I'm good for half a score o' them leetle Minikin Mexikins, an' I reck'n you, Frank, kin wipe out as many.
"The Lone Ranche"
Captain Mayne Reid
This day, Mr. Caesar told me a pretty experiment of his, of angling with a Minikin, a gut-string varnished over, which keeps it from swelling, and is beyond any hair for strength and smallness.
"Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Transcribed From The Shorthand Manuscript In The Pepysian Library Magdalene College Cambridge By The Rev. Mynors Bright"
Samuel Pepys Commentator: Lord Braybrooke
She enters the parlour appropriated for the meeting, and finds seven other ladies, very like herself, and takes her place among them; she presents her contribution, which is accepted with a gentle circular smile, and her parings of broad cloth, her ends of ribbon, her gilt paper, and her Minikin pins, are added to the parings of broad cloth, the ends of ribbon, the gilt papers, and the Minikin pins with which the table is already covered; she also produces from her basket three ready-made pincushions, four ink-wipers, seven paper matches, and a paste-board watch-case; these are welcomed with acclamations, and the youngest lady present deposits them carefully on shelves, amid a prodigious quantity of similar articles.
"Domestic Manners of the Americans"
Fanny Trollope