YANKEE-DOODLE 195 



more slavery to custom and exclusive opinion, than in 

 the United States. A Yank, and more particularly a 

 Southerner, sneers at the aristocracy of birth and blood, 

 but he is confoundedly anxious to know who was your 

 great-grandfather. If the old gentleman was hanged for 

 forgery, you will be an object of interest ; if he was 

 hung, drawn, and quartered for high treason, you will be 

 a hero of the first water ; but if he was the village " snip " 

 you had better not mention the fact, even though he 

 went to a righteous man's grave. 



I shall be told by a certain American critic that I 

 am perpetuating the usual errors against the American 

 people. I know that beforehand. The Yankee, like the 

 Irishman, is never satisfied. The more you concede to 

 him, the more he wants. He thinks that no one can 

 comprehend him and his " institutions," and is sure to 

 quarrel with his criticiser. That I look for ; but as the 

 gospel-tenter in the backwoods said to " Kernal " Cracker : 

 " You've got to be converted. You can take it lying 

 down like a lamb, or you can take it standing up like a 

 man ; but converted you shall be." So I mean to treat 

 Jonathan like a spoiled child. I am going to state my 

 opinion of him, his ways, and his customs, with a free- 

 dom and a cheek all his own. To paraphrase what is 

 often said of my own people, the Yankee, as a rule, knows 

 more of Europe than he knows of his own country. He 

 needs to learn to view himself as others see him. 



To begin, the term " Yankee " is applied to the people 

 of the five New England States only. I give it a wider 

 range, and call all people born in the United States Yankees. 

 I have a perfect right to do so, for the term was origi- 

 nally given to all white men, settlers in North America. 

 Everybody has read that the word is supposed to be the 

 Indian attempt to pronounce the name, English. That is 

 an error. The term was first applied to the original 

 Dutch settlers, and " Yanki " is the correct spelling. A 

 yanki is a small kind of galiot, and the Dutch fur- 



