The Toilers of the Sea

by Victor Hugo

“Is it the case, sir, that you are fond of using nicknames in America, so much so that you apply them to all your famous people, and call your celebrated Missouri banker Thomas Benton ‘Old Bullion’?” “Yes, sir—just as we call Zachary Taylor ‘Old Rough and Ready.’ ” “And General Harrison ‘Old Tip’—isn’t that so?—and General Jackson ‘Old Hickory’?” “Because Jackson is as tough as hickory wood, and because Harrison beat the redskins at Tippecanoe.” “It’s a very odd fashion.” “It’s just our way. We call Van Buren the ‘Little Magician’; Seward is called ‘Little Billy’ because he introduced small dollar bills; and Douglas, the Democratic senator for Illinois, who is four feet tall but a great orator, is the ‘Little Giant.’ You can go from Texas to Maine, but you will never find anyone using the name Cass: it is always the ‘big man from Michigan.’ And Clay is known as the ‘Mill-Boy of the Slashes’: his father was a miller.” “I would rather say Clay or Cass,” said the man from Paris. “It’s shorter.” “You would show you didn’t know what was what. Corwin, who is secretary of the Treasury, is the ‘Wagon Boy.’ Daniel Webster is ‘Black Dan.’ And Winfield Scott, whose first thought after beating the English at Chippeway was to call for a plate of soup, is called ‘Marshal Tureen.’ ”