Date:  Sat, 6 Sep 1997 23:53:10 -0400
From:  "Barry A. Popik" <Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: Ice Cream Sandwich; Esquire

ICE CREAM SANDWICH

   "Sadly, several defy historical sleuthing and seem to have just appeared
around the turn of the century. Such is the case with the ice cream
sandwich, the banana split, and the float--and for lack of data the songs of
their hero-inventors must go unsung."
   --Paul Dickson, THE GREAT AMERICAN ICE CREAM BOOK (1972).

   This is from the Long Branch (NJ) Record, 24 August 1900, pg. 4, col. 5:

ICE CREAM SANDWICHES
All Wall Street Buying Them Nowa-
days, to the Profit of the Inventor.
   The latest thing that the purveyors to the gastronomic demands of the
office boys, messengers and clerks in the Wall street district are supplying
to their patrons is the ice cream sandwich. It made its first appearance
during the hot spell of last week. A young man showed up with a wagon and
began to descant on the value of his wares at the corner of Nassau and Wall
streets. He soon had a crowd around him, and the first man that tried an ice
cream sandwich bit into it gingerly. It was made of two graham wafers and a
slab of ice cream between. The wafers were fresh and crisp and sweet and the
ice cream was good. Then, too, it had the advantage of being cold in
addition to being palatable. The cost of the sandwich was one, two and three
cents, according to the thickness of the slab of ice cream.
   This new edible made such a hit that its fame spread through the Wall
street district the first day and the young man who invented it did not have
enough of stock to satisfy the demand. The second day the brokers themselves
got to buying ice cream sandwiches and eating them in a democratic fashion
side by side on the sidewalk with the messengers and the office boys. All of
the other ice cream and lemonade vendors saw that they were outclassed and
immediately began to sell imitations. The young man held the bulk of the
trade, however, throughout the week.

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ESQUIRE

   For whatever it's worth, this is from the Long Branch (NJ) Record, 21
September 1900, pg. 5, col. 5:

COMMON WORDS MISUSED.
To Only Certain Classes Should "Esq." Be Applied.
   The word "esquire," or, as it is generally abbreviated, "esq." is
becoming more and more obsolete in America. And it is well that this is so,
for it never had any place here. Even in England, where it belongs, it is
woefully misused, and always has been, for not one person out of a great many
can tell who are legally esquires. They are all sons of peers, baronets and
knights; the elder sons of the younger sons of peers, and their eldest sons
in perpetuity; the eldest son of the eldest son of a knight, and the eldest
son in perpetuity; king of arms, heralds of arms, officers of the army and
navy ranking as captains and upwards, sheriffs of counties for life, J. P.'s
of counties while in commission, sergeants-at-law and Queen's counsel,
companions of the orders of knighthood, the principal officers of the Queen's
household, deputy lieutenants, commissioners of the court of bankruptcy,
masters of the Supreme Court and those whom the Queen may see proper to style
"esquire." All others have no right to anything beyond the simple prefix
"Mr."--Louisville Courier-Journal.