the panel game

i was called a smart alec on two separate occasions today and thus went immediately to wikipædia to see if the alec in question was of the baldwin or guinness variety. it turns out that it was neither and i was instead treated to this (possibly-apocryphal-but-who-really-cares) vignette of the colourful person behind the name »

According to Gerald Leonard Cohen, the phrase “smart alec” arose from the exploits of Alec Hoag. A celebrated pimp, thief, and confidence man operating in New York City in the 1840s, Hoag, along with his wife Melinda and an accomplice known as “French Jack”, operated a con called the “panel game”, a method by which prostitutes and their pimps robbed customers.

In the panel game, “Melinda would make her victim lay his clothes, as he took them off, upon a chair at the head of the bed near the secret panel, and then take him to her arms and closely draw the curtains of the bed. As soon as everything was right and the dupe not likely to heed outside noises, the traitress would give a cough, and the faithful Aleck (sic) would slily (sic) enter, rifle the pockets of every farthing or valuable thing, and finally disappear as mysteriously as he entered.” The victim was then persuaded to leave in a hurry through a window by Alec banging on the door, pretending to be an aggrieved husband who had suddenly returned from a trip away.

Professor Cohen suggests that Alex Hoag was given the sobriquet of “smart Alec” by the police for being a resourceful thief who outsmarted himself by trying to avoid paying graft.