Part 10

In the early days of railways the New Jersey Legislature chartered the Camden and Amboy Railroad, but neglected to impose a tax upon its earnings or plant. A few years later, when it became a valuable property, the State, unable to modify the charter, levied a State tax upon each passenger carried. This tax fell upon travellers who lived outside the State as well as Jerseymen, and the former, because they were taxed to pass through it, facetiously termed New Jersey a foreign country.

271. Why is Canada so called?

Charlevoix says that this name is from an Iroquois word _Kannata_, a collection of huts. There is, however, a Spanish tradition that some Spanish explorers visiting the country in search of gold, and finding no mines, or other appearance of riches, said, _Aca Nada_, “Here is nothing,” which, being repeated by the natives to subsequent visitors from Europe, was supposed to be the name of the country.

272. Which is the “Railroad City”?

Indianapolis, the largest city in the United States situated on non-navigable waters. The first railway entered the city in 1847. Now, twelve main lines converge in the Union Depot. About a hundred passenger trains, connected with every part of the country, enter and depart daily. The numerous tracks being on a level with the surface of the streets, the obstruction and danger at the numerous crossings became very great on account of the increase of railway traffic, so that in 1877 a loop line, called the “Belt,” had to be made, passing round the city, to connect the various railways. By means of it the “through freight-cars” are conveyed past the city without blocking the traffic.

273. Which is the “Sage Brush State”?

The flora of Nevada is so scanty and so characterized by sage-brush, or Artemisia, that this State is often nicknamed the “Sage Brush State.” Artemisia is a low, irregular shrub, with thick crooked stems, growing in dry alkaline soils, which without irrigation will produce nothing else.

274. What ancient city brought about its own destruction by an ill-timed jest?

Antioch, the ancient capital of the Greek kings of Syria, was one of the most magnificent cities of the ancient world. The Antiochenes themselves brought about the destruction of their beautiful city. They were famous above all other people in ancient times for their biting and scurrilous wit, and for their ingenuity in devising nicknames; and when the Persians under Chosroes invaded Syria, in 538 A. D., the Antiochenes could not refrain from jesting at them. The Persians took ample revenge by the total destruction of the city, which, however, was rebuilt by Justinian. It was in this city that the followers of Christ were first called Christians.

275. Who was Washington’s wife?

Her maiden name was Martha Dandridge. She was born at Kent, Va., May 17, 1732. At the age of seventeen, she was married to Col. John Parke Custis, by whom she had three children. Within a few years she lost her eldest son and her husband. She was a charming widow of twenty-six when Washington first met her at the house of a Mr. Chamberlayne. After a short acquaintance, they were married Jan. 6, 1759. She died May 22, 1802.

276. What was the height of Goliath?

According to Samuel, he was “six cubits and a span.” Mr. Greaves gives the length of the cubit as twenty-one inches, and the span nine inches. This would make Goliath’s height about eleven feet three inches.

277. What is the balm of Gilead?

The balm of Gilead, also called balsam of Mecca and Opobalsam, is obtained from a low tree or shrub, the _balsamodendron Gileadense_, which grows in several parts of Arabia and Abyssinia. To obtain the juice, the bark of the tree is cut at the time when the sap is in its strongest period of circulation. As the juices ooze through the wound they are received into small earthen bottles, every day’s produce being poured into large bottles and corked. When fresh, the smell of the balsam is exquisitely fragrant, but if left exposed to the atmosphere it loses this quality. The quantity of balsam yielded by one tree is said never to exceed sixty drops in a day. It is, therefore, very scarce, and can with difficulty be procured in a pure and unadulterated state, even at Constantinople.

278. What was the origin of the barber’s pole?

In former times barbers served the public in the capacity of surgeons, and performed the act of bleeding, that being a favorite remedy with our ancestors. The pole represented the staff held by the person being bled, and the spiral stripes painted around it were typical of the two bandages used for twisting around the arm previous to the bleeding and after the operation had been performed. The blue stripes and stars sometimes seen were probably introduced by some barber endowed with more patriotism than love of ancient customs.

279. Which is the “youngest Territory”?

Wyoming. It was organized by the act of Congress approved July 25, 1868, from portions of Dakota, Idaho, and Utah. The first settlements within its limits were made in 1867, during the progress of the Union Pacific Railroad, although there had been a garrison at Port Laramie since 1834.

280. Why was the shamrock adopted as the emblem of Ireland?

The shamrock is said to have been first assumed as the badge of Ireland from the circumstance that St. Patrick made use of it to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity. The story as told by Lover is as follows: “When St. Patrick first preached the Christian faith in Ireland, before a powerful chief and his people, when he spoke of one God and of the Trinity, the chief asked how one could be in three. St. Patrick, instead of attempting a theological definition of the faith, thought a simple image would best serve to enlighten a simple people, and, stooping to the earth, he plucked from the green sod a _shamrock_, and holding up the trefoil before them, he bid them there behold one in three. The chief, struck by the illustration, asked at once to be baptized, and all his sept followed his example.”

281. What was the origin of “April Fool”?

How the custom of making fools on the first of April arose is not certainly known, but there are several accounts of its origin, viz.:--

1. It is, perhaps, a travesty of the sending hither and thither of the Saviour from Annas to Caiaphas, and from Pilate to Herod, because during the Middle Ages this scene in Christ’s life was made the subject of a miracle play at Easter, which occurs in the month of April.

2. As March 25 used to be New-Year’s Day, April 1 was its octave, when its festivities culminated and ended.

3. There is a tradition among the Jews that it arose from the fact that Noah sent out the dove on the first of the month corresponding to our April, before the water had abated. To perpetuate the memory of the great deliverance of Noah and his family, it was customary on this anniversary to punish persons who had forgotten the remarkable circumstance connected with the date, by sending them on some bootless errand, similar to that on which the patriarch sent the luckless bird from the window of the ark.

4. The custom refers to the uncertainty of the weather at this period.

5. It is a relic of some old heathen festival; and it is curious that the Hindoos practise similar tricks on the 31st of March, when they hold what is called the Huli Festival.

The custom, whatever is its origin, appears to be universal throughout Europe. In France the person imposed upon is called _un poisson d’Avril_ (an April fish). In England and the United States such a person is called an April fool; in Scotland, a gowk.

282. What was the origin of the phrase “getting into a scrape”?

“The deer are addicted, at certain seasons, to dig up the land with their fore-feet, in holes, to the depth of a foot, or even half a yard. These are called ‘scrapes.’ To tumble into one of these is sometimes done at the cost of a broken leg; hence a man who finds himself in an unpleasant position, from which extrication is difficult, is said to have ‘got into a scrape.’”

283. To what does the phrase “fitting to a T” refer?

This phrase refers to the T or Tee Square, an instrument used in drawing and mechanics; so called from its resemblance to a capital T.

284. What well-known hymn was composed in a few minutes?

The celebrated hymn, “From Greeland’s icy mountains,” etc., was composed at Wrexham in 1819. On Whitsunday in that year Dr. Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph and Vicar of Wrexham, preached a sermon in his church on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Heber was son-in-law to Dr. Shipley and was on a visit. The doctor on the previous Saturday asked Heber to “write something for them to sing in the morning,” and in a few minutes, without leaving the room, Heber produced the hymn now so well known all over the world. He was then in his thirty-sixth year, and was rector of Hodnet.

285. Why was the magnet so called?

The word “magnet” is derived from the name of the city of Magnesia, in Asia Minor, where the properties of the loadstone are said to have been discovered. So far one authority. Another derives it from the name of Magnes, a shepherd, who is said to have discovered the magnetic power through being detained on Mount Ida by the magnetism of the mountain attracting the nails in his shoes, so that he was unable to move from the spot.

286. What was the “Vinegar Bible”?

This was a name given to an edition of the Bible, published in 1717 at the Clarendon Press, Oxford. By a ludicrous misprint, the title of the twentieth chapter of Luke was made to read “Parable of the _Vinegar_” instead of “Parable of the _Vineyard_”; hence the name.

287. What were the “Breeches Bibles”?

This name was given to editions of the so-called Genevan Bible (first printed at Geneva, by Rowland Hall, 1560, in 4to), from the peculiar rendering of Gen. iii. 7.

288. Who is “Johnny Crapaud”?

“This is a sportive designation of a Frenchman, or of the French nation collectively considered. The following account has been given of the origin of this name: ‘When the French took the city of Aras from the Spaniards, under Louis XIV., after a long and most desperate siege, it was remembered that Nostradamus had said,--

‘Les anciens _crapauds_ prendront Sara.’

(The ancient toads shall Sara take.)

This line was then applied to this event in a very roundabout manner. _Sara_ is Aras backward. _By the ancient toads_ were meant the French; as that nation formerly had for its armorial bearings three of those odious reptiles, instead of the three flowers-de-luce which it now bears.”

289. Who is “Cousin Michael”?

This is a sportive and disparaging designation of the German people, intended to indicate the weaknesses and follies of the national character, and especially the proverbial national slowness, heaviness, and credulity. The name _Michel_ is often used as a contemptuous designation of any simple, coarse rustic, and has probably acquired this signification through a mingling of the Hebrew with the old German _michel_, gross.

290. Who is “Taffy”?

This is a sobriquet for a Welshman, or for the Welsh collectively. The word is a corruption of _David_, one of the most common of Welsh names.

291. Who is “Ivan Ivanovitch”?

He is an imaginary personage, who is the embodiment of the peculiarities of the Russian people, in the same way as _John Bull_ represents the English, and _Johnny Crapaud_ the French character. He is described as a lazy, good-natured person.

292. Who is “John Bull”?

This is a well-known collective name of the English nation, first used in Arbuthnot’s satire, “The History of John Bull,” usually published in Swift’s works. In this satire, the French are designated as Lewis Baboon, the Dutch as Nicholas Frog, etc. The “History of John Bull” was designed to ridicule the Duke of Marlborough.

293. Who is “Peeping Tom of Coventry”?

This epithet is given to a person of ungovernable inquisitiveness. The term is said to have arisen thus: “The Countess Godiva, bearing an extraordinary affection to this place (Coventry), often and earnestly besought her husband (Leofric, Earl of Murcia), that, for the love of God and the blessed Virgin, he would free it from that grievous servitude whereunto it was subject; but he, rebuking her for importuning him in a matter so inconsistent with his profit, commanded that she should thenceforth forbear to move therein; yet she, out of her womanish pertinacity, continued to solicit him; insomuch that he told her if she would ride on horseback, naked, from one end of the town to the other, in the sight of all the people, he would grant her request. Whereunto she answered, ‘But will you give me leave so to do?’ And he replying ‘yes’ the noble lady, upon an appointed day, got on horseback, naked, with her hair loose, so that it covered all her body but her legs, and thus performing the journey, returned with joy to her husband, who therefore granted to the inhabitants a charter of freedom, which immunity I rather conceive to have been a kind of manumission from some such servile tenure, whereby they then held what they had under this great earl, than only a freedom from all manner of toll, except horses, as Knighton affirms.” It is said by Rapin, that the countess, previous to her riding, commanded all persons to keep within doors and from their windows on pain of death; but, notwithstanding this severe penalty, there was one person who could not forbear giving a look, out of curiosity; but it cost him his life.

294. What was the “Battle of Spurs”?

This name is given to the battle of Courtrai (1302), the first great engagement between the nobles and the burghers, which, with the subsequent battles of Bannockburn, Crecy, and Poictiers, decided the fate of feudalism. In this encounter the knights and gentlemen of France were entirely overthrown by the citizens of a Flemish manufacturing town. The French nobility rushed forward with loose bridles, and fell headlong, one after another, into an enormous ditch which lay between them and their enemies. The whole army was annihilated; and when the spoils were gathered, there were found 4,000 golden spurs to mark the extent of the knightly slaughter, and give a name to the engagement.

This name is also given to the affair at Guinegate, near Calais (1513), in which the English troops under Henry VIII. defeated the French forces. The allusion is said to be to the unusual energy of the beaten party in _spurring_ off the field.

295. What city is called “Auld Reekie”?

This designation is given to Edinburgh on account of its _smoky_ appearance, as seen from a distance; or, according to others, on account of the uncleanliness of its public streets.

296. Which is the “City of Magnificent Distances”?

This popular designation is given to the city of Washington, the capital of the United States, which is laid out on a very large scale, being intended to cover a space four miles and a half long and two miles and a half broad, or eleven square miles. The entire site is traversed by two sets of streets from seventy to one hundred feet wide, at right angles to one another, the whole again intersected obliquely by fifteen avenues from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and sixty feet wide.

297. Which is the heaviest metal?

Platinum was long considered the heaviest metal, but it is now an established fact that both osmium and iridium are heavier than platinum. The most recent authorities differ as to which of the two is the heavier, but there is only a very slight difference. Both metals are used for pointing gold pens. Osmium does not fuse at 2870 degrees Fahrenheit, the greatest heat yet produced, and is as yet infusible. In some of its combinations it is said to be the most poisonous substance known.

298. Which is the lightest metal?

Lithium. Its specific gravity is only 0.5936, but little more than half that of water. It is a soft, ductile, white metal, susceptible of being welded and drawn into wire, but has less tenacity than lead. It burns brilliantly, and floats upon water and naphtha. It was supposed to be a very rare substance, but Bunsen and Kirchhoff have shown by spectrum analysis that, though sparingly, it is widely distributed.

299. What was the origin of “Old Scratch”?

It has been suggested that the origin of this term must be sought for in the _Scrat_, _Schrat_, _Schretel_, or _Schretlein_, a house or wood demon of the ancient North.

300. Which is the “Prairie State”?

Illinois is so called in allusion to the wide-spread and beautiful prairies, which form a striking feature of the scenery of the State.

301. What is the “Via Dolorosa”?

The Via Dolorosa (the way of pain) is a name given, since the Christian era, to the road at Jerusalem leading from the Mount of Olives to Golgotha, which Jesus passed over on his way to the place of crucifixion. Upon this road are situated many of the objects consecrated by Christian traditions,--the house where the Virgin Mary was born, the church erected upon the spot where she fell, when she beheld Jesus sink under the weight of the cross, the house of St. Veronica, upon whose veil, employed to wipe away his blood and sweat, the image of his face was miraculously impressed. The road, which is about a mile in length, terminates at the Gate of Judgment.

302. Which is the “Turpentine State”?

North Carolina, which produces and exports immense quantities of turpentine.

303. Who is “Black Jack”?

Gen. John Alexander Logan has been so called from his long, black hair and dark complexion.

304. What was the “Black Hole of Calcutta”?

This name is commonly given to a certain small and close dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta, the scene of one of the most tragic events in the history of British India. On the capture of Calcutta, by Surajah Dowlah, June 20, 1756, the British garrison, consisting of one hundred and forty-six men, being made prisoners, were locked up at night in this room, only eighteen feet square, and poorly ventilated, never having been intended to hold more than two or three prisoners at a time. In the morning, of the one hundred and forty-six who were imprisoned, only twenty-three were found alive. In the “Annual Register” for 1758 is a narrative of the sufferings of those imprisoned, written by Mr. Holwell, one of the number. The “Black Hole” is now used as a warehouse.

305. How did _Stonewall_ Jackson receive his sobriquet?

This famous appellation of Thomas Jonathan Jackson (1824–1863) had its origin in an expression used by the Confederate Gen. Bee, on trying to rally his men at the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861,--There is Jackson standing like a _stone wall_. From that day he was known as _Stonewall_ Jackson, and his command as the _Stonewall_ Brigade.

306. Which was the “Battle of the Herrings”?

This name is given by historians to an engagement which took place Feb. 12, 1429, in which Sir John Fastolfe, an English general, at the head of 1,500 men, gained a victory over 6,000 Frenchmen near Orleans, and brought a convoy of stores in safety to the English camp before that place. The stores comprised a large quantity of herrings.

307. Which is the “Land of the Incas”?

Peru. The Incas were the ancient sovereigns of the country. Manco Capac, the first Inca, appeared according to the traditions, with his sister, Mama Oello, on Titicaca Island, a spot ever after held holy. These two, claiming to be children of the sun, were regarded as deities, Manco Capac proceeded northward, and, founding Cuzco at the spot where his golden staff sank into the ground, introduced civilization and art. A powerful kingdom arose and gradually absorbed the neighboring tribes.

308. What Presidential administration has been compared to a parenthesis?

“The administration of Van Buren,” said a bitter satirist, “is like a parenthesis: it may be read in a low tone of voice or altogether omitted _without injuring the sense_”!

309. Which was the first Bible printed in America?

The first Bible printed in this country was John Eliot’s Indian Bible, whose title was this: “Mamusse Wunneetupanatumwe Up-Biblum God naneswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament. Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttineumoh Christ noh osc∞wesit John Eliot.” This was printed in 1663. The Indian language in which it was made is extinct, and it is said that only one man now living--namely, J. Hammond Trumbull, LL. D., of Hartford, Conn.--can read it. The next Bible printed here was Saur’s, in German, in 1743; the first English Bible printed here was at Boston, in small quarto, in 1752.

310. What names are given by the Hebrews to the books of the Bible?

The Jews, or Hebrews, take the names of the sacred books from the first word with which each begins; but the Greeks, whom our translators generally follow, take the names from the subject-matter of them. Thus, the first book is called by the Hebrews, _Bereshith_, which signifies “In the beginning,” these being the first words; but the Greeks called it Genesis, which signifies “production,” because the creation of the world is the first thing of which it gives an account. Exodus, which signifies in the Greek “The going out,” was so called from the account which it gives of the Israelites going out of Egypt; but the Hebrews call it _Velle Shemoth_, that is, “These are the names,” which are the words with which it begins. Leviticus they call _Vayicre_, that is, “And he called”; Numbers they call _Vayedavber_, that is, “And he spake”; Deuteronomy they call _Elle-haddebar_, that is, “These are the words”; etc., etc.

311. What is the national emblematic flower of China and Japan?

The Chrysanthemum. It receives the most reverential care and attention, surpassing by far in devotion that accorded to the fleur-de-lis, lilies, roses, and thistles, the emblems of other countries. Each recurring year in November, in all the large cities in Japan, and in nearly every street, thousands of plants are sold, trained generally to one stem, with a solitary large flower of immense size, often ten to twelve inches across. A very ordinary flower of some six inches is sold for five cents, the very largest specimens being sold for twenty-five cents, pot included.

312. When and by whom was the first steamboat invented?