Word: patterson
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...Billy Patterson (Cont...
...omniscient TIME consider itself good-naturedly rebuked for ignoring a widely known version of "Who hit Billy Patterson" [TIME, April...
English lore has it that Billy Patterson was an ingenuous boatman who earned his shillings in the vicinity of Oxford University. It is said that for years a feud had existed between the students and the river boatmen. A group of excitement craving sophomores managed to capture Patterson and bring him to "trial" before a jury of their peers. He was found "guilty" and "sentenced" to have his head amputated via the guillotine...
...There are various accounts of the origin of this "Where's Elmer?" of the 1880s. One account: Billy Patterson was a rich Baltimorean who was struck by an unknown party in a border-town free-for-all in Georgia, in 1783. He "inquired so hotly as to who struck him that a national saying therefrom crept into existence . . . he left $1,000 to whoever should name the man." Just 100 years later Mrs. Jenny G. Covely of Athol, N. Y. applied for the legacy, said her father (one Tillerton) had done the deed...
Another account: Billy Patterson was a beloved Manhattan barkeep of the 1880s, who was felled one night as he left the Star and Garter's side door, by an unknown dastard with a blackjack...