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.


Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Knickerbocker Dudes and other Dudes of the Past

An article published in 1887 compared and contrasted various types of "Dudes" from history; the "Spanish Gallant," the "Puritan Dandy," the "Knickerbocker Beau," and the "Modern Dude."  Coincidentally, the "Modern Dude" of the 1889s may be related to the old "Knickerbocker Beaus," literally and figuratively. The word, "dude," was coined in 1883, and the members of the Knickerbocker Club of New York City (whose members were purporteldy descended from the original Knickerbocker settlers of New Amsterdam) may have been the original "Dudes" who inspired the new word.     
 

Members of the Knicerbocker Club gazing out their window may have inspired the original "Dude" in 1883. See, "Knickerbocker Dudes - a Window into the History and Origin of 'Dude.'"
 
 
 
 
 
 
"Swells of the Past," The Lawrence Tribune (Lawrence, Kansas), March 4, 1887, page 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The dandy of the hour cuts no figure beside the dandies of the past.  They had the advantage of laces, ruffles, fantastic head wear, sashes, knee breeches, swords, and no end of frumpery.  Our dandy must put his time in on his bangs, his mustache, his eye-glasses, collar and necktie, and trifles like that, and then the fit of his clothes is something that taxes him greatly, for that constitutes his claim to an exquisite.

Only a dude can wear clothes that fit perfectly, because he could not keep away every wrinkle if he moved about in a natural way attending to business.  Clothes are like faces; they show where they have been.  A dandy's clothes must be new every morning and fresh every evening in appearance.
 
 

 
The Spanish courtier of the last century was a creature to make all existing dandies wretched.  Like unto but still more gorgeous than the French swell of Richelieu's day was he.  The glory of his head wear, the splendor of his coat, the elegance of his entire outfit - all these bring tears to the eyes of the male creature swelldom who cannot get out of the ugly environment of trousers.
 
 

 
Then there was the grim dude of our Puritan fathers.  He was not the creature of flippant mind.  On the contrary he devoted himself to questions of deep religious import, and dressed accordingly.  His high crowned, wide brimmed hat, his well fitting stockings and wide, immaculate collar made of hinm a spectacle of sever fashion that would terrorize a child to-day.  Like other dandies, his face agreed with his costume.  It was long, doleful, awful.  The friskiness of youth was eliminated from his anatomy, and he went forth among the fair sex conquering only in the straight and narrow way.  His manners were no jollier than his garments, for be it known clothes are the expression of thought, and always agree with the manners of the wearer.
 
 

 
 The original dude of New Amsterdam, the swell Knickerbocker, was a gay, gorgeous creature.  It is even now whispered that Hendrick Hudson was one.  He wore extraordinary collars, rosettes on his shoes, and other garments of peculiar extravagance.  When gotten up with a view to heart breaking experiences he was a creature to dazzle and overwhelm.  You will find him still, done up in canvas and oil, on the walls of his rich descendants in New York.  Sometimes, however, hie is very grand in the portrait, all ruffles and glory, when the original spent his life in a butcher's apron.  Descendants have a pardonable habit of improving their dead ancestors, and making them up with the times.

Knee breeches for all men are threatened and will doubtless arrive.  The bicyclists are already in them, and the contagion, blessed be its name, is spreading.


 
 
 
 A fop of the present day - call him a dude, or by any other name, he willsmell as weet - makes but a poor appearance as to legs.  Trousers are the mortal enemy of beauty.  They came in with the French revolution.  Teh French peasant wore a baggy leg wear on the trouser plan.  His conception of democracy was to compel everybody to wear the same kind of clothing.  
 
Aristocrats wore stockings to the knee, hence the peasant argued that stockings to the knee indicated tyranny and oppression, and his kind of trousers were symbolical of equal rights for all men.  And he enforced his theory by cutting off the heads of all who clung to stockings.  Naturally men found it to their interest to discard stockings and put on trousers.  Hence we have trousers now, and find it hard to get rid of them.

The modern dude wouldn't say overcoat for the world; but he talks a good deal about his "top coat."  And he would hold no communication with a person who spoke of trousers as pantaloons, though the day has been when that name was considered good enough for the bifurcated garments of men, by very respectable people.  

And no dandy who keeps up with the times recognizes such a thing as a cane! Not he. He "wears a walking stick," a thick, stout stick, very strong, club-like looking, consequently very English.
 

Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Dudess, Dudine, Dudette or Dudelet - a Feminine Dude by any other name would "Swell" as sweet

 

The introduction of the word “Dude” in 1883 solved one linguistic problem and created a new one.  It provided a word to describe society "swells," the frivolous, idle sons of Gilded Age millionaires who affected an English accent and wore a monocle, a short overcoat over a long jacket, tight trousers, pointy shoes and sucked the silver tips of their canes; but created the need for a new word to refer to the frivolous, idle daughters of Gilded Age millionaires.

“Female Dude” and “Lady Dude” were useful, but not very expressive.

The female dude is running to the Langtry style.  Hat and dress are of the same material.  Her bonnet is small with na oblong plaited crown, surrounded by a turban-like roll.  No ornaments are worn to adorn it.  Her hair is wrn a la Circassian, standing straight out in front and on the top, the back being gathered in a careless twist, with a strand or two hanging as if it had escpaped from the hair pin.  Her dress is covered by a tight fitting coat that is trimmed with velvet and braid a la militare.  Patent leather shoes peep out from the lower borders of her coat, and a stand-up collar keeps the head as straight as a vise.  When two dudes meet each bend forward the whole body, they cannot bend in the middle, and just as you expect to see them fall on their faces they recover themselves by an effort painful to see.

“Fine aft,” says the lady dude.

“Very find aft,” replies the male dude.

Then both smile so that it wrinkles the paint on their faces, they think of this, check themselves and look like a couple of chattering apes.

“New York Notes,” The Kansas City Times, April 8, 1883, page 9.

Lillie Langtry.


Several competing suggestions emerged, with “Dudess,” “Dudine,” “Dudette” and “Dudelet” each having their day.

 

Puck's Dude Champion - "But she her gum doth chew. . ."

The Feminine Dude.

   Dear Editor of the P.-D.,

You omniscient young man,

   A favor, I beseech you,

Please grant it, if you can.

 

   You have written up the Dude,

Pictured his hair and style;

   Now won’t you please “let up on him,”

Change the subject for a while.

 

   Give us his female counterpart,

Her peccadilloes show

   Up in your witty paper,

That never is called slow.

 

   He sucks his cane, ‘tis true,

As he struts along the pave;

   But she her gum doth chew,

Not much better does behave.

 

   With mincing gait she struts along,

Tho’ no business has she there;

   She only walks upon the pave

To  make the people stare.

 

   Of knowledge her pate is empty,

No time has she to fill;

   And if she had, with some to spare,

She’d never have the will.

 

   Is my favor a conundrum?

No, wurely, you can guess

   And understand my wisehes for

A new word – e’en “Dudess.”

 

                                    Annie.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 23, 1883, page 4.

 

A visual pun.  A “dudeen” (as opposed to “Dudine) is the name of a small, Irish clay pipe.

 

The “dudine” is the feminine equivalent of the “dude.” She is a daisy.

The News and Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina), April 13, 1883, page 4.

The dudine has arrived. She is the feminine dude.  Smokes cigarettes and wears a single eye-glass.

Fort Wayne Daily Gazette, April 22, 1883, page 8.

The dudine is the feminine dude.  It wears a mashed gooseberry colored hat, a high collar, and its clothes are made to fit tight.  It carries a sharp-pointed parasol in lieu of the dude’s cane, and its street pet is an English pub.

Weekly Mercury (Oroville, California), July 13, 1883, page 5.

 

 

THE DUDE AND DUDELET.

To an Old Air.

 

I.

A Dude and Dudelet on the beach,

   Upon the beach so sandy,

The Dude, he wooed; the Dudelet cooed,

   And nibbled Maillard’s candy.

Lanky Dude and Dudelet dear,

   Lanky Dudy dandy.

 

                        II.

He always knew the proper thing

   In ties, cigars, and brandy,

And wore his trousers very tight,

   Which made his legs look bandy.

Lanky Dude and Dudelet dear,

   Lanky Dudy dandy.

 

III.

The Dudelet was in perfect form,

   Her slender waist so handy –

She said she’s be his little Maud,

   He said he’d be her Andy.

Lanky Dude and Dudelet dear,

   Lanky Dudy dandy.

 

IV.

And so they were in wedlock bound

   With graceful toasts post-prandi-

al.  She She is still a Dudelet dear,

   Correct, exclusive, and he

Remains a lanky Dude, I fear,

   A lanky Dudy dandy.

 

                       

The Harvard Lampoon, Series II, Volume 5, Number 5, April 20, 1883, page 42.


A more academic approach to the question (surprisingly, perhaps, not from Harvard), questioned the suggestion of “Dudette” as imprecise and misleading.

Dudette vs Dudess.

Ed. Astorian:

Speaking of dudes we wish to say a few words on the subject, not on the dudes but on the word, the name.  Now if the new outgrowth from slangdom is to be admitted into the King’s English upon an equal footing with other common nouns let us settle upon some decent termination which will make it applicable to the fair sex, for it would be absurd to say that there are no female dudes, for you may perhaps have noticed that a lady writing to the Catahoochee Gyraffe to inquire what is the feminine of dude, to which the editor very complacently answers dudette.

Now where did that learned dictator get his knowledge? Ancient history is silent on the subject; science it seems has not grappled with it, orthoepists have eschewed it, and unless he can produce something better than his mere dictum we are going to rebel; we object to the “ette,” for many reasons; first, we have too many etts altogether; second, “ette” is not the proper thing, it is not only arbitrary but, a perversion of the sense of the suffix, which being a diminutive cannot be bulldosed into a simple expression of gender.  Now, we might call it Dudee or Doodledoo for that matter, but we have a terminal already in use which is euphonious, graceful and proper and as we believe in the survival of the fittest, we contend for its application in this case.

Dudette indeed! Now suppose the fair dudess should be a two hundred pounder wouldn’t she be a petite Dudette, and when the ladies come to talk of Miss Antonette being a brunette wearing a rosette and smoking the fragrant cigarette being a dudette wouldn’t the repetition be monotonous? Well, allow us to just blandly whisper that it would. 

Now as the ladies have been, as they have a perfect right to be, the first to inquire into this matter, we think they will agree with us that dudess is the proper and the only proper feminine for dude.  We have princess, empress, actress, doctress, and so on, and why not dudess. 

In conclusion, Mr. Editor, allow us to hope that the press, the great promoter and director of thought, the great laboratory of public opinion, will earnestly, and persistently sit down on the dudette, that is, on the term, the name, you know.

A Subscriber.

The Morning Astorian (Astoria, Oregon), June 2, 1883, page 3.

 

Currier & Ives, 1883.

 

But don’t kid yourself; it might still be dangerous even if you did use the preferred terminology.

 

An Editor Cowhided.

Bloomington, Illl, July 21. – The Rev. H. O. Hoffman, editor of the Independent, was today cowhided by Mrs. Pritchard, the woman who was recently the housekeeper for Thomas Ashley and cuased a separation between Ashley and his wife.  Last evening the Independent called Mrs. Pritchard a “dudes.” Hoffman was badly cut about the face by the whip.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 23, 1883, page 1.

 

It was all a mite confusing and difficult to keep straight.

Puck's Dude Champion - "My powdered pearl, my gilded girl . . ."


DUDINETTE.

A Dude.

Ah! ma belle dudeen,

   Dudie, dudesse, dudette;

My bang-browed queen, my own dudeen,

   My coaching club coquette.

 

Look down on me, thy duteous dude,

   My beauteous belle, look down,

Thy servant, slave, in any mood,

   In they “mashed strawberry” gown.

 

And patent-waved – they poodle shaved –

   Thou’rt the toniest girl in town.

My powdered pearl, my gilded girl,

   Fair dudinette, look down.

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer, June 13, 1883, page 3.    

But if a “Dudess” acts like a regular “Dude” (for example by pursuing actresses as a regular “Dude” was wont to do), then why not just call her a “Feminine Dude.”

 


Feminine Dudes in Washington.

(Washington Letter in Boston Traveller).

If there is any kink or wrinkle in the line of fashionable hobbies which has not reached Washington, the society young ladies would like to have it passed this way.  This year it is the proper thing for one young lade to be desperately in love with another.  She may have a young man – and most of them do – but unless she id desperately in love with one of her own sex she can rest assured that she is not en regle.

This craze is being carried to a ridiculous extent here.  Those of us who have been watching its rapid growth have been intensely amused at the extremely practical manner in which some of the young ladies go about it.

It must not be supposed that because fashion’s whim commands a young lady to rave about some other young lady’s beauty, and to drip all manner of literary treacle over thye object of her alleged desires, that it is at all necessary that her “mash” should be one of her own circle of friends.  The shrewd girl will never permit herself to be caught in such a flimsy trap as that.  She must admire something feminine, and so she looks about her and usually settles down upon some actress.

Rhea Jeannie Winston and Verona Jarbeau are the three favorites.  All three of them are deluged with flowers and perfumed notes every time they come to town.  Not long ago Miss Winston stopped for about two hours in Washington on her way North.  A delegation of young ladies met her at the depot and entertained this feminine Bunthorne during her stay.  Quite recently Jarbeau played in the “Mikado” at one of our theaters.  Two young ladies at once became desperately smitten.  They called and were cordially received.  Jarbeau told them all manner of pretty things about herself, her origin and her history.  They were enraptured, but when the clever little actress innocently told them that she was barely past 20, and that she felt just like a school girl, the young ladies looked at each other a trifle incredulously.  Before they left Jarbeau managed to tell them that in case they hired a box at the matinee she would flirt with them from the stage.  The girls hired the box and Jarbeau did as she promised.

All of this talk may be sickening to those who have never moved in society at the capital, but it must be confessed that when one looks at the average brainless dude who is supposed to entertain the young lady he does not wonder at the fact that the girls are falling in love one with another.

The Daily Examiner (San Francisco), March 7, 1886, page 2.

 


Verona Jarbeau, pursued by Washington Dudesses.

Dude looks like a lady. Puck, Volume 14, Number 359, January 23, 1884, page 323.



Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Dude Champions

Puck, Volume 14, Number 342, September 26, 1883, page 53.

In September 1883, Harper's Weekly magazine published a portrait of Richard, Dudley Sears, who had just won his third of what would become seven consecutive United States National Championships of Lawn Tennis.  He was, at that time, the only champion tennis player of the United States ever - having won the first such championship in 1881, and every one since.


 THE LAWN TENNIS CHAMPION.

Mr. Richard D. Sears, whose portrait is given on page 581, enjoys the distinction of being the first and only lawn tennis champion of the United States.  The championship was instituted in the summer of 1881, and was won by Mr. Sears, who succeeded in defending his title to the honor in the following year, and again in the National Tournament lately held at Newport.

Harper's Weekly, Volume 27, Number 1395, September 15, 1883, page 587.

 

Being a "champion" of lawn tennis seemed such a dubious feat to be commemorated with a portrait in a national magazine that the humor magazine, Puck, lampooned the editorial decisions of its more serious competitor with six portraits of "Champion Dudes" of similarly dubious distinction. 


 Champion Dudes:

Miss Mamie Taff, American Chewing-Gum Champion.

 

Mr. Hildebrandt Montrose Brown. Champion Polo Player.

 

Miss Dizzy Williams. Champion Caramel Destroyer.

 

Mr. Ferdinand La Belle Smith. Champion Cigarette Smoker.

 

Mr. Cholly Sill. Champion Tight Trousers Wearer, with Portrait of Legs.

 

Miss Flossy Johnson. Champion Pearl Powder Slinger.

 

Puck may have scored a few cheap laughs to take the game, but tennis took the set and the match - the US Open is still contested every year as one of the four "Grand Slam" tournaments, whereas for many readers, this may be the first they've ever heard of Puck, which put out its last issue in 1918.


Kissing Dudes


Famous actors kissed like "dudes."


The Wallack Kiss [(presumably Lester Wallack)]. 

The famous New York actor delivering one of his dudish kisses on the stage.

Madison Times (Tallulah, Louisiana), January 17, 1885, page 1.

 

But women kissing poodles was considered a step above kissing a “dude.”

We never so deeply feel the sin of waste as when we see a pretty girl kiss the pink nose of a poodle.  South and West. 

That is miserly economy compared to the folly of a pretty girl kissing a dude. Wilmington Statesman.

Baxter Springs News (Kansas), April 25, 1885, page 4.

 

A “dude” kissing another “dude” wasn’t illegal in Chicago, but the police didn’t like it anyways.

Chicago dudes kiss each other when they meet and part upon the streets.  It is said that the new fashion keeps the police force sick at the stomach all day long.

The Macon Telegraph (Georgia), December 28, 1886, page 2.

 

Frenchmen kissed one another like the “dudes” in Eastern cities; a practice that was feared could spread out West.

In Eastern cities the dudes now kiss each other, on parting.  The practice will doubtless extend to Hailey.  It is a national habit with Frenchmen to kiss one another, as a sign of esteem, and male relatives, especially, never think of bidding each other good-by without kissing on the cheek.

Wood River Times (Hailey Idaho), February 5, 1887, page 3. 

 

But even further west, a “dude” might kiss a woman illegally and get away with it.


Miss Mamie Wilson of Oakland is a remarkably handsome young lady, and, like many pretty girls, is usually late for the boat.  As she glided through the gate she was closely followed by a dude.  There was only a minute to spare.  Both landed on the deck of the 4 o’clock ferryboat at the same time.  Just as the gong sounded a shriek followed.  In the presence of the whole ship’s company the dude had placed his arms about her neck and bestowed a violent kiss on Mamie’s cherry lips.  He escaped to the wharf by making a jump of about five feet, and then threw her another kiss, while the lady was storming with indignation.  She had never seen the man before.  The only theory is that the dude has a mania for kissing pretty girls, or that he committed the act on a wager.  He is described as being a blond, with a good-sized mustache, about six feet in height.  He wore a plug hat and light overcoat, and carried a gold-headed cane.  Miss Wilson desires to have him arrested, but it will be a hard job to get him.

The San Francisco Examiner, March 4, 1888, page 3.

While back in Chicago, a woman might be fined for kissing a “dude” – no news about his punishment.

A Chicago justice has fined a woman $15 for kissing a dude.  Any woman with the bad taste to kiss a Chicago dude deserves even greater punishment. – [Philadelphia Press.] 

But it was a Chicago woman who did the kissing, and dudes have some rights.

The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), October 22, 1890, page 4.

 

The Chicago kissing fine story was widely reprinted in 1890, generally without the dude-rights rejoinder.

 

Five years later, on a slow news day, some lazy copywriter pulled the old story out of the files.

For kissing a dude, a woman has been fined $15 by a Chicago Justice.  Any woman with the bad taste to kiss one of those things, by courtesy called dudes, deserves even greater punishment.

Buffalo County Beacon (Gibbon, Nebraska), May 10, 1895, page 2.

 

A slightly more energetic copywriter embellished the story, lending the already fake news a little extra fakeness.

Miss Arabella de Smythe, who is a member of one of our best-known families, was arraigned before the Recorder yesterday on the charge of kissing a dude.  The evidence was very conclusive, and the accused was fined $100 and sentenced to six months in the work-house.

The Tennessean (Nashville), May 26, 1895, page 12.

 

The punishment sounds severe, but we don’t know who the dude was – perhaps it was deserved.

 



With all of the persecution of “dudes,” should have been easier to just shake hands, but “driveling dudes” found a way to make even that too complicated.


Saint Paul Globe, October 16, 1887, page 17.