Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 February 1894 — The Origin of the Jag. [ARTICLE]

The Origin of the Jag.

Jag is a brief but expressive and unusually popular word, which has obtained general vogue in modern slang. The Century Dictionary defines it: “As much liquor as one can carry; as, to have a jag on; hence, a drunken condition. ” This definition is not adequate or satisfactory. A jag is different from a load. When a man has as much liquor as he can carry easily it is a jag; when he has more than he can carry it is a load. A jag is a term of intoxication; a load is pure drunkenness. A jag can he any degree from the happy condition of a few drinks to the danger point, when the possessor of the jag knows that he must walk in a straight line or stagger. When he staggers his jag becomes a load. The words are not attractive, but their universal use gives them importance. This was recognized by Dr. Edward Eggleston, the eminent historian, wbo is lecturing at the Peabody Institute, and in his interesting address Tuesday evening Jje gave some new information on the history of the word. In the last century most of the inland transportation was done by pack-horses. When he was visiting England last year he was in a section of the country where the pack-horses are still used. The local name for the transportation for this method is jagging. A jag is a packhorse load. So he found the same use of the word in, the early history of this country. It is still heard in some sections, and it has come to mean a part of a load. For instance, if a man brings to market a quarter or a half of a wagon load it is called a jag. The jagger wagon is a wagon that carries only a pack-horse’s load. Thus it went on until some inspired genius applied it to a certain alcoholic condition, and finally we have the result that a jag is a small load, but that a real load is equal to several jags.—Baltimore American. Calling a woman’s dress a dream is a polite way of saying that the cost of it gives her husband a nightmare —Sti Paul mews.