Date: Thu, 10 Oct 1996 01:55:49 -0400

From: "Barry A. Popik" Bapopik[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: An early "Jack Frost"



Is it too early to bring out my "Jack Frost" items and antedate?

In the Philadelphia Inquirer, 10 December 1909, pg. 1 there's a nice

picture of him as "Santa's Advance Agent." In the Inquirer of 9 December

1906, pg. 1, he's "On Time." On 18 December 1906, pg. 5, col. 1, the

Inquirer explained, "The frozen-bearded being in Fred Morgan's cartoon for

last Sunday's Inquirer is, of course, the artist's impersonation of 'Jack

Frost,' the spirit of cold and frost in nursery mythology, whom Robert Burns

described in his 'Bigs of Ayr,' as he 'beneath the silent beam, Crept,

gently-crustling, o'er the glittering stream.'"

In the Mercury Illustrated Alamanc for 1879 (Newport, RI), there's an

illustration of "Jack Frost Pinching a Boy's Nose." In Punch of 10 December

1898, pg. 267, he's "Mr. John Frost." In Vanity Fair of 23 November 1861,

pg. 238, he's "Old Daddy Frost." A long Jack Frost poem can be found in the

Lincoln Journal (VT), 22 January 1846, pg. 4, col. 1.

Robert Hendrickson's ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORD AND PHRASE ORIGINS says Jack

Frost "has been the personification of frost or cold weather since at least

1826, when the term is first recorded in a British sporting magazine."

For those who want an early Frost, this comes from The Scourge (London),

1 February 1814 (first page of issue):



THE DIVINE AND THE DONKEY; or, PETWORTH FROLICS

...

My loyalty is unquestionable, for I once got my head broke in defending

the "right divine" of kings against a noted republican, who figured away when

Jack Frost first rose into popularity....



What does this "Jack Frost" mean??