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The color and originality of Western speech patterns impressed most visitors to the area. In his book Three Thousand Miles Through the Rocky Mountains, A.K. McClure made note of some patterns as he passed through Montana in the late 1860s.
They are eminently social; and their peculiar expressions have a significance of which the more cultivated East have no knowledge. In all classes, from the most learned to the least favored in letters, the same expressive Westernisms are in common use. If a man is embarrassed in any way, he is "corralled". The Indians "corral" men on the plains; the storms "corral" tourists in the mountains; the criminal is "corralled" in prison; the tender swain is "corralled" by crinoline; the businessman is "corralled" by debt or more enterprising and successful competitors; the unfortunate politician is "corralled" by the mountaineers, the gulchmen or the settlers; the minister is "corralled" when he is called to become the pastor of a congregation; and the gambler "corrals" the dust of the miner. Indeed the application of the term is almost as indefinite as it is universal. "Git" is another of the favorite and most expressive of Western terms. It is the invariable word by which the hero of the whip and lines starts his teams; and they understand it well". You git," is the most emphatic notice that can be given to any luckless chap to leave the room or ranch, or to escape a revolver; and "you bet" is the most positive manner of affirmation. Everything is an "outfit," from the train on the plains to a pocket-knife. It is applied almost indiscriminately,---to a wife, a horse, a dog, a cat or a row of pins. A "lay-out" is any proposed enterprise, from organizing a state to digging out a prairie-dog. Anything that has been tried, from running for Congress to bumming a drink, has been "prospected" or "panned out"; and "he didn’t get a color", expresses the saddest of failures. When a Western man declines any proposition, he "ain’t on it" he "don’t go a cent for that" or "none of that is mine" is his answer. When he wants to deal or fight with a man, he proceeds to "go for him"; and "I’ll bet my bottom dollar" is his strongest backing to his expressed opinion. "The man in the wagon" is the author of all sayings and doings which can find no visible or responsible source. When a miner goes for the savages, he "cleans ‘em out to the bed-rock"; and when a braggart is to be silenced, he is informed that "nobody’s holding you" or " there’s no weights on your coattails". When one gets the decided advantage of another, whether in deadly conflict or in business, he "has the drop on him". The universal term for eatables is "grub"; and the most degrading epithet that one can apply to another is to pronounce him a "bilk". No Western man of pluck will fail to resent such concentrated vituperation. The term was entirely novel to me, and I first asked its meaning of a landlord, who explained by saying, "a ‘bilk’ is a man who never misses a meal and never pays a cent". There are many others, equally original and expressive, which I have heard often, but cannot recall. Used as they are by all classes, in business and social circles, and by both sexes, they have become part of the language of the country; and a stranger’s fitness for Western life is judged b his readiness in acquiring the use of them.
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Last Modified 1-19-03