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Fink, Mike (1770?-1823?) → Global Index  → Persons Index
The King of the Keelboatmen, a semi-legendary brawler and Mississippi boatman.
Fink's Brag: → 8.7-8.11
"[Fink's Brag]"
in: Mike Fink, King of Mississippi Keelboatmen. Ed. Walter Blair and Franklin J. Meine. New York: Henry Holt, 1933: 135-136.
(cit. B.A. Botkin, The American People: Stories, Legends, Tales, Traditions and Songs. London: Pilot, 1946: 50.):
[...] I[a Freeman] can out-run, [out-dance, ]out-jump, out-shoot, out-brag, [...] out-drink, an' out-fight, rough-an'-tumble, no holts barred, any man on both sides the river from Pittsburgh to New Orleans an' back ag'in to St. Louiee. [...]
Coover's Uncle Sam not only takes up Fink's 'out-'verbs, but also his sentence structure (X can out-Y any Z). 'Out-lick' might have been suggested by the preceding sentence, in which Fink claims: "I can hit like fourth-proof lightnin' an' every lick I make in the woods lets in an acre o'sunshine." (Ibid.)
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