The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1888-06-28

true the Germans have fairy tale, The Brave
Little Tailor" but it is only pleasant little
mock heroic,-the bravery of the tailor is mere
trckery and bravado. We have seen that the
British apollo reiterated the charge of coward
ice, and it made the following explanation:
''Tis the opinion of our curious virtuosos that
their want of courage arises from their I'M
moderate eating of cucumbers, which too much
refrigerates their blood" So the French were
reputed by the English to be their interiors IN
courage, because they were fond Of Said. Car
lyle mentions tailor's melancholy which, he
says, we introduce into our books of medi-
cne and fable / know not what OF his genera
ting it by living on cabbage" He evidently
refers to Lambs essay on the " Melancholy OF
Tailors." Lamb ascribes this melancholy, first,
to the tailOr's sedentary habits; and, second, to
his diet. In Burton's Anatomy of Melan-
chOly," he finds that cabbage is of all " herbs
to be eaten" the one that is especially dlsal-
lowed as sending up black vapors to the brain.
" / could not" says Lamb, omit so hatterlng
a testimony from an author who, having no
theory Of his own to serve, has so unconsclously
contributed to the confirmation of mine. 1t is
well known that this last-named vegetable has,
from the earliest periods which we can dis
cover, constituted almost the sole food OF this
extraordinary race Of people"
Now, what does Lamb mean by this state
ment? It is simply a punning allusion to
alleged sartorial dishonesty. In former time
the tailor went to the houses of his customers
and made garments out of cloth they had pur-
chased, the waste and cuttings being his recog-
nized perguisites. Or he worked In his own
shop still upon materials furnished him at the
same terms. But he was constantly accused Of
| appropriating other portions of the CLOTH an
Otfense which came to be known as cabbaging
(pOssbly from the French cabdSser, to put in a
cGbaS j. e.. to bag to steal). Readers of Don
QuixOte" will remember, among other in
stances of shreWdness shown by Sancho during
| his Governorship of BarrataTia, how tailor
was brought before him by customer, who
! sWore he had given the tailor cloth enough for
! six good-sized caps, and how the rascal had
sent him caps that hardly fitted the tips of his
| fingers how the tailor swore that he had used
| up all the material vouchsafed him, and how
! Sancho finally decreed that the customer should
! keep the caps and the tailor have nothing for
| his labor. So prevalent was the impression of
| the value of the tailor's cabbage" that Mas
/ singer says:
Were one OF ye, knights OF the needle
Paid by the ninth part OF his customers,
Once ia nine years, the ninth OF his bill,
He would be nine times overpad
! A wicked English proverb is, Put tailor, q
weaver and miller into a sack, and the first
| that puts his head out is thief"
STORIES and icsts about tailors abound in the
| facetie of every country. One of the most
! famous puns of classical antiquity was Cicero's
! remark to a SENATOR who was tailor's son
Rem acu tetegisti" j. e., " You have touched
| the subject acutely," or with a needle
| Daniel 0Connor was once addressing a meet
| ing, when the audience protested against the
/ conduct of one among them who persisted in
standing. pray, let the gentleman have his
way" cried OConnor, he's tailor, and wants
! to rest himself"-a remark which brought
! down the house and the obnoxious individual
! A companion story is found in DesbOis Re
cueil des Bon Mots" A rich tailor, who had
occupied comfortable seat in a church, was
! asked by lady to make room for her HC
discourteousy refused, and the lady remarked
:" forgot; you have been used TO take up ;
good deal of room in sitting"
But the habit of jesting at particular trades
is now happily going out of fashion with the
advent of better manners In society, Of kind
lier feelings towards all honest laborers, anC
| with the increase Of self-respect, education
and refinement among the tradesmen them
selves. There have never, indeed, been want
| ing tailors of the highest mplishment anC
distinction: John Speed the Cheshire histo
rian and antiquary; John Stow, the famous
| tOpographer of London Sir John Hardwood
who was knighted for his bravery, " turning
his needle into sword and his thimble int
a shield" as Fuller put it; Benjamin Robins
compiler of the narrative of Lord Anson's voy
! ages; Henry Wild, the learned tailor Of Nor
| Wlch VINO was employed IN the Bodlelal
library, and published q translation from th
Arabic of "Al-M Meara; or, Mahomet's Journe.
to Heaven" Francis Peace, the political econo
MIST Beranger the famous French poet VIII
has celebrated his own birth in a tailors stor.
in his charming little poem, The Tailor AM
the Fairy" and lastly, not to swell the list be
yond the limits of this article, Andrew John
son, who, when he was waited on at the Whit
House in 1868 by a deputation from the Tailors
Union, declared TO them that the most pleas
ant hours of his life were those he had spen
IN his tailor shop"