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MEANING
The phrase old Spanish custom denotes a questionable or unorthodox practice that has long been established.
This phrase occurred, for example, in the following from the Sunday People (London, England) of Sunday 17th October 1999:
STRAW BID TO STOP FIREMEN’S STRIKES
By NICK COMFORT
HOME Secretary Jack Straw is trying to dampen down a row that threatens to spark a series of strikes by firemen.
[…]
Local authorities, who pay the firefighters’ wages, want to draw up new contracts of employment.
They claim these are vital get rid of “old Spanish customs” which cost them a packet.
ORIGIN
This figurative use of old Spanish custom originated in the USA, and (in my opinion) was derived from literal uses of the phrase, dating back to the nineteenth century and referring not so much to Spain as to the former Spanish colonies of America, in particular Mexico and Cuba.
The following are two literal uses of the phrase old Spanish custom dating back to the mid-19th century:
1-: From Texan Santa Fé Expedition, published in The Daily Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA) of Thursday 15th December 1842 [page 2, column 3]—“the city” refers to Chihuahua, in Mexico:
As we approached the city […] the inhabitants began flocking out—some on foot, others on horseback, while a number of the heavy, clumsy-looking, but costly and elaborately carved coaches, drawn by five or seven mules, with postilions, after the old Spanish custom, were on the spot, filled with the ladies of the place.
2-: From the Washington Sentinel (Washington, District of Columbia, USA) of Thursday 26th April 1855 [page 2, column 4]:
—The following is about Cuba, which was still a Spanish colony; both the “cruisers” and the “military police” were Spanish:
What feeling of moderation is to restrain these cruisers on the high seas in their exercise of police—this same military police which, on shore, addresses the first word with a slash of the sabre, or the thrust of a lance, just as the cruiser did his two and thirty pound shot first, and his hail afterwards, to the El Dorado? This police system is the old Spanish custom, and kept up to this day perhaps in old Spain as well as in the Spanish colonies.
EARLY OCCURRENCES
These are, in chronological order, the earliest occurrences of the phrase old Spanish custom that I have found:
1-: From the sports column Chords and Discords, by Waldemar P. Wood, published in the Coatesville Record (Coatesville, Pennsylvania, USA) of Monday 8th September 1924 [page 6, columns 2 & 3]:
Our faithful prodesessor [sic] has stepped out. We have walked right in, and furthermore we are not an amateur in the business here. […]
[…]
We are sorry if we have offended anyone with this none too constructive criticism, but we just good naturedly had to follow up the last shot of our former sporting editor. If we have bored you, think nothing of it—it’s only an old Spanish custom of ours.
2-: From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Sunday 27th December 1925 [page 1 C, column 1]:
1925 Marked by Truce In International Sport; Banner Season at Home
By GEORGE TREVOR.IT IS an old Spanish custom for those who write annual sport reviews to characterize each year as the “greatest in sporting annals.” We hate to disappoint those readers who are slaves to precedent, but, to be frank, 1925 didn’t come up to its predecessor, 1924, as a maker of athletic history.
3-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Flickers’ Wit & Wisdom, published in the Elmira Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York, USA) of Tuesday 10th August 1926 [page 10, column 1]:
Us kids notice that every time Dad pulls a boner at home he tells mother it’s an old Spanish custom. But he doesn’t get away with it.
4-: From the Venice Evening Vanguard (Venice, California, USA) of Tuesday 5th October 1926 [page 1, columns 6 & 7]:
Rose, Pansy, Violet, In Fact All of ’em Die From Bad Hooch
Edwin Savage of 1815 Fifteenth street, Santa Monica, had a fine garden of flowers at his residence last week. But Edwin Savage’s garden of flowers is fine no more.
And all because of an assertion made by Levine Lewis, asserted bootlegger, whose plant at 1827 Fifteenth street, was seized by the police recently. Lewis, following his arrest, said he made good “hooch.” Edwin Savage says Lewis did not make good “hooch.” Edwin Savage offers in proof the spectacle of his once fine garden of flowers, which is fine no more.
For when police went to dispose of the 30 odd gallons of liquor seized in Levine Lewis’ still they asked Edwin Savage if it would hurt his fine garden of flowers to have the contraband dumped nearby. Edwin Savage thought it would be good for his flowers, make them brighter and more cheery.
It did—for a while. The flowers bloomed merrily, they took on a roseate hue. And then, metaphorically speaking, they followed an old Spanish custom and slide [sic] quietly under the table, looking much as though a seven years’ drought had hit them.
5-: From the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Saturday 30th October 1926 [page 5, column 4]:
Branch Rickey Unwitting Cause of Strife Between Hornsby and Club Owner
By THOMAS HOLMES.INTIMATE relations in the midst of the official family of the World’s Champion St. Louis Cardinals appear to be somewhat strained, according to worried accounts from the Mound City. It is an old Spanish custom for the officials of a World’s Champion club and the manager thereof to pat each other on the back, swear everlasting allegiance and all that sort of thing.
It’s different in the home of the new champions. Rogers Hornsby may be a hero to the knothole gang but he’s just a manager to Sam Breadon and a pain in the neck to Branch Rickey.
6-: From a review of The Way of the Panther (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1926), by Denny C. Stokes—review by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Wednesday 8th December 1926 [page 4 A, column 3]:
“THE WAY OF THE PANTHER” […] concerns an Englishman, fresh from the World War and thoroughly disgusted with it all, seeking peace and quiet in the Kappu Valley, one of the slumbering, outwardly placid back-waters of older India.
Oddly enough, he finds that which he seeks.
[…]
For a time, it appeared that Mr. Stokes had violated an “Old Spanish” custom of this “White Cargo” type of literature.
Usually the party of the first part, gradually succumbing to the well-known lure of the tropical wild, wrestles his conscience about the premises through many long chapters.
This seeker of solitude doesn’t. His tendency to “go native” is met with a resistance that seems more passive than otherwise. Each advance in the general direction seems to be performed almost unconsciously, and bis subsequent reaction, when any, is merely mild astonishment.
7-: From Many Olympians Signed for Annual New Year Dip, by Ernest M. Smith, published in the San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California, USA) of Friday 31st December 1926 [page 3 P, column 1]:
“FAT” LARUE has said: “It’s an old Spanish custom.” Referring to the annual New Year’s morning run and dip into the Pacific Ocean by several hundred Olympic Club members which will take place tomorrow morning. For many, many years the Olympians have made their pilgrimage to the ocean, and taken their first plunge into the Pacific on the first day of the New Year.
8-: From Landis Opens His Mouth And Says Something; Wheat Should Fare Well, by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Friday 14th January 1927 [page 2 A, column 5]:
Buck Likes Those Pitchers Who Think.
WHEAT’S ANKLES creak a bit and the long years have not improved his throwing arm and his judgment on ground balls, but the old batting eye of the man from Missouri retains all of its keenness. Buck is still a great hitter, always will be, until they have to push him up to the plate in a wheel chair.
We’d like to be around tor Wheat’s first month or so in the American League. In that period he should hit about .999. His reputation will precede him, of course, into the American League, and it is an old Spanish custom for pitchers to “discover” the weakness of a new hitter with a reputation.
9-: From Pretty Pups Pose Despite J. Pluvius, published in The Southwestern (Weatherford, Oklahoma, USA) of Tuesday 18th January 1927 [page 1, column 5]—The Southwestern was edited by the journalism class of the Southwestern Teachers’ college, Weatherford, Oklahoma:
“Now,” said the president, “We have three new members to vote into the club. All in favor hold up their right hand.”
Three hands were held up.
“All right,” says the president. “We will take them in.”
(Author’s note: No negative vote was taken. This is an old Spanish custom.)
10-: From The Morning Herald (Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA) of Saturday 30th April 1927 [page 19, column 4]:
OLD SPANISH CUSTOM!
CHICAGO, April 29.—“Marriage doesn’t mean love, my dear; it’s simply a social institution,” said James T. Donahue, to his bride of a few weeks.
Mrs. Frances Morgan Donahue quoted the saying of her husband yesterday when she sued for divorce on grounds of desertion. According to her, the husband packed up his things and left in July, 1921, a few weeks after their marriage.
11-: From an advertisement for Senorita, a 1927 U.S. silent film starring Bebe Daniels (Phyllis Virginia Daniels – 1901-1971), published in the Modesto News-Herald (Modesto, California, USA) of Sunday 26th June 1927 [page 14, column 3]:
It’s an old Spanish custom, but don’t put off seeing “SENORITA” until tomorrow.
12-: From Redskins Show No Punch And Lose To York Roses, 8-2, published in The Shamokin Dispatch (Shamokin, Pennsylvania, USA) of Tuesday 9th August 1927 [page 6, column 1]:
Feeble chirps that punctured the oxygen at intermittent moments and never gained any sustained potency, cackled dismally from the bats of the Shamokin contestants of the pastime known as baseball at the Edgewood field yesterday afternoon.
Consequently, as the power of the punch was exceptionally noticeable by its almost total abstainance [sic] from being present, the Indians were slapped on their epidermis by the York White Roses. As it is an old Spanish custom to include this feature in a report of the proceedings, it would not be amiss to state that the score was 8-2.
13-: From the Albany Democrat-Herald (Albany, Oregon, USA) of Saturday 3rd September 1927 [page 2, column 5]:
SEATTLE, Wash., Sept. 3—Mrs. Dorothy Turness, 23, a stenographer was rushed to the city hospital this morning after she had taken poison in an attempt at suicide.
At the hospital Mrs. Turness told the doctor she had quarreled with her husband so took the poison because it was an old Spanish custom.
“Well,” the doctor said, “it’s an old American custom to use a stomach pump when any one has taken poison.”
Mrs. Turness will live.
14-: From an article on baseball, by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Sunday 16th October 1927 [page 6 C, column 1]:
THE OLD SPANISH custom of picking all-star baseball teams seems to have fallen upon evil ways. No longer do bugs pore over the diamond dope at the end of each season or gather on street corners to stage hot debates on the relative merits of various ball players. Once everybody did.
15-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the column Other Editors, published in The Miami Herald (Miami, Florida, USA) of Monday 24th October 1927 [page 6, column 6]:
AN OLD SPANISH CUSTOM.
Those earnest gentlemen in Washington who come forth brightly now and then with the rumor that the cost of living has dropped again are once more presenting that report. But you have noticed, probably, that the waiter continues to present your dinner check with the bad news face down.—Detroit Free Press.
16-: From Pittsburg-Chicago Deal Emphasizes Brooklyn’s Lack of Trading Material, by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Wednesday 30th November 1927 [page 2 A, column 2]:
“Sparky” Adams Will Help Pirates.
THE old Spanish custom of deciding in advance whether the Cubs or the Pirates profited most in the first real trade of the winter season, as usual, leads to differences of opinion.
17-: From one of the answers that the U.S. actor Bert Lytell (1885-1954) gave to the letters that had been sent to him, published in The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA) of Tuesday 20th December 1927 [page 17, column 4]:
MINNIE: So you were in Hollywood! And followed his car! Oh, Minnie! How could you! And you actually saw him kiss her.
Oh, well, that’s an old Spanish custom.
18-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the cinema column The Photo-Drama, published in The Lewiston Daily Sun (Lewiston, Maine, USA) of Saturday 3rd March 1928 [page 5, column 2]:
Joan Crawford is wearing an old Spanish affair in “Tide of the Empire,” after being relegated to Chinese regalia in her last two pictures, on entering the M-G-M restaurant some one piped up: “Oh, Joan, I see you’re being antique again,” to which Joan retorted: “It’s an old Spanish custom.”
19-: From Olympics Defeat Boys’ Five, 27 to 24, by Ernest M. Smith, published in the San Francisco Examiner (San Francisco, California, USA) of Friday 9th March 1928 [page 1 P, column 8]:
ALL of the formalities and rituals of an old Spanish custom were observed last night at Kesar pavilion when the Olympic Club basketball team won its sixteenth consecutive Pacific Association basketball title by defeating the courageous San Francisco Boys’ Club, 27-24.
20 & 21-: From the column Breakfast Strips (consisting of independent paragraphs), by Henry S. Wrenn, published in The Pensacola Journal (Pensacola, Florida, USA):
20-: Of Saturday 24th March 1928 [page 6, column 2]:
Still, Chester Griffin insists that it’s just an old Spanish custom.
21-: Of Sunday 25th March 1928 [page 8, column 2]:
Maybe that, too, is an old Spanish custom.
22-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up the humoristic column Breezy Bits, published in the Passaic Daily News (Passaic, New Jersey, USA) of Wednesday 16th May 1928 [page 8, column 8]:
Oh, well—
As Ben Neilley would say—
“It’s an old Spanish custom”.
23-: From the column School Scandal, by Geraldine Gossip, published in the Social Section of The Birmingham News—Age-Herald (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) of Sunday 27th May 1928 [page 16, column 2]:
It seems that it is an old Spanish custom for the A. T. O. Fraternity to do very extensive and extremely poppy, pop calling on Sunday nights either as a whole or in small groups of 50 and 60. […]
Of course all the young ladies of Birmingham’s younger set contingent are more than anxious to see these gallants for a few minutes every Sunday night.
24, 25 & 26-: From the following advertisements for a service station called El Patio, published in The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California, USA):
24-: Of Sunday 29th July 1928 [page 3, column 2]:
You should buy your gas, motor oils, have your car greased and washed at the El Patio—Because their Quality Products are the Best, and Good Service with them is “just an old Spanish custom”
EL PATIO
Service Station
25-: Of Sunday 5th August 1928 [page 6, column 2]:
How Would You Like To Have
President Coolidge fill your gas tank and put oil in your car?
And
Herbert Hoover to wipe off your windshield?
Al Smith to fill your radiator?
You would feel pretty “hot,” wouldn’t you?
WELL
Those gentlemen could not do it half as well as we do for
“It’s an Old Spanish Custom”
To give the best and most courteous service atEL PATIO
Service Station
26-: Of Sunday 19th August 1928 [page 11, column 2]:
WHO WILL BE ELECTED
AL HOOVER OR HERBERT SMITH?We don’t know. But we do know where you can save money on Gas, Oil, Tires, Batteries, Grease Jobs and Washing of your car, and that is at the
EL PATIO
Service Station
where courteous service is
“just an old Spanish custom”
27-: From Stanford Ball Team Back Home, published in the Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Friday 14th September 1928 [part III, page 4, column 2]:
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13. (Exclusive)—Coach Harry Wolter’s Stanford University baseball team docked here this morning, arriving on the Sonoma after an all-summer invasion of Honolulu, the Samoan Islands, Australia and New Zealand. […]
According to the boys, the trip was a grand success. Banquets a-plenty, an excess of good eats and “new and different women” made it so, they state. The remarkable fact about it is, so the players inform one, that the fairer sex go “gunning” for the men over there instead of the masculine gender chasing them around. It’s an old Spanish custom, they say.
28-: From the review of a vaudeville show, published in the Evening Express (Los Angeles, California, USA) of Tuesday 25th September 1928 [page 13, column 5]:
A balancing act that starts out as something else, as is an old Spanish custom these days, is offered by Franklyn d’Armour, with Jack Lane and Ethel Truesdale.
29-: From Annual Fall Classic Has Produced Thrills Galore Since Its 1903 Inception, by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Thursday 4th October 1928 [page 4 A, column 1]:
JUST about everything that can be written in advance about the imminent World Series has been converted into printer’s ink and spilled over the pages of this great family journal and advertising medium ere this. There remains only the old Spanish custom of picking a winner and a brief survey of past World Series.
30-: From a United-Press story published in several newspapers on Tuesday 16th October 1928—for example in The Birmingham Post (Birmingham, Alabama, USA) [page 2, column 4]:
NEW YORK, Oct. 16.—Back on Broadway, substituting for his old friend, Fred Stone, who was injured in an airplane accident, Will Rogers opened with Stone’s daughter, Dorothy, in a new musical comedy, “Three Cheers,” at the Globe theater last night.
Will stepped out of the book twice during the piece, to deliver long political harangues in his best manner. He lambasted the Republicans and Democrats impartially.
According to an “old Spanish custom,” he told his audience that “farm relief consists of relieving the farmers of all they possess.”
31-: From Short and Sweet of That Franklin Field Battle, by James C. Isaminger, published in The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) of Sunday 21st October 1928 [page 2 S, column 6]:
Both coaches blue-penciled their line-ups in the ebbing minutes of the quarter. ’Tis an old Spanish custom.
32-: From The Greenville News (Greenville, South Carolina, USA) of Friday 26th October 1928 [page 3, column 6]:
G. W. C. Seniors Use ‘Walkout’ Privilege To See Game At Fair
All seniors at Greenville Womans [sic] college, with two exceptions, walked out yesterday morning!
But they are all expected back at work today, so the situation is not so serious after all.
No, it’s not an old Spanish custom, but it is a custom that has been observed for some years at G. W. C., and has met with the approval of both students and faculty. The walkout occurs only once a year […].
The date of the annual “strike” is called “Senior’s Day,” and the time is set by members of the class.
33-: From the Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nevada, USA) of Thursday 1st November 1928 [page 8, column 5]:
WOMEN TO PAY AS COEDS PUT ON BIG DANCE
University of Nevada men will be in the height of their glory Saturday night, for it will be the one time of the college year when it is the woman’s turn “to pay.”
The annual Pan-Hellenic dance, given under the auspices of the six sororities, will be staged in the university gymnasium, the women inviting the men as their guests.
According to students, “it is an old Spanish custom” for the women to call for the men, take them to the dance in their machines, buy them cigarettes and see that they are provided with food after the affair is over.
34-: From Civic Affairs Must Have Harmony, Too, published in the La Grande Evening Observer (La Grande, Oregon, USA) of Saturday 24th November 1928 [page 4, column 1]:
Being dismissed because one did not give proper support to those who were successful in the election […] is no disgrace and casts no reflection. It’s very natural and very much to be expected. It’s an “old Spanish custom” in federal, state, county, city government, except where civil service rules. And it’s a most common business practice.
35-: From an advertisement for Bosch radio sets, published in The Livingston Enterprise (Livingston, Montana, USA) of Thursday 29th November 1928 [page 8, column 1]:
MUSIC—
While you eat is “An Old Spanish Custom” and it’s a mighty nice one. That’s one of the joys of having a BOSCH Radio, ’cause you can have music for all meals.
36-: From the column Look Out Below, by John MacElhinny, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Thursday 6th December 1928 [page 1 A, column 5]:
NEWS comes from Washington that steps are being taken by Atlee Pomerene to bring ex-Secretary Albert B. Fall and E. L. Doheny to trial on charges of bribery in connection with the Elk Hills naval oil lease.
As we see it, the jury will be asked to determine only one thing: Was Secretary Fall greased or was he not?
Trying Fall, Doheny and Sinclair has become an old Spanish custom in this country. So far, the only result has been the diminishing of unemployment in the legal profession.
These trials have been going on since 1921, and from all appearances they will keep on indefinitely.
37-: From the column Critic of Affairs, by the U.S. author Ring Lardner (Ringgold Wilmer Lardner – 1885-1933), published in the Boston Evening Globe (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) of Tuesday 18th December 1928 [page 20, column 7]:
Ring Goes Christmas Shopping
NEW YORK, Dec 17—In the course of Christmas shopping, which eats up nearly 20 minutes of my time every per annum, I dropped into Alex Taylor’s store the other day […]. [A] salesman […] had a packet with his name, Mr Smith, neatly sewn or embroidered just below the breast pocket.
Now I am not what you could call an habitue of stores and it may have become an old Spanish custom for shopmen to identify themselves in such a simple and convenient manner.
38-: From the column Seen and Heard About Richmond, published in The Richmond Item (Richmond, Indiana, USA) of Wednesday 19th December 1928 [page 4, column 1]:
We note in the news that a California aviator killed a bull in landing. It’s an old Spanish custom.
39-: From the Reading Times (Reading, Pennsylvania, USA) of Saturday 22nd December 1928 [page 8, column 1]:
Overtures are still being made to Bolivia and Paraguay by the League of Nations. Must be an old Spanish custom this playing of overtures after a couple of tragic acts.
40-: From ‘All-American’ Habit Appears Old-Fashioned, by Lawton Carver, published in the Tampa Sunday Tribune (Tampa, Florida, USA) of Sunday 23rd December 1928 [part 2, page 1, column 1]:
It becomes increasingly difficult each year, it is admitted, to name the 11 outstanding football players in the country. The practice came into being in 1889 […]
When the quaint old “Spanish” custom was instituted back in ’89, Yale, Harvard and Princeton furnished material for the all-Americans.
41-: From the column Personal Health Service, by Willian Brady, M. D., published in The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada) of Tuesday 8th January 1929 [page 13, column 2]:
Being a daily reader of your health articles I have decided to take one drop of tincture of iodin in a glassful of water once daily for a month in each of the four seasons of the year. But the vial of tincture of iodin I bought at the drugstore is spelled iodine and there is a poison label on it.—(B. H. )
Answer.—That’s an old Spanish custom. Don’t worry about it. If you have any worry coming, it should be about the Yankee custom of omitting the conspicuous poison label from many nostrums that are far mote dangerous than iodin.
42-: From one of the unconnected paragraphs making up column 1, page 4, of The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Alabama, USA) of Monday 28th January 1929:
We wonder if it is an old Spanish custom to forget to pay back the borrowed cash.
43-: From Booth’s Bulletin, by the Candy Man, published in the Elmira Star-Gazette (Elmira, New York, USA) of Tuesday 12th February 1929 [page 4, column 8]:
“It’s an old Spanish custom,” sings Will Rogers in his Broadway success “Three Cheers.” The title of the song could honestly apply to St. Valentine’s Day, this coming Thursday, Feb. 14, because the custom of sending “Valentines to your Valentine,” is an ancient one that has lived through the ages. It continues today so that when you send a gift to your Valentine Thursday, you can recall that you are carrying out a custom that first became popular in Spain, France and England back in the Fifteenth Century.
44-: From the concluding line of a telephone interview of the U.S. actor Richard Barthelmess (1895-1963), who was in Mexico City, by Jerry Hoffman, Universal Service correspondent, published in The Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin, USA) of Sunday 3rd March 1929 [page 33, column 2]:
I never got a change [sic] to ask whether he had found the good “old Spanish custom.”
45-: From a review of Murder on B Deck, a murder mystery by Vincent Starrett—review by ‘R. S.’, published in the Daily News Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania, USA) of Thursday 21st March 1929 [page 2, column 3]:
[Vincent Starrett] indulges in the quaint old Spanish custom of lugging in as his villain somebody you never suspected because you never remembered; somebody who is mentioned just three times in the course of the story, and who never speaks one single line up until the time he is revealed as the murderer.
46-: From an advertisement for The White House, published in The El Paso Times (El Paso, Texas, USA) of Saturday 23rd March 1929 [page 12, column 6]:
YOU MUST HAVE A NEW HAT FOR EASTER
… its [sic] an old Spanish custom … or maybe French … this wearing a new hat on Easter Morning … and American men are strong for it! They are strong for White House Hats, too … because they are just as new as this custom is old!
47-: From the column On Parade, by ‘H. M. L.’, published in The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, Oklahoma, USA) of Monday 1st April 1929 [page 2, column 4]:
April Fool—’tis an old Spanish custom which seems to be somewhat on the decline. The elaborate April Fool jokes of yore seem to have passed. No longer do people send out engraved invitations as they once did in England to see White Elephant parades.
48-: From a story about the arrangements that were made by the Athenian-Nile golf club for the 1929 tournament and Calcutta Pool, published in The Oakland Post Enquirer (Oakland, California, USA) of Wednesday 10th April 1929 [page 9, column 5]:
Ben Woolner, following an old Spanish custom, will act as auctioneer at the pool, to be held in the clubrooms April 16.
49-: From the column The Fun Shop, by Maxson Foxhall Judell, published in The Tulsa Tribune (Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA) of Friday 12th April 1929 [page 34, column 5]:
THE STRANGE CASE OF XX
“Very simple, Watson, really very simple.
“You remember Dr. Fisher’s mutilated corpse was found lying in his bath tub. Detectives from all over the world had worked on the case for years and had concluded that Dr. Fisher did not die a natural death. Then I was called, and the next day the mystery was solved.”
Sherlock paused modestly, adjusted his Jason cap, so-called because it went in two directions at the same time, and continued.
“[…] I found the culprit crouching behind the radio set where she had been for years.
“Did you, or did you not kill Dr. Fisher?” I asked severaly [sic].
“Yes,” she whimpered.
[…]
[…] Why did you kill him?” . . . She gulped, hesitated, and then answered slowly, “It’s an old Spanish custom, very hard to break yourself of.”
50-: From Outlook Bright for All-New York World Series: Giants Seem to Lead Cubs in General Class; Pittsburgh Is Menace, by Thomas Holmes, published in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, New York, USA) of Sunday 14th April 1929 [page 6 C, column 2]:
It is in accordance with an old Spanish custom to guess which of the major league clubs will be in there squabbling for the lion’s share of the World Series coin. It is a hazardous custom and one that seems silly in the light of the usual subsequent events. But it is custom, nevertheless.
51-: From The Cushing Daily Citizen (Cushing, Oklahoma, USA) of Wednesday 17th April 1929 [page 2, column 2]:
STUDENTS GIVE IN TO CLASS RIVALRY
Annual Feuds Between Four Classes of High School Are Renewed By StudentsNot an “old Spanish custom” but an annual happening, nevertheless, in this case, students of the four high-school classes have taken sides, Seniors and Sophomores vs Juniors and Freshman [sic], and once more are giving in to class rivalry.
52-: From Juries Stand by Beauty in Film Capital, a correspondence from Hollywood, California, by Mollie Merrick, published in The Minneapolis Morning Tribune (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) of Saturday 20th April 1929 [page 21, column 1]:
Juries are developing an amazing amount of sympathy for the beautiful star who, unknown and unsought, comes to cinemaland […].
The star makes a hit and the salary sky-rockets. Then the agent discovers in a court of law and before twelve tried men and true that the lady he signed on a five year contract thought five years meant one.
Juries are still standing by beauty. It’s an old Spanish custom among the male sex.
53-: From In Film Land, published in the Illustrated Leicester Chronicle (Leicester, Leicestershire, England) of Saturday 20th April 1929 [page 10, column 2]:
WHETHER it is “just an old Spanish custom” that prompts actors to fall in love and marry their leading ladies is not the subject of this discourse, but whatever the incentive, it seems to result in a successful and lasting wedlock.
54, 55 & 56-: From Bulldog Drummond (1929), a U.S. film produced by Samuel Goldwyn, directed by F. Richard Jones, and starring the British actor Ronald Colman. This film premiered in New York City, New York, USA, on Thursday 2nd May 1929.
—Synopsis of this film: Bored with civilian life in London after World War I, Hugh ‘Bulldog’ Drummond, a young British-Army officer, advertises for adventure. His advertisement is answered by Phyllis Benton, a young American who wants Drummond to free her uncle, Hiram J. Travers, from an insane asylum where he is being held prisoner by Dr. Lakington, a sadistic physician, and his confederates, Peterson, Markovitch and Irma. Lakington’s intention is to torture Travers into signing away his fortune. After several thrilling experiences, Drummond and his friend Algy kidnap Travers, unconscious in a drug-induced coma, and thereby he wins Phyllis’s love and Travers’s gratitude.
The phrase old Spanish custom occurs on three occasions in this film:
54-: [Drummond is being held prisoner in Dr. Lakington’s laboratory]:
Lakington: Why not leave this to me, Peterson? I think I know how to handle Bulldog Drummond. Markovitch. Bring the girl here.
Drummond: What girl? Not Phyllis, you haven’t got Phyllis here!
Lakington: Oh, haven’t we?
Drummond: Where did you get her? How did you get her?
Irma: You’re not the only one who can think fast, Captain Drummond.
Drummond: Oh my… If I’d only known, I’d… Phyllis! What do you want with her, you filthy hound?
Lakington: I want her to teach you to answer questions.
Irma: Just an old Spanish custom.
55-: [Drummond has just strangled Dr. Lakington]:
Irma: You’ve killed him.
Drummond: Just an old Spanish custom.
56-: [Peterson and his gang have just escaped; while Drummond is phoning the police in London, Phyllis asks him to let the villains go, telling him she loves him]:
Phyllis: Let them go.
Drummond: (on the phone) London, yes.
Phyllis: I want them to get off.
Drummond: (on the phone) Is this London?
Phyllis: I think she loves him.
Drummond: (on the phone) Waiting for Scotland Yard, yes.
Phyllis: Women do love men.
Drummond: (replying to Phyllis) An old Spanish custom… (on the phone) Hello? Yes, give me detective headquarters, yes. Waiting, waiting.
Phyllis: I love you.
The opening credits indicate that this film was “Based on the international stage success by “Sapper””. This refers to the British author Herman Cyril McNeile (1888-1937), who, under the pen name of Sapper, wrote the Bulldog Drummond novels.
The stage play Bulldog Drummond was adapted from the 1920 novel of the same name by its author, H. C. McNeile, and by the British actor and theatre manager Gerald du Maurier (1873-1934). That play premiered at Wyndham’s Theatre, London, on Tuesday 29th March 1921. None of the reviews of that play mentions the phrase old Spanish custom.
I have looked in vain for any occurrence of old Spanish custom in H. C. McNeile’s works. In particular, this phrase does not occur in Bulldog Drummond (London: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, 1920), the first of the Bulldog Drummond novels. And, unfortunately, I have not found the text of the 1921 stage play adapted from that novel.
word histories 