Pleasanter it is to turn from the birds of night to the fops and dandies by day. The word =Fop= comes from the German _foppen_, to make a fool of; and =Dandy= from the French _dandin_, a ninny. Between these two poor specimens of humanity there is no perceptible difference. The =Macaronies= of the last century derived their designation from the fashionable “Macaroni Clubs” to which they belonged. The modern class-title of =Masher= finds its origin in the Romany or gipsy word _mâsha_, signifying “to fascinate the eye.” _En passant_, the term =Gipsy= is a corruption of _Egyptian_, so called because the original family or tribe of low caste Hindoos expelled by Timour about the year 1399 eventually travelled into Europe by way of Egypt. The =Gipsies= were also in former times known as =Bohemians=, from the district in which they first attracted popular attention before they scattered themselves over Western Europe. Hence, any individual whose habits are unconventual, and to a certain extent nomadic, is styled a =Bohemian=. The name of =The Upper Ten= applied to the aristocracy, is short for “The Upper Ten Thousand,” a term originally applied by N. P. Willis, the American poet (born 1807, died 1867), to the fashionables of New York who, at the time he introduced it, numbered about ten thousand. A distinctly latter-day expression conveying much the same signification is =The Four Hundred=, by which we are left to conclude that the “select” society of New York must have undergone a considerable weeding-out during the last twenty years.
The temperance terms =Teetotal= and =Teetotaler= originated in the stuttering exhortation of one Richard Turner, an artizan of Preston, who, while addressing a meeting of abstainers in September, 1833, observed that “Nothing but t-t-t-total abstinence will do!” Several bodies of total abstainers from alcoholic beverages in England and America style themselves =Rechabites=, after the descendants of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, who lived in tents and foreswore wine. Others rejoice in the name of =Good Templars=, after the Templars of old. The =Good Templar Movement= cannot be accurately described as a _crusade_ against drink; but the =League of the Cross=, established by the Roman Catholics for the total suppression of drunkenness, is, in title and in fact, one of the most powerful crusades ever distinguished in modern times.