Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-04-14

Alden'e new mOntnly eclecuc, sue'o " ~
article taken from the CornhfU Magazine,
which IL full OF curious out OF the way In
for nation. 1t is entitled "oursmail lenor-
sncer, aud shows how many phrases, ex.
pre.sions and references psss current In
literature aud conversation Ct which he who
uses them, aud they " no resd OF hear them.
are alike tgnoIsnt
How many OF my readers, for instance,
who almost daily talk or read sbou. Uncle
Sam and Brother Jonathan, know the orr
gin OF those termsY And how many would
know Just whore n 90 to find out E! In this
article fiDd II given thus: Uncle sam
Wilson was the government inspector oil
supplies ct Troy In the war Of 1912 Those
edibies OF which he approved were labelled
U. T., then new sign for United States
the workmen supposed that these letters
were tue initials Of Uncle SAM snd the
mistake became joke aud . lasting one.
: Brother Jonsthsn had . simple origin
Washington thought very highly Of the
Judgment OF Jonathsn TrumbulI, the elder,
then governor OF Come c,icut, and con-
stantly remarked, We must consul.
Brother Jonathan The name soon be-
came regarded as national, sobrique'."
Did you know that "Yankee b odle"
Was an anclent classical name originally
We are told that "ln q curious book on the
Round Towers OF Ireland the term Yankee
Doodle was traced to the Persian phrase
Yanki doom lab, or 'lnbabitsnts ofths Kew
WDrid.' Lsyard, Ia his book on Nineveh
and It's remains, also mentions YaDgbiduD'a
m the Persian name Il AmerIcs The song
Yankee Doodle II Rs old ss CTomwblps
time; II was tho Protector himself stuck
feather In his hat when going to Oxford;
the bunch OF ribbOus which held the
feather was called macCstonL We know
that maccsrOni WAS q cant term fer DANDY,
that feathers we're worn In tue hat OF
Royalists, and that Oxford was q town OF
the highest importance during tie civil
war" But continues tho writer al do not
quite nee how round towers, tho Persian
Language, and Old Eoll came to be go
intimStsly connected, even though the
song was at brst known ss Yankee
Noodle"
Il was news to me, snd psrhaps VIII be
to you also, to learn tha. the division OF our
dials on watches and clocks inio twelve
divisions OF Ave seconds each, dates far
back TO tho ancient Baby ionians. Yet that
seems to be tho cess. eve have sixty d.
vislonp," We ere told, "because the old
Greek astronomer, HipPsrchus, who lived
In the second century before Christ, &C
csptsd the Baby lonisn system O' reckoning
ume-thst system being ssnsgesimal The
Baby lonians were acquainted with the dec.
imal ~ stem, but for common or practical
purpCs ses they counted hy sossi aud ssri,
the sossos repro seDting 90, and Tn. saros 60
times 6-3 600. From Hipparohus that
mone OF reck onipg found its way into the
works OF Ptolemy about $50 A. - and
Tai a ltF Nf
science and civilization, Al q found its way
to the CiAl plates OF our CLOCKS aud watches"
/ have heard the origin Of the name
"PSinter's Devil" explained In many dif-
fsrent wayr, but mono OF thom bad the
marks Of authenticity that the following
bear "Aldus Msnutius GAO 1870, the
celebrated Venetian printer and publisher,
had small black slave whom the super.
stitious believed to be an ON. sary OF Satan.
To satisfy the curious, one day he said pub
licly In church, u, Aldus Manntius, prin-
ter to the Holy Church, have this day made
who think ho Is not aesh and blood, come
and pinch him. Hence Ia Venice arose the
somewhat curious sobr'quet Printers
Devil"
"li Venice saw the first printers devil,
II also saw the hrst modern newspaper,
which was published In that city q gsz-
etts,' small coin worth one farthipR, WAS
paid for the privilege OF reading II. The
name OF this sbcestor OF Journals was the
Notisie Scrite, and 1t appeared about 1880
The Gazette de ~ dnce came into being In
1884, but had a iorsrunner, thB Mercuro
Francuts the London Grzefte dates from
1856, and followed on the Pabt,c Inteiiigen
Ger. The Acta Diurnu, OF Rome, were
first published about tho ysar II g. 623.
They we're hung up In some public place,
| aud must have pten rslIying points for the
quid nuncs OF the city. They contained
Inc political speeches Of the day, the law
reports, police news, lists Of births, mar
rioges, divorces and funerals, aud adver
tisements OF the public games. Private
persons made copies Of these Ieta n send
TO their friends In the country. We car
hardly call such q news sheet by the
name OF newspaper, but there IL in exis-
tence weekly Journal OF u great antiquity.
1t Is said to have fret aopea, ei in A. ID. Oil,
and Is called the KING Pau, or chiei-
sheet, and is published at Pekin. In its
early days II was irregular In the dates OF
publication, but in 1881 became bebd omR-
daI, and In 1882 assumed q new shape.
Three editions are published In the day
containing Imatter OF different kinds, and
are called respectively the Business the
combined circulation amounts to sbou,
fourteen thousand. NJ. Rczan, In one Of
his sly notes, quotes Eugene Hsttins
opinion that 'gsZeite' as the nam OF news
paper Is derived from Hszzs, q msgPie"
Every body Is afraid OF Mrs. Gruudy
But who knows where she comes from
| She really Is not worth being afraid OF MOI
dsseIv wing Of any respect or notice for she
is nothing but q light comedy character
| fret brought nn tho stage In an old Englist
play OF Thomas Morton called "Speed the
Piow." In the rat scene Of this play Mrs
Ashiied shows herself very jealous o
| neighbor Grnndy, and Farmer Ash btielc
| says to her A" Be quiet, woolyeY Alway.
ding dinRipg Dame GIundy into my ears
what will Mrs Grundy z.yH What viii
Mrs. Grundy think ?" Anybody of suct
| low origin, II seems to me, ought to b,
| simply ignored, or treated with contempt
Why. MIA Grundy 10 nobody
I" The real Simon Pure" has scarcely ,
| more respectable origin. He springs from
| q low comedian, too, and was first brought
| before the public In MTs CsntIivrs's play
"a Bold Stroke tor . WIFE" in which Mr.
Simon Pure, 6 Pennsylvania Quaker, /,
the here.
| To eat filopens 10 an amusement young
folks still indulge in. l have heard It,
origin variously explained, but never as ia
this article. 1t seems in England auC
France you "catch " the person with whom
you have eaten by saying, b IN jour, Phiiip
| pine Now we are told that Is moth ing bu
| peIversion OF the German greeting Guten
MorRer, Visllisbonsn This RTadually 3
was turned into Guten Morgen, Philippchsn
| which the Frsn Oh turned in O Bon IouT, Pb bill
| ippine For my part this seems y less salts
i a q n ci 1