In the Western states, where the racoon is plentiful, they use the
abbreviation 'coon when speaking of people. When at New York, I went
into a hair-dresser's shop to have my hair cut; there were two young men
front the west--one under the barber's hands, the other standing by him.
"I say," said the one who was having his hair cut, "I hear Captain is in
the country."
"Yes;" replied the other, "so they say; I should like to see the 'coon."
"I'm a _gone 'coon_" implies "I am distressed--_or_ ruined--_or_ lost."
I once asked the origin of this expression, and was very gravely told as
follows:--
"There is a Captain Martin Scott (already mentioned in the Diary) in the
United States Army who is a remarkable shot with a rifle. He was
raised, I believe, in Vermont. His fame was so considerable through the
state, that even the animals were aware of it. He went out one morning
with his rifle, and spying a racoon upon the upper branches of a high
tree, brought his gun up to his shoulder; when the racoon perceiving it,
raised his paw for a parley. `I beg your pardon, mister,' said the
racoon, very politely; `but may I ask you if your name is
Scott?'--`Yes,' replied the captain.--`_Martin_ Scott?' continued the
racoon--`Yes,' replied the captain--`_Captain_ Martin Scott?' still
continued the animal.--`Yes,' replied the captain, `Captain Martin
Scott?'--`Oh! then,' says the animal, `I may just as well come down, for
I'm a _gone 'coon_.'"
But one of the strangest perversions of the meaning of a word which I
ever heard of is in Kentucky, where sometimes the word _nasty_ is used
for _nice_. For instance: at a rustic dance in that state a Kentuckian
said to an acquaintance of mine, in reply to his asking the name of a
very fine girl, "That's my sister, stranger; and I flatter myself that
she shows the _nastiest_ ankle in all Kentuck"--_Unde derivatur_, from
the constant rifle-practice in that state, a good shot or a pretty shot
is termed also a nasty shot, because it would make a _nasty_ wound:
_ergo_, a nice or pretty ankle becomes a _nasty_ one.
The term for all baggage, especially in the south or west, is "plunder."
This has been derived from the buccaneers, who for so long a time
infested the bayores and creeks near the mouth of the Mississippi, and
whose luggage was probably very correctly so designated.