Part 2

Seven Wise Men of Greece, The 45

Seven Wonders of the ancient world, The 45

Shadeless forests 97

Shakespeare of India, The 5

Socrates’ fundamental doctrine 51

Sovereign who owns the greater part of his realm 9

State called “The Dark and Bloody Ground” 89

“Stonewall” Jackson’s sobriquet 136

St. Tammany 69

Sucker State, The 103

Symmes’ Hole 171

T

Taffy 131

Tallest trees in the world 98

Tam O’Shanter 93

Terms of the treaty of 1783 117

Three kings of Cologne, The 142

Title of the Czar of Russia 119

Town in Vermont captured by the Confederates 1

Tree regarded as an emblem of death 11

Trivial incident that led to a grand discovery 6

Turpentine State, The 136

Two consecutive Bible verses that contradict 175

U

Unconditional Surrender 167

Underground river in the United States 58

V

Value of a pound of hair-springs for watches 4

Veiled Prophet, The 7

Via Dolorosa 135

Vice-President not elected by the people 38

Vice-President who did not serve 38

Vinegar Bible, The 130

Violet stones 36

W

Wagoner Boy, The 64

War of the Roses, The 155

Water volcano, The 62

Wealthiest President 93

Well-known hymn composed in a few minutes 129

What the Indians did to raise ammunition 75

What the Indians supposed the ships of Columbus to be 79

When a gallon of vinegar weighs more 35

Whence the cravat obtains its name 147

Where the Declaration of Independence was written 115

Where the different Presidents were nominated 88

White Lady, The 28

Who ate Roger Williams? 70

Whose daughter was Noah? 115

Whose wife was Adam? 114

Why a dog turns round before he lies down 46

Why buckwheat is so called 112

Why John Quincy Adams was so named 90

Why New Jersey is called a foreign country 123

Why New Jersey is called Spain 153

Why people move on March 25 150

Why Presidents are inaugurated on the 4th of March 56

Why the Baldwin apple is so called 161

Why the “Hoosiers” are so called 160

Why the passion flower is so called 160

Why the shamrock is the emblem of Ireland 127

Why the White House is so called 132

Wicked Bible, The 46

Wife of Columbus 100

Words containing all the vowels in order 73

Y

Youngest President 81

Youngest Territory 127

Z

Zopyrus 175

QUEER QUESTIONS AND READY REPLIES.

1. What town in Vermont was taken by the Confederates during the late Civil War?

On the 19th of October, 1864, between twenty and thirty armed Confederates left Canada, entered St. Albans, Vermont, robbed the banks, stole horses and stores, fired and killed one man, wounded others, and returned to Canada. Thirteen were arrested Oct. 21, but they were discharged on account of some legal difficulty by Judge Coursol, Dec. 14. This raid caused great excitement in the United States; Gen. Dix proclaimed reprisals; volunteers were called out to defend the Canadian frontiers; but President Lincoln rescinded Dix’s proclamation in December. The raiders were all discharged March 30, 1865, and Secretary Seward gave up claim to their extradition in April.

2. What is a “left-handed” marriage?

A morganatic or left-handed marriage, as it is sometimes called, is a lower sort of matrimonial union, which, as a civil engagement, is completely binding, but fails to confer on the wife the title or fortune of her husband, and on the children the full status of legitimacy or right of succession. The members of the German princely houses have for centuries been in the practice of entering into marriages of this kind with their inferiors in rank. Out of this usage has gradually sprung a code of matrimonial law, by which the union of princes with persons of lower rank, in other than morganatic form, involves serious consequences, especially toward the lady. The penalty of death was actually enforced in the case of the beautiful and unfortunate Agnes Bernaur. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries a fashion began among the German princes of taking a morganatic wife in addition to one who enjoyed the complete matrimonial status,--Landgrave Philip of Hesse setting the example, with a very qualified disapprobation on the part of the leading reformers. An energetic attempt was made in the first half of the last century by Anton Ulrich, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, to upset the established practice, and to obtain for his morganatic wife the rank of duchess, and for her children the right of succession. The most recent morganatic marriage was that of the late Czar of Russia, Alexander II., to the Princess Dolgorouki, 1880.

3. What mollusk has a distinct head, and swims by fins attached to the side of the neck?

This is the Gymnosomata (Greek, “naked-bodied”), an order of pteropodous mollusks, destitute of shell. They constitute one family, the Cliidæ. They are all marine; and the right whale feeds largely upon some of the species, engulfing great numbers in its open mouth, and straining them from the water by means of its baleen. The _Clio borealis_ of the Arctic Seas is the best known and most interesting example.

4. What substance was once a vegetable, but is now a mineral; was once valued as a medicine, but is now used only for purposes of ornament?

Amber is the fossilized resinous exudation from several species of extinct coniferous trees, of which one, the _Pinites succinifer_, is supposed to have produced a greater part. It now appears like coal, in connection with beds of which it is usually found, as a product of the mineral kingdom. It formerly had a high reputation as a medicine, but the virtues ascribed to it were almost entirely imaginary. It is usually of a pale yellow color, sometimes reddish or brownish, sometimes transparent, sometimes almost opaque. It is now extensively used for ornaments, and especially for mouthpieces of pipes, the consumption being greatest in Eastern Europe, Turkey, Persia, etc. Fine pieces are worth more than their weight in gold. The largest mass known is in the Royal Cabinet at Berlin; its weight is eighteen pounds, and it is valued at $30,000. Most of the amber of commerce is obtained from the shores of the Baltic, between Königsberg and Memel. It was an article of exchange long anterior to the dawn of history, as we know by its frequent occurrence in the remains of the lake dwellings of Switzerland. The earliest notice of amber we find occurs in Homer’s “Odyssey,” where, in the list of jewels offered by the Phœnicians to the Queen of Syria, occurs “the gold necklace hung with bits of amber” (Od., XV. 460). It becomes negatively electric by friction, and possesses this property in a high degree, which, indeed, was first observed in it, and the term “electricity” is derived from _Elektron_, the Greek name of amber.

5. How did the ancients account for the origin of amber?

Among the Greek fables purporting to account for the origin of amber, it is narrated that the Heliadæ, on seeing their brother, Phaëthon, hurled by the lightning of Zeus (Jupiter) into the Eridanus, were by the pitying gods transformed into poplar-trees, and the tears they shed were dropped as amber on the shores of the river. A less poetical theory of its origin states that it was formed from the condensed urine of the lynx inhabitating Northern Italy, the pale varieties being produced by the females, while the deeper tints were attributed to the males.

6. What is the value of a pound of steel when made into hair-springs for watches?

A pound of steel that costs but a few cents becomes worth $128,000 in the shape of hair-springs for watches.

7. Who devised the instrument for determining the pressure of the blood in the arteries and veins of the living body?

The Hæmadynamometer (from the Greek αἶμα, blood, δύναμις, force, and μέτρον, a measure) was devised for this purpose by Poisseville. The pressure of the blood is measured, as in the barometer, by the column of mercury that it balances. The instrument has recently been improved in various ways, and a contrivance has been added by which the oscillations of the mercury are inscribed in the form of an undulating curve on a cylinder made to revolve by clock-work; the height of the undulations denoting the pressure, and their horizontal amplitude the time.

8. What ancient city perished through silence?

Amyclæ, an ancient town of Laconia, situated on the eastern bank of the Eurotas, was a famous city in the heroic age. It was the abode of Tyndarus and his spouse Leda, of Castor and Pollux, who are hence called the “Amyclæan Brothers.” It was only shortly before the first Messenian War (743–724 B. C.) that the town was conquered by the Spartan King Teleclus. The inhabitants had been so often alarmed by false reports of the approach of the Spartans that, growing tired of living in a state of continual alarm, they decreed that no one should henceforth mention or even take notice of these disagreeable fictions; and, accordingly, when the Spartans at last came, no one dared to announce their approach. Hence arose the Greek saying, “Amyclæ perished through silence,” and also the Latin proverb, “_Amyclis ipsis taciturnior_” (More silent than even Amyclæ).

9. What dramatic poet has been called the “Shakespeare of India”?

Kalidasa was the greatest dramatic poet of India. His drama, “Sakuntala,” translated by Sir William Jones, 1789, produced a great sensation in Europe. He is noted for the variety of his creations, his ingenious conceptions, beauty of narrative, delicacy of sentiment, and fertility of imagination; hence the sobriquet.

10. What trivial incident in 1666 led to one of the grandest discoveries ever made?

It was during this year that the celebrated philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, while sitting beneath an apple-tree in his mother’s orchard at Woolsthorpe, England, conceived the idea of gravitation from seeing an apple fall from the tree. This tree remained standing until the year 1814, when it was blown down. The wood of it was preserved and made into various articles. Several trees still exist which were raised from the seeds of its fruit.

11. Which is the only bird that can use both eyes at once in looking at an object?

This bird is the owl. Its eyes are very large, directed forward, more or less surrounded by a disk of radiating bristly feathers, and in most of the species formed for seeing in the twilight or at night, presenting a vacant stare when exposed to daylight. The Greeks and Romans made it the emblem of wisdom, and sacred to Minerva, and, indeed, its large head and solemn eyes give it an air of wisdom which its brain does not sanction.

12. What bird has neither tail nor wings?

The Apteryx (Greek α, privative, πτέρυξ, wing) is a bird allied to the ostrich and emu. It is found in New Zealand, particularly in regions covered with extensive and thick beds of fern, in which it hides when alarmed. It is called _kiwi-kiwi_ by the natives. It has a very long and slender bill, of which it makes a remarkable use in supporting itself when it rests. The natives pursue it for its skin, which is very tough and flexible, and much prized by the chiefs for the manufacture of their state mantles. Happy is the Maori who possesses a cloak of _kiwi-kiwi_ feathers.

13. What race of Indians, still unconquered, is supposed to have red hair and pale complexions?

The Guatuso Indians, a race of the Aztec family. They dwell along the banks and head-waters of the Rio Frio, which flows into Lake Nicaragua. Their country has never been penetrated. The attempts made by the Catholic missionaries and the governors of Nicaragua to reach them, though often renewed, have always been repulsed.

14. Who was the “Veiled Prophet”?

Hakim Ben Allah, or Ben Hashem, the founder of an Arabic sect in the eighth century, during the reign of Mahadi, the third Abassidian caliph, at Neksheb, or Meru in Khorassan, was surnamed Mokanna, or “the veiled prophet.” He was so called on account of his constantly wearing a veil of silver, or, according to others, of golden gauze. Some writers attribute this habit to a desire to conceal a deformity, one of his eyes having been pierced by an arrow, others to the desire to conceal his extraordinary ugliness. His own explanation, which was believed by his followers, was that the veil was necessary to shroud from the eyes of the beholder the dazzling rays emanating from his divine countenance. Hakim set himself up as a god. He had first, he said, assumed the body of Adam, then that of Noah, and subsequently those of many other wise and great men. The last human form he pretended to have adopted was that of Abu Moslem, a prince of Khorassan. He appears to have been well versed in the arts of legerdemain and “natural magic,” principally as regards producing startling effects of light and color. Among other miracles, he, for a whole week, to the great delight and bewilderment of his soldiers, caused a moon or moons to issue from a deep well; and so brilliant was the appearance of these luminaries, that the real moon quite disappeared by their side. On this account he was sometimes called Sagende Nah, or the “Moon-maker.” When the Sultan Mahadi had, after a long siege, taken the last stronghold in which Hakim had fortified himself, he, having first poisoned all his soldiers at a banquet, threw himself into a vessel filled with a burning acid of such a nature that his body was entirely dissolved, and nothing remained but a few hairs. This was done that the faithful might believe him to have ascended to heaven alive. Some remnants of his sect still exist. Hakim has furnished the subject of many romances, of which the one contained in Moore’s “Lalla Rookh” is the most brilliant and best known.

15. What were supposed to be the “fiery serpents” which attacked the Israelites in the desert?

It has been argued with great plausibility that they were in reality Guinea or Medina worms (_Filaria medinensis_), a parasite that inhabits the flesh of men and other animals, and that seems to have been known from the earliest times. It is from six inches to four feet in length, and about one ninth of an inch in diameter. It is found in many parts of Africa, India, Sumatra, Persia, Arabia, and the island of Curaçoa. It is believed to enter the flesh through the skin, and as many as fifty have been reported in a single person. In some cases they cause much pain and inconvenience; in others, none. Death has sometimes resulted from them.

16. What sovereign owns the greater part of the territory over which he reigns?

At least three different rulers can claim this distinction. Prince Heinrich XXII., present sovereign of the Principality of Reuss-Greiz, has no civil list. He is very wealthy, and the greater part of the territory over which he reigns is his own private property.

Prince Heinrich XIV. is the present sovereign of the Principality of Reuss-Schleiz, of which the greater part is the private property of the reigning family.

Friedrich Wilhelm I., present Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, is one of the wealthiest of German sovereigns, more than half of the Grand Duchy being his own property.

17. What Oriental town is called the “Mother of Cities”?

Mecca, one of the oldest towns of Arabia, the capital of the province of Hedjaz, and, through being the birthplace of Mohammed, the central and most holy city of all Islam, is, on this account, called by the Arabs _Om Al Kora_, the “Mother of Cities.”

This title is also given by the native population to Balkh, in Central Asia, formerly a great city, but now for the most part a mass of ruins. This is a city of great antiquity, and was at an early date a rival of Nineveh and Babylon.

18. What seed was supposed to render its possessor invisible, and why?

Plants were once thought to impart their own characteristics to the wearer. Thus the herb-dragon was thought to cure the bite of serpents; wood-sorrel, which has a heart-shaped leaf, to cheer the heart; liver-wort, to benefit the liver, etc. Certain kinds of ferns have seeds so minute as to be invisible to the naked eye, and, carried about the person, were supposed to confer invisibility. Shakespeare says, “We have the receipt of fern-seed; we walk invisible.” (1 Henry IV., Act II., 1.)

19. What king prided himself on being the best cook in his country?

Louis XV. (1710–1774), the grandson of Louis XIV., is said to have boasted of being the best cook in France, and to have been much pleased when the courtiers ate eagerly of the dishes which he had prepared.

20. What island was discovered by two lovers?

There is a story to the effect that two lovers, Robert Machim and Anna d’Arfet, fleeing from England to France in 1346, were driven out of their course by a violent storm, and cast on the coast of Madeira at the place subsequently named Machico, in memory of one of them. The truth of this romantic story has recently been demonstrated by Mr. Major.

21. Where is the “Fat Man’s Misery”?

This is a narrow serpentine path in the Mammoth Cave. The walls, only eighteen inches apart, change direction eight times in one hundred and five yards, while the distance from the sandy path to the ledge overhead is but five feet.

22. What tree is regarded as an emblem of death?

The cypress has been so used for centuries, from the sombre aspect of its dark green leaves, and from the fact that when once cut down it never grows again. In ancient times cypress logs were placed on funeral piles; probably on account of both their emblematic use and the aromatic odor, emitted by the burning wood, which would counteract any smell arising from the burning body.

23. Where is the largest clock in the world?

In the English House of Parliament. The four dials of this clock are twenty-two feet in diameter. Every half-minute the minute-hand moves nearly seven inches. The clock will go eight and one half days, but will strike for only seven and one half days, thus indicating any neglect in winding it up. The winding up of the striking apparatus takes two hours. The pendulum is fifteen feet long; the wheels are cast iron; the hour bell is eight feet high and nine feet in diameter, weighing nearly fifteen tons, and the hammer alone weighs more than five hundred pounds. This clock strikes the quarter-hours. Its pendulum beats every two seconds. The motion is kept up by a remontoir, or gravity escapement.

24. When were post-offices first established?

The first letter post was established in the Hanse towns in the early part of the thirteenth century. A line of letter posts followed, connecting Austria with Lombardy, in the reign of the Emperor Maximilian, which are said to have been organized by the princes of Thurn and Taxis; and the representatives of the same house established another line of posts from Vienna to Brussels, the most distant parts of the dominions of Charles V. This family continue to the present day to hold certain rights with regard to the German postal system, their posts being entirely distinct from those established by the crown, and sometimes in rivalry with them. In England, in early times, both public and private letters were sent by messengers, who, in the reign of Henry III., wore the royal livery. They had to provide themselves with horses until the reign of Edward I., when posts were established where horses were to be had for hire. Edward IV., when engaged in war with Scotland, had dispatches conveyed to his camp with great speed, by means of a system of relays of horses, which, however, fell into disuse on the restoration of peace. Camden mentions the office of “master of the postes” as existing in 1581, but the duties of that officer were probably connected exclusively with the supply of post horses. The posts were meant for the conveyance of government dispatches alone, and it was only by degrees that permission was extended to private individuals to make use of them. A foreign post for the conveyance of letters between London and the Continent seems to have been established by foreign merchants in the fifteenth century; and certain disputes which arose between the Flemings and the Italians regarding the right of appointing a postmaster, and were referred to the privy council, led to the institution of a “chief postmaster,” who should have charge both of the English and foreign post. The American post-office is one of our earliest institutions, and was provided for by legislation in Massachusetts in 1639, and in Virginia in 1657. A monthly post between New York and Boston was established in 1672.

25. Who was “Old Bullion”?

This sobriquet was conferred on Col. Thomas Hart Benton (1782–1852), a distinguished American statesman, on account of his advocacy of the gold and silver currency as a true remedy for the financial embarrassments in which the United States was involved after the expiration of the charter of the national bank, and as the only proper medium for government disbursements and receipts.

26. When, where, and between whom was the first duel fought in the United States?

The first duel in the United States was at Plymouth, Mass., on June 18, 1621, between Edward Doty and Edward Leicester, two servants, both of whom were wounded. For this outrage they were sentenced to the punishment of having their heads and feet tied together, and of lying thus twenty-four hours without food or drink. After suffering, however, in that posture an hour, at their master’s intercession and their humble request, with the promise of amendment, they were released by the governor.

27. How is the northern boundary line of the United States marked?