The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1872-06-19
| IrOm ChamDer' 5 jon
TtiLORS.

Who first said that nine tailors
make man? And when did he say
it? And why is this kind Of plurali-
tv more needed with tailors than with
any other handcraftsmen? lnycsti-
gators of the origin of old saying, odd
proverbs, slang phrases, ,nicknameS, and
queer words, have not left this partic
ular subject umoticed; and, if they
have failed in furnishing decisive an
swers to the above four questions,
they have, at any rate, accumulated
abundant testimony showing the wide
spread familiarity with this joke
The modes of applying it, by wits,
retailers of wit, and inventors ofjokcs,
are almost endless. A gentleman ac-
cepted a challenge from tailor: they
met on the field of fight, when the
gentleman said to the challenger,
"Wherc are the other eight ?" In the
days when the trained or train bands
were among the Institutions of Lon
don, tailor, rated to supply half
man to the band, asked how this could
be done: he answered, by sending
four journeymen and an apprentice"
Orator Henley, who was not partic
ular concerning the source ofhis jokes,
provided he could make smart hit
with them, once said, as mo man puts
new cloth upon an old garment" a
tailor cannot be a man. Carlyle, In
his "Sartar Resartus," SAYS, Does II
not stand on record that Queen~Eliza-
beth, on receiving a deputatiOn Of
eighteen tailors, address them with a
Good morning gentlemen. both!"
And did not the same vertigo boast
that she had "a cavalry regiment
whereof neither horse nor man could
be injured; her regiment, namely, of
tailors on mares ?" This story of the
cavalry regiment was told in the fol-
lowing form in the Chester COurGat,
a great many years ago; In the
reign Of Queen Elizabeth, the tailors
petitioncd her Majesty that regiment
might be raised, composed entirely of
their craft, to go abroad into Flanders.
The Queen assented. She ordered
that (as there never was known to be
regiment of tailors before) they
should all be mounted on mares. In
a short time the regiment was COM
pleted, equipped and drilled, review
ed by Elizabeth, and sent off to fight
the Queens wars in Flanders. They
rushed to the front in battle, fought
valiantv, and were every one killed.
Her Majesty was greatly affected
when she heard this news; but thank
ed God that she had neither man or
horse" A search for such an Incl
dent in .Froude or Miss Strickland
would probably not be rewarded with
success.
Nor is this curious joke (whatever
its origin) confined to England. 1t
is met within many foreign countries,
varied with another num-
ber instead of nine. The Count de la
Villumarge, in his COLLECTION of Bre-
ton Ballads, T" tells US that to this day
the peasents of Brittany have afamil-
lar saving, 'vu'il faut ncuf tailcurs
pour faire un homme, precisely our
formula which seems to be accepted
in all the four divisions of the United .
Kingdom. In Hanover, it seems, it
requires t,celce tailors to make "A man;
and IN some parts of Germany the
is thirteen. In Silesia,
through some unexplained peculiari-
ty, the twelve fractions required to
make a man are said TO be button-
makers (Knopfmacher), instead Of
tailors.
Now, what are we TO think Of all
thisg 1t must have had some origin.
No saying or proverb, story or joke,
traceable into several countries, ex-
pressed in various languages, and
kept alive for some centuries, could
have sprung into existence without a
and We are left TO speculate
whether the cause, whatever itmav