(no subject)

[felis_ultharus]

Before I turn in after this excrutiating day, I thought I'd share something with you. Some dialogue does not age well. For example:

"The deacon has a hundred acres of dyke."
-- "Seventy," said the Deacon, "only seventy."
-- "Well, seventy; but then there is your fine deep bottom. Why, I could run a ramrod into it."
-- "Interval, we call it," said the Deacon, who, though evidently pleased at this eulogium, seemed to wish the experiment of the ramrod be tried in the right place.
-- "Well, interval if you please (though professor Eleazer Cumstick, in his work on Ohio, calls them bottoms) is just as good as dyke."

From Thomas Chandler Haliburton's 1836 Canadian classic, The Clockmaker. A "dyke" is an earthen barrier holding back a river. An "interval" or "bottom" is land bordering the river (presumably deep = good soil). A ramrod is a rod used for loading a front-loading gun, like a musket.

Though on second reading, I think some of it may be intentional. Especially the joke about bottoms. Still, most of it is pure accident, if the dates in my Cassell's Dictionary of Slang are accurate.

Comments

[greekcub.livejournal.com]

Those 19th Century Canadians are some kinky men ;-)

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

You joke, but I've heard some stories. I'll tell you about why Alexander Wood was driven out of York sometime ;)

[greekcub.livejournal.com]

Is that the guy who felt half of Toronto's balls? I got to rub the shiny butt statue in Toronto last time I was there

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

Not half of Toronto. But he was run out of town by a judge for abusing his powers as a magistrate when he inspected the penis of a man accused of rape. There was even a charge that he'd had he rape charge cooked up just so he could fondle/seduce the young man.

No one knows for sure what really happened.

Still, it is interesting that Canada got its first more-or-less-openly gay magistrate in 1800. That's saying something.

[jc2004.livejournal.com]

That's fucking hilarious!

[felis-ultharus.livejournal.com]

I know. It's even better than all those 19th-century novels where everyone is "ejaculating" all the time.