Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett

I first heard Personville called "Poisonville" by a red-haired mucker named Hickey Dewey in the Big Ship in Butte. He also called his shirt a "shoit. " I didn't think anything of what he had done to the city's name. Later I heard men who could manage their r's give it the same pronunciation. I still didn't see anything in it but the meaningless sort of humor that used to make "richardsnary" the thieves' word for "dictionary. " A few years later I went to Personville and learned better.

Using one of the phones in the station, I called the Herald, asked for Donald Willsson, and told him I had arrived.