Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 February 1918 — How They Became Sammies. [ARTICLE]

How They Became Sammies.

It has been reserved to the Paris Figaro to. discover, in the American slang dictionary, the “true” origin of thb term “Sammy” as expressive of the American “Tommy,” says the Christian Science Monitor. The expression did not originate In France, but at West Point, in 1870, when a certain Lieutenant Mills was manager of the mess. The fare included some formidable sandwiches of bread and molasses. Only the cadet who had consumed six of these substantial sandwiches in succession was allowed to bear the appellation of “Sammy All of which sounds like a very plausible attempt, on the part of the French poilu, to disclaim credit for the cognomen which caused so much dissatisfaction with the American troops when it was first heard at a French landing port.; ,