Bill Denton writes:
<< Here's one of my favourite bits, where Shell is
quizzing a con man for
dope on a grifter named Press:
| "Press was a tear-off rat, and he should have been
selling shoes.
| I worked with him myself once; that's how I know.
That time we worked
| together was one too many. This mark we stung was a
bald-headed pappy
| from Tucson. We gave him the point-out, then I told
him the tale and
| gave him the convincer. Press had to hole up with the
guy for nearly a
| week while he waited for his cush, and it must have
been murder. The
| only reason the mark doesn't chill is he's such a
lop-eared savage.
| Press was roper on the deal and how he ever steered
even that winchell
| in I'll never understand. The mark acted like he
wanted to blow his
| chunk. Press cracked out of turn and did everything
wrong, but I kept
| patting the mark on the back and he blew twenty
thousand. So it worked
| out O.K., but why Press didn't rumble him, I'll never
know."
| I nodded my head, just as if I had more than a vague
idea of what
| he'd just told me.
>>
The excessiveness of con man vocabulary, followed by the
admission of confusion by Shell Scott, makes me think that
Prather might have cribbed from linguist David Maurer's great
book, "The Big Con" (1940). From the paragraph above, here
are some of the words singled out in the lingo section by
Maurer: tear-off, mark, tell the tale, convincer, cush,
chill, lop-eared, savage, roper, steered, winchell, blow,
crack out of turn, rumble.
Doug
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