further to jackals
I believe I have traced the idiom back to an 1848 screed, “The Malthusians,” by political philosopher and self-described anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865), who also contributed “property is theft” to the economic discourse. I reproduce the relevant passage here, with the language highlighted:
As to the lunch, what would you think about The French Laundry?**
cordially,
*That’s not to say, of course, that it hasn’t since been uttered by such individuals.
**Place is a little pricey, though. A few years ago an acquaintance of mine took his daughter, her fiancé and selected relatives on both sides to dinner there. The tariff for their party of ten—tip rolled into the bill, natch—was $18K and change.
And it is for having published such things as these—for having exposed the evil boldly and sought the remedy in good faith, that speech has been forbidden me by the government, the government that represents the Revolution!If this holds up as the ur-usage, then it seems to me that drook’s assertion—“I’d bet you lunch someplace nice that it came from someone who didn't like the little people knowing his business”—does not stand up.*
That is why I have been deluged with the slanders, treacheries, cowardice, hypocrisy, outrages, desertions, and failings of all those who hate or love the people! That is why I have been given over, for a whole month, to the mercy of the jackals of the press and the screech-owls of the platform! Never was a man, either in the past or in the present, the object of so much execration as I have become, for the simple reason that I wage war upon cannibals.
As to the lunch, what would you think about The French Laundry?**
cordially,
*That’s not to say, of course, that it hasn’t since been uttered by such individuals.
**Place is a little pricey, though. A few years ago an acquaintance of mine took his daughter, her fiancé and selected relatives on both sides to dinner there. The tariff for their party of ten—tip rolled into the bill, natch—was $18K and change.
