Part 3

The northern boundary line of this country is marked by stone cairns, iron pillars, wood pillars, earth mounds, and timber posts. A stone cairn is seven and a half feet by eight feet; an earth mound seven feet by fourteen feet; an iron pillar seven feet high, eight inches square at the bottom, and four inches at the top; timber posts five feet high and eight inches square. There are three hundred and eighty-five of these marks between the Lake of the Woods and the base of the Rocky Mountains. That portion of the boundary which lies east and west of the Red River Valley is marked by cast-iron pillars at even mile intervals. The British place one every two miles, and the United States one between each British post. Our pillars or markers were made at Detroit, Mich. They are hollow iron castings, three eighths of an inch in thickness, in the form of a truncated pyramid, eight feet high, eight inches square at the bottom, and four at the top, as before stated. They have at the top a solid pyramidal cap, and at the bottom an octagonal flange one inch in thickness. Upon the opposite faces are cast, in letters two inches high, the inscriptions, “Convention of London,” and “October 20th, 1818.” The inscriptions begin about four feet six inches above the base and read upwards. The interiors of the hollow posts are filled with well-seasoned cedar posts, sawed to fit, and securely spiked through spike holes cast in the pillars for that purpose. The average weight of each pillar when completed is eighty-five pounds. The pillars are all set four feet in the ground, with their inscription faces to the north and south, and the earth is well settled and stamped about them. For the wooden posts well-seasoned logs are selected, and the portion above the ground painted red, to prevent swelling and shrinking. These posts do very well, but the Indians cut them down for fuel, and nothing but iron will last very long. Where the line crosses lakes, mountains of stone have been built, the bases being in some places eighteen feet under water, and the tops projecting eight feet above the lake’s surface at high-water mark. In forests the line is marked by felling the timber a rod wide, and clearing away the underbrush. The work of cutting through the timbered swamps was very great, but it has been well done, and the boundary distinctly marked by the commissioners the whole distance from Michigan to Alaska.

28. What is the origin of the minute and second?

We have sixty divisions on the dials of our clocks and watches, because the old Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who lived in the second century before Christ, accepted the Babylonian system of reckoning time, that system being sexagesimal. The Babylonians were acquainted with the decimal system, but for common or practical purposes they counted by _sossi_ and _sari_, the _sossos_ representing sixty, and the _saros_ sixty times six,--thirty-six hundred. From Hipparchus that mode of reckoning found its way into the works of Ptolemy about 150 A. D., and hence was carried down the stream of science and civilization, and found its way to the dial plates of our clocks and watches.

29. Which is the “Pine Tree State”?

Maine. The majestic mast pines which have given this State its sobriquet are fast receding before the demands of commerce. This tree is the heraldic emblem of the State.

30. What city is called “Little Paris”?

Milan, Italy, from its resemblance in point of gayety to the French capital.

31. What was the origin of the term “Uncle Sam”?

This term came into use in the War of 1812, and was born at Troy, N. Y. The government inspector there was Uncle Sam Wilson, and when the war opened Elbert Anderson, the contractor at New York, bought a large amount of beef, pork, and pickles for the army. These were inspected by Wilson, and were duly labelled E. A.--U. S., meaning Elbert Anderson, for the United States. The term U. S. for the United States was then somewhat new, and the workmen concluded that they referred to Uncle Sam Wilson. After they discovered their mistake, they kept up the name as a joke. These same men soon went to the war. There they repeated the joke. It got into print and went the rounds. From that time on the term “Uncle Sam” was used facetiously for the United States, and it now represents the nation.

32. What is the origin of the phrase “The Three R’s”?

It is said that this phrase was originated by Sir William Curtis, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1795. A writer in _Notes and Queries_ says: “I remember an aged member of the corporation, now deceased, asserting that Sir William Curtis, in the days when Dr. Bell and the Quaker Lancaster were pleading on behalf of increased facilities for the education of the poor, gave as a toast at a city dinner, ‘The three R’s.’ My friend assured me that Sir William Curtis, although a man of limited education, was very shrewd, and not so ignorant as to suppose his presumed orthography was correct. He chose the phrase in the above form purely for a jocular reason.”

33. How is an umbrella put together?

The first thing to be done is to prepare the stick to receive the cover. The two springs are first put in, one at the top to hold the umbrella open, and one at the bottom to keep it closed. The slots in which the springs are put are cut by a machine. This is a very delicate and dangerous operation, as, unless great care is taken, the man who does it is liable to lose his fingers. After this is done another man takes the stick, and with a knife prepares it to receive the spring. The springs are then set, and the ferrule is put on at the top of the stick. If the handle is of different material from the stick, it is now fastened to it. All of the counters in the work-rooms are carpeted to prevent the sticks from being scratched. After the handle is securely fastened and a band put on to finish or ornament the stick, it is sent to the frame-maker. He fastens the stretchers to the ribs, strings the top end of the ribs on a wire, and fits into the “runner notch.” He then strings the lower ends of the “stretchers” on a wire and fastens with the “runner.” When both of the “runners” are securely fixed, the umbrella is ready for the cover. The cutter lays his cloth very smoothly on a long counter, folding it until the fabric is sixteen layers deep and several yards long. The edges have been previously hemmed on a sewing machine. When everything is ready, the cutter lays on his pattern (this is usually made of wood tipped with brass), and with a very sharp knife cuts along the sides of it, thus cutting two covers at once. Every piece is then carefully examined, to see that there is no bad place or hole in it. A man then carefully stretches the edges, that it may fit the frame. The pieces are then stitched on a sewing machine, in what is called a pudding-bag seam. The tension is very carefully adjusted so that the thread will not break when the cover is stretched over the frame. The cover is first fastened to the frame at the top and bottom. The umbrella is then half raised, and held in position by a small tool for that purpose, while the seams are fastened to the ribs. When this is done, the tie is sewed on, the cap is put on, and the umbrella is entirely put together. A woman then takes it and presses the edges with a warm flat-iron. Afterward another woman takes it and inspects it before a very strong light to make sure that it is perfect. If it bears this inspection it is neatly adjusted about the handle, the tie fastened, and it is then ready for a purchaser.

34. What is the origin of the phrase “I acknowledge the corn”?

This phrase originated in the following manner: In 1828, Mr. Stewart, a member of Congress, said in a speech that Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana sent their hay-stacks, corn-fields, and fodder to New York and Philadelphia for sale. Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, called him to order, declaring that those States did not send hay-stacks, corn-fields, and fodder to New York and Philadelphia for sale. “Well, what do you send?” asked Mr. Stewart. “Why, horses, mules, cattle, and hogs.” “Well, what makes your horses, mules, cattle, and hogs? You feed $100 worth of hay to a horse. You just animate and get upon the top of your hay-stack and ride off to market. How is it with your cattle? You make one of them carry $50 worth of hay or grass to the Eastern market. How much corn does it take, at thirty-three cents a bushel, to fatten a hog?” “Why, thirty bushels.” “Then you put thirty bushels into the shape of a hog and make it walk to the Eastern market.” Then Mr. Wickliffe jumped up and said, “Mr. Speaker, I acknowledge the corn.”

Another account of the origin of this phrase is as follows: Some years ago, a raw customer, from the upper country, determined to try his fortune at New Orleans. Accordingly he provided himself with two flat-boats, one laden with corn and the other with potatoes, and down the river he went. The night after his arrival he went up town to a gambling-house. Of course he commenced betting, and his luck proving unfortunate, he lost. When his money was gone, he bet his “truck”; and the corn and potatoes followed the money. At last, when completely cleaned out, he returned to his boats at the wharf, when the evidences of a new misfortune presented themselves. Through some accident or other, the flat-boat containing the corn was sunk, and a total loss. Consoling himself as well as he could, he went to sleep, dreaming of gamblers, potatoes, and corn. It was scarcely sunrise, however, when he was disturbed by the “child of chance,” who had arrived to take possession of the two boats as his winnings. Slowly awakening from his sleep, our hero, rubbing his eyes and looking the man in the face, replied, “Stranger, _I acknowledge the corn_,--take ’em; but the potatoes you _can’t_ have, by thunder!”

35. How did a flight of birds change the history of America?

When Columbus sailed westward over the broad expanse of the unknown waters of the Atlantic, he expected to reach Zipangu (Japan). Having sailed westward from Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, for many days, he grew uneasy at not having discovered Zipangu, which, according to his reckoning, he should have met with two hundred and sixteen nautical miles more to the east. After a long debate, he yielded to the opinion of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the commander of the _Pinta_, and steered to the southwest. Pinzon was guided in his opinion by a flight of parrots towards the southwest. The effect of this change in his course curiously exemplifies the influence of small and apparently trivial events on the world’s history. If Columbus, resisting the counsel of Pinzon, had kept his original route, he would have entered the warm current of the Gulf Stream, have reached Florida, and thence perhaps have been carried to Cape Hatteras and Virginia. The result would probably have been to give the present United States a Roman Catholic Spanish population, instead of a Protestant English one, a circumstance of immeasurable importance. “Never,” says Humboldt, “had the flight of birds more important consequences. It may be said to have determined the first settlements on the new continent, and its distribution between the Latin and Germanic races.”

36. When did an American race have recourse to a stratagem similar to the celebrated wooden horse of Troy?

In order to destroy the last settlement of the Northmen in Greenland, “the savages,” says Dr. I. I. Hayes, the famous Arctic explorer, “had recourse to a stratagem worthy to be compared with the celebrated wooden horse of Troy.” Over an immense raft of boats, they constructed an immense scaffolding, and covered it with white sealskins to make it look like an iceberg. Filled with armed men, it floated down the fiord. It was seen by the sentinels and other people of the settlement, but was supposed by them to be nothing more than a harmless mass of ice, till it was run aground near the church. Then the Esquimaux rushed out of it, slaughtered the inhabitants, and destroyed the settlement.

37. Which was the first land discovered by Columbus?

The spot which he first reached was a small island, called by the natives Guanahani, to which Columbus gave the name of San Salvador, the Spanish for Holy Saviour. This was the island now known as Watling Island, as was suggested by Muñoz in 1793, and proved by Mr. R. H. Major in 1870, and not the island now called San Salvador.

38. With whom did the name America originate?

In a paper distinguished for great learning and able criticism, Mr. Major has shown that the word “America” first appeared on the _Mappe Monde_, drawn by Leonardo da Vinci, and he explains the circumstances which led to its adoption. The first map known to exist with the New World delineated upon it is that drawn by Juan de la Cosa, the pilot of Columbus in his second voyage. This map is dated 1500. Juan de la Cosa was with Ojeda and Vespucci, and afterwards with Ojeda in his last and ill-fated expedition. In May, 1507, just a year after the death of Columbus, one Martin Waldseemuller (Hylacomulus) wrote a book called _Cosmographiæ Introductio_, to which was appended a Latin edition of the four voyages of Vespucci. In this book, which was published at St. Dié in Lorraine, he proposed that the name _America_ should be given to the New World. In 1508 the first engraved map containing the New World appeared in an edition of Ptolemy printed at Rome, but it does not bear the name of America. But in 1509 the name America, proposed by Hylacomulus in 1507, appears as if it was already accepted as a well-known denomination, in an anonymous work entitled _Globus Mundi_, published at Strasburg. The _Mappe Monde_ of Leonardo da Vinci, to which Major assigns the date 1514, has the name of America across the South American continent.

39. What was the ancient name of the “ring-finger”?

The fingers, as anciently known, are: thumb; toucher, foreman, or pointer; long man, or long finger; lich-man, or ring-finger; little man, or little finger. The Romans believed that a nerve ran through the ring-finger to the heart. Both they and the Greeks called it the medical finger, and used it for stirring their mixtures, believing that nothing harmful could touch it without despatching a warning to the heart. The notion is said still to exist in some parts of England that salve must not be applied to the flesh or the skin scratched with any but the ring-finger.

40. Who was “The Beautiful Parricide”?

Beatrice Cenci was so called. According to Muratori, her father, Francesco, was twice married, Beatrice being his daughter by the first wife. After his second marriage he treated the children of his first wife in a revolting manner, and was even accused of hiring bandits to murder two of his sons on their return from Spain. The beauty of Beatrice inspired him with the horrible and incestuous desire to possess her person; with mingled lust and hate, he persecuted her from day to day, until circumstances enabled him to consummate his brutality. The unfortunate girl besought the help of her relatives and of Pope Clement VII., but did not receive it, whereupon, in company with her step-mother and her brother, Giacomo, she planned and executed the murder of her unnatural parent. The crime was discovered, and both she and Giacomo were put to the torture. Giacomo confessed, but Beatrice persisted in the declaration that she was innocent. All, however, were condemned, and put to death August, 1599, in spite of efforts made in their behalf.

41. What was the Diamond Necklace Affair?

This wonderful piece of jewelry, made by Boehmer, the court jeweller of Paris, was intended for Madame du Barry, the favorite of Louis XV. On the death of the monarch, however, she was excluded from court, and the bawble was left on the jeweller’s hands. Its immense value, 1,800,000 livres ($400,000), precluded any one from becoming its purchaser, but in 1785 Boehmer offered it to Marie Antoinette for $320,000, a considerable reduction. The queen much desired the necklace, but was deterred from its purchase by the great expense. Learning this, the Countess de la Motte forged the queen’s signature, and, by pretending that her Majesty had an attachment for the Cardinal de Rohan, the queen’s almoner, persuaded him to conclude a bargain with the jeweller for $280,000. De la Motte thus obtained possession of the necklace and made off with it. For this she was tried in 1786 and sentenced to be branded on both shoulders and imprisoned for life, but she subsequently escaped and fled to London. The cardinal was tried and acquitted the same year. The French public at that time believed that the queen was a party to the fraud, but no conclusive evidence was ever adduced to support the charge. Talleyrand wrote at the time, “I shall not be surprised if this miserable affair overturn the throne.” His prediction was, to a great extent, fulfilled.

42. Who was the “Patriot Preacher of the Revolution”?

The Rev. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg (1746–1807) has been so termed. He was educated at Halle, ordained to the ministry in England, and in 1772 became Lutheran minister of Woodstock, Va. He soon became a leading spirit among those opposed to British oppression. His last sermon was upon the duty men owe to their country. In concluding, he said: “There is a time for all things, a time to preach and (with a voice that echoed like a trumpet blast through the church) a time to fight, and now is the time to fight.” Then, laying aside his sacerdotal gown, he stood before his flock in the full regimental dress of a Virginia colonel. He ordered the drums to be beaten at the church door for recruits; and almost his entire male audience, capable of bearing arms, joined his standard. Nearly three hundred men enlisted under his banner on that day. The scene has been described in verse by Thomas Buchanan Read in the “Wagoner of the Alleghanies.” In February, 1777, Congress promoted Muhlenberg to the rank of brigadier-general; and at the close of the war he was made a major-general.

43. When does Easter come?

The Council of Nice (325 A. D.) authoritatively declared for the whole Church, Easter to be always the first Sunday after the full moon which occurs on or next after March 21; and if the full moon happen on a Sunday, Easter is to be the Sunday following.

44. Where are the highest tides found?

The high tides that rise in the Bay of Fundy are one of the wonders of the world. The funnel-shaped and rapidly narrowing entrance to the bay enables a disproportionally long tidal wave to enter, and as it becomes narrower and shallower the height necessarily increases. The tide, which at the entrance is eighteen feet, rushes with great fury up the bay, and swells to the enormous height of sixty feet, and even to seventy feet in the highest spring tides. With such velocity does it rush up the constantly narrowing bay, that hogs and other animals feeding along the shore are frequently overtaken by it.

45. In what country are nearly all of the clergymen blacksmiths?

The clergymen of Iceland are so miserably paid that they are generally obliged to do the hardest work of day laborers to preserve their families from starving. Besides making hay and tending cattle, they are all blacksmiths from necessity, and the best horse-shoers on the island. The feet of an Iceland horse would be cut to pieces over the sharp rocks and lava if not well shod. The church is the great resort of the peasantry; and should any of the numerous horses have lost a shoe, or be likely to do so, the clergyman dons his apron, lights his little charcoal fire in his smithy, one of which is attached to every parsonage, and sets the animal on its legs again. The task of getting the charcoal is not the least of his labors, for whatever the distance may be to the nearest thicket of dwarf birch, he must go thither to burn the wood, and bring it home when charred. His hut is scarcely better than that of the meanest fisherman; a bed, a rickety table, a few chairs, and a chest or two are all his furniture. This is, as long as he lives, the condition of the Icelandic clergyman, and learning, virtue, and even genius are but too frequently buried under this squalid poverty. In no Christian country, perhaps with the sole exception of Lapland, are the clergy so poor as in Iceland, but in none do they exert a more beneficial influence.

46. What noted poet’s bald head caused his death?

The ancient writers are unanimous in regard to the manner of the death of Æschylus (525–456 B. C.), the father of the Greek tragic drama. An eagle, say they, mistaking the poet’s bald head for a stone, let a tortoise fall upon it to break the shell, and so fulfilled an oracle, according to which Æschylus was fated to die by a blow from heaven.

47. Who discovered the Northwest Passage?

In 1850 an expedition was sent out from England under the command of Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure, to whom belongs the honor of the discovery of this long-sought passage. Having passed through Behring’s Strait in August of this year, McClure’s ship, the _Investigator_, was ice-bound in the middle of October. A land party from the ship discovered the Northwest Passage, Oct. 26, from Mount Observation, latitude 73 degrees 30 minutes 39 seconds north; longitude 114 degrees 39 minutes west. After this discovery the party returned to the _Investigator_; but that vessel was not destined herself to sail homeward through the passage discovered by her commander. Three winters were spent in the ice; but in April, 1853, a relief party on board of H. M. S. _Resolute_ appeared, having discovered McClure’s whereabouts by means of a cairn left by him in Winter Harbor. Commander McClure now resolved to abandon his ship altogether. He reached England on Sept. 28, 1854. His first reward was to receive his commission of post-captain, dated back to the day of the discovery of the Northwest Passage. Shortly afterward he received from her Majesty the honors of knighthood, and a reward of £5,000 was voted him by Parliament. Both the English and French geographical societies gave him a gold medal. A reward of £10,000 was also granted to the officers and crew of the _Investigator_, as a token of national approbation of the men who had discovered a Northwest Passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

48. Who was the first child born of English parents in New England?

Peregrine White, son of William White and of his wife Susanna, the first child born of English parents in New England, was born on board the _Mayflower_ in the harbor of Cape Cod, Nov. 20, 1620. He died at Marshfield in 1704.

49. Who was the “White Lady”?

A being who, according to popular legend, appears in many of the castles of German princes and nobles, by night as well as by day, when any important event, whether joyful or sad, but particularly when the death of any member of the family is imminent. She is regarded as the ancestress of the race, shows herself always in snow-white garments, carries a bunch of keys at her side, and sometimes rocks and watches over the children at night when their nurses sleep. The earliest appearance of this apparition spoken of was in the sixteenth century, and was famous under the name of Bertha of Rosenberg (in Bohemia). In the castle of Berlin she is said to have been seen in 1628, and again in 1840 and 1850.

50. In what cities are there no elections held?

Washington and Georgetown, D. C. By the law of 1874 these municipalities were abolished, and the elective franchise suppressed throughout the District of Columbia. The district is under the control of Congress, but has no representatives; and its municipal affairs are regulated by three commissioners appointed by the President and Senate.

51. Which is the “City of the Red Staff”?