THE ORIGIN OF “GRAFT.”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2033, 19 March 1907, Page 4

THE ORIGIN OF “GRAFT.”

There died in Chicago on the 20th January last, Josiah Flynt Willard, known in the world of books as Josiah Flynt, tho man who gave polite society in America the word “graft.” To us the word is still somewhat strango, and we still write it ill “quotes,” but its use in America is widespread—more so, perhaps, than the evil for which it stands Willard, who was not forty wh ni he died, had a most extraorV -ary career. He was a Chicago hoy, of good family, and was afflicted from his earliest days with what t>n Ger mans called wanderlust. Sen -al times as a boy he ran away from home. He tried college; he tried working on a railway. Then he stole a horse and cart, not realising ai t alent ly what ho was doing, and was sent to a reformatory.He ran away from there, and for 18 months Iwed the life of a tramp. Eventually he became a respectable member of society, and won fame as an interpreter of the under-world. “Tramping with Tramps,” “The World of Graft” and “Rowers that l’roy,” gave tho public a most vivid idea of the life of all sorts of queer people, and were all the more successful beenu <e they were the natural result of his travels He did not, like other investigators of low life, descend to the depths for the express purpose of writing books. He included Europe in his t’fvels and became a friuid i;t sm.li men as Ibsen and Tolstir. 'I he word “graft” was born—so far as its esc in respectable circles is concerned—in his book, “Tho "World of Graft.” The respectable public had to find out tho meaning of tho last word They learned that it was a tliiews’ term for the ill-gotten gains of tho p vers that prey. Itl applied lo the p<tty thief’s takings, tie swindler's gains, tlio gambler’s winnirgs tho corrupt policeman’s hush - moi-y. There was a fascination about the word, and it began to appear in docent company. It lost it's quotation marks and its original mcai'ug at tho same timo, and ,in tho words of an American writer, the word ‘grafter” came to bo resoivol “for the unfaithful omployco r.V puflio servant, the purchasing age at who accepted secret commissions,' the legislator who sold his vote, the official who hold ail interest in pul lie contracts. With that meaning, the word passed tho stage of slang within an almost incredibly short period, and as yet shows no signs of disappearing from our speech.” Only those who read the American papers know how often it is used in the United States. Willard’s revelations of tho corrupt relations between j:ulice and criminal had a groat influence on juiblio opinion. It is said that for a fortnight after Ids account of crime in Nov/ York was published the whole polico force was hunting him unsuccessfully.