When Chimmie wants to express his admiration for a young lady, he says:
"Well, say, she's a torrowbred, an' dat goes." When the young lady's
father comes to thank him for championing her, this is how Chimmie
describes the visit: "Den he gives me a song an' dance about me being a
brave young man for tumping de mug what insulted his daughter," "Mug,"
the Bowery term for "fellow" or "man," in Chicago finds its equivalent
in "guy." Mr. Ade's Artie is a Chicago clerk, and his dialect is of the
most delectable. In comparison with him, Mr. Dooley is a well of English
undefiled. Here again we find traces of the influence of polyglot
immigration. "Kopecks" for "money" evidently comes from the Russian Jew;
"girlerino," as a term of endearment, from the "Dago" of the sunny
south; and "spiel," meaning practically anything you please, from the
Fatherland. When Artie goes to a wedding, he records that "there was a
long spiel by the high guy in the pulpit." After describing the
embarrassments of a country cousin in the city, Artie proceeds, "Down at
the farm, he was the wise guy and I was the soft mark." "Mark" in the
sense of "butt" or "gull" is one of the commonest of slang words. When
Artie has cut out all rivals in the good graces of his Mamie, he puts it
thus, "There ain't nobody else in the one-two-sevens. They ain't even in
the 'also rans.'" When they have a lovers' quarrel he remarks, "Well, I
s'pose the other boy's fillin' all my dates." When he is asked whether
Mamie cycles, he replies, "Does she? She's a scorchalorum!" When he
disapproves of another young gentleman, this is how "he puts him next"
to the fact, as he himself would say--

"You're nothin' but a two-spot. You're the smallest thing in the
deck.... Chee-e-ese it! You can't do nothin' like that to me and
then come around afterwards and jolly me. Not in a million! I tell
you you're a two spot, and if you come into the same part o' the
town with me I'll change your face. There's only one way to get