Prison Slang from the 1950's an insight into the language used from an insider

Sunday Herald (Sydney, NSW : 1949 - 1953), Sunday 25 February 1951, page 6 

  

"Lifer's" Book On Prison Slang 

TEN YEARS' WORK BY "THIRTY-FIVE" 

By SIDNEY J. BAKER 

Author of "The Australian Language," etc. 

A LIFE-SENTENCE prisoner in a New South Wales Gaol is now putting the finishing touches to a dictionary of Australian underworld slang which promises to be the most outstanding study of its kind yet produced in this country. 

WHEN this dictionaryis completed, a copy of it will go into the archives of the Mitchell Library, Sydney, bearing the simple title, "The Argot." 

The author's name and identity will be hidden behind the by-line, "Thirty-five." 

"Thirty-five" is one of those rare, well-educated persons who, after long years of respectable citizenship and useful service to their fellows, are caught up in a violent and un-predictable emotional storm and find themselves on the receiving end of a capital charge. 

                                                           Pentridge Prison

He has now been in prison more than 10 years. 

With the generous encouragement of the N.S.W. Prisons Department, he has devoted a good deal of that time to recording the jargon used by his fellow Gaol birds.  

THE result is the best piece of amateur lexicography I have encountered in Australia. Its value rests not only on the patience and painstaking care that "Thirty-five" has devoted to his task, but to his awareness that you can't do fieldwork in language without being introduced to some interesting aspects of sociology. 

You get a glimpse of what is involved when you inspect the definition "Thirty-five" has given to prison use of the ex-pression "buy up." 

This, he says, is the amount a prisoner may spend on groceries from his weekly earnings, and also what he purchases. 

He adds: "Prisoners who have served a specified term may spend up to a fixed amount from bonus earnings on butter, jam, cheese, etc. The scale is: One year's servitude, 2/6; over three years, 3/; over five years, 4/; over seven years, 5/." 

Use Of "Head" 

YOU learn more of what goes on inside our Gaols when you look at what he has to say about the slang use of "head." 

                                                           Darlinghurt Prison

A "head," he says, is a high prison official or a privileged prisoner. 

He adds: "Few heads are short timers. To become and to remain a head, a prisoner is always:  

(a) 'institutionalised' either in Gaol or before he arrives (e.g., in the Services);  

(b) a tradesman or professional man whose skill makes him useful to the administration;  

(c) sufficiently discreet to keep off others' toes.  

Heads are usually long timers, I suspect, because murder is not an occupation, whereas theft often is. 

"Occasionally, a sedate citizen runs off the rails to commit a serious or even capital crime, but to commit a petty theft, never." 

                                                                 Maitland Gaol

Imposing List 

WHAT are the names given to other prison occupants? 

"Thirty-five" presents an imposing list. 

Among those present are: "brat," a seventh-class prisoner 

 i.e., one under 24-26 years; "kangaroo," 

 a warder, by rhyme on the word "screw," which is used similarly;  

"lug-ger," a shameless beggar; "pie-eater" or "pie-cruncher," a small-time crook;  

"teddy bear," a flashily dressed, exhibitionistic person, by rhyme on "lair";  

"toe-ragger," a short sentence prisoner; "short story writer," a forger;  

warb," a dirty or untidy person;  

"wife-starver," a prisoner confined under the provisions of the Deserted Wives and Children Act. 

Then there is the "Rhodes scholar," about whom "Thirty-five" notes: 

 "This is an expression of derision addressed to a prisoner who thinks he is above the common herd; how-ever, it is not always derisive, as it may be used to express gratitude for a favour done— 'Good on you, sport; you're a Rhodes scholar!' " 

IT is impossible within the limitations of the space here to do adequate justice to the entertaining richness of "Thirty-five's" study. 

Here, however, are a few of the terms he records in use among our Gaol birds: "bridge," a plausible tale or excuse; "buckle," to arrest; "the bull ring," the old punishment section at Parramatta Gaol; "cold," not guilty of an offence; "do the crust," to be convicted as a vagrant; "full quid," in full possession of one's faculties; "giggle suit," prison garb; "hominy gazette," gaol rumour; "keyman," a habitual criminal; "lounge," the dock in court; "reef," to take; "roast," a calumny, an il lreport; "slime," flattery; "track," a warder who will carry contraband messages or goods out of or into Gaol for a prisoner. 

On the use of tobacco as a medium for barter in prison, "Thirty-five" offers some interesting observations. 

He says: "Half a pound of butter is worth a 'swy' (2 oz. of tobacco); a tube of tooth-paste or shaving cream, about the same; a tin of syrup or plum jam, one ounce; more expensive jam, two ounces.  

In Gaol, every service, favour, and commodity is as readily reducible to price in tobacco as it is to money in civil life."