Word: humbugs
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Dates: during 1880-1889
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PARK THEATRE.-"Humbug." Performance...
...were once assembled at a late dinner in London, when one of them made a large wager that he would invent a word that would soon be recognized as one of the most expressive. The next day the city was placarded with huge posters containing the strange-looking word "humbug," and it is needless to relate that it travelled like wildfire, was accepted by even the most fastidious, and is today understood wherever the English language is spoken...
...fears of this monster would be dispelled, and he would find him a pleasant, rugged-faced man, glad to talk on subjects best suited for a student's entertainment. After we had found that the report concerning the case of small-pox in college was all a humbug, we asked the officer on duty at the station in what respects the Harvard student of today differed from the student of years ago. "Well," he said, taking a puff at his cigar, "the students are a different lot altogether from what they used to be. There used...