A phrase from historical newspaper personal ads, explained with real examples from the archive.
The railroad train or streetcar; in the cars meant aboard the train.
| Type | Historical language |
|---|---|
| Category | Period vocabulary |
| Earliest example in the archive | February 20, 1862, New York Herald |
| Most common | 1840s to the 1900s |
In nineteenth-century American usage a train was often called the cars, and a streetcar the car. That is why so many missed connections in this archive begin on a car: the Farnam Street car, the Indiana Avenue car, the 14th Street car, and in 1862, the cars to Baltimore.
IF MRS. D. E. HAS RETURNED TO NEW YORK, SHE will much oblige her friend (who had the pleasure of paying some attention to her in the cars to Baltimore on Sunday night,…
WILL THE LADY WHO ON THURSday evening bowed to gentleman in Welton street car, whom she had not seen for several months, please send her address to "C-B," postoffice box…
WILL lady with dark eyes and red dress, on Elitch car Friday 4ยท15 p. m. send address to J-166, News.
WILL the gentleman who so kindly assisted lady who fell from a westbound McAllister streetcar near Fulton street and 2d av. at 8 o'clock p. m. March 25, 1913, please…
WILL THE LADY wearing black skirt and white waist who got off Pullman Santa Fe train No. 9 at Ashfork Sept. 3rd and took branch train to Phoenix kindly send her name and…
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How this fits into 170 years of personal ad shorthand: From Object Matrimony to LTR: How Personal Ads Learned to Talk in Code.
All dictionary entries · The Personals Archive · How to write a personal ad
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