Criminal Slang

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 25 July 1891, Page 4

Criminal Slang

Criminal slang is the most consis~teut, and is a language by itself. A facious- oiimiuologist, Loiubroso, has made a minute study of it. He says criminal 'slang fumushws us with a curious insigatL.into the mental processes of those ffho invent and use it, is itself an" embodiment of ' criminal tendencies. 'Nearly everything is degraded,' says he. A treadmill used many years ago in some English 'prisons' tu'grizid corn antl >ai*e water was called. the 'everlasting ataircase ' The ovimihai would make from 7,000 ft to 14,000 ft in a day on'this awful coatrivancej, according^ ."tq 'the degree of his offence against prison discipline On country { roa<lß th.c siga posts are -called bj^cnmrnalsC 'parsons,' because they show the people? the right way "to go,, but dp not go themselves. Clergymen, a^e called the f ungrateful meu'!., A. hanging is called 'the fall of ths. jeaf/..' because ..the victim has reached the '* autumn of life' aiid drops jike_the_wither£ci Jeaf . ' T wig' meacs;?;to^atch;ori to- regard with attention. '.-They're a twiggin' of you sir,' says Welleij' to- Pickwick. A pick-pocket says suddenly to his confederate r'^w'ig the cull, he's peery,' which-iiheans : 'Observe the fellow, he's watching us.' It is said that * twig- iB-tne-Irish- ' tig' — to perceive. ThereT; are'S seventeen criminal slang words ioi police, ; -;seven> for stealing ; forty AjfourdiforJ.i drunkenness, twenty for drinking, and eight for wine— in all, seventy- two. -Water has nineteen criminal '■> slang equivalents ; money lias thirty-sir. : It is said that of late slang ' among- 1 is waning. | They; are^adopting ■> fche > language of tbeir respectable, .neighbors,, because if the : 'slang 'habit is once contracted it cahudi _be\i&i^ aside without an effort, s and' o a u cfiniinfal may be ' spotted' on account of slang which he -uses uncouscioLUsly.— Dunedin iStar.