the dismals
»I used to get the fair dismals watching it.» (T. T. T. 129. 21.)
A waiter.
= to feel wretched, dejected.
The phrase is doubly vulgar: »fair» to express »complete», as in »a fair (regular) swindle», »a fair old brute», »a fair knock out» (a fair fight); »dismals»—adjective turned into a plural noun to express a state of mind.
Cf. rheumatics (rheumatism); to have (to get) the blues = to feel melancholy.