JOHN BULL AND UNCLE SAM.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 12 October 1901, Page 4

JOHN BULL AND UNCLE SAM.

National niek-names like “John Bull” and “ Uncle Sam ” have grown into household words, but their origin is probably not widely known. The name John Bull, it appears, to signify an Englishman, was first applied in Arbuthnot’s “History of Europe,” a work sometimes wrongly ascribed to Dean Swift. The nick-name evidently hit the popular taste, for it has since became universal. Perhaps, as Washington Irving suggests, it is characteristic of the English Jove of what is blunt, comic, and familiar that they have “ embodied their national oddities in the figure of a sturdy, corpulent old fellow with red waistcoat, leather breeches, and a stout oaken cudgel, whom they call John Bull.” Whatever the reason, John Bull, as wo

know him in the pictures, stands for the national type, and he has doubtless a long lease of life before him as England’s representative. How “ Uncle Sam ” came to typify the citizen of the United States is thus described by a “Daily Mail” contributor, who vouches for the authenticity .f the story: -When the war between America and Great Britain broke out in 1812, there lived in the city of Troy, on the banks of the Hudson River, a well-to-do merchant of Scottish descent named Albert Anderson, who carried on an extensive produce trade. Anderson obtained a contract to supply with beef, pork, beans, etc., the commissariat department of the army which was mustering on the Canadian border, and a citizen of Ti’ov named Samuel Wilson was appointed to examine every article furnished by Anderson before accepting it on behalf of the United States. All packages passed as satisfactory were marked u ith the initials of the buyer, U.S. (United States), and with those of the seller, B A. (Elbert Anderson). The marking was done by a young fellow named Will Manning. The latter was evidently a gentleman of facetious disposition, for when asked by his fellow-workers what the letters represented, he told them that “U.S.” stood for “Uncle Sam” Wilson, this being the nickname by which old Wilson was known throughout Troy. The joke soon spread, and when Manning and the other packers joined the army themselves they carried the joke through the ranks with them, remarking that as their uniforms bore the letters U.S. they were still working for “Uncle Sam.” By-and-by the troops began to be known among themselves as “Uncle Sam’s” soldiers, and when the newspapers took up the nick-name it soon spread throughout the States. And as “ Uncle Sam ” the great American nation has been personified ever since.