The managers of the Blaine boom claimed, however, to have made great progress. But it was generally observed that no conversions were the apparent result of this exchange of heated opinions, and that the Blaine men got it as hot as they gave it to the supporters of Arthur. In point of noisy enthusiasm the Blaine men seemed to have decidedly the best of it. Shearer keep tab for the excursionists and pour out salvation at every stopping point?"įrom " The Convention: Who Will Be the Helmsman of the Republican Ship of State Still Undecided," in The Times (June 6, 1884): "You understand the male excursionists are not all ministers, but taking advantage of the low rates people came from all sections of the state, and altogether there are about one hundred and fifty people on this train." "Not by considerable," replied the scribe's newly found friend. "You don't mean to say that all these happy go lucky looking gentlemen sauntering about the platform are ecclesiastical dudes, do you?" queried the reporter. Nothing like keeping tab and laying for sleepers.įrom " Coast to Coast: Were the Excursionists from California Passing Through Las Vegas Yesterday" in the Las Vegas Daily Gazette (May 10, 1884): Boffa and his orchestra "has been postponed to Wednesday, April 2," the date fixed upon. The evening paper states that the concert to be given by Prof. But you mark my words, this and other dispensations he contemplates introducing under the name of reform, will fall by their own weight."įrom " The City," in the Las Vegas Daily Gazette (March 27, 1884): "Not keeping tabs for the games I can't say. "Are there any other games going on tonight?" In this early phase of its use, the idiom seems to have more frequently involved the singular tab and the preposition of or for than the plural tabs and the preposition on.įrom " The New Broom," in the St. The earliest instances of "keep tab" in the Library of Congress's newspaper database are from the period 1883–1885. So "keep tabs on" originally meant simply "keep accounts of."Įarly newspaper occurrences of 'keep tab' This expression uses tab in the sense of "an account." Keep tabs on Observe carefully, keep record of. Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms (1997) has this: