Syksey (
fl.
''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1840–1849) was the
pseudonym of an American criminal and member of the
Bowery Boys. He was supposedly the lieutenant and longtime companion to
Mose the Fireboy during the 1840s, often the storyteller of his feats, and is credited for coining the phrase ''"hold 'de but"'', a common expression used during the mid-to late 19th century meaning to borrow a
dead cigar or to ''"bum a smoke"''. He was later portrayed in Benjamin Baker's play ''Mose, the Bowery B'hoy'' which performed at the old Olympic Theater in 1849 and later toured throughout the United States during the late 1840s and 50s.
[Siegel, Adrienne. ''The Image of the American City in Popular Literature, 1820-1870''. Port Washington, New York: Kennikat Press, 1981. (pg. 32) ] His pseudonym may have been derived from
Bill Sikes
William "Bill" Sikes is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1838 novel '' Oliver Twist'' by Charles Dickens. Sikes is a malicious criminal in Fagin's gang, and a vicious robber and murderer. Throughout much of the novel Sikes i ...
, the sidekick of gang leader
Fagin from ''
Oliver Twist
''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', Charles Dickens's second novel, was published as a serial from 1837 to 1839, and as a three-volume book in 1838. Born in a workhouse, the orphan Oliver Twist is bound into apprenticeship with ...
''.
References
Further reading
*Blair, Walter. ''Tall Tale America: A Legendary History of Our Humorous Heroes''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
*
Harlow, Alvin F. ''Old Bowery Days: The Chronicles of a Famous Street''. New York and London: D. Appleton & Company, 1931.
*Jagendorf, Moritz Adolph. ''Upstate, Downstate: Folk Stories of the Middle Atlantic States''. New York: Vanguard Press, 1949.
{{Authority control
Criminals from Manhattan
Gang members of New York City
New York (state) folklore
Year of birth missing
Year of death missing