1898: Xmas with the zesty North Yakima “Epigram”
North Yakima, Washington, was a feisty boomtown in its day, and it had an aptly-titled newspaper to go with that attitude.
I present to you a fun holiday note from the slang-loving Epigram, using a Pacific Northwest English dialect term that traces back to Chinook Jargon:
Alex Brandenburg took his Xmas turkey at Prosser. Says he had a hiyu time.
— from “Toppenish Items” in the North Yakima (WA) Epigram of December 31, 1898, page 6, column 1
Self-explanatory, huh?
Bonus fact:
In column 1 on page 5 of the same issue, there’s another colorful little local piece using some Chinuk Wawa:
Marshal Grant rounded up a job lot of hoboes Tuesday morning, who have been a public nuisance for some time, and put them all in the “skookum house”. Not desiring to board this charges permanently, he released them on their promise to “vamoose,” which they did by the midnight trains.
