subs. (old).—1. A BUM-BAILIFF (q.v.).
2. (turf).—A heavy loss; a severe pecuniary reverse.
3. (American).—An idler; a LOAFER (q.v.); a SPONGER (q.v.); a LOOTER (q.v.) (see quots.). [German Bummler, of somewhat similar meaning, but used good naturedly, and without the offensive meaning of the American equivalent.] The term came into general use during the Civil War, and was specially applied to a straggler, hanger-on, or free-lance, particularity in connection with General Sherman’s famous march from Atlanta to the sea: now a general reproach: cf. RASCAL, BLACKLEG, etc.: also see HEELER, STRIKER, STUFFER, and PRACTICAL POLITICIAN. Hence BUMMERISM = loafing, petty pilfering, and BUMMERISM (adj.).
c. 1865. MAJOR NICHOLS, Sherman’s Great March. Look hyar, Captain, we BUMMERS ain’t so bad after all.
1870. Philadelphia Press, 5 Jan. BUMMERISM. If Deputy Sheriffs might attend without scandal, if beautiful BUMMERISM, feminine and fair, &c.
1872. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, xxiv. The auctioneer stormed up and down … and never got a bid—at least never any but the eighteen-dollar one he hired a notoriously substanceless BUMMER to make.
1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, Feb. 24, 2. All the boys to be trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers, clerks, pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and BUMMERS.
1874. New York Commercial Advertiser, 9 Sept. So long as substantial citizens choose to leave politics to shoulder-hitters, rum-sellers and BUMMERS of every degree, so long will they be robbed at every turn.
1875. S. WILLIAMS, The City of the Golden Gate, in Scribner’s Monthly, x. July, 274. San Francisco is the Elysium of ‘BUMMERS.’ Nowhere can a worthless fellow, too lazy to work, too cowardly to steal, get on so well.
1875. New York Herald, ‘Letter to Gov. of Tennessee.’ We thought that the war would thereby sooner come to an end, with less destruction of life … and reduce the number of army followers, BUMMERS, etc. who were the curse of all armed invasions. Ibid., 2 May. The army BUMMER is usually a ‘General’ who has been in the Quartermaster’s or Commissary Department, and whose rank represents influence about the War Office.
1877. Boston Herald, 8 April. A bill is before the Legislature of Illinois, with a view to control the operations of the BUMMER element in the primary meetings of political parties.
1877. W. BLACK, Green Pastures and Piccadilly, xiii. Then the great crowd of BUMMERS and loafers, not finding the soil teeming with nuggets, stampeded off like a herd of buffalo.
1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. The heelers and strikers, BUMMERS and stuffers, otherwise known as practical politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.
1887. MORLEY ROBERTS, The Western Avernus. Some of the boys said it was a regular hand-out, and that we looked like a crowd of old BUMMERS.
1888. Philadelphia Press, Jan. 29. Coy is the chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in Marion County, and has wielded great power in politics as the boss of the BUMMERS.
1888. Detroit Free Press, May 16. Ten per cent. earn excellent wages, and twenty per cent. are chronic BUMS, who beg or steal the price of their lodgings.
