Why disguise the fact that JtR was educated?

[RivkahChaya]

Wickerman makes an excellent point.

But there's another: I personally think that the GSG was part of an exchange between two (at least) people, and that's why it seems cryptic. It's a response to something we are not privy to. Anyway, it's possible that some of the graffiti on the walls was like message board flame wars, and served as a bit of entertainment. It's even possible that the anti-Semitism of the writer of the GSG was being well-countered by at least one other writer, and people wanted to see the response.

I remember following conversations on bathroom walls when I was in college. There was once some Christian woman who was very homophobic, but no match for several people who responded to her screeds on one wall. As offensive as her "posts" were, no one would ever have removed one, because you might miss a really clever response.

I'm just saying, there are a lot of possibilities.

But yeah, people who survived pogroms might walk right past mere graffiti.

[Wickerman]

For the most part Jewish people tend to raise above all that mindless scribbling, given the intolerance they have suffered this nonsense pales into insignificance.
I suspect they didn't even notice it.

[Shaggyrand]

Maybe they just gave up?

Late at night in an area where anti-semitism was rampant. I don't think it's a stretch that removing such graffiti was just a part of the daily routine. Has anyone checked for older reports of graffiti in the location? They might not exist anymore and it's possible the building's inhabitants never bothered to report it. I don't think its likely the police would bother doing anything about it if it had ever been reported.

The inhabitants might have just got tired of erasing it everyday and simply stopped bothering. Why not leave something so poorly written up when it likely would be replaced immediately anyway and probably by something worse? Just a thought.

[RivkahChaya]

Except it was late at night. It may have remained up for a while if no one was awake to see it. The police saw it with their bull's-eye lights-- which I realize weren't very bright, but were better than nothing, and remember, they were searching for anything. It could be that in the dark, the graffito was overlooked by the one or two people who happened to pass it.

[Rosella]

This particular rag however was found in the entry to a dwelling where Jewish families lived. There's been speculation that anti-Jewish graffiti wouldn't have remained in place for long under such circumstances.

[RivkahChaya]

So, if you dropped a rag on the street in 1888, the chances are fairly good it would end up proximate to some graffito or another. If it had ended up next to "Brown's blacking is best," we'd all be debating whether or not JtR blacked out his face and hands in order not to be seen under the street lights, if he dressed in dark colors. And we'd be discussing who could wear dark colors and not be noticed-- maybe he dressed like an Orthodox Jew, even if he wasn't, or wasn't even Jewish.

[Shaggyrand]

I have seen that or at least similar before. My list was in response to an earlier comment about finding an actual estimate of the amount of graffiti. They appear, from what I could find, to be the most complete collections of reports in the area, though some of the books main focus are incidental to graffiti, and would make a far better basis for estimation on a per neighborhood level during the time frame of the killings.

[curious4]

Hello Shaggyrand

You might find this useful if you haven't already seen it:

catsmeatshop.blogspot.com/2010/09/victorian-graffiti.html?m=1

Best wishes
C4

[curious4]

Hello Shaggyrand

Graffiti was a problem and it wasn't unknown for a manufacturer to pay someone to write something along the lines of "Brown's blacking is the best" on convenient walls. I vaguely remember reading about a young woman encouraging her younger sister to write something unprintable on the wall of a brothel and being charged with not only writing graffiti, but also corrupting a minor.

Best wishes
C4

[Rosella]

In the 19th century if someone employed others the employees (not necessarily servants) would refer to the boss as 'my master' when speaking about him to others.

[curious4]

Hello GUT

Sometimes serendipidy is just amazing! Tried for ages yesterday to find an example of what I mean without much success, glanced at Facebook this morning (my counterweight to JTR and vice versa, and found exactly what I wanted!

Anyway, I do disagree with you regarding the Dear Boss letter. A round, schoolboy hand is just what it is. By "hand" the Victorians meant different styles of writing, there was, for example a "legal hand". As I understand it, the handwriting is exactly what the writer would have used day to day, having learned it at school, as opposed to a "professional" handstyle, used by a clerk, say.

Back to serendipidy and I found a reference to Jake Weidmann, Master Penman, and one of the few people still able to write in at least some of these styles. If you Google Jake Weidmann you will hopefully find examples of these styles, although much is taken up with his pen and ink drawings.

Must get back to paying my bills or I will be out on the street.

Best wishes
C4

PS Googling "Master Penman" and looking at the pictures there will show more examples.

[Wickerman]

If "Boss" isn't a UK term, what is the common term for a work supervisor? If I walked into a room and said "Who's the boss?" would no one know what I meant? how would a UK English speaker express the same thing?

It isn't a UK term, the word is an Anglicized Dutch word.
Sorry, I should have said it "existed" in East Anglia, not "originated". I was trying to point out that it isn't 'American' as such, it existed in England centuries ago, but both the US & UK used it, probably borrowed from Dutch traders.

Before the industrial revolution there wasn't much call for the term. England had long been a land of farmers and shopkeepers not much use for a term like 'boss'.

In the UK "gaffer" is another common expression for the same title, another borrowed word.

[GUT]

If "Boss" isn't a UK term, what is the common term for a work supervisor? If I walked into a room and said "Who's the boss?" would no one know what I meant? how would a UK English speaker express the same thing?

While we're on the subject of what is this in the UK, what is "spotted dick," and what do you call what we call "braces," which is to say, orthodontic appliances?

Spotted dick will normally be a pudding with raising, can also be a Dalmatian dog, (might be a dreadful disease though).

Braces are .... Braces

[RivkahChaya]

Although we adopt this tendency label expressions like "Boss" as Americanisms, some of them originated in England, they have just gone out of fashion.
A good number of years ago I was researching Mathew Hopkins, aka The Witchfinder General. I came across an article which discussed a handful of 'Americanisms' that originated in East Anglia & Norfolk and in common use in the 17th-18th century, "Boss" was one of them.

If "Boss" isn't a UK term, what is the common term for a work supervisor? If I walked into a room and said "Who's the boss?" would no one know what I meant? how would a UK English speaker express the same thing?

While we're on the subject of what is this in the UK, what is "spotted dick," and what do you call what we call "braces," which is to say, orthodontic appliances?

[Wickerman]

I don't know any other reason for the word "Boss," though-- I don't buy this one, but I don't know why that particular word, which does seem an unusual choice. I heard a theory that it's an Americanism, and the hoaxer was American (or JtR was). The word may be more common among Americans, but as far as I know (and I've read a lot of books written in the late 19th century), it doesn't mean anything other than the plain meaning; it's not a form of address like "Dude," or "Comrade," or "Guv'nor." (And I can't swear Brits really say that last one.) So whoever the writer expected would get the letter, the writer thought of as a boss, or superior, somehow.

Although we adopt this tendency label expressions like "Boss" as Americanisms, some of them originated in England, they have just gone out of fashion.
A good number of years ago I was researching Mathew Hopkins, aka The Witchfinder General. I came across an article which discussed a handful of 'Americanisms' that originated in East Anglia & Norfolk and in common use in the 17th-18th century, "Boss" was one of them.