Donkey

“tuppence more and up goes the DONKEY ,” a vulgar street phrase for extracting as much money as po ible before performing any task. The phrase had its origin with a travelling showman, the finale of whose performance was the hoisting of a DONKEY on a pole or ladder; but this consummation was never arrived at unle the required amount was first paid up, and “tuppence more” was generally the sum demanded. Donkey , in printers’ slang, means a compositor. In the days before steam machinery was invented, the men who worked at pre —the pre men—were so dirty and drunken a body that they earned the name of pigs. In revenge, and for no reason that can be discovered, they christened the compositors DONKEYS .