The Portland daily press., 1896-01-25

it, !" and that thus the void was born.
The words "Jingo" and "Jingoism,"
just now at the end Of every body's
| tongue and pen, are also of disputed deri-
vation. We all know abeut the English
music hall song which set the word going
with new meaning in 1877, but the
original coinage of the terma'' By JingoH
is quite doubtful. In the Basque Ian
guage the word Jingo means God. and
it is widely believed that "By JingoP'
was form of oath with which the
Basque sailors familiarized the English
sailors and through them, all English
speaking people. But others believe the
word is a corruption Of st. Gingoulph. It
| Is one of the oddities of popular word
making that the term "Jingoism" as
now used, is complete trayesty of the
sentiment Of the song from which it was
| taken A Jingo, either in England or
America. is now set down as a man
spoiling for fight eager for war at any
cost. But the original music hall song,
with the JinRo chorus, expressed exactly
| the opposite sentiments desire for
peace. 1t began with "We don't want to
| struck in the declaration that if they had
| TO do what they would rather not they
| had plenty of men, ships and money.
"John Bull" the mythical parsonage
supposed to represent the English people,
and now figuring largely in our ed itorial
writing and in cartoons, was the fnven-
tion OF DIR. Arbuthnot, in one of his sa-
| tirical sketches ridiouling the great Duke
of Marlborough. In the opinion Of DR..
Johnson Arbuthnot was "the first man
among the eminent writers In Queen
Anne's time" He drew John Bull as the
typical English stout, red-faoed
old farmer, far too corpulent for comfort,
| cholerlo, but withal an honest and we'll
| meaning fellow. He clothed him in
| leather breeches and top boots, put q
stout oaken cudgel in his hand and q
bulldog at his heels, and SO set him up
| for all time to serve as the representative
Englishman. He may have been not SO
bad a onricature in the DAYS Of Queen
Anne. But today ceratinly there Is
much force in Leslie Stephens's remark
that che completely hides the English
man of real life" The average English
man of 1895 is physically no stouter than,
probably not SO stout as. the average
American, and the stout oudgel and the
bulldog are no longer apt symbols of the
modern Britisher's disposition. He has
lost the excessive pugnacity of his fore
fathers, and, as we have lately seen, is
above all anxious to keep the peace with
his Uncle Samuel.
| Speaking OF "Uncls Sam" and "Broth-
! er Jonathan. whose names are being free
ly used, too, in the passing International
| furry, there is no doubt about their ori-
gin. When George Washington went in
| to Massachusetts, to take command of the
| Revolutionary army he found great
lack of ammunition and other supplies.
| He turned for aid to Gov. Jonathan
| Trunbull of Connecticut, and got it, and
| in many emergencies of that period he
used the phrase, "We must consult
Brother Jonathan on the subject" The
expression became nationally current,
and it stands as the American parallel to
"John Bull" "Uncle SAM was not in
vented until the war Of 1912. Two in.
spectors of war supplies at Troy, n. Y,
were named Ehenezer and Samuel Will
son. A workman in their employ was
marking lot of casks received from one
Elbert Anderson, New York contractor,
and which were thus stamped: sE. A.
U, S." A bystander asked the work
man what these marks meant, and he
replied that they probably meant Gel
bert Anderson and Uncle Sam" allud-
| ing to Inspector Samuel Wilson, who
was locally called Uncle Sam. Thus
| the initials of the United States were
I transformed by a local joke into ma
tional sobriquet which will doubtless
! last as long as our republic.
| But who undertook to give the
portrait of Uncle Sam or Brother Jona-
| than as long, lean, slab-sided, lantern
Jawed individual is not known. Who
| ever he was he libelled us. There is
strong reason for believing that the aver
age American of today is heavier in the
scales, broader between the shoulders,
deeper IN the chest, and Of more generous
waist girth than any of his civilized CON-
| temporaries.
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