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542 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ju...
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HUMBUG. IT is Mr. Hosea Biglow who, afte...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Actors And Authors. A Most Edifying- Spe...
over again , but uniformly without success . -How long .-is this reproach to stand ? How long are we to continue to hear of authors dying in poverty and want , leaving 'their ' families to the mercy of the wide world ? Is it professionalJealousy which stands in the way pi ' their combination for the purposes of mutual . relief ; - ' , or is it that they shrink from the indignity of sending round the hat ? It the latter , we would put it to them , whether it is not better to send round the hat in good time , before the day of" prosperity is past , than to wait until the appeal must necessarily be made in the tones of a whining and importunate beggar ? And we would ask one other question : When is the foundation-stone of the Literary College to belaid ?
542 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ju...
542 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 9 , 1 S 6 CL
Humbug. It Is Mr. Hosea Biglow Who, Afte...
HUMBUG . IT is Mr . Hosea Biglow who , after giving the various headings of the Creed of that Athanasius of the Press , a pious Hedditur , sums up the whole in the following quatrain , not now so often quoted as it will be : — " In short , I firmly du believe In Humbcto generally , For it ' s a thing , 1 du perceive , To hev a solid valley . " " This , "he continues ,- ^ - " this hath my faithful shepherd been , " and he ur ° -es also that he has been pretty well fed . by that shepherd . But we must remember that the " pious Hedditur " was a humbug himself , and we cannot wonder at his creed . He may well talk about the value of deceit who lives by it ; but he who so believes is a ro <* ue ; and a rogue , says Colekibge , is after all but a " fool in circumbendibus , " a roundabout idiot , in good truth , who after all does a great deal more harm to himself than he does , to the world . Fools and rogues are very nearly allied , a great deal niore nearly than they imagine , and are divided by a , very slight partition ;—low cunning and a general disbelief in good is common to each . Ihe fool we aretold , " hath said in his heart , There is no God ; " the xogue whispers in his there is no honesty ; from this difference springs their diHerent actions . Of old , people believed more strongly in creeds , or at least we think so : but the rogue never did ; he has this against him , that he absolutely must mistrust himself , and only hope tb succeed in-. tils practices by that blind faith which he has" in a species of Luck or Fortune . " Sometimes , " said one in
prison for swindling , "it turns up trumps , and sometimes it doesn't . The very best lay ( scheme ) will fail , and the very worst will bring inJfche ochre ( money ) , there ' s no knowing what ' s what . " Thisls the sort of belief which the rogue has to support him . A good course of reading and examination in the prosperity of rogues would do our commercial men good . A successful rogue is a rather rare bird , and it must be confessed that when one is so , he does more harm to general honesty than any other man in the world . The truly strong and good man will know that it is not Worth beinga ¦ rojj'iie for all the world ; but all of us are not true , good , and honest , and it is a sorry sight for most of us to find a swindler exalted into high society , a sharper hv the councils of governors , and a rogue seated in the place of honest men . there
- _^ - —If-niosiLf ) fusf however ,.. eschew downright roguery ^ are unfortunately too many who believe in JH . uinbug / ' ^ No ^^ -HlinTbiTg " is a curious word . We do not exactly know its definition . The learned gentlemen who give all kinds of answers in Notes and Queries tell us that it came from a swindler of the name of H 03 IBUKG ; others say that in the late wars—the late wars are those ' of Queen Anne ' s time—the Hamburgers , being merchants and men in trade , published false reports , which were said to be from Hamburg ; hence the word Humbug , meaning what the French call a canard , a goose , because he who believes it is a goose . In the Crimean campaign the young officers called these stories " a shave , " for what reason we know not ; in war , when hopes and fears rise up every day , and are allayed as quickly , these stories are prewhich wicJred
valent enough . They are the rumours of war , are and accursed because untrue , and the devil is the father of them as of all other lies . But " Humbug" is not quite so black in its parentage , and arises naturally out of the heart of man . The origin of the ternvis forgotten , but the word is a portion of our tongue now , and recognised even in the highest society , although Johnson , old Bailey , and Walker do not give it . But \ ve all know what it means . Clergymen , soldiers , tradesmen , politicians , House of Commons men , and prime ministers , all understand it . fhey find out what it means abroad as well as at home too . In Paris , Rome , Madrid , St . Petersburg , the word may not be a household one , but the spirit which it enwraps is . In a mild sense there is a considerable deal of humbug in every
kind of transaction— -there is in everjr trado , in every newspaper , m every ship . Sam Suck used to drive his grout trade in clockmaking * through one species of humbug , which is flattery . Of fifteen thousand clocks , he said , sold by himself and partners in one province , twelve thousandwere sold-by a knowledge of soft sawder and human naiur . The process he explains thus : —He never naked people to buy his clocks , but pretended that they were for some neighbour , nnd merely set them # " »>!?« nnd left them in their houses for his own accommodation . When he called for them ho found that people were not inclined to purfc with them , nnd did not know the force of a habit when once indulged in , or the fondness which we contract for a superfluity which once we did not care for . We may deal with a character in fiction perhnps more boldly and safely than with one who is alive and before our eyes . Wo shall not hurt our neighbour ' s feelings if we declare that Mr . Slick told a great lie , and sold his clock * by moans of lying , and that it would have
been muck better for him to have been a squatter or a backwoodsman all his life , than to have realized a fortune by these ignominious ways . A lie does an immense deal of harm in every way , and no one but a fool can expect to gain by it in the long run- ; but yet trade is , aud ^ has been for tt long time , founded upon a system of small lies . Our . satirist Pope , in ' parcelling out the sons of a gentleman in the world , says" Ready and rough , the first one struts a squire ; The next a tradesman , meek , and much a liar . "
And there is every reason to believe the picture too true . Further back , in Elizabeth ' s time , we find all the poets and wits at war with the citizens , talking and writing perpetually against their cheating and cozening , and exposing their shorfeweights and other rogueries whenever they could ; but further back still , in Queen Clkopatua ' s time , and even in the good old days of the Pharaohs and the shepherd kings , there were cheats . Some of the gold necklaces and earrings in the tombs of the Mummies have been discovered with the filling of copper exuding through the thin covering of gold , and a learned Irish bishop the other day told us that often found of onl small
the ancient ring money of the Irish was y a coating of gold filled up with lead . These ancient lies cannot stand against the tooth of Time . The consequence of this has been , that traders and men of commerce , instead of being regarded as the pioneers of civilization and as honourable men , have been looked upon with universal suspicion . The shopkeeper and shopman are terms of . contempt . A tradesman who gives his whole time to the an-angement and distribution of things of general utility , should be regarded as a very valuable member of society , but he is not ,, and such is top often the sad stigma attaching to his position that no sooner is he-in it than lift wants to-leave it . lie is ready to
make a fortune as quickly as he civn ; his children maybe sent to fine schools , but the children , of persons-of society will not associate with them ; he is tabooed by those above him , and when lie . makes a fortune the people around his country house look down upon him . He may be a very good and excellent man , but he is the victim of the general dishonesty of his class . Even the very nation to which he belongs feels the stigma ; and although we boast of having the most honest trading community in the world , all England felt affronted when ^ Tapoleon , who was after all a very great rogue himself , called us a nutiqii of shopkeepers . ; It was certainiv time to be ashamed of the class when we found
that wooden nutmegs were sold for real ones , chicory wnssubstituted for coffee , red lead arid ground glass lor cayenne , and sloe leaves or worse for tea . But instead of remedying the" wrong by ceasing to dp evil and learning to do right , we had recourse to humbug . Every article was labelled genuine ; every publichouse was noted ; every bottle of port was fine old crusted port ; and -testimonials , either forged or obtained from good-natured and silly people , were paraded by thousands . Luckily one kind of humbug kills another , and the generality of the shams are so great that people have , ceased to believe in -them . The cheapest and best tea , or tobacco , or coffee , or linen drapery in the neighbourhood or the world , us the proprietors according to . taste ; -may advertise , are now regarded , generally , as the worst , and a little reflection on the part of the public would soon put an end to the deceit altogether , but luckily for the - ^ -ltuiiibng-.-fl--dealei ^ -inure _ tlian h al the p eo ple do not reflect—and
by that portion they live ; nay but that the other portion is continually getting stronger and wiser they would flourish much more than they do ; yet the old proverbs are true enough , '" ill-got ton gain never prospers , " " that which is got over the devil ' s back is sure to be spent under his belly , " " a lie stands on one leg , a truth upon four , " and so on . Few are inclined to pardon one who Ins once deceived or cajoled them , and he who lias deceived hiscustomor in one thing never knows nor can know all the harm he has done himself . Continued puffing and activity , and loud eryings out , may make a rogue successful and notorious , but after all his success is of a very evanescent kind , and ln " s notoriety only exposes him when ho is once known .
What is true of the tradesman is true of the lawyer , or the politician , prof any class in life . It is not in nature to love a rogue ; we may laugh at his cleverness onco or twice , but we are not at all amused at his cajolery if we are onco cajoled by him . Wo English do not like loud pro misers ; we do not love politicians who are like teetotums , and have a figure on every side . The turnooat who " humbugs" us once we never forgive , andaoldom trust again . We say he is too clever for us ; we slum him , and are quite right iu doing so . He may rise in life , but his sin will find him out . But beyond nnd above the political , there is yet another class of humbug still existing 1 , but not quite so powerful as it used to be , which is called a pious fraud . It arises generally from the fact of people believing that they cau help God with a lie , and may do just , a little evil , of course only a very little , that good may come of it
Thus , if a church was to be built , or a monastery founded , some saint appeared in a dream , and commanded it to' be done , or a miracle took place on the spofc , or a relic was turned up and cured people ; The pious were to be gently coerced into doing good , and the fraud took place ; or . it may be that the rich mail was to be quietly persuaded to give up a small portion of his goods . The history of pious frauds would muko perhaps a book as entertaining us any thut ever was written ; but sooner or later , like all untruths , thoy have exploded . Good but weak men might first have indulged in them , men whoso faith was not utrong- enough to endure all tilings , and-who looked for some comfort here below ; but their followers were- neither wo good nor so faithful m they , and their groanuosh spoilt all , and whun the humbug' was found out the originators suffered just us muck us the coarser
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), June 9, 1860, page 10, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_09061860/page/10/
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