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Galaxy (N.Y.) 4:1 May 28: Following Napoleon to the St. Helena Station, he had contracted a rheumatism, for which his surgeon prescribed, as a dernier resort, an opium pill.at pill, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) 4:1 May 28: Following Napoleon to the St. Helena Station, he had contracted a rheumatism, for which his surgeon prescribed, as a dernier resort, an opium pill. Galaxy (N.Y.) 4:1 May 26: If the pipe be employed, then, when the recipient has taken an easy, semi-recumbent posture, the smoking-pellet is inserted into a slit in the yen-tsia’ng, or smoking-pistol, and is lighted with a lamp, and the smoke drawn in at a breath.at yen tsiang (n.) under yen, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Feb. 211: Didn’t throw nothing away after I blinked him, ’cept it was his shooter [HDAS].at blink, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) May 656: He may be as stupid a dolt as ever fell prey to the sharper, but yet has sense enough to know that his is only a case of the biter very savagely bitten, and that so far as intention is concerned he is many degrees more depraved than his city confederate. [...] Therefore the poor bitten rogue must nurse his anguish in secret; his money has gone to the dogs, and he has only to mention the fact to throw his reputation after it.at bite, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) May 656: He may be as stupid a dolt as ever fell prey to the sharper, but yet has sense enough to know that his is only a case of the biter very savagely bitten, and that so far as intention is concerned he is many degrees more depraved than his city confederate.at biter, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Aug. 170: ‘This bullseye is an old acquaintance here,’ said the detective, ‘and as its coming most always means “somebody wanted,” you see how they hide.’.at bull’s eye, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 67: These are the canaille of gamblers, who [...] manage to supply the necessities of life in a cheap way, from chance success in small bets and by a few dollars picked up by guiding more profitable customers to the houses where they are known. Strictly speaking, more ‘cappers’ than gamblers, they are [...] at the bottom of the profession.at capper, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) May 654: These Cheap Johns of villany have therefore hit upon an expedient which demands no skill, little labor, and less money.at cheap john, n.2
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 61: From this operation [...] has come one of the most common of modern slang phrases, ‘handing in his checks,’ as a synonym for death; and there is something of a grotesque humor in the metaphor [...] There is something funereal in the gravity and decorum of the faro room, and there is a deal of the utter abandon of death in the staid recklessness with which an infatuated player stakes his last dollar on the turn of a card.at hand in one’s checks (v.) under check, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 196: There is a big watch movement factory here and [...] I have beat it already for a little but I’m waiting for some good pal to help me clean it out .at clean out, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 57: ‘Who’s payin’? I’m dead broke?’ ‘What! Cleaned out?’ ‘You bet. But if that dealer hadn’t railroaded, I’d a got square copperin’ the ace.’.at copper, v.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 196: ‘Stutter Jack,’ ‘Glimmer George,’ and sundry others with similar improbable names, had arranged the preliminaries for ‘cracking’ the house on a night then some time in the future.at crack, v.2
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 196: One of them went to the house with the story of a conversation he had overheard in a ‘crib,’ during which ‘Stutter Jack,’ ‘Glimmer George,’ and sundry others with similar improbable names, had arranged the preliminaries for ‘cracking’ the house on a night then some time in the future.at crib, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 19?3: He made the acquaintance of these outlaws, and, calling upon them at their home, represented himself as on the ‘cross,’ and proposed a job in which he should be a partner in the profits in consideration of the assistance he would give in carrying it out.at on the cross under cross, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 57: ‘Who’s payin’? I’m dead broke?’ ‘What! Cleaned out?’ ‘You bet. But if that dealer hadn’t railroaded, I’d a got square copperin’ the ace.’.at dead broke (adj.) under dead, adv.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 191: When we know that the ‘pocket-book dropper’ yet decoys the money even of the city-bred by his stale device; that the ‘gift enterprises,’ ‘envelope game,’ and similar threadbare tricks yet serve to attain the ends of the sharpers.at gold-dropper, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 193: This aid, he averred, would be most effective, as he had ‘fixed’ the clerk at the lace shawl counter, and that person would be conveniently blind at the moment chosen by the thieves to slip the costly articles from the counter into the immense pockets they all have suspended to the waist, under the dress.at fix, v.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) May 654: When Congress authorized the present issue of greenbacks, the Treasury Department executed plates of enormous cost and wonderful workmanship, from which the whole amount of currency authorized by Congress was to be printed.at greenback, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Feb. 827: The licensed grog-shops over 7,000 in number, and the gambling establishments, including 92 faro banks and all the places where lottery tickets are sold, less than 600.at grog shop (n.) under grog, n.1
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 195: I suppose that you have wondered how I got away and where I am things was so hot I had no time to let you know before.at hot, adj.
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 59: The universal American game is ‘faro’ [...] There is, first, the large massive table covered with green cloth, and on it, occupying less than half its surface, is the ‘lay-out,’ which is a full suit of cards, from the ace to the king, painted in a parallelogram.at layout, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Apr. 564: He then invites his friend into some adjacent restaurant or saloon, and while acting as his host does him the favor of showing him a ‘first-class’ investment by producing bonds of the Grand Consolidated What Not, which he declares to be worth par.at what-not, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 63: Gamblers have a saying as caustic and more true, that a ‘Stormer is sure to be a piker.’ The first term interpreted into English, means one who has an extraordinary run of good luck by which he has pocketed thousands, while a ‘piker’ is a tolerated collapse who makes a stray bet when he can beg or borrow a ‘check.’.at piker, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Feb. 829: In some cases tribute is exacted by the process familiarly known as ‘pulling.’ Armed with a warrant which authorizes him to arrest the proprietress for keeping a disorderly house, a police captain or sergeant makes a sudden raid upon the selected den at an hour when it is certain to have the most inmates, and carries off captive everybody he finds in it.at pull, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) May 656: But the more seductive and general way is to have the order come unaccompanied by any money, whereupon the ‘queer’ is ‘forwarded C.O.D. by express, packed in small boxes so as to defy detection’.at queer, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) July 57: ‘Who’s payin’? I’m dead broke?’ ‘What! Cleaned out?’ ‘You bet. But if that dealer hadn’t railroaded, I’d a got square copperin’ the ace.’.at railroad, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 190: Two men from the same office are often detailed to ‘shadow,’ one the husband and the other the wife, and it occasionally happens that they have mastered the spirit of their calling so thoroughly that they do a little business on private account by ‘giving away’ each other.at shadow, v.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Mar. 188: That is the room where the ferrets of the house who assume the name of detectives, but are more significantly called ‘shadows,’ are hidden from the prying eyes of the world. [Ibid.] 190: [...] That is to say, the husband’s man informs the wife she is watched, and gives her a minute description of her ‘shadow,’ for which information he of course gets an adequate reward, which the wife’s man likewise earns and receives by doing the same kindly office for the husband.at shadow, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Aug. 172: In the way of additional furniture, it had a common deal table, three broken wooden chairs, a few dishes and cooking utensils, and two ‘shakedowns’, as the piles of straw stuffed into bed-ticks are called.at shakedown, n.
Galaxy (N.Y.) Oct. 498: A gentleman who is anxious to recover his watch without the trouble of attempting to punish the thief who stole it, has only to [...] trace it to Brandon, and regain it on comparatively favorable terms; for the gentlemanly dealer is not a ‘sheeny,’ but a devout believer in the fine old maxim of ‘live and let live.’.at sheeny, n.
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