Dictionary definition of “who laid the rail”

who laid the rail

adv. phr. in the forms from or to or until or for or since who laid the rail: with all possible speed, force, or action; completely, thoroughly, excessively, endlessly, limitlessly; quickly; forever, always, since time immemorial, until the end of time. Subjects: English, Colloquial

Editorial Note: The origins of this expression are unknown. A phrase used in the same way is “who laid the chunk,” which dates to at least as early as 1906. The phrase “who laid the rail” was also used by the character of the mayor in the stageplay The Music Man, written in 1957 by Meredith Willson and made as a movie in 1962, but as indicated by the cites below, the term predates the play by many decades. One of the most well-known songs in The Music Man, “Ya Got Trouble,” sung by Professor Harold Hill, is about pool halls corrupting the youth of the town. It includes the line, “Right here in River City./Trouble with a capital “T"/And that rhymes with “P"/and that stands for pool!” Interestingly, but probably coincidentally, the 1906 citation from Dallas is from an article discussing a city ordinance that would shutter pool halls in that town. Thanks to Martha Barnette for suggesting this entry.

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Citations: 1881 Macon Telegraph and Messenger (Georgia) (Oct. 15) “Mrs. Arter and the Cow Ordinance” p. 4: I found the yard full of neighbors, who had organzied themselves into a kind of indignation meeting, in which the city fathers, mothers, sisters, cousins and aunts were abused from who laid the rail. 1884 Atlanta Constitution (Georgia) (Feb. 17) p. 6: It is safe to bet that the friends of the whisky ring are willing to see the tariff ripped up from “who laid the rail.” [1890 Macon Telegraph (Georgia) (May 19) “Tom Arter’s Lecture” p. 5: For all those years I have been loaded for bear with lectures of all sorts and sizes on “Who laid the Rail” to “What the Wild Western Waves are Saying.”] 1893 Knoxville Journal (Kentucky) (Aug. 4) “Chicken Thief Caught” p. 5: He was selling very cheap to Wm. Larew, the grocer, when the capture was made, and “lit out for who laid the rail,” but the marshal was a little too spry for him. 1901 New Orleans Times-Democrat (Lousiana) (Dec. 23) @ Idaho Daily Statesman “Strenuous Stingers” p. 6: The animal struck out on a dead run down the turning row which split the ravine. My friend followed, and it was a race for who laid the rail, as they say in the country. 1906 Dallas Morning News (Texas) (Aug. 10) “Policy Is Announced” p. 5: If the poolrooms were to shut up tomorrow, we have enough material already in hand to keep us busy for months. That could not stop us. We are going to smoke them out for who laid the rail. 1910 Decatur Review (Illinois) (Nov. 1) “M’Kinley Defends His Labor Position” p. 9: Hon. James Watson of Rushville, Ind., talked longer than any one. He praised the Republican party and declared that it was the only progressive party from the time of George Washington until who laid the rail. 1911 Andy Adams Wells Brothers: The Young Cattle Kings: Oh, these boys of mine are cowmen from who laid the rail. They’re not out to rob a neighbor. 1913 Atlanta Constitution (Georgia) (Oct. 3) “Samples, Tare And Covering” p. 4: As for tare, that issue has been in dispute since “who laid the rail.” 1917 Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb Those Times and These (New York) p. 316: He’s a regular Cicero—seems to know this here oratory business frum who laid the rail. He don’t ever jest plain ast somebody to do somethin’. He adjures ’em by the altars of their Sunny Southland. 1922 Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb J. Poindexter, Colored (New York) p. 129: It’s all wrong frum who laid the rail. Yas suh, I’ll tell the waitin’ world they don’t neither one of ’em onderstan’ the leas’ particle ’bout nigger actions an’ nigger depotemint. 1930 Damon Runyon Nevada State Journal (Reno) (Nov. 1) “Says” p. 9: You have read columns of the heavyweight sensation of the west coast, Max Baer, a club fighter to who-laid-the-rail, two-fisted and willing, and with more color than any fighter of recent year. 1936 Henry McLemore @ New York Dunkirk Evening Observer (New York) (Nov. 6) “Burleigh Grimes Has Tough Job Ahead Managing the Dodgers” p. 15: He was and is a gamester from who laid-the-rail. A fiercer competitive spirit never burned than the one which fires Grimes. 1940 Joe Williams Syracuse Herald-Journal (New York) (July 27) “Sports Roundup” p. 11: The way we glibly toss the word, pastern, at you, you’d think we were and old pastern man from who laid the rail. 1940 Damon Runyon Zanesville Signal (Ohio) (Aug. 27) “The Brighter Side” p. 2: He said he was a Willkie man to who-laid-the-rail, but that unfortunately he was afflicted with asthma, which was responsible for the hissing. 1945 Damon Runyon Lowell Sun (Masschusetts) (Nov. 15) p. 6: You can get out of that bed right now and go home, and consider yourself checked up to who-laid-the-rail. 1949 Abe Lincoln of Pigeon Creek “William Edward Wilson” p. 185: All the time them gals up there in the loft a-screaming and carrying on to who-laid-the-rail. 1950 Eldora High School (Mar. 24) “Over Cokes” (in Eldora Hi-Lites) @ Eldora Herald-Ledger p. Iowa: Thanks to the farmers and their livestock, we had scrambled eggs, bacon, and roast beef ’til who laid the rail. 1979 D618. Dinsmore, R.T. (Robert Truman) Interview and Memoir (Iowa) (in University of Illinois at Springfield Oral History Collection) p. 297: They always had a celebration every year when I was a kid. And us kids looked forward to that. For we could shoot fire crackers till who laid the rail. 1998 [John Swegan] Usenet: alt.spam (Feb. 11) “Questions About Mass Mailing”: I know I’ll end up getting spammed, or flamed, to who laid the rail because I’m using my real e-mail address, but that can’t be helped. 2000 [Our Sports Guy] @ Lincoln Nebraska StatePaper.com (Apr. 16) “NU Red-White Game Gives Hungry Husker Fans Food For Thought”: We have running backs ’til who laid the rail. Alexander, Diedricht and Buckhalter are tough. Judd Davies is the real deal at fullback. The long list of backs may have just gotten longer with redshirt freshman Chris Butler’s 118-yard effort. 2002 Robert Marshek Minutes Of The Informal Meeting Of The Johnson County Board Of Supervisors (Iowa) (May 9): Well yes, there’s trucks setting there full of cold water heaters. I mean I got groundhogs running to who laid the rail from there. 2006 Laura McGowan Coffee and a Cubicle (Peoria, Illinois) (July 14) “Kiss of the Overworked Woman”: I am unwrapping those kisses and shoving them in my mouth a “who laid the rail.”

Posted 30 Dec 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I believe it means something to the effect of “smcking you from here to kingdom come”, only in this case it is to China. Who laid the rails refers to the Chinese “coolies” who built the Union Pacific railway.

by Al. G. 29 Jul 07, 0950 GMT

Do you have any evidence that it’s related to Chinese railroad workers? I found no information at all that corroborates that.

by Grant Barrett 29 Jul 07, 1012 GMT

Given the grammatical usage, the sound and the meaning (to the extreme) it sounds to me like one of those folksy substitutions for a profanity (here, “hell"). Of course, I have no citation, so take that for what it’s worth.

by CW Campbell 05 Aug 07, 0102 GMT

I have no thought as to the derivation, but I was trying to get a real handle on its usage. For many of the citations I was able to substitute “ ‘til all get-out”. Just a thought.

jad May 6, 2008

by Julie Dobkin 07 May 08, 0459 GMT

I grew up in the 40s and 50s in a town in Southwestern Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis.

I remember hearing an expression I never saw in print which sounded this way to me “ta hulada”.

It seemed to mean “all out” or “whole heartedly” or as Julie suggests “‘til all get-out”. Example: He was singing ta hulada!

by Karen Ryan 28 Jul 08, 0204 GMT