"BROTHER JONATHAN."

Evening Star, Issue 11673, 4 February 1902, Page 7

"BROTHER JONATHAN."

Among things not generally known i» the reason why the American people are known to us os Brother Jonathan. It arose in this way. Jonathan Trumbull was Governor of Connecticut, and in Washington’s opinion was the first of patriots. Whenever Wash ington was in doubt how to proceed, his favorite resource was to consult Brother Jonathan. The name caught, and was used by friend and foe alike aa synonymous with the American people. When recently in England a preacher who was very much on the spot with his text gave out “I am distressed {or thee, my brother Jonathon.” every child in church knew as well who was meant as they knew the special reason for condolence.

It is to Englishmen alone the American nation is Brother Jonathan ; to the Canadian as to himself he is impersonated by Uncle Sam. This is a play upon the initial letters of the United States, and it has enriched our language by the expression “to staud Sam,’’ meaning to pay the piper, in allusion to the way in which the cost m everything is thrown upon the Government of the U.S.A. Brother Jonathan is always the impersonation of the typical American, as John Bull of the typical Englishman. The expression is as true as it is hapny. Ho is our brother. “ Chatham’s language was his mother tongue,’ 1 He >a none t’ e less onr brother because quarrels have coma between us, for rarely is it otherwise. Just when everyone was expecting that we must go to war, it has been shown that b.Vod was thicker than water, and brotifflta we remained.—Exchange,