Ward healers
Tony Cooper
"You've got the ward healers, the precinct captains, the ground level
troops"
Being a former Chicagoan, the usage jumped out at me. The "ward
heelers" are the workers in the ward organization of a political
machine.
I thought I'd come across one of those eggcorn thingys. Yes, it's
quoted dialog, but "healers" and "heelers" are homonyms, so I can't
see the usage being representative of speech.
I Googled for "ward healers" and came across such a usage with a
meaning different from "ward heelers". At
http://www.cpn.org/topics/community/birmingham.html , a site about
neighborhood activities in Birmingham (Alabama), uses:
"The neighborhood officers tend to be like ward healers for their
neighborhood, taking the lead in many community events from housing
rehabilitation to halloween parties. And like ward healers, they have
an important material incentive to disperse—-not patronage, but
community projects."
I do think the usage in the novel is an error. Lined up with other
political functionaries, "healers" should be "heelers".
--
Tony Cooper
Orlando, FL
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>I came across the following line of dialog in a novel:
>
>"You've got the ward healers, the precinct captains, the ground level
>troops"
>
>Being a former Chicagoan, the usage jumped out at me. The "ward
>heelers" are the workers in the ward organization of a political
>machine.
>
>I thought I'd come across one of those eggcorn thingys. Yes, it's
>quoted dialog, but "healers" and "heelers" are homonyms, so I can't
>see the usage being representative of speech.
Sounds like one of those Wiccan things -- putting up wards to prevent nasties
getting to you.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Ray Heindl
I think both usages are in error. The Alabama example would make just
as much sense, if not more, with "heelers". It would be odd to compare
neighborhood officers to "ward healers" when nobody has any idea what
those are. Not being familiar with the details of ward heeling, I
would think of dispensing patronage as something that ward heelers do.
--
Ray Heindl
(remove the Xs to reply)
Tony Cooper
I think the Alabama example is using a term - ward heelers - with a
twist on words to indicate that these people do things to heal
problems in the ward. I think it's a legitimate coinage. People do
know what they do since it's a program that Birmingham has initiated
and laid out as a program.
The function of a ward heeler is to do whatever the Alderman wants
done. They are the flunkies of the Alderman. For example, at
election time, the ward heelers may be the guys that go around the
neighborhoods and take people to the voting booth. They may be the
guys at Christmas that deliver the turkeys. They may hold down a
patronage job.
The Alderman dispenses the patronage jobs. If the city needs four
more sanitation workers, the Alderman provides a list of names to the
sanitation department.
Mike Lyle
> On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 05:26:07 GMT, Tony Cooper
> <tony_co...@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>> I came across the following line of dialog in a novel:
>>
>> "You've got the ward healers, the precinct captains, the ground level
>> troops"
>>
>> Being a former Chicagoan, the usage jumped out at me. The "ward
>> heelers" are the workers in the ward organization of a political
>> machine.
>>
>> I thought I'd come across one of those eggcorn thingys. Yes, it's
>> quoted dialog, but "healers" and "heelers" are homonyms, so I can't
>> see the usage being representative of speech.
>
> Sounds like one of those Wiccan things -- putting up wards to prevent
> nasties getting to you.
But if a heeler gets too enthusiastic, a ward resident might need a
healer.
--
Mike.
Maria Conlon
> Ray Heindl wrote:
>> Tony Cooper wrote:
>>
>>> I came across the following line of dialog in a novel:
>>>
>>> "You've got the ward healers, the precinct captains, the ground
>>> level troops"
>>>
>>> Being a former Chicagoan, the usage jumped out at me. The "ward
>>> heelers" are the workers in the ward organization of a political
>>> machine.
>>>
>>> I thought I'd come across one of those eggcorn thingys. Yes, it's
>>> quoted dialog, but "healers" and "heelers" are homonyms, so I can't
>>> see the usage being representative of speech.
>>>
>>> I Googled for "ward healers" and came across such a usage with a
>>> meaning different from "ward heelers". At
>>> http://www.cpn.org/topics/community/birmingham.html , a site about
>>> neighborhood activities in Birmingham (Alabama), uses:
>>>
>>> "The neighborhood officers tend to be like ward healers for their
>>> neighborhood, taking the lead in many community events from housing
>>> rehabilitation to halloween parties. And like ward healers, they
>>> community projects."
>>>
>>> I do think the usage in the novel is an error. Lined up with other
>>> political functionaries, "healers" should be "heelers".
>>
>> I think both usages are in error. The Alabama example would make
>> just as much sense, if not more, with "heelers". It would be odd to
>> compare neighborhood officers to "ward healers" when nobody has any
>> idea what those are. Not being familiar with the details of ward
>> heeling, I would think of dispensing patronage as something that
>> ward heelers do.
>
> I think the Alabama example is using a term - ward heelers - with a
> twist on words to indicate that these people do things to heal
> problems in the ward. I think it's a legitimate coinage.
However, the phrase "like ward healers..." (which appears in the quote
twice) would seem to indicate that the term "ward healers," spelled
thusly, already exists, and that the officers tend to be like those
"healers." If so, "ward healers" would not be a coinage, just a usage.
But if the term "ward healers" does _not_ already exist, and did not
exist as a term until the writer wrote it, then "ward healer" can only
be a misspelling of "ward heeler," *the person the officers are tending
to be like*. You know, the person who disperses.
I agree with Ray (and hope you don't think I'm a heel).
--
Maria Conlon
Tony Cooper
If you read the entire article, it's about developing programs to
improve relations between the neighborhoods and the city's
infrastructure. When new programs like this are started up, the
coinage of acronyms and words to give the program some "buzz" is not
uncommon. So, I think they could have coined the term.
I would disagree with your "can only". The thrust of the program is
to appoint neighborhood representatives and let local leadership
emerge. These people are the opposite of the traditional "ward
heelers" whose function is to keep the entrenched in power.
Iskandar Baharuddin
Years ago, out of curiosity, I did a stint as a poll watcher in West
Chicago, where the Democrats motto was "Vote early and often".
All licensed premises were closed while the polls were open.
I was please to observe Democrat ward healers dispensing painkiller to
selective voters. They kept the supply in a paper bag under the table
in the coffee shop. When a voter came in after casting his (I will not
say his/her) vote sucessfully, the healer rewarded the voter with a
coffee cup full of painkiller.
--
Shalom & Salam
Izzy
"Technology - any technology - consists of three steps:
- work out the bits and pieces you need
- collect them
- put them together in the right order."
John W Campbell Jr
Ray Heindl
> "Maria Conlon" <mari...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>However, the phrase "like ward healers..." (which appears in the
>>quote twice) would seem to indicate that the term "ward healers,"
>>spelled thusly, already exists, and that the officers tend to be
>>like those "healers." If so, "ward healers" would not be a
>>coinage, just a usage.
>>
>>But if the term "ward healers" does _not_ already exist, and did
>>not exist as a term until the writer wrote it, then "ward healer"
>>can only be a misspelling of "ward heeler," *the person the
>>officers are tending to be like*. You know, the person who
>>disperses.
>
> If you read the entire article, it's about developing programs to
> improve relations between the neighborhoods and the city's
> infrastructure. When new programs like this are started up, the
> coinage of acronyms and words to give the program some "buzz" is
> not uncommon. So, I think they could have coined the term.
>
> I would disagree with your "can only". The thrust of the program
> is to appoint neighborhood representatives and let local
> leadership emerge. These people are the opposite of the
> traditional "ward heelers" whose function is to keep the
> entrenched in power.
I see your point, and they may have meant it as a new coinage, but it
doesn't strike me as such. Occam's Razor tells me that a spelling
error is more likely. The neighborhood officers are said to be "like
ward healers" because they disperse something -- community projects.
Their role doesn't have to be otherwise similar to ward heelers'; i.e.
keeping the ins in.
Is "ward heeler" an official term, or something informal? Until
looking it up yesterday I had no idea what they did, but the term
definitely has a negative connotation for me -- associations with
Tammany Hall and dead people voting.
Mike Lyle
[...]
> Is "ward heeler" an official term, or something informal? Until
> looking it up yesterday I had no idea what they did, but the term
> definitely has a negative connotation for me -- associations with
> Tammany Hall and dead people voting.
Ah, I was wondering if everybody was getting the same connotation from
"heeler". In AusE it's a dog used to herd cattle, by obvious means. That
fits just as nicely with minor political party functionaries whose job
it is to keep the herd going in the right direction as with mppf who
follow at a greater person's heels. I wonder if the herd-dog usage was
ever current in the US? I've never met it in Britain.
The classic Australian breed of cattle dog is the "blue heeler", though
in my parents' usage it always seems to have been called a "blue cattle
dog".
Tony Cooper
<vortre...@yaxhoo.com> wrote:
>I see your point, and they may have meant it as a new coinage, but it
>doesn't strike me as such. Occam's Razor tells me that a spelling
>error is more likely. The neighborhood officers are said to be "like
>ward healers" because they disperse something -- community projects.
>Their role doesn't have to be otherwise similar to ward heelers'; i.e.
>keeping the ins in.
The usage in this article is something we each have to interpret as we
think it to have been used. I don't think you're view is wrong and
mine is right, but "ward heeler" has a well-know negative connotation.
Therefore, I don't think it was a spelling error since they would have
been spelling a negatively-associated word.
>Is "ward heeler" an official term, or something informal? Until
>looking it up yesterday I had no idea what they did, but the term
>definitely has a negative connotation for me -- associations with
>Tammany Hall and dead people voting.
Official? I dunno. What is required to make a word "official"? The
term is well known, widely used, and has been used for many years.
Just about any Chicagoan would easily recognize the word.
By "well known, widely used, and has been used by many years", I do
mean in cities that have a ward and Alderman system or a similar
political organization structure.
Tony Cooper
I don't know the origin of the term. There is a term "sitting on his
heels" that refers to a person who is doing nothing in particular but
waiting to be given something to do. That does describe a ward heeler
since the ward heeler is a flunky of the Alderman.
Just a guess.
The Online Etymology Dictionary dates the term from 1890 and the
origin to "heeler, one on the lookout for shady work".
CDB
Both the old editions of Webster at OneLook, the 1828 and the 1913
editions, associate the word with cockfighting, and striking with the
heels. The later edition also refers to the political hanger-on.
Politics in the 19th century were pretty rough, and I don't see why
heelers couldn't have started off as enforcers and later broadened
their repertoire to following at the heels of some and nipping at the
heels of others.
Wikipedia dates Australian Cattle Dogs back to "at least" 1897, but
doesn't say anything about when the term "heeler" came into use. It
notes with disapproval the American practice of docking their tails.
The series of definitions and citations here may support both the dog
and rooster hypotheses:
http://www.barrypopik.com/article/973/heeler-tammany-hall-politics
or http://tinyurl.com/hw977 . Among them:
a1877 N.Y. Herald in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1877) s.v., The politician,
who has been a heeler about the capital. 1888 BRYCE Amer. Commw. II.
III. lxiii. 451 By degrees he rises to sit on the central committee,
having..surrounded himself with a band of adherents, who are called
his 'heelers', and whose loyalty..secured by the hope of 'something
good', gives weight to his words. 1901 Daily Chron. 6 Nov. 6/2 The
assurance of the Tammany 'Heelers' was less blatant than usual. 1933
H. G. WELLS Shape of Things to Come III. 311 The specialist demagogue,
sustained by his gang and his heelers, his spies and secret police.
...
...
...
(Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, H-O)
heeler n. [fr. heel '(of a dog) to follow at the heels'; cf. HEEL, v.
3]
Pol. a hanger-on or adherent of a politician or political party who
usu. carries outthe orders of political bosses in the hope of personal
aggrandizement. - used contemptuously. Now rare except as (now S.E.)
ward-heeler.
1876 in American Speech XXVII (1952) 165: As the crowd dispersed.a
gentleman happened to say that the gang in the room was composed of
Tammany "heelers," when a Tammany retainer taking umbrage at the
epithet knocked the gentleman down.
Ray Heindl
> Ray Heindl <vortre...@yaxhoo.com> wrote:
> The usage in this article is something we each have to interpret
> as we think it to have been used. I don't think you're view is
> wrong and mine is right, but "ward heeler" has a well-know
> negative connotation. Therefore, I don't think it was a spelling
> error since they would have been spelling a negatively-associated
> word.
I hadn't thought of that, probably because I didn't know whether the
term had negative connotations to most people, or just to me.
>>Is "ward heeler" an official term, or something informal? Until
>>looking it up yesterday I had no idea what they did, but the term
>>definitely has a negative connotation for me -- associations with
>>Tammany Hall and dead people voting.
>
> Official? I dunno. What is required to make a word "official"?
> The term is well known, widely used, and has been used for many
> years. Just about any Chicagoan would easily recognize the word.
>
> By "well known, widely used, and has been used by many years", I
> do mean in cities that have a ward and Alderman system or a
> similar political organization structure.
By "official" I mean, would a politician publicly talk about his ward
heelers, or would someone describe himself as a ward heeler on a job
application? If the negative connotations are common, then probably
not.
Tony Cooper
<vortre...@yaxhoo.com> wrote:
>
>>>Is "ward heeler" an official term, or something informal? Until
>>>looking it up yesterday I had no idea what they did, but the term
>>>definitely has a negative connotation for me -- associations with
>>>Tammany Hall and dead people voting.
>>
>> Official? I dunno. What is required to make a word "official"?
>> The term is well known, widely used, and has been used for many
>> years. Just about any Chicagoan would easily recognize the word.
>>
>> By "well known, widely used, and has been used by many years", I
>> do mean in cities that have a ward and Alderman system or a
>> similar political organization structure.
>
>By "official" I mean, would a politician publicly talk about his ward
>heelers, or would someone describe himself as a ward heeler on a job
>application? If the negative connotations are common, then probably
>not.
No to both questions. The Alderman would not refer to his ward
heelers, but the public would. His opponents would. The newspapers
would.
Think "flunky" or "hangers on" or "yes men". The person employing
them would not use those descriptions, but others would.
My ward representative is a campaign worker who assists qualified
citizens in participating in the voting process. Your ward heeler
drive bums to the voting booth and rewards them with a half-pint of
Thunderbird.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> Wikipedia dates Australian Cattle Dogs back to "at least" 1897, but
> doesn't say anything about when the term "heeler" came into use.
The OED cites it to 1888. Its definition of "ward heeler" invites the
reader to cf a different sense of heeler:
5. One who follows at the heels of a leader or 'boss'; an
unscrupulous or disreputable follower of a professional
politician. _U.S._
which has the quotes you cite:
> a1877 N.Y. Herald in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (1877) s.v., The politician,
> who has been a heeler about the capital. 1888 BRYCE Amer. Commw. II.
> III. lxiii. 451 By degrees he rises to sit on the central committee,
> having..surrounded himself with a band of adherents, who are called
> his 'heelers', and whose loyalty..secured by the hope of 'something
> good', gives weight to his words. 1901 Daily Chron. 6 Nov. 6/2 The
> assurance of the Tammany 'Heelers' was less blatant than usual. 1933
> H. G. WELLS Shape of Things to Come III. 311 The specialist demagogue,
> sustained by his gang and his heelers, his spies and secret police.
The _Brooklyn Daily Eagle_ first has "ward heelers" in 1873:
There will be ward meetings and torch light processions and a
great waste of power to get up campaign enthusaism among the ward
"heelers" who are loud in their expressions of dissatisfaction.
[10/23/1873]
It shows up without scare quotes a week later:
But Mr. Schroeder's condescension is greatly appreciated by the
ward heelers of the party, and they think, to use their language,
that "Mr. Schroeder is going to make a bully politician."
[10/30/1873]
Bare "heeler" is a bit harder to search for (there are a lot of hits
for "Wheeler" and misread "Keeler"), but it's established by 1868 at
the latest:
The Tenth Ward men vowed vengeance against Mosely's "heeler,"
Justice Delmar, and if, as is expected, Mallison is nominated this
evening by the committee to whom it has been referred by the Kings
County Democratic Association to select a candidate, the
dissatisfaction with the way in which the successful candidate was
sprung on the Convention will make itself felt. [10/20/1868]
From the early quotes (these and others), my guess is that the image
is one of "following at the heels" of a leader.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Just sit right back
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 | and you'll hear a tale,
Palo Alto, CA 94304 | a tale of the Stanford red
|That started when a little boy
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com | named Leland did drop dead
(650)857-7572
Evan Kirshenbaum
> By "official" I mean, would a politician publicly talk about his ward
> heelers, or would someone describe himself as a ward heeler on a job
> application? If the negative connotations are common, then probably
> not.
My impression (though I should stress that I got out of Chicago before
having to vote there, though not before becoming aware of politics) is
that yes, people would describe themselves as ward heelers.
Poking around, I found a reference to a 1901 comic strip from the
_Chicago Tribune_ (8/4/01, p.4, col.4 "Encyclopedia Chicagoana"),
described:
(A fat man is shown in the cartoon, asking "ARE YOU WIT US?")
WARD-HEELER--_(WARD-HEAL-ER)_.
(A boss. One who has influence, authority, control, or leadership
over the sovereign voters of a ward or subdivision of a city or
municipality. One who knows how, when, and where to get votes and
how much they will cost. The residuary trustee, or envoy
extraordinary, or resident representative of a political leader,
man of destiny, or favorite son. The lieutenant of a candidate for
office.)
A WARD-HEELER holds his office not by appointment or election, but
by his ability to corral the boys, as the sovereign voters of a
ward are called. The ward-heeler must know all the keepers of
groggeries in his ward and drop around frequently and buy the boys
beer with somebody else's money. The ward-heeler keeps the boys in
line and sees on election day that they vote once anyhow, and
twice if they can. It used to be a part of his official duty to
kick over the ballot box and walk off with the ballots if there
were too many votes cast for the opposition candidate. That is not
so much the fashion at present, but still followed in many
localities. The ward-heeler gets his friends jobs on the police
force or in the Street Cleaning department. He wears a quiet suit
with a diamond in his necktie and a large ring with glass setting
on his finger. He always talks in a husky voice and usually says:
"Say, fellers, are you wid us or against us."
http://tinyurl.com/jhsf9
<URL:http://www.americandialect.org/
americandialectarchives/nov97701.html>
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |The law of supply and demand tells us
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |that when the price of something is
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |artificially set below market level,
|there will soon be none of that thing
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |left--as you may have noticed the
(650)857-7572 |last time you tried to buy something
|for nothing.
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ | P.J. O'Rourke
CDB
Aha. So both the shepherd and the running-dog of your earlier post
seem to have played a role in the term's development. I wouldn't
entirely discount the fighting-cock, either, at least when the phrase
began to be used: many Americans who heard it in 1868 would have been
familiar with that definition from the 1828 Webster's.
Evan Kirshenbaum
> On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 20:53:10 GMT, Ray Heindl
> <vortre...@yaxhoo.com> wrote:
>>By "official" I mean, would a politician publicly talk about his
>>ward heelers, or would someone describe himself as a ward heeler on
>>a job application? If the negative connotations are common, then
>>probably not.
>
> No to both questions. The Alderman would not refer to his ward
> heelers, but the public would. His opponents would. The newspapers
> would.
Are you sure about that? I have a distinct impression of politicians
saying that they "started out as a ward heeler" or "back when I was
just a ward heeler ...".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |To find the end of Middle English,
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |you discover the exact date and
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |time the Great Vowel Shift took
|place (the morning of May 5, 1450,
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com |at some time between neenuh fiftehn
(650)857-7572 |and nahyn twenty-fahyv).
| Kevin Wald
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/
Richard Maurer
From the early quotes (these and others), my guess is that
the image is one of "following at the heels" of a leader.
Before this I thought they were ward-heelers because they were
the ones that walked the wards.
I remember a college professor who raised the point that even
with 20% corruption, the machine politicians might give better
government than the reformers that would follow.
The ward-heelers would be in the taverns and would hear about
the trash that was not picked up, or low water pressure,
or whatever minor annoyances might add up to a reason to vote
somebody else in, and the ward-heelers would follow up.
After the machine succumbed to the inevitable temptation
to increase the corruption rate, the reformers would be
voted in. The reformers would only last a term or two,
for after the righteous indignation wore off, they hadn't
the heart for the daily grind of the job, and had no charm.
-- ---------------------------------------------
Richard Maurer To reply, remove half
Sunnyvale, California of a homonym of a synonym for also.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tony Cooper
<rcpb1_...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>Evan Kirshenbaum wrote:
> From the early quotes (these and others), my guess is that
> the image is one of "following at the heels" of a leader.
>
>
>Before this I thought they were ward-heelers because they were
>the ones that walked the wards.
>
>I remember a college professor who raised the point that even
>with 20% corruption, the machine politicians might give better
>government than the reformers that would follow.
>The ward-heelers would be in the taverns and would hear about
>the trash that was not picked up, or low water pressure,
>or whatever minor annoyances might add up to a reason to vote
>somebody else in, and the ward-heelers would follow up.
>After the machine succumbed to the inevitable temptation
>to increase the corruption rate, the reformers would be
>voted in. The reformers would only last a term or two,
>for after the righteous indignation wore off, they hadn't
>the heart for the daily grind of the job, and had no charm.
I lived in Chicago during the 60s when (the original) Mayor Daly was
in power. The city ran smoothly during his administration. The
Aldermen and many of the city officials were lining their pockets, but
the city ran smoothly.
As the joke goes:
Mayor Daly was sitting in his office late one night, when the Devil
appeared before him.
The Devil told the mayor: "I have a proposition for you. You can win
every single mayoral race for the rest of your life. Your constituents
will adore you, your council members will stand in awe of you, and you
will make embarrassing sums of money through your political consulting
firm."
The mayor began to salivate at the mere thought...
The Devil continued: "All I want in exchange is your soul, the souls
of your Aldermen, the souls of all of the employees for the City of
Chicago, including the legal staff's souls I don't already possess,
plus the souls of all of your friends and business associates."
Mayor Daly thought about this for a moment, then asked, "So what's the
catch?"
The only problem with the joke above is that Daly wasn't on the take
himself. He lived simply in his old working-class Bridgeport
neighborhood. His sons and relatives did make money through
consulting firms and insurance agencies, though.