"Voileci allais, Voileci fuyant," the phrenologist who says:
"Amativeness, combativeness, secretiveness," the infantry soldier who says:
"My shooting-iron," the cavalry-man who says: "My turkey-cock," the fencing-master who says:
"Tierce, quarte, break," the printer who says:
"My shooting-stick and galley,"--all, printer, fencing-master, cavalry dragoon, infantry-man, phrenologist, huntsman, philosopher, comedian, playwright, sheriff, gambler, stock-broker, and merchant, speak slang.
The painter who says: "My grinder," the notary who says:
"My Skip-the-Gutter," the hairdresser who says:
"My mealyback," the cobbler who says: "My cub," talks slang.
Strictly speaking, if one absolutely insists on the point, all the different fashions of saying the right and the left, the sailor''s port and starboard, the scene-shifter''s court-side, and garden-side, the beadle''s Gospel-side and Epistle-side, are slang. There is the slang of the affected lady as well as of the precieuses. The Hotel Rambouillet nearly adjoins the Cour des Miracles.
There is a slang of duchesses, witness this phrase contained in a love-letter from a very great lady and a very pretty woman of the Restoration: "You will find in this gossip a fultitude of reasons why I should libertize."[40] Diplomatic ciphers are slang; the pontifical chancellery by using 26 for Rome, grkztntgzyal for despatch, and abfxustgrnogrkzu tu XI.