Samuel Grant Oliphant

“ The word ‘bogus,’ we believe, is a corruption of the name of one Borghese, a very corrupt individual, who, twenty years ago or more, did a tremendous business in the way of supplying the great West, and portions of the Southwest, with a vast amount of counterfeit bills, and bills on fictitious banks, which never had any existence out of the ‘forgetive brain’ of him, the said ‘Borghese.’ The Western people, who are rather rapid in their talk, when excited, soon fell into the habit of shortening the Norman name of Borghese to the more handy one of Bogus ”

“ On the first appearance of the plague in Europe, fever, the evacuation of blood, and carbuncular affection of the lungs brought death before the other symptoms could be developed; afterwards, boils and buboes characterized its fatal course in Europe, as in the East. In almost all cases its victims perished in two or three days after being attacked. Its spots and tumors were the seals of a doom which medicine had no power to avert, and which in despair many anticipated by self-slaughter. ”

“ I prolong adolescence up to twenty years, because it is at that age that the development of the bones ceases, and consequently the increase of the body in length. I prolong youth up to the age of forty, because it is only at that age that the increase of the body in bulk terminates. After forty, the body does not grow, properly speaking, the augmentation of its volume which then takes place is not a veritable organic development, but a simple accumulation of fat. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Why is New Jersey sometimes called “Spain”?
New Jersey receives this sobriquet from the fact that Joseph Bonaparte, the eldest brother of Napoleon, and ex-king of Spain, once occupied the extensive grounds and mansion called Point Breeze, at Bordentown, in that State. Here he lived for some years under the title of Comte de Survilliers, endeared to the inhabitants by his liberality and gracious manners, and he was elected to many philanthropical and learned associations. An act was passed in 1817 by the Legislature of New Jersey to enable him, as an alien, to hold real estate. ”

“ February is from Februus, an old Italian divinity, or from Februa, the Roman festival of expiation, celebrated on the 15th of this month. January and February were added to the Roman calendar by Numa, Romulus having previously divided the year into ten months.
March is from Mars, the god of war, and reputed father of Romulus. It was the first month of the Roman calendar.
April is from the Latin Aperire, to open, from the opening of the buds, or the bosom of the earth in producing vegetation. ”

“ What was the origin of the expression “Printer’s Devil”?
Aldus Manutius (1449–1515) , the celebrated Venetian printer and publisher, had a small black slave whom the superstitious believed to be an emissary of Satan. To satisfy the curious, one day he said publicly in church, “I, Aldus Manutius, printer to the Holy Church, have this day made public exposure of the printer’s devil. All who think he is not flesh and blood, come and pinch him.” Hence in Venice arose the somewhat curious sobriquet of the “printer’s devil.” ”

“ As long,” he observes, “as the bones are not united to their epiphyses, the animal grows; as soon as the bones are united to their epiphyses, the animal ceases to grow.” Now, in man, according to this philosopher, the union of the bones and the epiphyses takes place at the age of twenty, and that, as among all animals, life is or should be prolonged to five times the period they take in attaining their full growth, the normal duration of the life of man is consequently one century. ”

“ 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 [8] 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. ”

“ This imaginary island is the subject of one of the popular traditions concerning the ocean, which were current in the time of Columbus. It is represented as abounding in gold, with magnificent houses and temples, and high towers that shone at a distance. The legend relates that [150] at the time of the conquest of Spain and Portugal by the Moors, when the inhabitants fled in every direction to escape from slavery, seven bishops, followed by a great number of people, took shipping and abandoned themselves to their fate upon the high seas. ”

“ Which is the only canonized saint of American birth?
St. Rosa (1580–1617) , commonly called St. Rose of Lima. Her parents were wealthy Spaniards, and gave her in baptism the name of Isabel; but, it is said, her extreme beauty in childhood made them call her Rosa. Their fortune having been swept away, Rosa was taken into the household of the treasurer Gonsalvo, where she supported her parents by her labor while following her bent for asceticism. She refused every matrimonial offer, assumed the habit of the third order of St. Dominic, and lived a recluse in the garden of her protectors. ”

“ At Boston, James Otis successfully agitated the question of an American Congress. It was proposed that each Colony, acting without leave of the king, should appoint delegates, who should meet in the following autumn and discuss the affairs of the nation. The proposition was favorably received, nine of the Colonies appointed delegates, and on the 7th of October, 1765, the first Colonial Congress assembled at New York. There were twenty-eight representatives. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts, was chosen president. ”

“ What religious sect anoint the sick with oil, depending upon this unction and prayer, and rejecting the use of medicine?
The Tunkers are found widely scattered throughout the northern and middle parts of the United States, but are nowhere numerous. They were recently estimated to have over five hundred churches and some fifty thousand members. The name which they take for themselves is simply that of Brethren, and they profess that their association is founded on the principle of brotherly love. The name Tunkers is of German origin, signifying Dippers, and is due to their dipping in baptism. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The story that the Countess of Salisbury let fall her garter when dancing with the king, and that the king picked it up and tied it round his own leg, but that, observing the jealous glances of the queen, he restored it to its fair owner, with the exclamation, “Honi soit que mal y pense” (Evil be to him who evil thinks) , is about as well authenticated as most tales of the kind, and has, moreover, in its favor, that it accounts for the otherwise unaccountable emblem and motto of the order.
75. How do you determine the years covered by a given Congress? ”

“ What animal has a tail so large that it sometimes requires to be carried on wheels?
The long-tailed sheep which inhabits Syria and Egypt has a tail so large and so loaded with fat, that to prevent it from being injured by dragging on the ground, a board is fastened to the under side of it, and wheels are often attached to the board. The peculiar fat of the tail is considered a great delicacy, and is so soft as to be frequently used as butter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For want of some singleness of power,—a power to act with uniformity and one to which all interests could be reconciled,—foreign commerce was sadly crippled, and nearly destroyed. The country was deeply in debt, without a dollar to pay, or the means even to draw a dollar into the public treasury, and what money there was in the country was rapidly making its way abroad. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 [19] 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. ”

“ 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 [2] have for centuries been in the practice of entering into marriages of this kind with their inferiors in rank. ”

“ When the Colonies became the New England States, the custom was kept up, the day being proclaimed by the governors of the several States. A day of prayer was recommended by Congress during the Revolution, and by Washington after the adoption of the Constitution. This was continued by some of the later Presidents. In 1863, Lincoln proclaimed that a National Thanksgiving Day should be observed in remembrance of the recent victories and the general manifestation of God’s goodness and mercy. ”

“ This name was given by the old Jewish rabbins to an imaginary little bone which they believed to exist at the base of the spinal column, and to be incapable of destruction. To its ever-living power, fermented by a kind of dew from heaven, they ascribed the resurrection of the dead.
“Hadrian (whose bones may they be ground, and his name blotted out!) ”

“ This sobriquet was conferred upon General Andrew Jackson, in 1813, by the soldiers under his command. “The name of ‘Old Hickory,’” says Parton, “is not an instantaneous inspiration, but a growth. First of all, the remark was made by some soldier, who was struck with his commander’s pedestrian powers, that the general was ‘tough.’ Next it was observed of him that he was ‘tough as hickory.’ Then he was called Hickory. Lastly, the affectionate adjective ‘old’ was prefixed, and the general thenceforth rejoiced in the completed nickname, usually the first-won honor of a great commander.” ”

“ American, 1,264.
53. What noted physiologist estimated one hundred years as man’s normal term of life?
Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1794–1867) , the celebrated French physiologist, asserts, in one of his numerous publications, that the normal period of man’s life is one century. It is, he argues, a fact in natural history, that the length of each animal’s life is in exact proportion to the period the animal takes in growing. Monsieur Flourens has ascertained this period, and based upon it the theory that it depends on “the union of the bones to their epiphyses. ”

“ The home of the Presidents was named in honor of the White House, the Virginia home of Martha Washington, in New Kent County, in which her wedding occurred. Washington had many pleasant memories of that residence, and it was he who suggested the building of a “White House” for the Presidents. The house is constructed of Virginia freestone, which is excessively porous, and consequently would be very damp in the interior, were it not for a thick coat of white lead, which is applied about once in ten years at a great expense.
366. Who was the first woman hung in the United States? ”

“ 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.
[3]
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? ”

“ The truth that matter passes from the animal back to the vegetable, and from the vegetable to the animal kingdom again, received, not long since, a curious illustration. For the purpose of erecting a suitable monument in memory of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, his private burying-ground was searched for the graves of himself and wife. ”

“ 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. ”

“ After the growth, or, more properly speaking, the development in length and bulk has terminated, man enters into what I call the period of invigoration, that is, when all our parts become more complete and firm, our functions more assured, and the whole organism more perfect. ”

“ Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) , third President of the United States, was often so called from the name of his country seat in Virginia, and in allusion to his wise statesmanship and great political sagacity.
381. What was the origin of the term “Johnnies,” as applied to the Confederate soldiers during the late Rebellion?
This term Johnnies, or Johnny Rebs, is said to have originated in a taunting remark addressed to a rebel picket, to the effect that the Southern States relied on “John Bull” to help them gain their independence, and that the picket himself was no better than a “John Bull” ”