The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1888-04-07
THEIR ORIGIN.
The Derivation Of Some Familiar
Expressions.
"Uncle Sam" yankee Doodle"
and Other Terms.

Every cottage, thanks to America,
possesses its clock. and, thanks to
Waterbury, almost every pocket its
watch, But why are the dials divided
into twelve divisions of five minutes
cache Hear Mr.. S. Grant Oliphant:
"We have sixty divisions on the dials
of our clocks and watches because the
old Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who
lived in the second century before
Christ, accepted the Babylonian system
of rec koning timc-that system being
sexagesimal. The Babylonians were
acquainted with the decimal system,
but for common or practical purposes
they counted by sossi aad saw, the
sossos representing sixty and the saros
sixty times six-3, 600. From Hipparc.
hus that mode of reckoning found its
way into the works of Ptolemy about
$50 A. D., and hence was carried down
the stream of science and civilization,
aid found its way to the dial plates of
our clocks and watches"
We use Uncle Sam as facetious name
for the United States. Mr. S. Grant
Oliphant explains its origin thus:
"'Uncle Sam Wilson was the govern
ment inspector of supplies at Troy in
the war of 1912. Those edibles of which
he approved wero labeled U. S., then
new sign for United States; the work.
men supposed that these letters were
the initials of Uncle SAM and the mis-
take became joke and a lasting one.
So Brother Jonathan had a simple
origin: Washington thought very high
ly of the judgment of Jonathan Trum-
bull the elder, then governor of Con-
necticut, and constantly remarked, we
must consult Brother Jonathan The
name soon became regarded as
national sobriquet. Mr.. Southwick, in
'Quizzism,' gives some curious informa-
ton about the term Yankee, of course We
all know that it is the word English as
pronoun ced by tho American Indians, but
we do not all know that in curious
book on the Round Towers of Ireland
the origin of the term Yankee doodle
was traced to the Persian phrase Yanki-
dooniah, or inhabitants of tho new
world. Layard, in hi,-book on Nine
yah and its Remains also mentions
Yanghid I'm la as the Persian name of
America" The song, Yankee Doodle,
Mr.. Southwick tells u, is as old as
Cromwell's time; it was the protector
himself who Stuck feather in his hat
when going to Oxford the bunch of rib
bons which held the feather was
macaroni. We know that macaroni was
cant term for a dandy, that feathers
were worn in the hats of royalists, an
that Oxford was town of the highest
Importance during the civil war. do
not quite see how Round Towers, the
Persian language, and Old Noll come to
be SO intimately connected, even though,
as Mr. Southwick tells, the song was at
first known as Nankee Doodle.
America must not as some of her sons
have done, imagine that the dollar mark
60 stands for U. S., the S. being writ
ten upon the u For both the dollar
and the sign for it were in use long be-
fore there were any United States.
Both Mr.. Southwick and Mr.. Oliphant
gave the very probable origin indicated
by the design OH the reverse of the
Spanish dollar-the Pillars of Hercules
with a scroll round each pillar, the
scroll perhaps representing the serpents
which Hercules strangled while yet he
was child in his cradle. There is also
another theory that the dollar mark is
form of the figure S, because in old
times the dollar was piccc of eight
reals. The expression almighty dol
lar" was first used by Washington Irv-
ing in his sketch of "Creole Village"
1887.
In all countries there is large litera-
ture clustering around the name, his
tory, character and qualities of his
Satanic Majesty, the Prince of Darkness.
One of his synonyms is Old Harry,
which Mr.. Oliphant says, may be a
corruption of the Scandinavian Harl,
oDo Of tbo nop,oo IF n lin or another
form Of Old Hairy. Old Nick is derived
from the river god Nick or Neck,
though Butler, the author of "Hudi-
bras" says it comes from Niccolo
Machiavelli. And OIL Scratch must be
taken to he derived from Scrat,
''house or wooden demon of the ancient
North. " [Cornhill.