Part 102

The name Uncle Sam is a jocular name long in use for the Government of the United States.

Shortly after the war of 1812 was declared, Elbert Anderson of New York State, who was a contractor for the army, went to Troy, New York, to purchase a quantity of provisions. At that place the provisions were inspected, the official inspectors being two brothers named Wilson--Ebenezer and Samuel. The latter was very popular among the men and was known as “Uncle Sam Wilson” and everybody called him that. The boxes in which the provisions were packed were stamped with four letters, E. A. for Elbert Anderson, and U. S. for United States. One of the men engaged in making the inspection asked another of the workmen who happened to be a jocular fellow, what the letters E. A. U. S. on the boxes stood for. He said in reply that he did not know but thought they probably meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam Wilson, and that they had left off the W which would stand for Wilson. The suggestion caught on quickly and as such things often do, the joke spread rapidly so that everybody soon thought of the name “Uncle Sam” whenever they saw the letters U. S. on anything or in any place.

The suit of striped trousers and long tailed coat and beaver hat in which Uncle Sam is now always represented in pictures, was the inspiration of the famous cartoonist.

Egypt 2500 B.C.

Unleavened Bread 2000 B.C.

Pompeii 50 A.D.

Palestine

Modern American Loaf

England

England

France

Hungary

Spain

Switzerland

Bohemia

Holland

Italy

Austria

Germany

Balkan States]

The Story in a Loaf of Bread

Why is Bread so Important?

The history of bread as a food reads like a romance. It has played an important part in the destinies of mankind and its struggles through the ages to perfection. The progress of nations through their different periods of development can be traced by the quality and quantity of bread they have used.

No other food has taken such an important part in the civilization of man.

To a large extent it has been the means of changing his habits from those of a savage to those of a civilized being. It has supplied the peaceful pursuits of agriculture and turned him from war and the chase.

It is an interesting fact that the civilized and the semi-civilized people of the earth can be divided into two classes, based upon their principal cereal foods: the rice eaters and the bread eaters.

Every one admits that rice eaters are less progressive, while bread eaters have always been the leaders of civilization.

It is an interesting fact that just as Japan is changing from a rice-eating nation to a bread-eating nation she is asserting her power.