My Mission

Robert Sale-Hill’s poem, The True Origin and History of “The Dude” (The New York World, January 14, 1883) introduced the world to the word Dude, and kicked off a full-on Dude craze. A-Dude-a-Day[i] Blog is dedicated to preserving and sharing pics, pieces and poems from the early days of the Dude-craze of 1883. You can read more about the history and origin of the word Dude on my blogpost, "Dudes, Dodos and Fopdoodles" on my other blog, Early Sports 'n' Pop-Culture History Blog.


Thursday, July 30, 2015

Dude #23 - a new kind of bird at the opera



“Well, I think we will have a rather late spring.  You see there is a new kind of bird which has come into our section of country, a very rare bird.  I don’t know what the bird is good for, nor do I know where it came from.  I don’t think they are fit for anything, though I see quite a number of them here in Washington.  The majority of them here and all in our section are young birds, though I see some old ones here.  I saw an old one at the theatre last night.”
“Which theatre?”
“Ford’s.  He occupied a front seat, and seemed to take a great deal of interest in the crowd.  He had a very large pair of opera-glasses, and was continually bouncing up and down looking at the vast assemblage of people in the theatre.”
Now, the Critic would like for you to explain what use a bird has for opera-glasses.”
Lord bless your soul, this bird that I have been talking about is a dude, and I tell you they are getting to be a little too numerous in this section for the good of society.  They are a little too fresh.  We must do something to get them out of the country or they will ruin it.”
Evening Critic (Washington DC), April 17 1883, page 2.

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