Green’s Dictionary of Slang

hum-box n.

1. a pulpit.

1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: hum box a pulpit.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
a.1790		H.T. Potter New Dict. Cant (1795).
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1828		Lytton Pelham III 268: Suppose Bess were to address you thus: ‘Well you parish bull prig, are you for lushing jackey, or pattering in the hum box?’.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1846		G.M.W. Reynolds Mysteries of London I 60/1: H was a Hum-box, where parish-prigs speak.
1858		A. Mayhew Paved with Gold 309: He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to the ‘hum box’ (pulpit).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
c.1865		Shirley Brooks in R.T. Hopkins Life and Death at the Old Bailey (1935) 168: The parson stands on his Humbox high.
1891		Freeman’s Jrnl (Dublin) 28 Dec. 2/2: None but a disreputable Bohemian would ever have christned a pulpit a ‘hum-box’.

2. (US) an auctioneer’s rostrum.

1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 37: Hum Box, an auctioneer’s rostrum.

In compounds

hum-box patterer (n.) [ironic use of patterer n. (2)]

a preacher.

c.1838		G.W.M. Reynolds ‘The House Breaker’s Song’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 123: But if ever a pal in limbo fell, / He’d sooner be scragg’d at once than tell; / Though the hum-box patterer talked of hell, / And the beak wore his nattiest wig.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 2 Oct. 1/2: And when his time for going’s come / May hum-box patterer be dumb.