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Show "Uncle Sam." The application of the term "Uncle Sam" to the United States had its beginning be-ginning in Troy, N. Y., during the war of 1812. A commission contractor of Troy, named Elbert Anderson, had a shop in which the stocks were always examined and passed by a government inspector called Samuel Wilson, who was generally known as "Uncle Sam." When the boxes were passed they were always marked with the initials of the contractor and the nation, "EA-US." "EA-US." One day the man who was doing the marking was asked what the initials ini-tials stood for, and replied. Jokingly, that they were the initials of the contractor con-tractor and of "Uncle Sam." The joke spread among the men, got into print, and long before the end of the war had become known all over the country. coun-try. Mr. Wilson, the original "Uncle Sam," died in Troy in 1854. |