On the other hand, certain facts militate strongly against the story. First, the nickname Uncle Sam, so far from springing into existence at the outbreak of the war, did not make its appearance until the war was half over. Secondly, the absence of any trace of the story until 1842--or a generation after the event--is ominous. Thirdly, a remarkable feature of the obituary notices of Samuel Wilson which were written for the Troy newspapers deserves to be dwelt upon. Not one of them connected Samuel Wilson with Uncle Sam. It is true that the Uncle Sam story is found in two Troy papers, but in each case it was copied from an Albany paper.[109] This fact, coupled with the further fact that no book about Troy contained the story until 1876, seems to indicate that the popular story is not native to Troy.[110] Fourthly, the statement that "the letters U. S., for United States, were then almost entirely new," is not only so preposterous as to be beyond belief, but can be proved to be untrue. As a matter of fact, the abbreviations U. S. or U. States, as also G. B. or G. Britain, were common early in the nineteenth century;[111] and it would no more have been possible for men in 1813 to ask the meaning of the letters U. S. than would such an inquiry be possible now. Fifthly, the early evidence, while it may not be absolutely conclusive, not only fails to corroborate the Wilson story but strongly points to another conclusion; while the earliest known example of Uncle Sam is from a Troy paper, but _without_ reference to Samuel Wilson. Sixthly, the apparent fact that the nickname was at first used somewhat derisively does not tend to confirm the popular yarn. Finally, in connection with the Wilson story, we must consider a stanza in a song said to have been sung about 1789. Much has been written about "the original Yankee Doodle song." The song thus generally spoken of begins with the line "Father and I went down to camp." In Act I, Scene III, of Andrew Barton's "The Disappointment: Or, The Force of Credulity: A New American Comic Opera," printed in 1767, the air of Yankee Doodle made its first known appearance under that name.[112] When the British troops arrived at Boston in 1768 it was stated, under date of September 29 of that year, that "the Yankey Doodle Song was the Capital Piece in their Band of Music;"[113] and, much to the annoyance of the good people of Boston, the British persisted in playing the air at intervals for another seven years. As the "Father and I" song was written not earlier than 1775, obviously it could not have been "the original" Yankee Doodle song. In 1824, J. Farmer and J. B. Moore, believing that "the burlesque song ... is passing into oblivion," gave "a copy of the song as it was printed thirty-five years since, and as it was troll'd in our Yankee circles of that day."[114] As printed by Farmer and Moore, the song had eleven stanzas, the tenth being as follows: