Ossifer,
_officer_
(seldom heard).
James Russell Lowell
'
The only attempt I had ever made at anything like a pastoral (if that
may be called an attempt which was the result almost of pure accident)
was in 'The Courtin'. ' While the introduction to the First Series was
going through the press, I received word from the printer that there was
a blank page left which must be filled. I sat down at once and
improvised another fictitious 'notice of the press,' in which, because
verse would fill up space more cheaply than prose, I inserted an extract
from a supposed ballad of Mr. Biglow. I kept no copy of it, and the
printer, as directed, cut it off when the gap was filled. Presently I
began to receive letters asking for the rest of it, sometimes for the
_balance_ of it. I had none, but to answer such demands, I patched a
conclusion upon it in a later edition. Those who had only the first
continued to importune me. Afterward, being asked to write it out as an
autograph for the Baltimore Sanitary Commission Fair, I added other
verses, into some of which I fused a little more sentiment in a homely
way, and after a fashion completed it by sketching in the characters'
and making a connected story. Most likely I have spoiled it, but I shall
put it at the end of this Introduction, to answer once for all those
kindly importunings.
As I have seen extracts from what purported to be writings of Mr.
Biglow, which were not genuine, I may properly take this opportunity to
say, that the two volumes now published contain every line I ever
printed under that pseudonyme, and that I have never, so far as I can
remember, written an anonymous article (elsewhere than in the 'North
American Review' and the 'Atlantic Monthly,' during my editorship of it)
except a review of Mrs. Stowe's 'Minister's Wooing,' and, some twenty
years ago, a sketch of the antislavery movement in America for an
English journal.
A word more on pronunciation. I have endeavored to express this so far
as I could by the types, taking such pains as, I fear, may sometimes
make the reading harder than need be. At the same time, by studying
uniformity I have sometimes been obliged to sacrifice minute exactness.
The emphasis often modifies the habitual sound. For example, _for_ is
commonly _fer_ (a shorter sound than _fur_ for _far_), but when emphatic
it always becomes _for_, as 'wut _for! _' So _too_ is pronounced like
_to_ (as it was anciently spelt), and _to_ like _ta_ (the sound as in
the _tou_ of _touch_), but _too_, when emphatic, changes into _tue_, and
_to_, sometimes, in similar cases, into _toe_, as 'I didn' hardly know
wut _toe_ du! ' Where vowels come together, or one precedes another
following an aspirate, the two melt together, as was common with the
older poets who formed their versification on French or Italian models.
Drayton is thoroughly Yankee when he says 'I 'xpect,' and Pope when he
says, 't' inspire. ' _With_ becomes sometimes _'ith_, _'[)u]th_, or
_'th_, or even disappears wholly where it comes before _the_, as, 'I
went along _th'_ Square' (along with the Squire), the _are_ sound being
an archaism which I have noticed also in _choir_, like the old Scottish
_quhair_. [33] (Herrick has, 'Of flowers ne'er sucked by th' theeving
bee. ') _Without_ becomes _athout_ and _'thout_. _Afterwards_ always
retains its locative _s_, and is pronounced always _ahterwurds'_, with a
strong accent on the last syllable. This oddity has some support in the
erratic _towards'_ instead of _to'wards_, which we find in the poets and
sometimes hear. The sound given to the first syllable of _to'wards_, I
may remark, sustains the Yankee lengthening of the _o_ in _to_. At the
beginning of a sentence, _ahterwurds_ has the accent on the first
syllable; at the end of one, on the last; as, '_ah'terwurds_ he tol'
me,' 'he tol' me _ahterwurds'_. ' The Yankee never makes a mistake in his
aspirates. _U_ changes in many words to _e_, always in _such, brush,
tush, hush, rush, blush_, seldom in _much_, oftener in _trust_ and
_crust_, never in _mush, gust, bust, tumble_, or (? ) _flush_, in the
latter case probably to avoid confusion with _flesh_. I have heard
_flush_ with the _e_ sound, however. For the same reason, I suspect,
never in _gush_ (at least, I never heard it), because we have already
one _gesh_ for _gash_. _A_ and _i_ short frequently become _e_ short.
_U_ always becomes _o_ in the prefix _un_ (except _unto_), and _o_ in
return changes to _u_ short in _uv_ for _of_, and in some words
beginning with _om_. _T_ and _d_, _b_ and _p_, _v_ and _w_, remain
intact. So much occurs to me in addition to what I said on this head in
the preface to the former volume.
Of course in what I have said I wish to be understood as keeping in mind
the difference between provincialisms properly so called and _slang_.
_Slang_ is always vulgar, because it is not a natural but an affected
way of talking, and all mere tricks of speech or writing are offensive.
I do not think that Mr. Biglow can be fairly charged with vulgarity, and
I should have entirely failed in my design, if I had not made it appear
that high and even refined sentiment may coexist with the shrewder and
more comic elements of the Yankee character. I believe that what is
essentially vulgar and mean-spirited in politics seldom has its source
in the body of the people, but much rather among those who are made
timid by their wealth or selfish by their love of power. A democracy can
_afford_ much better than an aristocracy to follow out its convictions,
and is perhaps better qualified to build those convictions on plain
principles of right and wrong, rather than on the shifting sands of
expediency. I had always thought 'Sam Slick' a libel on the Yankee
character, and a complete falsification of Yankee modes of speech,
though, for aught I know, it may be true in both respects so far as the
British provinces are concerned. To me the dialect was native, was
spoken all about me when a boy, at a time when an Irish day-laborer was
as rare as an American one now. Since then I have made a study of it so
far as opportunity allowed. But when I write in it, it is as in a mother
tongue, and I am carried back far beyond any studies of it to long-ago
noonings in my father's hay-fields, and to the talk of Sam and Job over
their jug of _blackstrap_ under the shadow of the ash-tree which still
dapples the grass whence they have been gone so long.
But life is short, and prefaces should be. And so, my good friends, to
whom this introductory epistle is addressed, farewell. Though some of
you have remonstrated with me, I shall never write any more 'Biglow
Papers,' however great the temptation,--great especially at the present
time,--unless it be to complete the original plan of this Series by
bringing out Mr. Sawin as an 'original Union man. ' The very favor with
which they have been received is a hindrance to me, by forcing on me a
self-consciousness from which I was entirely free when I wrote the First
Series. Moreover, I am no longer the same careless youth, with nothing
to do but live to myself, my books, and my friends, that I was then. I
always hated politics, in the ordinary sense of the word, and I am not
likely to grow, fonder of them, now that I have learned how rare it is
to find a man who can keep principle clear from party and personal
prejudice, or can conceive the possibility of another's doing so. I feel
as if I could in some sort claim to be an _emeritus_, and I am sure that
political satire will have full justice done it by that genuine and
delightful humorist, the Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby. I regret that I killed
off Mr. Wilbur so soon, for he would have enabled me to bring into this
preface a number of learned quotations, which must now go a-begging, and
also enabled me to dispersonalize myself into a vicarious egotism. He
would have helped me likewise in clearing myself from a charge which I
shall briefly touch on, because my friend Mr. Hughes has found it
needful to defend me in his preface to one of the English editions of
the 'Biglow Papers. ' I thank Mr. Hughes heartily for his friendly care
of my good name, and were his Preface accessible to my readers here (as
I am glad it is not, for its partiality makes me blush), I should leave
the matter where he left it. The charge is of profanity, brought in by
persons who proclaimed African slavery of Divine institution, and is
based (so far as I have heard) on two passages in the First Series--
'An' you've gut to git up airly,
Ef you want to take in God,'
and,
'God'll send the bill to you,'
and on some Scriptural illustrations by Mr. Sawin.
Now, in the first place, I was writing under an assumed character, and
must talk as the person would whose mouthpiece I made myself. Will any
one familiar with the New England countryman venture to tell me that he
does _not_ speak of sacred things familiarly? that Biblical allusions
(allusions, that is, to the single book with whose language, from his
church-going habits, he is intimate) are _not_ frequent on his lips? If
so, he cannot have pursued his studies of the character on so many
long-ago muster-fields and at so many cattle-shows as I. But I scorn any
such line of defence, and will confess at once that one of the things I
am proud of in my countrymen is (I am not speaking now of such persons
as I have assumed Mr. Sawin to be) that they do not put their Maker away
far from them, or interpret the fear of God into being afraid of Him.
The Talmudists had conceived a deep truth when they said, that 'all
things were in the power of God, save the fear of God;' and when people
stand in great dread of an invisible power, I suspect they mistake quite
another personage for the Deity. I might justify myself for the passages
criticised by many parallel ones from Scripture, but I need not. The
Reverend Homer Wilbur's note-books supply me with three apposite
quotations. The first is from a Father of the Roman Church, the second
from a Father of the Anglican, and the third from a Father of Modern
English poetry. The Puritan divines would furnish me with many more
such. St. Bernard says, _Sapiens nummularius est Deus: nummum fictum non
recipiet_; 'A cunning money-changer is God: he will take in no base
coin. ' Latimer says, 'You shall perceive that God, by this example,
shaketh us by the noses and taketh us by the ears. ' Familiar enough,
both of them, one would say! But I should think Mr. Biglow had verily
stolen the last of the two maligned passages from Dryden's 'Don
Sebastian,' where I find
'And beg of Heaven to charge the bill on me! '
And there I leave the matter, being willing to believe that the Saint,
the Martyr, and even the Poet, were as careful of God's honor as my
critics are ever likely to be.
II. GLOSSARY TO THE BIGLOW PAPERS
Act'lly, _actually_.
Air, _are_.
Airth, _earth_.
Airy, _area_.
Aree, _area_.
Arter, _after_.
Ax, _ask_.
Beller, _bellow_.
Bellowses, _lungs_.
Ben, _been_.
Bile, _boil_.
Bimeby, _by and by_.
Blurt out, _to speak bluntly_.
Bust, _burst_.
Buster, _a roistering blade_; used also as a general superlative.
Caird, _carried_.
Cairn, _carrying_.
Caleb, _a turncoat_.
Cal'late, _calculate_.
Cass, _a person with two lives_.
Close, _clothes_.
Cockerel, _a young cock_.
Cocktail, _a kind of drink_; also, _an ornament peculiar to
soldiers_.
Convention, _a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show_.
Coons, _a cant term for a now defunct party_; derived, perhaps, from
the fact of their being commonly _up a tree_.
Cornwallis, _a sort of muster in masquerade_; supposed to have had
its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession.
Crooked stick, _a perverse, froward person_.
Cunnle, _a colonel_.
Cus, _a curse_; also, _a pitiful fellow_.
Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number,
for _dare not, dares not_, and _dared not_.
Deacon off, _to give the cue to_; derived from a custom, once
universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches.
An important part of the office of deacon was to read aloud the hymns
_given out_ by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation
singing each line as soon as read.
Demmercrat, leadin', _one in favor of extending slavery; a free-trade
lecturer maintained in the custom-house_.
Desput, _desperate_.
D[=o]', _don't_.
Doos, _does_.
Doughface, _a contented lick-spittle_; a common variety of Northern
politician.
Dror, _draw_.
Du, _do_.
Dunno, dno, _do not_ or _does not know_.
Dut, _dirt_.
Eend, _end_.
Ef, _if_.
Emptins, _yeast_.
Env'y, _envoy_.
Everlasting, an intensive, without reference to duration.
Ev'y, _every_.
Ez, _as_.
Fence, on the; said of one who halts between two opinions; a trimmer.
Fer, _for_.
Ferfle, ferful, _fearful_; also an intensive.
Fin', _find_.
Fish-skin, used in New England to clarify coffee.
Fix, _a difficulty, a nonplus_.
Foller, folly, _to follow_.
Forrerd, _forward_.
Frum, _from_.
Fur, _for_
Furder, _farther_.
Furrer, _furrow_. Metaphorically, _to draw a straight furrow_ is to
live uprightly or decorously.
Fust, _first_.
Gin, _gave_.
Git, _get_.
Gret, _great_.
Grit, _spirit, energy, pluck_.
Grout, _to sulk_.
Grouty, _crabbed, surly_.
Gum, _to impose on_.
Gump, _a foolish fellow, a dullard_.
Gut, _got_.
Hed, _had_.
Heern, _heard_.
Hellum, _helm_.
Hendy, _handy_.
Het, _heated_.
Hev, _have_.
Hez, _has_.
Holl, _whole_.
Holt, _hold_.
Huf, _hoof_.
Hull, _whole_.
Hum, _home_.
Humbug, _General Taylor's antislavery_.
Hut, _hurt_.
Idno, _I do not know_.
In'my, _enemy_.
Insines, _ensigns_; used to designate both the officer who carries the
standard, and the standard itself.
Inter, intu, _into_.
Jedge, _judge_.
Jest, _just_.
Jine, _join_.
Jint, _joint_.
Junk, _a fragment of any solid substance_.
Keer, _care_.
Kep', _kept_.
Killock, _a small anchor_.
Kin', kin' o', kinder, _kind, kind of_.
Lawth, _loath_.
Less, _let's, let us_.
Let daylight into, _to shoot_.
Let on, _to hint, to confess, to own_.
Lick, _to beat, to overcome_.
Lights, _the bowels_.
Lily-pads, _leaves of the water-lily_.
Long-sweetening, _molasses_.
Mash, _marsh_.
Mean, _stingy, ill-natured_.
Min', _mind_.
Nimepunce, _ninepence, twelve and a half cents_.
Nowers, _nowhere_.
Offen, _often_.
Ole, _old_.
Ollers, olluz, _always_.
On, _of_; used before _it_ or _them,_ or at the end of a
sentence, as _on 't, on 'em, nut ez ever I heerd on_.
On'y, _only_.
Ossifer, _officer_ (seldom heard).
Peaked, _pointed_.
Peek, _to peep_.
Pickerel, _the pike, a fish_.
Pint, _point_.
Pocket full of rocks, _plenty of money_.
Pooty, _pretty_.
Pop'ler, _conceited, popular_.
Pus, _purse_.
Put out, _troubled, vexed_.
Quarter, _a quarter-dollar_.
Queen's-arm, _a musket_.
Resh, _rush_.
Revelee, _the reveille_.
Rile, _to trouble_.
Riled, _angry; disturbed,_ as the sediment in any liquid.
Riz, _risen_.
Row, a long row to hoe, _a difficult task_.
Rugged, _robust_.
Sarse, _abuse, impertinence_.
Sartin, _certain_.
Saxon, _sacristan, sexton_.
Scaliest, _worst_.
Scringe, _cringe_.
Scrouge, _to crowd_.
Sech, _such_.
Set by, _valued_.
Shakes, great, _of considerable consequence_.
Shappoes, _chapeaux, cocked-hats_.
Sheer, _share_.
Shet, _shut_.
Shut, _shirt_.
Skeered, _scared_.
Skeeter, _mosquito_.
Skooting, _running,_ or _moving swiftly_.
Slarterin', _slaughtering_.
Slim, _contemptible_.
Snake, _crawled like a snake_; but _to snake any one out_
is to track him to his hiding-place; _to snake a thing out_ is
to snatch it out.
Soffies, _sofas_.
Sogerin', _soldiering_; a barbarous amusement common among men
in the savage state.
Som'ers, _somewhere_.
So'st, _so as that_.
Sot, _set, obstinate, resolute_.
Spiles, _spoils; objects of political ambition_.
Spry, _active_.
Steddles, _stout stakes driven into the salt marshes_, on which the
hay-ricks are set, and thus raised out of the reach of high tides.
Streaked, _uncomfortable, discomfited_.
Suckle, _circle_.
Sutthin', _something_.
Suttin, _certain_.
Take on, _to sorrow_.
Talents, _talons_.
Taters, _potatoes_.
Tell, _till_.
Tetch, _touch_.
Tetch tu, _to be able_; used always after a negative in this sense.
Tollable, _tolerable_.
Toot, used derisively for _playing on any wind instrument_.
Thru, _through_.
Thundering, a euphemism common in New England for the profane English
expression _devilish_. Perhaps derived from the belief, common
formerly, that thunder was caused by the Prince of the Air, for some
of whose accomplishments consult Cotton Mather.
Tu, _to, too_; commonly has this sound when used emphatically,
or at the end of a sentence. At other times it has the sound of _t_
in _tough_, as _Ware ye gain' tu? Goin' ta Boston_.
Ugly, _ill-tempered, intractable_.
Uncle Sam, _United States_; the largest boaster of liberty and
owner of slaves.
Unrizzest, applied to dough or bread; _heavy, most unrisen, or most
incapable of rising_.
V-spot, _a five-dollar bill_.
Vally, _value_.
Wake snakes, _to get into trouble_.
Wal, _well_; spoken with great deliberation, and sometimes with the
_a_ very much flattened, sometimes (but more seldom) very much
broadened.
Wannut, _walnut (hickory)_.
Ware, _where_.
Ware, _were_.
Whopper, _an uncommonly large lie_; as, that General Taylor is in
favor of the Wilmot Proviso.
Wig, _Whig_; a party now dissolved.
Wunt, _will not_.
Wus, _worse_.
Wut, _what_.
Wuth, _worth_; _as, Antislavery perfessions 'fore 'lection aint
wuth a Bungtown copper_.
Wuz, _was_, sometimes _were_.
Yaller, _yellow_.
Yeller, _yellow_.
Yellers, _a disease of peach-trees_.
Zack, Ole, _a second Washington, an antislavery slaveholder; a humane
buyer and seller of men and women, a Christian hero generally_.
III. INDEX TO BIGLOW PAPERS
A.
A. wants his axe ground.
A. B. , Information wanted concerning.
Abraham (Lincoln), his constitutional scruples.
Abuse, an, its usefulness.
Adam, eldest son of,
respected,
his fall,
how if he had bitten a sweet apple?
Adam, Grandfather, forged will of.
AEeneas goes to hell.
AEeolus, a seller of money, as is supposed by some.
AEeschylus, a saying of.
Alligator, a decent one conjectured to be, in some sort, humane.
Allsmash, the eternal.
Alphonso the Sixth of Portugal, tyrannical act of.
Ambrose, Saint, excellent (but rationalistic) sentiment of.
'American Citizen,' new compost so called.
American Eagle,
a source of inspiration,
hitherto wrongly classed,
long bill of.
Americans bebrothered.
Amos cited.
Anakim, that they formerly existed, shown.
Angels
providentially speak French,
conjectured to be skilled in all tongues.
Anglo-Saxondom, its idea, what.
Anglo-Saxon mask.
Anglo-Saxon race.
Anglo-Saxon verse, by whom carried to perfection.
Antiquaries, Royal Society of Northern.
Antonius,
a speech of,
by whom best reported.
Antony of Padua, Saint, happy in his hearers.
Apocalypse, beast in, magnetic to theologians.
Apollo, confessed mortal by his own oracle.
Apollyon, his tragedies popular.
Appian, an Alexandrian, not equal to Shakespeare as an orator.
Applause, popular, the _summum bonum_.
Ararat, ignorance of foreign tongues is an.
Arcadian background.
Ar c'houskezik, an evil spirit.
Ardennes, Wild Boar of, an ancestor of Rev. Mr. Wilbur.
Aristocracy, British, their natural sympathies.
Aristophanes.
Arms, profession of, once esteemed, especially that of gentlemen.
Arnold.
Ashland.
Astor, Jacob, a rich man.
Astraea, nineteenth century forsaken by.
Athenians, ancient, an institution of.
Atherton, Senator, envies the loon.
'Atlantic,' editors of. See _Neptune_.
Atropos, a lady skilful with the scissors.
Austin, Saint, prayer of.
Austrian eagle split.
Aye-aye, the, an African animal, America supposed to be settled by.
B. , a Congressman, _vide_ A.
Babel,
probably the first Congress,
gabble-mill.
Baby, a low-priced one.
Bacon, his rebellion.
Bacon, Lord, quoted.
Bagowind, Hon. Mr. , whether to be damned.
Balcom, Elder Joash Q. , 2d, founds a Baptist society in Jaalam, A. D. 1830.
Baldwin apples.
Baratarias, real or imaginary, which most pleasant.
Barnum, a great natural curiosity recommended to.
Barrels, an inference from seeing.
Bartlett, Mr. , mistaken.
Baton Rouge,
strange peculiarities of laborers at.
Baxter, R. , a saying of,
Bay, Mattysqumscot.
Bay State, singular effect produced on military officers by leaving it.
Beast, in Apocalypse,
a loadstone for whom,
tenth horn of, applied to recent events.
Beaufort.
Beauregard real name Toutant.
Beaver brook.
Beelzebub, his rigadoon.
Behmen, his letters not letters.
Behn, Mrs. Aphra, quoted.
Sellers,
a saloon-keeper,
inhumanly refuses credit to a presidential candidate.
Belmont. See Woods.
Bentley, his heroic method with Milton.
Bible, not composed for use of colored persons.
Biglow, Ezekiel,
his letter to Hon. J. T. Buckingham,
never heard of any one named Mandishes,
nearly fourscore years old,
his aunt Keziah, a notable saying of.
Biglow, Hosea, Esquire,
excited by composition,
a poem by,
his opinion of war,
wanted at home by Nancy,
recommends a forcible enlistment of warlike editors,
would not wonder, if generally agreed with,
versifies letter of Mr. Sawin,
a letter from,
his opinion of Mr. Sawin,
does not deny fun at Cornwallis,
his idea of militia glory,
a pun of,
is uncertain in regard to people of Boston,
had never heard of Mr. John P. Robinson,
_aliquid sufflaminandus_,
his poems attributed to a Mr. Lowell,
is unskilled in Latin,
his poetry maligned by some,
his disinterestedness,
his deep share in commonweal,
his claim to the presidency,
his mowing,
resents being called Whig,
opposed to tariff,
obstinate,
infected with peculiar notions,
reports a speech,
emulates historians of antiquity,
his character sketched from a hostile point of view,
a request of his complied with,
appointed at a public meeting in Jaalam,
confesses ignorance, in one minute particular, of propriety,
his opinion of cocked hats,
letter to,
called 'Dear Sir,' by a general,
probably receives same compliment from two hundred and nine,
picks his apples,
his crop of Baldwins conjecturally large,
his labors in writing autographs,
visits the Judge and has a pleasant time,
born in Middlesex County,
his favorite walks,
his gifted pen,
born and bred in the country,
feels his sap start in spring,
is at times unsocial,
the school-house where he learned his a b c,
falls asleep,
his ancestor a Cromwellian colonel,
finds it harder to make up his mind as he grows older,
wishes he could write a song or two,
liable to moods,
loves nature and is loved in return,
describes some favorite haunts of his,
his slain kindred,
his speech in March meeting,
does not reckon on being sent to Congress,
has no eloquence,
his own reporter,
never abused the South,
advises Uncle Sam,
is not Boston-mad,
bids farewell.
Billings, Dea. Cephas.
_Billy, Extra, demagogus. _
Birch, virtue of, in instilling certain of the dead languages.
Bird of our country sings hosanna.
Bjarna Grimolfsson invents smoking.
Blind, to go it.
Blitz pulls ribbons from his mouth.
Bluenose potatoes, smell of, eagerly desired.
Bobolink, the.
Bobtail obtains a cardinal's hat.
Boggs, a Norman name.
Bogus Four-Corners Weekly Meridian.
The only attempt I had ever made at anything like a pastoral (if that
may be called an attempt which was the result almost of pure accident)
was in 'The Courtin'. ' While the introduction to the First Series was
going through the press, I received word from the printer that there was
a blank page left which must be filled. I sat down at once and
improvised another fictitious 'notice of the press,' in which, because
verse would fill up space more cheaply than prose, I inserted an extract
from a supposed ballad of Mr. Biglow. I kept no copy of it, and the
printer, as directed, cut it off when the gap was filled. Presently I
began to receive letters asking for the rest of it, sometimes for the
_balance_ of it. I had none, but to answer such demands, I patched a
conclusion upon it in a later edition. Those who had only the first
continued to importune me. Afterward, being asked to write it out as an
autograph for the Baltimore Sanitary Commission Fair, I added other
verses, into some of which I fused a little more sentiment in a homely
way, and after a fashion completed it by sketching in the characters'
and making a connected story. Most likely I have spoiled it, but I shall
put it at the end of this Introduction, to answer once for all those
kindly importunings.
As I have seen extracts from what purported to be writings of Mr.
Biglow, which were not genuine, I may properly take this opportunity to
say, that the two volumes now published contain every line I ever
printed under that pseudonyme, and that I have never, so far as I can
remember, written an anonymous article (elsewhere than in the 'North
American Review' and the 'Atlantic Monthly,' during my editorship of it)
except a review of Mrs. Stowe's 'Minister's Wooing,' and, some twenty
years ago, a sketch of the antislavery movement in America for an
English journal.
A word more on pronunciation. I have endeavored to express this so far
as I could by the types, taking such pains as, I fear, may sometimes
make the reading harder than need be. At the same time, by studying
uniformity I have sometimes been obliged to sacrifice minute exactness.
The emphasis often modifies the habitual sound. For example, _for_ is
commonly _fer_ (a shorter sound than _fur_ for _far_), but when emphatic
it always becomes _for_, as 'wut _for! _' So _too_ is pronounced like
_to_ (as it was anciently spelt), and _to_ like _ta_ (the sound as in
the _tou_ of _touch_), but _too_, when emphatic, changes into _tue_, and
_to_, sometimes, in similar cases, into _toe_, as 'I didn' hardly know
wut _toe_ du! ' Where vowels come together, or one precedes another
following an aspirate, the two melt together, as was common with the
older poets who formed their versification on French or Italian models.
Drayton is thoroughly Yankee when he says 'I 'xpect,' and Pope when he
says, 't' inspire. ' _With_ becomes sometimes _'ith_, _'[)u]th_, or
_'th_, or even disappears wholly where it comes before _the_, as, 'I
went along _th'_ Square' (along with the Squire), the _are_ sound being
an archaism which I have noticed also in _choir_, like the old Scottish
_quhair_. [33] (Herrick has, 'Of flowers ne'er sucked by th' theeving
bee. ') _Without_ becomes _athout_ and _'thout_. _Afterwards_ always
retains its locative _s_, and is pronounced always _ahterwurds'_, with a
strong accent on the last syllable. This oddity has some support in the
erratic _towards'_ instead of _to'wards_, which we find in the poets and
sometimes hear. The sound given to the first syllable of _to'wards_, I
may remark, sustains the Yankee lengthening of the _o_ in _to_. At the
beginning of a sentence, _ahterwurds_ has the accent on the first
syllable; at the end of one, on the last; as, '_ah'terwurds_ he tol'
me,' 'he tol' me _ahterwurds'_. ' The Yankee never makes a mistake in his
aspirates. _U_ changes in many words to _e_, always in _such, brush,
tush, hush, rush, blush_, seldom in _much_, oftener in _trust_ and
_crust_, never in _mush, gust, bust, tumble_, or (? ) _flush_, in the
latter case probably to avoid confusion with _flesh_. I have heard
_flush_ with the _e_ sound, however. For the same reason, I suspect,
never in _gush_ (at least, I never heard it), because we have already
one _gesh_ for _gash_. _A_ and _i_ short frequently become _e_ short.
_U_ always becomes _o_ in the prefix _un_ (except _unto_), and _o_ in
return changes to _u_ short in _uv_ for _of_, and in some words
beginning with _om_. _T_ and _d_, _b_ and _p_, _v_ and _w_, remain
intact. So much occurs to me in addition to what I said on this head in
the preface to the former volume.
Of course in what I have said I wish to be understood as keeping in mind
the difference between provincialisms properly so called and _slang_.
_Slang_ is always vulgar, because it is not a natural but an affected
way of talking, and all mere tricks of speech or writing are offensive.
I do not think that Mr. Biglow can be fairly charged with vulgarity, and
I should have entirely failed in my design, if I had not made it appear
that high and even refined sentiment may coexist with the shrewder and
more comic elements of the Yankee character. I believe that what is
essentially vulgar and mean-spirited in politics seldom has its source
in the body of the people, but much rather among those who are made
timid by their wealth or selfish by their love of power. A democracy can
_afford_ much better than an aristocracy to follow out its convictions,
and is perhaps better qualified to build those convictions on plain
principles of right and wrong, rather than on the shifting sands of
expediency. I had always thought 'Sam Slick' a libel on the Yankee
character, and a complete falsification of Yankee modes of speech,
though, for aught I know, it may be true in both respects so far as the
British provinces are concerned. To me the dialect was native, was
spoken all about me when a boy, at a time when an Irish day-laborer was
as rare as an American one now. Since then I have made a study of it so
far as opportunity allowed. But when I write in it, it is as in a mother
tongue, and I am carried back far beyond any studies of it to long-ago
noonings in my father's hay-fields, and to the talk of Sam and Job over
their jug of _blackstrap_ under the shadow of the ash-tree which still
dapples the grass whence they have been gone so long.
But life is short, and prefaces should be. And so, my good friends, to
whom this introductory epistle is addressed, farewell. Though some of
you have remonstrated with me, I shall never write any more 'Biglow
Papers,' however great the temptation,--great especially at the present
time,--unless it be to complete the original plan of this Series by
bringing out Mr. Sawin as an 'original Union man. ' The very favor with
which they have been received is a hindrance to me, by forcing on me a
self-consciousness from which I was entirely free when I wrote the First
Series. Moreover, I am no longer the same careless youth, with nothing
to do but live to myself, my books, and my friends, that I was then. I
always hated politics, in the ordinary sense of the word, and I am not
likely to grow, fonder of them, now that I have learned how rare it is
to find a man who can keep principle clear from party and personal
prejudice, or can conceive the possibility of another's doing so. I feel
as if I could in some sort claim to be an _emeritus_, and I am sure that
political satire will have full justice done it by that genuine and
delightful humorist, the Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby. I regret that I killed
off Mr. Wilbur so soon, for he would have enabled me to bring into this
preface a number of learned quotations, which must now go a-begging, and
also enabled me to dispersonalize myself into a vicarious egotism. He
would have helped me likewise in clearing myself from a charge which I
shall briefly touch on, because my friend Mr. Hughes has found it
needful to defend me in his preface to one of the English editions of
the 'Biglow Papers. ' I thank Mr. Hughes heartily for his friendly care
of my good name, and were his Preface accessible to my readers here (as
I am glad it is not, for its partiality makes me blush), I should leave
the matter where he left it. The charge is of profanity, brought in by
persons who proclaimed African slavery of Divine institution, and is
based (so far as I have heard) on two passages in the First Series--
'An' you've gut to git up airly,
Ef you want to take in God,'
and,
'God'll send the bill to you,'
and on some Scriptural illustrations by Mr. Sawin.
Now, in the first place, I was writing under an assumed character, and
must talk as the person would whose mouthpiece I made myself. Will any
one familiar with the New England countryman venture to tell me that he
does _not_ speak of sacred things familiarly? that Biblical allusions
(allusions, that is, to the single book with whose language, from his
church-going habits, he is intimate) are _not_ frequent on his lips? If
so, he cannot have pursued his studies of the character on so many
long-ago muster-fields and at so many cattle-shows as I. But I scorn any
such line of defence, and will confess at once that one of the things I
am proud of in my countrymen is (I am not speaking now of such persons
as I have assumed Mr. Sawin to be) that they do not put their Maker away
far from them, or interpret the fear of God into being afraid of Him.
The Talmudists had conceived a deep truth when they said, that 'all
things were in the power of God, save the fear of God;' and when people
stand in great dread of an invisible power, I suspect they mistake quite
another personage for the Deity. I might justify myself for the passages
criticised by many parallel ones from Scripture, but I need not. The
Reverend Homer Wilbur's note-books supply me with three apposite
quotations. The first is from a Father of the Roman Church, the second
from a Father of the Anglican, and the third from a Father of Modern
English poetry. The Puritan divines would furnish me with many more
such. St. Bernard says, _Sapiens nummularius est Deus: nummum fictum non
recipiet_; 'A cunning money-changer is God: he will take in no base
coin. ' Latimer says, 'You shall perceive that God, by this example,
shaketh us by the noses and taketh us by the ears. ' Familiar enough,
both of them, one would say! But I should think Mr. Biglow had verily
stolen the last of the two maligned passages from Dryden's 'Don
Sebastian,' where I find
'And beg of Heaven to charge the bill on me! '
And there I leave the matter, being willing to believe that the Saint,
the Martyr, and even the Poet, were as careful of God's honor as my
critics are ever likely to be.
II. GLOSSARY TO THE BIGLOW PAPERS
Act'lly, _actually_.
Air, _are_.
Airth, _earth_.
Airy, _area_.
Aree, _area_.
Arter, _after_.
Ax, _ask_.
Beller, _bellow_.
Bellowses, _lungs_.
Ben, _been_.
Bile, _boil_.
Bimeby, _by and by_.
Blurt out, _to speak bluntly_.
Bust, _burst_.
Buster, _a roistering blade_; used also as a general superlative.
Caird, _carried_.
Cairn, _carrying_.
Caleb, _a turncoat_.
Cal'late, _calculate_.
Cass, _a person with two lives_.
Close, _clothes_.
Cockerel, _a young cock_.
Cocktail, _a kind of drink_; also, _an ornament peculiar to
soldiers_.
Convention, _a place where people are imposed on; a juggler's show_.
Coons, _a cant term for a now defunct party_; derived, perhaps, from
the fact of their being commonly _up a tree_.
Cornwallis, _a sort of muster in masquerade_; supposed to have had
its origin soon after the Revolution, and to commemorate the surrender
of Lord Cornwallis. It took the place of the old Guy Fawkes procession.
Crooked stick, _a perverse, froward person_.
Cunnle, _a colonel_.
Cus, _a curse_; also, _a pitiful fellow_.
Darsn't, used indiscriminately, either in singular or plural number,
for _dare not, dares not_, and _dared not_.
Deacon off, _to give the cue to_; derived from a custom, once
universal, but now extinct, in our New England Congregational churches.
An important part of the office of deacon was to read aloud the hymns
_given out_ by the minister, one line at a time, the congregation
singing each line as soon as read.
Demmercrat, leadin', _one in favor of extending slavery; a free-trade
lecturer maintained in the custom-house_.
Desput, _desperate_.
D[=o]', _don't_.
Doos, _does_.
Doughface, _a contented lick-spittle_; a common variety of Northern
politician.
Dror, _draw_.
Du, _do_.
Dunno, dno, _do not_ or _does not know_.
Dut, _dirt_.
Eend, _end_.
Ef, _if_.
Emptins, _yeast_.
Env'y, _envoy_.
Everlasting, an intensive, without reference to duration.
Ev'y, _every_.
Ez, _as_.
Fence, on the; said of one who halts between two opinions; a trimmer.
Fer, _for_.
Ferfle, ferful, _fearful_; also an intensive.
Fin', _find_.
Fish-skin, used in New England to clarify coffee.
Fix, _a difficulty, a nonplus_.
Foller, folly, _to follow_.
Forrerd, _forward_.
Frum, _from_.
Fur, _for_
Furder, _farther_.
Furrer, _furrow_. Metaphorically, _to draw a straight furrow_ is to
live uprightly or decorously.
Fust, _first_.
Gin, _gave_.
Git, _get_.
Gret, _great_.
Grit, _spirit, energy, pluck_.
Grout, _to sulk_.
Grouty, _crabbed, surly_.
Gum, _to impose on_.
Gump, _a foolish fellow, a dullard_.
Gut, _got_.
Hed, _had_.
Heern, _heard_.
Hellum, _helm_.
Hendy, _handy_.
Het, _heated_.
Hev, _have_.
Hez, _has_.
Holl, _whole_.
Holt, _hold_.
Huf, _hoof_.
Hull, _whole_.
Hum, _home_.
Humbug, _General Taylor's antislavery_.
Hut, _hurt_.
Idno, _I do not know_.
In'my, _enemy_.
Insines, _ensigns_; used to designate both the officer who carries the
standard, and the standard itself.
Inter, intu, _into_.
Jedge, _judge_.
Jest, _just_.
Jine, _join_.
Jint, _joint_.
Junk, _a fragment of any solid substance_.
Keer, _care_.
Kep', _kept_.
Killock, _a small anchor_.
Kin', kin' o', kinder, _kind, kind of_.
Lawth, _loath_.
Less, _let's, let us_.
Let daylight into, _to shoot_.
Let on, _to hint, to confess, to own_.
Lick, _to beat, to overcome_.
Lights, _the bowels_.
Lily-pads, _leaves of the water-lily_.
Long-sweetening, _molasses_.
Mash, _marsh_.
Mean, _stingy, ill-natured_.
Min', _mind_.
Nimepunce, _ninepence, twelve and a half cents_.
Nowers, _nowhere_.
Offen, _often_.
Ole, _old_.
Ollers, olluz, _always_.
On, _of_; used before _it_ or _them,_ or at the end of a
sentence, as _on 't, on 'em, nut ez ever I heerd on_.
On'y, _only_.
Ossifer, _officer_ (seldom heard).
Peaked, _pointed_.
Peek, _to peep_.
Pickerel, _the pike, a fish_.
Pint, _point_.
Pocket full of rocks, _plenty of money_.
Pooty, _pretty_.
Pop'ler, _conceited, popular_.
Pus, _purse_.
Put out, _troubled, vexed_.
Quarter, _a quarter-dollar_.
Queen's-arm, _a musket_.
Resh, _rush_.
Revelee, _the reveille_.
Rile, _to trouble_.
Riled, _angry; disturbed,_ as the sediment in any liquid.
Riz, _risen_.
Row, a long row to hoe, _a difficult task_.
Rugged, _robust_.
Sarse, _abuse, impertinence_.
Sartin, _certain_.
Saxon, _sacristan, sexton_.
Scaliest, _worst_.
Scringe, _cringe_.
Scrouge, _to crowd_.
Sech, _such_.
Set by, _valued_.
Shakes, great, _of considerable consequence_.
Shappoes, _chapeaux, cocked-hats_.
Sheer, _share_.
Shet, _shut_.
Shut, _shirt_.
Skeered, _scared_.
Skeeter, _mosquito_.
Skooting, _running,_ or _moving swiftly_.
Slarterin', _slaughtering_.
Slim, _contemptible_.
Snake, _crawled like a snake_; but _to snake any one out_
is to track him to his hiding-place; _to snake a thing out_ is
to snatch it out.
Soffies, _sofas_.
Sogerin', _soldiering_; a barbarous amusement common among men
in the savage state.
Som'ers, _somewhere_.
So'st, _so as that_.
Sot, _set, obstinate, resolute_.
Spiles, _spoils; objects of political ambition_.
Spry, _active_.
Steddles, _stout stakes driven into the salt marshes_, on which the
hay-ricks are set, and thus raised out of the reach of high tides.
Streaked, _uncomfortable, discomfited_.
Suckle, _circle_.
Sutthin', _something_.
Suttin, _certain_.
Take on, _to sorrow_.
Talents, _talons_.
Taters, _potatoes_.
Tell, _till_.
Tetch, _touch_.
Tetch tu, _to be able_; used always after a negative in this sense.
Tollable, _tolerable_.
Toot, used derisively for _playing on any wind instrument_.
Thru, _through_.
Thundering, a euphemism common in New England for the profane English
expression _devilish_. Perhaps derived from the belief, common
formerly, that thunder was caused by the Prince of the Air, for some
of whose accomplishments consult Cotton Mather.
Tu, _to, too_; commonly has this sound when used emphatically,
or at the end of a sentence. At other times it has the sound of _t_
in _tough_, as _Ware ye gain' tu? Goin' ta Boston_.
Ugly, _ill-tempered, intractable_.
Uncle Sam, _United States_; the largest boaster of liberty and
owner of slaves.
Unrizzest, applied to dough or bread; _heavy, most unrisen, or most
incapable of rising_.
V-spot, _a five-dollar bill_.
Vally, _value_.
Wake snakes, _to get into trouble_.
Wal, _well_; spoken with great deliberation, and sometimes with the
_a_ very much flattened, sometimes (but more seldom) very much
broadened.
Wannut, _walnut (hickory)_.
Ware, _where_.
Ware, _were_.
Whopper, _an uncommonly large lie_; as, that General Taylor is in
favor of the Wilmot Proviso.
Wig, _Whig_; a party now dissolved.
Wunt, _will not_.
Wus, _worse_.
Wut, _what_.
Wuth, _worth_; _as, Antislavery perfessions 'fore 'lection aint
wuth a Bungtown copper_.
Wuz, _was_, sometimes _were_.
Yaller, _yellow_.
Yeller, _yellow_.
Yellers, _a disease of peach-trees_.
Zack, Ole, _a second Washington, an antislavery slaveholder; a humane
buyer and seller of men and women, a Christian hero generally_.
III. INDEX TO BIGLOW PAPERS
A.
A. wants his axe ground.
A. B. , Information wanted concerning.
Abraham (Lincoln), his constitutional scruples.
Abuse, an, its usefulness.
Adam, eldest son of,
respected,
his fall,
how if he had bitten a sweet apple?
Adam, Grandfather, forged will of.
AEeneas goes to hell.
AEeolus, a seller of money, as is supposed by some.
AEeschylus, a saying of.
Alligator, a decent one conjectured to be, in some sort, humane.
Allsmash, the eternal.
Alphonso the Sixth of Portugal, tyrannical act of.
Ambrose, Saint, excellent (but rationalistic) sentiment of.
'American Citizen,' new compost so called.
American Eagle,
a source of inspiration,
hitherto wrongly classed,
long bill of.
Americans bebrothered.
Amos cited.
Anakim, that they formerly existed, shown.
Angels
providentially speak French,
conjectured to be skilled in all tongues.
Anglo-Saxondom, its idea, what.
Anglo-Saxon mask.
Anglo-Saxon race.
Anglo-Saxon verse, by whom carried to perfection.
Antiquaries, Royal Society of Northern.
Antonius,
a speech of,
by whom best reported.
Antony of Padua, Saint, happy in his hearers.
Apocalypse, beast in, magnetic to theologians.
Apollo, confessed mortal by his own oracle.
Apollyon, his tragedies popular.
Appian, an Alexandrian, not equal to Shakespeare as an orator.
Applause, popular, the _summum bonum_.
Ararat, ignorance of foreign tongues is an.
Arcadian background.
Ar c'houskezik, an evil spirit.
Ardennes, Wild Boar of, an ancestor of Rev. Mr. Wilbur.
Aristocracy, British, their natural sympathies.
Aristophanes.
Arms, profession of, once esteemed, especially that of gentlemen.
Arnold.
Ashland.
Astor, Jacob, a rich man.
Astraea, nineteenth century forsaken by.
Athenians, ancient, an institution of.
Atherton, Senator, envies the loon.
'Atlantic,' editors of. See _Neptune_.
Atropos, a lady skilful with the scissors.
Austin, Saint, prayer of.
Austrian eagle split.
Aye-aye, the, an African animal, America supposed to be settled by.
B. , a Congressman, _vide_ A.
Babel,
probably the first Congress,
gabble-mill.
Baby, a low-priced one.
Bacon, his rebellion.
Bacon, Lord, quoted.
Bagowind, Hon. Mr. , whether to be damned.
Balcom, Elder Joash Q. , 2d, founds a Baptist society in Jaalam, A. D. 1830.
Baldwin apples.
Baratarias, real or imaginary, which most pleasant.
Barnum, a great natural curiosity recommended to.
Barrels, an inference from seeing.
Bartlett, Mr. , mistaken.
Baton Rouge,
strange peculiarities of laborers at.
Baxter, R. , a saying of,
Bay, Mattysqumscot.
Bay State, singular effect produced on military officers by leaving it.
Beast, in Apocalypse,
a loadstone for whom,
tenth horn of, applied to recent events.
Beaufort.
Beauregard real name Toutant.
Beaver brook.
Beelzebub, his rigadoon.
Behmen, his letters not letters.
Behn, Mrs. Aphra, quoted.
Sellers,
a saloon-keeper,
inhumanly refuses credit to a presidential candidate.
Belmont. See Woods.
Bentley, his heroic method with Milton.
Bible, not composed for use of colored persons.
Biglow, Ezekiel,
his letter to Hon. J. T. Buckingham,
never heard of any one named Mandishes,
nearly fourscore years old,
his aunt Keziah, a notable saying of.
Biglow, Hosea, Esquire,
excited by composition,
a poem by,
his opinion of war,
wanted at home by Nancy,
recommends a forcible enlistment of warlike editors,
would not wonder, if generally agreed with,
versifies letter of Mr. Sawin,
a letter from,
his opinion of Mr. Sawin,
does not deny fun at Cornwallis,
his idea of militia glory,
a pun of,
is uncertain in regard to people of Boston,
had never heard of Mr. John P. Robinson,
_aliquid sufflaminandus_,
his poems attributed to a Mr. Lowell,
is unskilled in Latin,
his poetry maligned by some,
his disinterestedness,
his deep share in commonweal,
his claim to the presidency,
his mowing,
resents being called Whig,
opposed to tariff,
obstinate,
infected with peculiar notions,
reports a speech,
emulates historians of antiquity,
his character sketched from a hostile point of view,
a request of his complied with,
appointed at a public meeting in Jaalam,
confesses ignorance, in one minute particular, of propriety,
his opinion of cocked hats,
letter to,
called 'Dear Sir,' by a general,
probably receives same compliment from two hundred and nine,
picks his apples,
his crop of Baldwins conjecturally large,
his labors in writing autographs,
visits the Judge and has a pleasant time,
born in Middlesex County,
his favorite walks,
his gifted pen,
born and bred in the country,
feels his sap start in spring,
is at times unsocial,
the school-house where he learned his a b c,
falls asleep,
his ancestor a Cromwellian colonel,
finds it harder to make up his mind as he grows older,
wishes he could write a song or two,
liable to moods,
loves nature and is loved in return,
describes some favorite haunts of his,
his slain kindred,
his speech in March meeting,
does not reckon on being sent to Congress,
has no eloquence,
his own reporter,
never abused the South,
advises Uncle Sam,
is not Boston-mad,
bids farewell.
Billings, Dea. Cephas.
_Billy, Extra, demagogus. _
Birch, virtue of, in instilling certain of the dead languages.
Bird of our country sings hosanna.
Bjarna Grimolfsson invents smoking.
Blind, to go it.
Blitz pulls ribbons from his mouth.
Bluenose potatoes, smell of, eagerly desired.
Bobolink, the.
Bobtail obtains a cardinal's hat.
Boggs, a Norman name.
Bogus Four-Corners Weekly Meridian.
