The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919Hart, Albert Bushnell
History
The Mentor: Uncle Sam, Vol. 7, Num. 11, Serial No. 183, July 15, 1919
Hart, Albert Bushnell
United States -- Politics and government
Uncle Sam’s clothes, like the Quaker dress, were not invented to be
humorous, but as the fashionable costume of the period when Quakers’
and Uncle Sam’s began to appear. Trousers with straps under the
insteps were still worn down to fifty years ago. In the days when the
striped cotton trousers of the French soldiers began to drive out the
old-fashioned knee breeches, Uncle Sam came by his lower protection
naturally. The broad-brimmed beaver hat, till very recently, could
be seen on the heads of wealthy Quaker bankers in Philadelphia. The
star-spangled coats and correctly flag-striped trousers are of course
the inventions of later patriotic times.
[Illustration: SAFEGUARDING IMMIGRATION
Asiatic Detention Quarters at Angel Island, San Francisco Bay]
_What Does Uncle Sam Do for His Nephews and Nieces?_
The great thing about Uncle Sam is his dignity, activity, keenness,
endless good nature and love of his countrymen. His cousin, John
Bull, is the beefy, sturdy, pragmatic, land-owning squire of the
British counties, brave enough, resolute enough, but a defender of
his country, rather than its most intimate friend. Uncle Sam and the
popular interest in his thousands of portraits are standing proofs of
the common sense and good temper of the American people. We like in
Uncle Sam what we like in our personal Uncle Ezra, or Uncle Peyton, his
genuine, affectionate, thoughtful and protecting affection for us.
The three men in American history who have most nearly corresponded to
Uncle Sam in their own personal relations with their fellow men were
Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Jackson was
testy, and sharp tempered, but he could be very genial and gallant
when he chose. Lincoln was the Uncle Abe of the nation; in person, in
speech, in action, and above all in his great affectionate heart he was
what we like to think Uncle Sam is. Theodore Roosevelt was not so much
uncle as brother; there is only one “T. R.” in our history!
[Illustration: EXHIBIT OF UNITED STATES BUREAU OF FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC
COMMERCE]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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