The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-09-08
''BUNkUM."
American Origin and Specification Of
the Word.

American Origin and SignihcaCiOn OF
the Word.
The meaning of this word, or at
least the impression conveyed by the
word, has slowly altered, in this
country at least, within the last forty
years, says the London Review. 1t
originally meant according to all
American dictionaries, talking for
talking's sake, or talking to one
audience for the benefit of another.
A congressional member for q dis
trict Of North Carolina named Bun
combe insisted on delivering speech
to an impatient house of representa-
tives, and when taxed with his con-
duct defended himself by declaring
that he was compelled to make
speech which his constituents could
read and that in fact he was ''talk-
ing to Buncombe." This is certainly
the sense in which Judge Halliburton,
the author of ''Sam Slick" used the
expressions; and our recollection is
that in 1840-5O it was so. employed
within quotation marks in criticising
parliamentary speeches. The Ameri-
cans, who catch any much-needed
phrase of the kind with extraordinary
quickness, speedily degraded "Bun-
cOmbe'' into ''Bunkum, and the vul-
gar spelling was slowly adopted in
England, but with significant change
of meaning. The word being Ameri
can, and all American oratory uttered
for effect having one peculiar note
in it, "bunkum" came to signify
speech uttered solely through it's
tone OF patriotic exaggeration. The
man who talks bunkum is not talk
ing vague nonsense or stuff intended
to occupy time, but is uttering ''high-
falutln" lattery either of the people
or of the country, or of the future
which is before either. Nobody
would say, for example, that when
the late Mr.. Biggar was reading ex-
cerpts from blue books he was talk
ing bunkum. though if he did he
would be close to the original mean
ing; while everybody would say that
bunkum was the great defect of Mr..
Sections often very eloquent oratory.
The thing, in it's modern sense, is
almost exclusively American, Irish
or French, and differentiates oratory
delivered for either of those people
from oratory delivered for English
men, in a nearly inexplicable way.
Why do we English not bunk"
when our kinfolk and our rivals do?
Some years ago, while discussing
oratory, we endeavOred to explain
the habit as resulting from the alb
sence of the pride begotten of great
history; and if it were confined to
the Americans and the Irish, we
should still consider that explanation
sufficient A people unsupported by
history sustains its pride by self
praise. and in particular by magni-
ficent disquisitions upon the glorious
future which, it is satisfactory to as
sumo, lies open before it. American
history is too short for pride except
when the pride takes the form of
statistics - which, no doubt, are
startling In America, and are there
fore quoted with frequency and
pleasure while Irish history, is to
Irish minds, an endless narrative of
failure, oppression and continuous
but baff1ed aspirations. The proud
GOODNESS of the Englishman, on the
other hand, which induces him to re-
gard self praise as vulgar, and the
uttering of grand aspirations as, at
best, weakly rhetorical form of ap-
peal to sentiment, is based on his
tory of a thousand years, which he
regards, in part erroneously,, in part
accurately, as a narrative of nearly
unbroken success. Gle has done
great things, he lost America; he has
never either conquered or conciliated
Ireland, and he is far from perfectly
cOntented with his own civilization
No Snakes in Newfoundland.
Everybody knows that there are
ho3 snakes in Ireland, but very few
know that Newfoundland is just like
Ireland in that respect-and there is
no record that Newfoundland had
st. Patrick to drive the snakes off,
either. There is plenty of game in
Newfoundland. but not reptile of
any kind-snake, toad, frog lizard, or
even turtle. Another queer thing
about the province is that, while
some wild animals are abundant
there, no one ever saw squirrel,
porcupine, mouse or lynx anywhere
within it's boundaries. This is all tho
more singular because the adjoining
provinces of Nova Scotia and Cape
Breton have all these animals and
manv kinds Of snakes and other ron.
Mustaches Among Women.
A learned German scientist makes
the astonishing announcement that
among women mustaches are COM
moner in the present day than they