who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «It is safe to bet that the friends of the whisky ring are willing to see the tariff ripped up from “who laid the rail.”» —Atlanta Constitution (Georgia) Feb. 17, 1884. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Megan from Savannah, Georgia, is curious about a phrase her father used: down cellar behind the axe, a phrase whose meaning she never quite understood. Down cellar, meaning “down in the cellar,” is common in New England and the Canadian Maritimes...
A Navy veteran recalls hearing the Southern expression fat lighter from his wife’s family in Troy, Alabama. It denotes an old, resin-rich pine wood that becomes highly flammable as it ages. Fat lighter is prized as kindling and often called fat...