The hot dog
In its home country of Germany, the hot dog was called the Frankfurter. It was named after Frankfurt, a German city.
Frankfurters were first sold in the united states in the 1869s. Americans called Frankfurters ” dachshund sausages”. A dachshund is a dog from germany with a very long body and short legs. ” dachshund sausage” seemed like a good name for the frankfurter.
Dachshund sausages first became popular in new york, especially at baseball games. At games they were sold by men who kept them warm in hot-water tanks. As the men walked up and down the rows of people, they yelled, ” get your dachshund sausages! Get your hot dachshund sausages!” people got the sausages on buns, a special bread.
One day in 1906 a newspaper cartoonist named tad Dorgan went to a baseball game. When he saw the men with the dachshund sausages, hi got an idea for a cartoon. The next day at the newspaper office he drew a bun with a dachshund inside-not a dachshund sausage, but a dachshund. Dorgan didn’t know how to spell dachshund. Under the cartoon, he wrote ” get your hot dogs!”
The cartoon was a sensation, and so was the new name. if you go to a baseball game today, you still see sellers walking around with hot-water tanks. As they walk up and the rows they yell, ” get your hot dogs here! Get your hot dogs!”
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