“I agree,” said the tourist. “You are an American?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I agree again.”
There was a pause. The American missionary was considering whether this was a case for the offer of a Bible.
“Is it true, sir,” asked the tourist, “that you have a passion for nicknames in America, so complete, that you confer them upon all your celebrated men, and that you call your famous Missouri banker, Thomas Benton, ‘Old Lingot’?”
“Yes; just as we call Zachary Taylor ‘Old Zach.’”
“And General Harrison, ‘Old Tip;’ am I right? and General Jackson, ‘Old Hickory?’”
“Because Jackson is hard as hickory wood; and because Harrison beat the redskins at Tippecanoe.”
“It is an odd fashion that of yours.”
“It is our custom. We call Van Buren ‘The Little Wizard;’ Seward, who introduced the small bank-notes, ‘Little Billy;’ and Douglas, the democrat senator from Illinois, who is four feet high and very eloquent, ‘The Little Giant.’ You may go from Texas to the State of Maine without hearing the name of Mr. Cass. They say the ‘Great Michiganer.’ Nor the name of Clay; they say ‘The miller’s boy with the scar.’ Clay is the son of a miller.”