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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 9, Issue 7 (October 1, 1934)

Asking and Deceiving

Asking and Deceiving.

The hot-press leaves an impress of D-press, Re-press or X-press. X-press is man's method of concealing what he ought to say behind what he says. But time was when his tongue was the hand-maiden of his mind instead of the jailer of his J-P's and Q's; for human articulation arose originally from an ingrown urge to ask for things; but even before he could actually articulate in the first person puerile, or make his language liquid on the pint at issue, he was sufficiently proficient in requestrian exercise to deliver a demand in dubious notes uttered from his air pockets. When he wanted anything, from a wife to the wish-bone of a wombat, he gave short and succinct notice of commotion (or “causis bedlam”), before taking Opportunity on the ’op. If the party in possession was smart enough to lead a club, he cribbed the steak with “one for his knob”
“Much of our vocabulary is su-piffle-ous.”

“Much of our vocabulary is su-piffle-ous.”

and there was no further argument—being as how it takes two ‘to augment an argument. From this pre-historic practice arose the term “hie jack-pot.” Sometimes, in those dim distraught days of dumb-crambo, even unaspirated air was unnecessary, as the eye often acted as an apt pupil of the earliest Hitlerites.