/ · John S. Farmer’s Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
A Hundred Stretches Hence
A Hundred Stretches Hence
1859
From The Vocabulum: or Rogues Lexicon, by G. W. MATSELL, New York.
I
Oh! where will be the culls of the bing
1 publicans
A hundred stretches hence?
2 years
The bene morts who sweetly sing,
3 pretty women
A hundred stretches hence?
The autum-cacklers, autum-coves,
4 married women and men
The jolly blade who wildly roves;
5 boon companion
And where the buffer, bruiser, blowen,
6 smuggler; pugilist; whore
And all the cops, and beaks so knowin,
7 police; magistrate
A hundred stretches hence?
II
And where the swag so bleakly pinched
8 plunder cleverly stolen
A hundred stretches hence?
The thimbles, slangs, and danglers filched,
9 watches; chains; seals; stolen
A hundred stretches hence?
The chips, the fawneys, chatty-feeders,
10 money; rings; spoons
The bugs, the boungs, and well-filled readers;
11 breast-pins; purses; pocket-book
And where the fence, and snoozing ken,
12 receiver of stolen goods; brothel
With all the prigs and lushing men,
13 thieves; drunkards
A hundred stretches hence?
III
Played out they lay, it will be said
A hundred stretches hence;
With shovels they were put to bed
14 buried
A hundred stretches since!
Some rubbed to wit had napped a winder,
15 taken to gaol; had cheated a life sentence
And some were scragged and took a blinder,
16 hanged; drowned oneself
Planted the swag and lost to sight,
17 got rid of the plunder
We’ll bid them one and all good-night,
A hundred stretches hence.
Notes
The Rogue’s Lexicon, mainly reprinted from Grose’s
Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, is of permanent interest and
value to the philologist and student for the many curious survivals
of, and strange shades of meaning occurring in, slang words and
colloquilisms after transplantation to the States. G. W. Matsell was
for a time the chief of the New York police.
Taken from
Musa Pedestris,
Three Centuries of Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes
[1536―1896], collected and annotated by John S. Farmer.
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