Albert Edward, and Princess Beatrice,' he said, easily. 'Anyway, Vic had two seats for a show, so roe and Beatty went down and took It in after supper. " 'They had out the big gold coach with all the outriders, and It was nice, except that the folks' cheering bored me. " 'Coming home I said we'd foot it, and let that gingerbread coach go alone; so we did. And there was Vio looking out cf the window in her nightcapafter night-capafter I'd rung the bell, 'cause Beatty had forgot her latchkey a skin' who was there. " 'Next morning I was awakened by hearing an awful bellowing outside my window, and there were my boys with the bulls out in the courtyard, with all the royal family standing -on the front porch watching. " 'I dressed and went down, and Al he said he'd like a couple, so I Just rot "Do you know that most so-called Bowery slang comes from tlte West?" inquired the man from Wyoming, In Martin's last night. ' "That's no bull con," said the New. Yorker. "A whole lot of range expressions ex-pressions have crept Into ordinary Broadway speech." "The one you've Just used is an example," ex-ample," went oil the man from Wyoming. Wyom-ing. "No, you're wrong; that's a racetrack race-track expression," laughed the New Yorker. "To prove I'm right, I'll tell you" how it originated," said the man from Wyoming.- "Out tn Cheyenne; In the days when cattle roamed the ranges and J the wire fence had not arrived, we had a club to which belonged all the fellows in the vicinity. We'd meet there, have a drink and talk over what they were-j doing back East. ' i "In Wyoming then were a lot of Eng- llshmen, younger sons, staked to a certain cer-tain Income if only they stayed away from England, and we called them 'remitters.' 're-mitters.' When the mall . was due a cowpuncher had to force his way through them to get into the club, and after it arrived, and they sat around discussing news from 'ome, we were, all glad to get out. "They would lounge about and comment com-ment on current topics. 'I really must write to Arthur and tell him he's wrong.' one would say. referring to Balfour. 'Ya-as, deah boy, and the Times needs a wigging, too, and I shall tell them to stop such bally rot as they're printing, you know,' would come from behind a three weeks' old copy of a London, paper. "Rosebery and Gladstone they all knew intimately, to hear them tell It, and between the lot they got the punchers and ranchers, who'd drop In for a social talk with their pals, crazy. You couldn't get a word In for the arguments ar-guments that went on. If any one of ' 'em had shown up in England he'd have been locked up or put In a lunatic asylum. asy-lum. "They threw this con so strong about their great acquaintances that we began a horse and Jumped in and cut six fine big ones out of the herd. " 'He was awfully pleased and all the cattle now at Windsor are descended de-scended from those Wyoming bulls, you know. "'I had to go back-to London and 'tend to some business, so the boys delivered de-livered the bulls around to the folks who'd bought 'em, and me and Vic and the Princesses and Duchesses all went to the train, 'cause the girls had to go to town to do their shopping. "'The last letter I had from Al he told me how they often spoke of me and the bulls." "The Englishmen were dumb with horror at his familiar mention of the sacred royal personages, as he concluded. con-cluded. " 'It's a bally, bloomln. bleedin lie,' shouted one. finally, and with one accord ac-cord they marched out, while the boys roared. i "They quit the- club for days after that, and when they came back they never called England's statesmen by their first names again, and the boys said it was Just because of the 'bull con' story." New York Telegraph. |