Memorandum from Beth Campbell Short to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON November 5, 1952 CTRE ARCHIVES *ATIONAN RECORDA AND 3 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT: Simmered down, our inquiry into the origin of the word snollygoster reveals the following: First recorded use of the word snollygoster was by the composer of "Dixie", Daniel Decatur Emmett, in a song called "The Black Brigade", written in 1862. He was playing and composing Negro melodies from 1857 to 1865 for the Dan Bryant Minstrels. The first two lines of the second verse were: "We am de snollygosters An' lubs Jim Ribber Oysters" A copy of the song is in the Ohiana Library, Columbus, Ohio. The Dictionary of Americanisms, II, 1583 (Chicago, 1951) states it apparently was a fanciful formation and means a preten- tious boaster. I wonder if he coined the word to fit into his jingle. It is interesting to note that Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians says "Nothing else of Emmett's (except Dixie) escaped immediate oblivion". Current discussion of the President's use of the word has rescued "Black Brigade" from that fate. The first definition found was from a column headed "Varieties" in the Columbus, Ohio DISPATCH of October 28, 1895, as follows: "A Georgia editor kindly explains that a snollygoster is a fellow who wants office, regardless of platform or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force of monu- mental talknophical assumnacy. 11 None of the experts queried was able to find the identity of the Georgia editor. A copy of the above newspaper is in the Ohio State Museum, Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio.