Note 89 — UNCLE SAM. BY ALBERT MATTHEWS.

The Clockmaker; or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville, first appeared in the columns of the Nova Scotian in 1835-1836, and was first published in book form at Halifax in 1837. In a conversation supposed to have taken place between Edward Everett and Sam Slick, the latter remarked: "Well, I don't know, said I, but somehow or another, I guess you'd found preaching the best speculation in the long run; them are Unitarians pay better than Uncle Sam (we call, said the Clockmaker, the American public Uncle Sam, as you can the British, John Bull)" (The Clockmaker, second edition, Concord, 1838, p. 43).

Mr. Robert G. Haliburton relates this anecdote of Judge Haliburton: "On his arrival in London, the son of Lord Abinger (the famous Sir James Scarlett) who was confined to his bed, asked him to call on his father, as there was a question which he would like to put to him. When he called, his Lordship said, 'I am convinced that there is a veritable Sam Slick in the flesh now selling clocks to the Bluenoses. Am I right?' 'No,' replied the Judge, 'there is no such person. He was a pure accident. I never intended to describe a Yankee clockmaker or Yankee dialect; but Sam Slick slipped into my book before I was aware of it, and once there he was there to stay'" (in Haliburton: a Centenary Chaplet, Toronto, 1897, pp. 25, 26).