Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/260

 is credited to Mr. Oliver P. Morton, who, elected United States senator in 1867, and again in 1873, took a prominent part as a leader of the more radical Republicans, favouring a stern policy of coercion in the reconstruction of the Southern States. He was one of the Presidential Candidates at the Cincinnati Convention of 1876, his name standing second on the first ballot. Happily, however, his opinions were too pronounced to unite the factions of his party, and the ultimate choice fell upon Mr. Hayes.

1888. Coldwater (Mich.) Sun, Jan. The bloody shirt is gradually fading away. The white-winged dove of peace spreads her wings here and there, patriotism forgets and forgives old differences, sectionalism is gradually giving way to love of country—the whole country. In fact the ill-feeling between the North and South would have died out years ago among the veterans of both sections, had they been left to themselves, and the politicians been as patriotic as they.

1888. New York Weekly Times, Mar. 21. It is reprehensible to the last degree for the Bourbons of the South to continue to play on the colour line—the Southern bloody shirt—and then denounce Republican extremists for doing the same thing at the North.

Bloomer, subs. (Australian prison slang).—A mistake. Said to be an abbreviated form of 'blooming error.'—See Blooming.

Blooming, often Bloomin', ppl, adj. (common).—This word, similar in type to 'blessed,' 'blamed,' and other words of the kind, is, as used by the lower classes, a euphemism for bloody (q.v.), but it is also frequently employed as a mere meaningless intensitive. Like the last-named word, little count is taken of its exact primary meaning. Its slang use may be traced to that figurative sense of the orthodox word, which signifies 'in the bloom of health and beauty,' 'in the prime,' 'flourishing,' etc. Some uncertainty exists as to the origin of this not over-ornamental addition to our expletive vocabulary. If the word is used by Granvil (see quot.) in its modern sense, then the phrase is very much older than has hitherto been imagined. Barring this, it would seem that we are indebted for it to the Californian coast, although there is little doubt that the chief instrument in its acclimatization in England was Mr. Alfred G. Vance, the comic singer, well-known in connection with 'Jolly dogs,' and other extensively popular music-hall songs. As before stated, it has very largely supplanted 'bloody'; bally (q.v.) is also used in the same manner. Its applications are manifold. One is requested not to make any blooming mistake or error; another 'showing off,' or 'putting on side,' is told not to be so blooming flash; an excessively stupid man is spoken of as a blooming idiot; and an inquisitive individual is told more forcibly than politely, perhaps, 'you asks me no bloomin' imper'int questions, an' I tells yer no bloomin' lies.'

1726. Rev. J. Granvil, Sadducismns triumphatus [under the head of 'The Demon of Tedworth' (1661). Granvil makes mention that on one occasion the spirit came into a room panting like a dog, and] company coming up, the room was presently filled with a blooming noisome smell.