The Origin of the Word "Masher."

Evening Star, Issue 7238, 14 June 1887, Page 4

The Origin of the Word "Masher."

Mrs H. Lovett Cameron, in a clever little essay in defence of the " masher" which she contributes to one of the magazines, remarks that the origin of the curious name that has been fastened on to these unfortunates is wrapped in a strange and impenetrable mystery. Some hold that it comes from our cousins across the ocean, and is merely derived from the negro fashion of producing the word master "maßs'r." Others contend'that it is to France we must turn if we desire to find out the truth, and the whole essence of the thing lies in {he two words "ma chert" thus applied to certain male beings in order to denote with a withering sarcasm the feminine imbecility of their nature. Between these two great sohools of thought there evidently exists no sort of compromise, and the disputants being unable to come to an agreement, it only remains to the unlearned to continue in their ignorance. Mrs Cameron boldly defends the " masher" as a much-maligned

individual, and she tells of one of the smartest-dressed and best-looking young men she has ever known how he said once in her hearing, in the dayßof his foolish youth: "There is nothing upon earth that I would not sacrifice to save my shirt collar." The man is now a member of Parliament, a keen politician, and a clever speaker, and is regarded as one of the most rising young men of his party. Yet Mrs Cameron is not aware that his shirt collar is any less immaculate than it used to be. In the " masher " there may be, his defender admits, a slight aberration of intellect, but she contends that there is certainly no annihilation of it consequent upon the assumption of collar and cane.