a Derogatory term for Irish people.
c Fellows, chaps; from the British slang word “bloke.”
e Hit or beat up; short for “lambaste.”
f Time of unemployment or being “in the red”; probably Crane’s invention.
h Person of no consequence.
k Rube; person with no experience of city life.
l Derogatory term for someone of Mediterranean descent; from the Spanish name Diego.
m Heavy cotton or linen fabric, usually brightly colored or patterned.
n Ornamental drape for a mantle.
o Very small, rose-shaped drinking glass, typically holding one ounce of liquid.
p Open gas flames used for lighting.
q Poem meant to be sung, not recited.
r Fool or dolt; victim of a trickster.
s Kid- or dove-skin gloves favored by upper-class women of the era.
t Traditional sign of a pawnbroker’s shop.
v Museum security guards.
w Traitor or sneak; from the name Judas.
x An insult; the derivation is unclear.
y To get drunk and maudlin, or drunk and belligerent.
z A dandy and a ladies’ man.
ab Short and stumpy; squashed.
ac Slang for money, bank notes.
ad Having the qualities of a lion.
ae Heavy piece of machinery used for stamping out coins.
af Frothy dessert consisting of custard and sponge cake.
ah Nomadic people indigenous to southwestern Africa, particularly the Kalahari Desert.
ai Smooth yarn spun from wool, similar to silk but not as fine.
aj The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, the most prominent prohibition league at the time.
ak Short for “chromolithograph”; cheap colored pictures, distributed free of charge by newspapers and churches, that usually depict patriotic or religious themes.
al Pillars supporting a banister rail on a staircase.
am Old-fashioned name for a harmonica.
an Term for a prizefight or wild brawl; from “windmill.”
ao Potent cocktail made from a mixture of bourbon whiskey and sweet vermouth.
ap The term “guy” rendered in Irish dialect; it means to mock or make fun of someone.
aq A cocky, arrogant, violent sword-for-hire of the Italian Renaissance.
ar Platform that supports a coffin during a funeral while the deceased is lying in state.
as Metal chisel used for making holes (bungs) in barrels of beer.
av Brooklyn Bridge
†Street in lower Manhattan located at the foot of City Hall Park.
‡Confluence of several major thoroughfares in lower Manhattan; today Chatham Square is the heart of Chinatown.
ax Small park at Fifth Avenue and East Twenty-third Street in Manhattan; the original home of Madison Square Garden.
ay Neighborhood in northern Manhattan; in Crane’s day Harlem was a middle-class neighborhood.
az Picturesque chain of rocky hills stretching from central New Jersey into New York State.
ba Spit of land on the Atlantic shore of Brooklyn, famed for its amusement parks and honky-tonks.
bb Low hills on the New Jersey side of Lower New York Bay.
bc Inexpensive form of photography; the picture is printed on a thin sheet of tin instead of paper.
bf Large island located between Upper New York Bay and New Jersey.
bg Entrance to Upper New York Bay; the Narrows are just north of Coney Island.
bi Ferryboat linking Bay Ridge, in Brooklyn, with Manhattan.
bj Ferryboats that carried passengers between Brooklyn and Manhattan even after the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.
bk Long, sharpened shaft used for holding opium over an open flame prior to smoking it.
bl Street in lower Manhattan; in Crane’s day it was where the headquarters of the New York City Police Department was located.
bm Slang for a beer truck.
bn Name of a notoriously bloodthirsty gang in nineteenth-century New York.
bo Nickname for the Manhattan House of Detention; the original structure was said to resemble an Egyptian tomb.
bp Neighborhood policemen under the control of the local politico known as the “ward boss.”