who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «If the poolrooms were to shut up tomorrow, we have enough material already in hand to keep us busy for months. That could not stop us. We are going to smoke them out for who laid the rail.» —“Policy Is Announced” Dallas Morning News (Texas) Aug. 10, 1906. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Grace in Abilene, Texas, says her grandmother, who was of German descent, would tell children to stop sulking or pouting with a word that sounded to Grace like “mooksie.” Her grandmother was probably using a form of the German dialectal terms...
We use the term Milky Way for that glowing arc across the sky. But how people picture it varies from culture to culture. In Sweden, that starry band goes by a name that means “Winter Street,” and in Hawaii, a term for the Milky Way...