'Bass-Ackwards' - An Abe Lincoln spoonerism story

 

Abe Lincoln in his White House office (1863).
Today, it's called the Lincoln Bedroom.

Abraham Lincoln loved words and wordplay. 

Among his collected papers at the Lincoln Library is this odd text, written in his handwriting.

Lincoln titled it, "Bass-Ackwards". 

He said he was riding bass-ackwards on a jass-ack, through a patton-cotch, on a pair of baddle-sags, stuffed full of binger-gred, when the animal steered at a scump, and the lirrup-steather broke, and throwed him in the forner of the kence and broke his pishing-fole. He said he would not have minded it much, but fell right in a great tow-curd; in fact, he said it give him right smart sick of fitness—he had the molera-corbus pretty bad– He said, about bray dake he come to himself, ran home, seized up a stick of wood and split the axe to make a light, rushed into the house, and found the door sick abed, and his wife standing open– But thank goodness she is getting right hat and farty again– [1]

It's a unique - and somewhat ribald - tale that strings together a series of “spoonerisms” - a type of wordplay in which the author transposes the first letter in two or more words for humorous effect. 

While the term 'spoonerisms' was coined in the late 1800s or early 1900s, this and other forms of wordplay were quite popular in the early 19th century. This fad was especially prevalent among medical students in London, who referred to it as 'Medical Greek' or 'Hospital Greek'. [2]

Since Lincoln loved telling stories - both g-rated and otherwise, it appears that he decided to see if he could write a short, humorous story using this mixed-up wordplay as part of the tale.

Jesse Weik, one of Lincoln’s early biographers, stated that Lincoln gave this particular tale to a Springfield (Illinois) court official at the conclusion of a trial. It was later donated to the State of Illinois for Lincoln's papers. [3]

This is another story from Abe Lincoln, Storyteller.

Mac

Works Cited

[1] Hertz. Emanuel (1940). The Hidden Lincoln (New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1940), p. 400.

[2] McGregor, William B. (2015). Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury. p. 428.

[3] Weik, Jesse (1891). Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life - 2 vols. New York, NY: D. Appleton Publisher.