" BROTHER STOCKDOLLOGER."
1To nis Burros or me "Sexcratoi."1 Sin,—The story which appeared in Household Words, to which a correspondent referred in the Spectator of the 18th inst., was entitled "The Conversion of Colonel Quagg," and it was written, not by Charles Erode, but by G. A. Sala. It will be found, with the "Grace-Walking Brethren " and all the other details recalled by your correspondent, in a little volume of Salt's reprinted pieces entitled Papers Humorous and Pothelk, issued by Tinsley Brothers in 1872. But the name of the hero is Brother Zephaniah Sockdolloger, not " Stockdolloger." and that is certainly the correct spelling of the phrase in which you are interested. I suggest that it is a rustic American variant of " doxology " formed by the transposition of the letters "d " and " s " in " dock-sology." Such variants are analogous to the " back-slang " which is still used in Loudon by cm.ters, market-porters, and others, and Sala no doubt
adopted it for his story.-1 am, Sir, lc., R. S. P.
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