Curiosities of American Speech — 148
In a book on Americanisms, published last year, a Baltimore young lady is represented as jumping up from her seat, on being asked to dance, and saying, “Yes, sirree: for I have sot, and sot, and sot, till I’ve nigh tuk root!” I cannot say I have heard anything quite equal to this; but I very well remember that at a party given on board one of the ships at Esquimault, a young lady declined to dance a “fancy” dance upon the plea, “I’d rather not, sir. I guess I’m not fixed up for waltzing;” an expression the peculiar meaning of which must be left to readers of her own sex to decide. An English young lady who was staying at one of the houses at Mare Island when we were there, happened one evening, when we were visiting her friends, to be confined to her room with a headache. Upon our arrival, the young daughter of our host—a girl of bout twelve—went up to her to try to persuade her to come down. “Well,” she said, “I’m real sorry you’re so poorly. You’d better come, for there are some almighty swells down there!” A lady speaking of the same person, said, “Her hair, sir, took my fancy right away!” Again, several of us were one day talking to a tall, slight young lady about the then new-fashioned crinoline which she was wearing. After a little banter, she said, “I guess, captain, if you were to take my hoops off you might draw me through the eye of a needle!” Perhaps one of the most whimsical of these curiosities of expression, combining freedom of manner with that of speech, was made use of to Captain Richards by a master-caulker. He had been vainly endeavouring to persuade the captain that the ship required caulking; and at last he said in disgust, “You may be liberal as a private citizen, captain, but you’re mean to an almighty pump-tack!”—in his official capacity of course. Again, an American gentleman on board of one of our mail-packets was trying to recall to the recollection of the mail-agent a lady who had been fellow-passenger with them on a former occasion. “She sat opposite you at table all the voyage,” he said. “Oh, I think I remember her; she ate a great deal, did she not?” “Eat, sir!” was the reply; “she was a perfect gastronomic fillibuster!” One more example and I have done with a subject upon which I might enlarge for pages. The boys at the school at Victoria were being examined in Scripture, and the question was asked, “In what way did Hiram assist Solomon in the building of the temple?” It passed two or three boys, when at last one sharp little fellow triumphantly exclaimed, “Please, sir, he donated him the lumber.”