Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Ghouls and Vampires (not what you might think!)

How auspicious that this Wednesday's slang-o-rama post falls on Halloween! However, BEWARE... in the mid-1800s, ghouls and vampires were not the neighborhood kids in costume, demanding treats, nor were they beings from beyond, come to haunt the living...

Noooooooooo. Not even close.

Instead, the 1859 Vocabulum; or The Rogue's Lexicon by George W. Matsell provides these equally scary (but very different) definitions...
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GHOULS. Fellows who watch assignation-houses, and follow females that come out of them to their homes and then threaten to expose them to their husbands, relatives, or friends, if they refuse to give them not only money, but also the use of their bodies. 

VAMPIRE. A man who lives by extorting money from men and women whom they have seen coming out of or going into houses of assignation. 

Boo! ... Can you say "entrapment?"
(Caricature of notorious New Orleans prostitute Emma Johnson, from "The Mascot", 21 May 1892. Johnson is depicted in a window with a fan, with tentacles reaching out to the sidewalk entrapping passers by, including men, an old man, an adolsecent boy, and a young woman. By Staff of "The Mascot", New Orleans [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.)

So, back then, if a ghoul or vampire were to come knocking at your door, demanding that you (shall we say) "pay up," I'm afraid a chocolate bar or Jolly Roger would not suffice...

Wishing you all a cozy Halloween, with any visitors claiming to be ghouls and vampires restricted to those in costume and preferably under ten years of age.

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Trippers or Floorers

Oh-ho! Are you in for a treat!* I just (re)discovered Vocabulum; or The Rogue's Lexicon: Complied from the Most Authentic Sources, by George W. Matsell, Special Justice, Chief of Police., etc., etc. (yes, it actually includes those two etceteras after his name and titles), 1859, New York. 

So I plan to trip merrily through this document in my usual random manner and share fascinating bits of scoundrel slang with you.

And by trip, I promise not to engage in the sort of behavior of mid-19th-century trippers and floorers.

And who were these folks? Want to guess?
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I shall elucidate, with the definition provided by Special Justice, Chief of Police (etc., etc.) Mr. Matsell:

FLOORERS or TRIPPERS. Fellows that cause persons to slip or fall in the street, and then, while assisting them up, steal their watch or portmonnaie**. They are sometimes called "rampers." A gentleman in a hurry on his way to the bank, or any other place of business, is suddenly stopped by a fellow directly in front of him, going in an opposite direction to himself, who has apparently slipped or stumbled, and in endeavoring to save himself from falling, thrusts his head into the pit of the gentleman's stomach, thereby knocking him down; Immediately two very kind gentlemen, one on each side, assist him to rise, and when on his feet busy themselves in brushing the dirt from his clothing, during which operation they pick his pockets. Thanking his kind assistants with much profusencss, he goes on his way, and very soon afterwards finds himself minus his watch or pocket-book, and perhaps both.

Now, to figure out how to insert some floorers, trippers, or rampers into my work-in-progress...

Watch your pockets!
(Dandy Pickpockets Diving, by Isaac Robert Cruikshank (English, 1789-1856). Art Institute Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/89782)

*and maybe a few tricks along the way...
**According to Merriam-Webster, a portmonnaie is a small pocketbook or purse