at Friedensville, Pennsylvania. It is known as the “President,” and
there is no pumping engine in the world that can be compared with the
monster. The number of gallons of water raised every minute is 17,500.
The driving-wheels are thirty-five feet in diameter, and weigh forty
tons each. The sweep-rod is forty feet long, the cylinder one hundred
and ten inches in diameter, and the piston-rod eighteen inches in
diameter, with a ten-foot stroke.
114. What was the origin of “pin-money”?
“Pin-money” is a term applied to a lady’s allowance of money for her
own personal expenditure. Long after the invention of pins, in the
fourteenth century, they were very costly, and the maker was allowed to
sell them in open shop only on the 1st and 2d of January. It was then
that the ladies of the court and city dames flocked to the stores to
buy them, having been first provided with the requisite money by their
husbands. When pins became common and cheap, the ladies spent their
allowance on other fancies, but the term “pin-money” remained in vogue.
115. Why are our Presidents inaugurated on the 4th of March?
The reason why the 4th of March is the day on which our Presidents are
always inaugurated is that the Continental Congress appointed the first
Wednesday in January, 1789, for the people to choose electors; the
first Wednesday in February for those electors to choose a President;
and the first Wednesday in March for the government to go into
operation under the new Constitution. The last-named day, in 1789, fell
on the 4th of March; hence, the 4th of March following the election of
a President is the day appointed for his inauguration. By the act of
1792, it was provided that the Presidential term of four years should
commence on the 4th of March. By the amendment to the Constitution made
in 1804, if the House of Representatives should not elect a President
by the 4th of March, the Vice-President becomes President. The 4th
of March is thus virtually made, by the Constitution as well as by
statute, the day when a new Presidential term begins.
116. What was the origin of the word “tariff”?
On the coast of Spain, just outside the Straits of Gibraltar, there
is an island called Tarifa. When the Moors had possession of Spain,
they established a custom-house upon it. The taxes were fixed by the
collector. Every vessel passing through the straits in either direction
was brought to and robbed of as much as this collector saw fit. If
the captain delivered up about fifteen per cent of his cargo, or paid
its equivalent in money, he was allowed to go in peace. If he proved
stubborn, his vessel and cargo were confiscated. Generally, however,
no resistance was offered. When the vessel arrived at the port of
discharge, her owner assessed the loss on the purchasers of the goods.
Hence all money collected on cargoes is called a tariff, from the
island whence the custom was first started.
117. What newspaper is called “The Thunderer”?
The London _Times_. This name was originally given to it on
account of the powerful articles contributed to its columns by the
editor, Edward Sterling.
118. Who was the “Man of Destiny”?
This appellation was conferred on Napoleon Bonaparte, who believed
himself to be a chosen instrument of Destiny, and that his actions
were governed by some occult and supernatural influence.
119. What was the origin of “catch-penny”?
This term originated in London, in 1824, just after the execution of
Thurtell for the murder of Weare. A publisher made a great deal of
money from the sale of Thurtell’s “last dying speech.” When the sale of
this speech fell off, a second edition was advertised, headed, “_We
are_ alive again!” with little space between the first two words.
These two words the people took for the name of the murdered man,
reading it, “_Weare_ alive again!” A large edition was rapidly
sold. Some one called it a “catch-penny,” and the word rapidly spread
until it came into general use.
120. Where is there an underground river in the United States?
There are two underground rivers--the Echo and the Styx--in the Mammoth
Cave, Kentucky. The Echo is about three fourths of a mile long, two
hundred feet wide at some points, and from ten to forty feet deep.
It is crossed by boats. Its course is beneath an arched ceiling of
smooth rock, varying in height from ten to thirty-five feet, and
famous for its musical reverberations; not a distinct echo, but a
harmonious prolongation of sound for from ten to thirty seconds after
the original tone is produced. The long vault has a certain key-note
of its own, which, when struck, excites harmonics, including tones
of incredible depth and sweetness. The Styx is much smaller than the
Echo. It is about four hundred and fifty feet long, from fifteen to
forty feet wide, and from thirty to forty feet deep. It is spanned by
an interesting natural bridge about thirty feet above it. Both these
streams have an invisible communication with Green River, the depth of
the water and direction of the current in them being regulated by the
stage of water in the latter stream. In the waters of both streams are
found a blind fish (_Amblyopsis speleans_) of an almost pure white
color.
121. Who was the first martyr to American liberty?
Thomas Hansford, one of the leading participants of Bacon’s Rebellion,
is generally accredited with this honor. After the failure of the
rebellion, he was captured at the house of a young lady to whom he
was paying his addresses, taken to Accomac, and hung as a rebel, by
Berkeley, the royal governor, in spite of his prayer that he might be
“shot like a soldier.” This was Nov. 13, 1676.
This name has also been applied to Christopher Snider, a boy eleven
years of age, who was killed in a mob in Boston, Feb. 22, 1770.
122. Who was the author of “Curfew must not Ring To-night”?
This exquisite poem was written in April, 1867, by Miss Rosa Hartwick,
now Mrs. Edward C. Thorpe. She resides at Litchfield, Michigan. She
was in her seventeenth year when she wrote the poem. She has written
others, but none so fine or so famous as this. It is founded on an
incident in English history. Basil Underwood was a young man in the
time of the Protectorate, and his only crime seems to have been
unswerving loyalty to the king. The maiden pleaded in vain for a
reprieve from the judges. They would not delay the execution even
until Cromwell should arrive. After her fruitless appeal to the
judges, she returns to the old sexton, and it is at this point that the
poem takes up the story.
123. Who was “Mother Goose”?
“Mother Goose,” from whom the popular nursery rhymes were named, was
not an imaginary personage. She belonged to a wealthy family in Boston,
Mass., where she was born and resided for many years. Her eldest
daughter, Elizabeth Goose, was married to a printer named Fleet, and
when a son was born to them, the grandmother spent all her time nursing
him and singing the songs and ditties she had heard in her younger
days. This greatly annoyed her son-in-law, who vainly tried in every
way to make her desist. He then conceived and carried out the idea
of collecting these ditties and publishing them in book form, giving
the edition the title of “Songs for the Nursery; or, Mother Goose’s
Melodies for Children.” The adoption of this title was originally in
derision of his mother-in-law; but it became so well known and liked,
that now there are few boys or girls who do not revel in the delights
of the old lady’s melodies and rhymes.
124. What king said “I am the state”?
This was the famous saying of Louis XIV. (1638–1715), king of France,
and it expresses the principle to which everything was accommodated.
In the zenith of his career all Europe feared him; and his own nation
had been brought by tyranny, skilful management, and military glory to
regard him with Asiatic humility. Under his absolute sway all remnants
of political independence were swept away. Even the courts of justice
yielded to the absolute sway of the monarch, who interfered at pleasure
with the ordinary course of law.
125. What was the origin of the word “Mississippi”?
“Its original spelling,” says the “Magazine of American History,” “and
the nearest approach to the Algonquin word, ‘the father of waters,’ is
Meche Sepe, a spelling still commonly used by the Louisiana Creoles.
Tonti suggested Miche Sepe, which is somewhat nearer the present
spelling. Father Laval still further modernized it into Michispi,
which another father, Labatt, softened into Misisipi. The only changes
since have been to overload the word with consonants. Marquette added
the first and some other explorer the second _s_, making it
Mississipi, and so it remains in France to this day, with only one
_p_. The man who added the other has never been discovered, but he
must have been an American, for at the time of the Louisiana purchase
the name was generally spelled in the colony with a single _p_.”
126. What was the “O Grab Me Act”?
The _Embargo Act_ passed by Congress, Dec. 21, 1807. By its
provisions all American vessels were detained in the ports of the
United States. The object was, by cutting off commercial intercourse
with France and Great Britain, to compel them to recognize the rights
of American neutrality. The act was the subject of much ridicule. The
opponents of the measure, spelling the word backward, called it the
“O Grab Me Act”. The measure was of little avail; and after fourteen
months it was repealed.
127. Who was “the learned tailor”?
Henry Wild (1684–1764). He acquired some knowledge of Greek and Latin
at the grammar school of his native town, Norwich, England, after which
he worked fourteen years at his trade. Then, during a long sickness,
he amused himself by reading some volumes of controversial theology
abounding in quotations from the Bible in the original Hebrew. This led
him to devote his spare time for several years to the study of Hebrew,
and afterward of Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Persian, in all of which
he became proficient.
128. Where is the “Water Volcano”?
The _Volcan de Agua_, or “Water Volcano,” is a huge mountain in
Central America, noted for emitting torrents of boiling water which
have twice destroyed the town of Guatemala. It is of a conical shape
and rises fifteen thousand feet above the level of the sea. In close
proximity are the volcanoes of Pacaya, on the southeast, and Fuego, on
the west; and the three together present a scene of great magnificence.
129. Which is the brightest star visible?
Sirius, or the Dog-star, of the constellation _Canus Major_, or the
“Great Dog.” Sir John Herschel estimates its light as exceeding more
than twofold that of _Canopus_, the second star in brilliancy, and
more than fourfold that of _Alpha Centauri_, the third, whose light
the same astronomer takes as the standard for stars of the first
magnitude. Sirius is about one hundred and twenty-three billions of
miles distant from the earth. By photometric measurement it has been
shown that, supposing the intensity of the sun’s light for unit of
surface to equal that of Sirius, it would require four hundred suns at
the distance of Sirius to send us the light that star does; and our sun
at the distance of Sirius would appear less than a star of the sixth
magnitude, and be invisible to the naked eye.
130. Who originated our decimal coinage?
Our decimal coinage was devised by Thomas Jefferson. Two years before
Governeur Morris, a clerk in the office of his uncle, Robert Morris,
had conceived the idea of applying the decimal system to the notation
of money. The details of the system devised by Morris were so cumbrous
and awkward as almost to neutralize the simplicity of the leading idea.
Jefferson rescued the fine original conception by proposing our present
system of dollars and cents, which was adopted by Congress in 1785.
131. Where is the sacred well from which Hagar is said to have drawn
water for her son Ishmael?
According to Mohammedan tradition, the Zamzam, the sacred well in the
Great Mosque, at Mecca, is the source from which Hagar drew water for
her son Ishmael (Gen. xxi. 19). This is, of course, pure invention;
and, indeed, the legend tells that the well was long covered up and
rediscovered by Abd-el-Muttalib, the grandfather of the prophet.
Sacred wells are peculiar to Semitic sanctuaries, and Islam, retaining
the well, made a quasi Biblical story for it, and endowed its tepid
waters with miraculous curative virtues. They are eagerly drunk by the
pilgrims, and when poured over the body are held to give a miraculous
refreshment after the fatigues of religious exercise. The manufacture
of bottles or jars for carrying the water to distant countries is a
considerable industry. Ibu Jubair mentions a curious superstition of
the Meccans, who believed that the water rose in the shaft at the full
moon of the month Sha’bán. On this occasion a great crowd, especially
of young people, thronged round the well with shouts of religious
enthusiasm, while the servants of the well dashed buckets of water over
their heads.
132. Who was the “Wagoner Boy”?
Thomas Corwin (1794–1865), a distinguished American statesman. While
Corwin was yet a lad, Harrison and his army were on the northern
frontier, almost destitute of provisions, and a demand was made on
the patriotism of the people to furnish the necessary subsistence.
The elder Corwin loaded a wagon with supplies which was delivered by
his son, who remained with the army during the rest of the campaign,
and who is said to have proved himself “a good whip and an excellent
reinsman.”
133. Who explored the Mississippi River with La Salle?
The Chevalier Henry de Tonty (1650–1704), an Italian explorer. He
was the son of Lorenzo de Tonty, who is famous as the inventor of
the tontine system of association. In 1678 he accompanied La Salle
to Canada, and then in his exploration of the Mississippi. La Salle
left him in command of a fort near Peoria. He twice descended the
Mississippi to its mouth in search of La Salle, and a third and last
time to meet Iberville; after which he remained in that region and died
at Fort Louis (now Mobile) in September, 1704. He wrote a memoir of
La Salle’s voyage, which has been translated and published in English
under the title “Account of M. de la Salle’s last Expedition and
Discoveries in North America.”
134. Who was the “Ancient Mariner”?
He is the hero of Coleridge’s poem of the same name, who, for the
crime of having shot an albatross, a bird of good omen to voyagers,
suffers dreadful penalties, together with his companions, who have
made themselves accomplices in his crime. These penalties are at last
remitted in consequence of his repentance. He reaches land, where he
encounters a hermit, to whom he relates his story,--
“Since then, at an uncertain hour,
The agony returns,”--
and drives him on, like the Wandering Jew, from land to land, compelled
to relate the tale of his suffering and crime as a warning to others,
and as a lesson of love and charity towards all God’s creatures. The
conception of this poem, and the mystical imagery of the skeleton ship,
are said by Dyce to have been borrowed by Coleridge from a friend who
had experienced a strange dream.
135. What was the “Flying Dutchman”?
This is the name given by sailors to a spectral ship, which is supposed
to cruise in storms off the Cape of Good Hope, and the sight of which
is considered the worst of all possible omens. She is distinguished
from earthly vessels by bearing a press of sail when all others are
unable, from stress of weather, to show an inch of canvas. The cause
of her wandering is variously explained. According to one account, a
Dutch captain, bound home from the Indies, met with long-continued
head-winds and heavy weather off the Cape of Good Hope, and refused
to put back as he was advised to do, swearing a very profane oath
that he would beat round the Cape, if he had to beat there until the
Day of Judgment. He was taken at his word, and doomed to beat against
head winds all his days. His sails are believed to have become thin
and sere, his ship-sides white with age, and himself and crew reduced
almost to shadows. He cannot heave to or lower a boat, but sometimes
hails vessels through his trumpet, and requests them to take letters
home for him. Dr. John Leyden, who introduces the story of the Flying
Dutchman into his “Scenes of Infancy,” imputes with poetical ingenuity
the doom of the ship to its having been the first to engage in the
slave-trade. But the common tradition is, as stated by Sir Walter
Scott, “that she was originally a vessel loaded with great wealth, on
board of which some horrid act of murder and piracy had been committed;
that the plague broke out among the wicked crew, and that they sailed
in vain from port to port, offering, as a price of shelter, the whole
of their ill-gotten wealth; that they were excluded from every harbor,
and that, as a punishment of their crimes, the apparition of the ship
still continues to haunt those seas in which the catastrophe took
place.” The superstition has its origin, probably, in the looming,
or apparent suspension in the air, of some ship out of sight,--a
phenomenon sometimes witnessed at sea, and caused by unequal refraction
in the lower strata of the atmosphere.
136. What was the “Banshee”?
In the popular superstitions of the Irish and the Scotch, the Banshee,
or Benshie, was an invisible being, supposed to announce by mournful
presence and voice the approaching death of members of certain ancient
houses. It was said that, on the decease of a hero, the harps of
his bards voluntarily emitted mournful sounds. In later times it
was popularly supposed that each family had its banshee, which gave
warnings of misfortune, or haunted the scenes of past troubles.
137. What was the “Irish Night”?
This was a night of agitation and terror in London after the flight of
James II., occasioned by an unfounded report that the Irish Catholics
of Feversham’s army had been let loose to murder the Protestant
population, men, women, and children.
138. Which is the “Keystone State”?
The State of Pennsylvania is so called from its having been the central
State of the Union at the time of the formation of the Constitution. If
the names of the thirteen original States are arranged in the form of
an arch, Pennsylvania will occupy the place of the keystone.
139. What was the origin of “Lynch Law”?
This term is usually alleged to be derived from one John Lynch, who
lived in what is now the Piedmont district of Virginia, at the time
when that district was the western frontier of the State, and when, on
account of the distance from the courts of law, it was customary to
refer the adjustment of disputes to men of known character and judgment
in the neighborhood. This man became so eminent by reason of the wisdom
and impartiality of his decisions, that he was known throughout the
country as “Judge Lynch.” According to another account, the term is
derived from Col. Charles Lynch, a brother of the founder of Lynchburg,
Va., who was an officer of the American Revolution. His residence
was on the Staunton, in Campbell County. At that time the country
was thinly settled, and infested by a lawless band of tories and
desperadoes. The necessity of the case involved desperate measures, and
Colonel Lynch, then a leading Whig, apprehended and had them punished
without any superfluous legal ceremony. A third account derives the
term from one James Lynch Fitz Stephen, a merchant of Galway, and
in 1526 its mayor. His son having been convicted of murder, he,
Brutus-like, sentenced him to death, and, fearing a rescue, caused him
to be brought home and hanged before his own door. Another writer has
suggested that the origin of the term is to be found in the provincial
English word _linch_, to beat or maltreat. If this were admitted,
Lynch law would then be simply equivalent to “club law.”
140. Who was the “Maid of Saragossa”?
This appellation was bestowed upon Augustina Zaragosa, a young Spanish
woman, distinguished for her heroism during the defence of Saragossa in
1808–1809. She first attracted notice by mounting a battery where her
lover had fallen, and working a gun in his place. Byron has celebrated
her in the first canto of his “Childe Harold.”
141. What was the origin of “quiz”?
Daly, the manager of a Dublin play-house, laid a wager that a new word
of no meaning should be the common talk and puzzle of the city in
twenty-four hours. In consequence of this, the letters _q_, _u_, _i_,
_z_ were chalked by him on all the walls of Dublin, with an effect that
won the wager.
142. Who was the “Rail Splitter”?
This popular designation was given to Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the
sixteenth President of the United States, who is said to have supported
himself for one winter, in early life, by splitting rails for a farmer.
143. What is the origin of the phrase “Before one could say Jack
Robinson”?
This saying, used to express a very short time, is said by Grose to
have originated from a very volatile gentleman of that appellation,
who would call on his neighbors and be gone before his name could be
announced. The following lines “from an old play” are elsewhere given
as the original phrase:--
“A warke it ys as easie to be doone,
As tys to saye, Jacke! robys on.”
144. Who was “St. Tammany”?
This Indian chief has been _popularly_ canonized as a saint, and
adopted as the tutelary genius of one branch of the Democratic party.
Tammany was of the Delaware nation, and lived probably in the middle
of the seventeenth century. He resided in the country which is now
Delaware until he was of age, when he moved beyond the Alleghenies,
and settled on the banks of the Ohio. He became a chief sachem of his
tribe, and, being always a friend of the whites, often restrained his
warriors from deeds of violence. His rule was always discreet, and he
endeavored to induce his followers to cultivate agriculture and the
arts of peace rather than those of war. When he became old he called a
council to have a successor appointed, after which the residue of his
life was spent in retirement; and tradition relates that “young and old
repaired to his wigwam to hear him discourse wisdom.” His great motto
was, “Unite in peace for happiness, in war for defence.” When and by
whom he was first styled _Saint_, or by what whim he was chosen to
be the patron of Democracy, does not appear.
145. Who ate Roger Williams?