Farmer’s Slang & Its Analogues. 1890–1909, rev. 2022.
Public-patterer
subs. phr. (obsolete).—See quot.
1
1866. HOTTEN, The Slang Dictionary, s.v. PUBLIC PATTERERS, swell mobsmen who pretend to be Dissenting preachers, and harangue in the open air to attract a crowd for their confederates to rob.
