Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a confidence trick based on the passing of bad banknotes; also in attrib. use, e.g. sawdust gang/man/swindler.

1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 404: The ‘Sawdust game’ is played by only two parties: to wit, sharp knaves and dull fools. [Ibid.] 417: Tempted with the bait thrown out to them by the ‘boodle-men’ or ‘sawdust swindlers’.
1881		Forest Republican (Tionesta, PA) 24 Aug. 4/2: The ‘sawdust game’ is also used in this bogus counterfeiting scheme.
1886		T. Byrnes Professional Criminals of America 🌐 The murder recently of a well-known sawdust swindler has had a detrimental effect upon the other men who made their living in the same way.
1886		A. Pinkerton Thirty Years a Detective 79: The victim will want from two to five hundred dollars’ worth of the stuff, [and] the ‘saw-dust’ racket is put into operation.
1887		Abilene Reflector (KS) 19 May 7/3: Swindlers are called [...] ‘sawdust men’.
1889		Wahpeton Times (Dakota, ND) 29 June 2/6: De fust drunken coon wot comes in plays de sawdus’ game, gits my ace in de draw [and] collars de bank.
1891		Telegram Herald (Grand Rapids, MI) 25 Jan. 10/1: He had worked the first sawdust game. Of course the dupes made no protest, and Tunbridge made a fortune.
1891		Telegram Herald (Grand Rapids, MI) 25 Jan. 10/3: The den of the sawdust gang is always an opium joint. What is the connection between opium and bunco?
1903		O. Kildare My Mamie Rose 77: Other industries, now much retrograded, were the ‘sawdust,’ ‘green goods’ and ‘gold brick’ games. All these games were vastly entertaining to all, and vastly profitable to some.
1927		(ref. to 1869) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 194: The green goods swindle, which was also called the sawdust game, first made its appearance in New York in 1869.

(US) a down-market restaurant or bar, or gambling saloon.

1884		St Paul Dly Globe (MN) 21 Nov. 1/6: A brass band formed [...] around a billiard table in a sawdust saloon at 1706 State Street.
1908		L.A. Herald 26 Jan. 3/4: As he seated himself in a swell cafe [...] his thoughts went back to the poor unfortunate ‘gang’ in the Main Street sawdust ‘joint’.
1909		Ogden Standard (UT) 21 Apr. 7/2: For the last few years [Jem] Mace has lived in an odd London tavern in Islington. Mace was seen there in the saw dust parlor [...] taking his evening meal.
1913		Virginia Enterprise (MN) 19 Dec. 6/1: The saloon is at best a necessary evil [...] but the glad free days of the sawdust joint [...] in that town is [sic] over.
1922		Wash. Herald (DC) 11 May 4/3: Back in the days [...] Dan Doyle ran a ginmill in Mott Street [...] It was a sawdust joint.
1949		Report of DA, Co. of NY 96: A type of gambling house known as a ‘carpet joint’, catering to women and the carriage trade , as contrasted with the more rough and tumble ‘sawdust joint,’ patronized by those who preferred the ‘action’ of a hard and fast crap game .
1952		(con. 1932) G. Fowler Schnozzola 211: Harry Ritz ran into him in Akron a week ago. He’s got a sawdust place there, and is not so hot.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 185: It was a sawdust saloon with a small bandstand.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 211: The first casino operator in America to endow a sawdust joint with elegance and make it a rug joint was John Davies.
1968		T. Thackrey Gambling Secrets of Nick The Greek 73: By 1850, the lower-class casinos – called ‘sawdust joints’ [...] extended throughout the land.
1970		S. Ross Fortune Machine 7: There are carpet joints on the Strip, sawdust joints downtown [HDAS].
1986		O. Demaris Boardwalk Jungle 123: Little Pussy’s big dreams about owning his own casino were not realized when he became the hidden owner of the Jolly Trolley, a sawdust joint off the Strip.
1993		I.L. Allen City in Sl. (1995) 70: Such watering places stood in contrast to the sawdust joints or sawdust parlors of their social origins.
1994		R. Laxalt Governor’s Mansion 96: We take no more than one thousand dollars from each casino—carpet joint or sawdust joint.

(US) a circus performer.

1881

Daily L.A. Herald 13 Aug. 2/3: The circus people are called ‘sawdust pounders’.

see damp the dust under damp v.¹

(US) to show oneself (truly or otherwise) as ‘reformed’ under the encouragement of a travelling preacher.

1934

S. Walker City Editor 282: [T]he evangelist spent a great deal of futile time and effort in trying to reform O’Neill's drinking habits. O'Neill would always hit the sawdust trail when Sunday called upon him, and he was known to sing "Brighten the Corner Where You Are" from the press box.

(UK und.) in a public house bar.

1935

Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 5: In the saw dust: In the bar of a publci house.

(US) to become drunk.

1954

J.D. MacDonald All These Condemned (2001) 29: Mavis came out of the bathroom [...] and took a fast knock at the Martini. ‘Go easy on that nitro, honey,’ I told her. ‘Last time you lost your sawdust.’.