the historic battle against ultraism, and words it inspires
It seems that A.B.R.S. stands for “Anti-Bell Ringing Society”. Â In the previous year, among other business, the Bostom Common Council had issued an ordinance prohibiting the ringing of dinner bells. Â In response, in October 1838, a number of men jokingly formed the ABRS, not to support the ordinance but to oppose it. Â As soon as the ABRS was founded, the Morning Post began to chronicle its activities, summarizing its purpose in the issue of January 7, 1839:
The main design of the founders of the society was and is, to expose and oppose, by ridicule and otherwise, the spirit of Ultraism in levislation, which is so prevailing a characteristic of the present time.
Among the officials of the ABRS, as Read notes, were “Chief Butler and Imperturbable Deliberator”, “Conflaburator to do all the Society’s Unnecessary Talking”, and “Professor of Bellocution”. Â And so, in that spirit, the Bostom Morning Post on the 21st of March announced:
We understand that a large deputation from the society will take passage in the John W Richmond Steamer for New York today, for the purposes of extending friendly congratulations with the auxiliary society in the Commercial Emporium.
The Providence Daily Journal supposed that the ABRS would make an appearance in Providence, but as the Boston Morning Post noted in its response, “We said not a word about our deputation passing ‘through the city of Providence’. Â But the Post concludes its March 23 commentary by imagining the festivities that would occur if the ABRS made an appearance ok, “all correct”…
— and cause the corks to fly, like sparks, upward.
pages 29-33 OK: The Improbable Story of America’s Greatest Word, Allan Metcalf.
A jocular fad of misspelled initials took the nation’s Eastern Seaboard by storm in 1830s. Â Thus “OK” — oll korect. Â The second appearance of “OK” came three days later, in response to a Providence Journal claim that ABRS members were indeed in Providence, and… from there it passed through the dias of popular culture with pro and anti Martin Van Buren politiking and then digs at Andrew Jackson’s poor spelling habits.