"I think it's darned wrong, be sure,
Because we us'd 'em clever;
An' uncle vums a sailor works
Much harder than a weaver."
Throughout the war of 1812, song after song was written to the air of Yankee Doodle.
[121] An article headed "The D.D.'s," which was printed in the Kansas Herald of Freedom of August 25, 1855, begins as follows: "The Missouri Democrat has a very fine article under this head. It says the politicians have lately taken upon themselves the liberty of conferring the degree of D.D. upon its voters with a most promiscuous irreverence" (p. 2-3). It states that Thomas H. Benton was responsible for the nicknames applied to Petitt and Douglas.
[122] Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, V, 380, 439 (May 12, June 2, 1900); Tenth Series, VII, 257 (March 30, 1907).
[123] See W. F. G. Shanks's Personal Recollections of distinguished Generals (1866), p. 117.
[124] Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper, quoted in Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, V. 104 (February 10, 1900).
[125] Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902).
[126] Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902).
[127] Notes and Queries, Ninth Series, X, 503 (December 27, 1902).
By a still further exercise of humor, an article in an English journal on the London "Bobby" is headed "Robert Again" (Black and White, July 25, 1903, XXVI, 110); while the London Times converts Tommy Atkins into "Mr. Thomas Atkins." Similarly, Uncle Sam becomes Uncle Samuel, of which an instance dated 1816 has already been given. (See p. 41, above.) "Our good Uncle Samuel," wrote General Randolph B. Marcy in 1872 (Border Reminiscences, p. 66). A letter which appeared in the Philadelphia Aurora of October 14, 1812, was signed "Johannes Taurus" (p. 1-1).