Coolie

a soldier, in allusion to the Hindoo COOLIES , or day labourers. Coon , abbreviation of racoon.— American. A GONE COON — ditto , one in an awful fix, past praying for. This expre ion is said to have originated in the first American war with a spy, who dre ed himself in a racoon skin, and ensconced himself in a tree. An English rifleman taking him for a veritable coon, levelled his piece at him, upon which he exclaimed, “Don’t shoot, I’ll come down of myself, I know I’m a GONE COON .” The Yankees say the Brit is her was so “flummuxed,” that he flung down his rifle and “made tracks” for home. The phrase is pretty general in England. [There is one difficulty about this story—How big was the man who dre ed himself in a racoon skin?]