Evening star., 1925-01-04
BY FLORENCE SEVILLE
BERGMAN,
Illustrations By C. K. Bergman.


T HAT dignifed, benevolent old
gentleman in the star-spang-
led hat and coat and striped
trousers whom we know as
Uncle Sam, is so familiar to
this generation, that few of us have
given any thought to his paternity
and lawful right to represent us in
the symbolic association of nations.
Most of his admirers suppose that
he was born in the mind of some
great caricaturist, completely equip
ped with his present affectionate So
briquet and aristocratic appearance,
in just such a way as Minerva sprang
full-panoplied from the brain of Jove.
But such is not the case. Uncle Sam,
like his cousin, John Bull, and all the
rest of us. is the descendant of many
and varied forbears. Some wise per-
son said that each of us is a pocket
edition of all his ancestors. Hundreds
of generations, stretching back
through the gathering mists of his
tory to prehistoric times, have COM
bined to give US the innumerable
elements of mental and physical char
acter, termed individuality.
1t may be interesting, then, to climb
Uncle Sans family tree, and search
among its branches for the sources
oL HIS virtues ana ptCulIdTllleS.
There is no doubt that the lady CO.
Iumbia is his mother, for although she
seems to have discovered the secret
of eternal youth, and not a wrinkle
mars her serene Countenance, she is
quite few years older than her mid
dle-aged son. 1t is impossible to say
definitely who drew the first picture
of the symbolic figure of the United
States here or abroad, unless one
could assemble every political draw
ing published in the late eighteenth
and early nineteenth centuries, in
cluding the vast number which must
have been destroyed. But we may
conjecture that the honor goes to
William Charles, a Scotchman who
came to this country at the beginning
of the nineteenth century, and who
may be considered our first political
cartoonist, whose crude work is OBJ
vlOusly Influenced by the great Gill
ray.
The New York Public Library has
a collection of early cartoons, one of
the 1912 period by Charles entitled
'Bruin Become Mediator" in which
appears the figure of a young woman
crowned, and in semi-classic garb,
holding our flag. The Russian bear is
urging her to join hands with John
Bull and end hostilities. We note,
however, that she has no name other
than the United States"
x x x
THE christening of Uncle Sam took
place under the humblest cir
Cumstances, during the War of 1872,
and before the old gentleman himself
had vet appeared. Samuel Wilson, a
Government inspector, superintended
the examination of Army supplies at
the store yard of contractor named
Elbert Anderson. The inspector was
popularity known by every one as
''jncle Sam Wilson. Each caslS and
box passed, was marked "E. A
u. S." the contractors and the ma
tons initials. But the man who
marked the boxes, whether from hui
NOR or ignorance, it is hard to say,
Informed an inquirer that they stood
for "Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam -
This little incident was retold. pub
lished, and swept the country. 1t is a
typical case of how spontaneously nick
names arise.
An interesting coin cidence to this
story is the fact that John Bull was
christened exactly 100 years earlier
when DR.. Shn Arbuthnot wrote a po-
litiCal satira entitled The History OF
John Bull on the subject of the Span
ish successioE. He represented John
Bull (the English nation) as an hon
est, bluff, tempery old chap, prosper
Gus, but always having trouble with
his wife (the government). But the
pictorial representation of John Bull
as well as Uncle Sam, was to &c
through a spirited process of evolu.
tion.
James Gillray, the leading carica-
turist of the reign of George III, drew
series of scathing satires of the
monarch as a heavy, coarse country
man, whom he called Farmer
Gearge." This was actually the be
ginning of John Bull The refining