Facts and Fancies For the Curious by, Charles C. Bombaugh

About this eBook

Compiler

Bombaugh, Charles C. (Charles Carroll), 1828-1906

Title

Facts and fancies for the curious from the harvest-fields of literature : A melange of excerpta

Credits

Richard Tonsing and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)

Language

English

LoC Class

PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections

Subject

Literary curiosa

Category

Text

Project Gutenberg

eBook-No. 66541

Release Date

October 14, 2021

Copyright

Public domain in the USA.

Contents

1. 1.FACTS AND FANCIES FOR THE CURIOUS FROM THE HARVEST-FIELDS OF LITERATURE
2. 2.PREFACE
3. 3.CONTENTS — AMERICANA — The Norse Adventures — The Icelandic Sagas — Foreknowledge — Erikson and Columbus — The Cabots — The Name America — What it Cost to Discover America — The American Indians — The Landing of the Pilgrims — The First Legislative Assembly — The Signing of the Declaration — The Authorship of the Declaration — Eminent Domain—National Sovereignty — Gun Flints Wanted — The Master Spirit of the Revolution — The Constitutional Convention — Division of Legislative Authority — Progress toward Position as a World Power
4. 4.OUR NATIONAL AIRS — An Air of Twelve Nations — Hail Columbia — The Star-Spangled Banner — The Red, White, and Blue — Yankee Doodle
5. 5.OUR HISTORIC CHARACTERS — Washington — Franklin — Hamilton — Jefferson — The Portrait of a good man by the most sublime of Poets, for your Imitation. [2] — A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life. — Marshall — Jackson — Webster — Lincoln at Gettysburg — Grant at Appomattox — Last Words
6. 6.OUR WONDERLANDS
7. 7.OUR LANGUAGE — Lingua Anglicana — The Alphabet — Phonetic Changes — Americanisms — Spelling Exercises — A Spelling Lesson — Dream of a Spelling-Bee — The Longest Words — Trifles — A Perplexing Word — Verbal Conceits — Philological Contrarieties — The Aspirate — Alliterative Tribute to Swinburne — Vulcan — Compressing the Alphabet — Alphabetical Fancies — Palindromes — Words Wrong, Pronunciation Right — The Power of Short Words — Legal Verbosity — Prayers Constructed with Elaborate Skill — Its — Rough — Either and Neither — If — Words that will not be put Down — Changes in Pronunciation — Pronunciation of Proper Names — Bryant’s Index Expurgatorious — Stilted Scientific Phraseology — Metaphorical Conceits — Guess — A Message from England
8. 8.FIRST THINGS — First Marriage in the American Colonies — First Blood of the Revolution — The Oldest Buildings in America — First Duel Fought in New England — First Person Cremated in America — Old-Time Journalism — The First American Book — The Pioneer Furrier — College Papers — Damnatus — A Virginia Abolitionist — Suspension Bridge — Millions for Defence — Machine Politics — Anæsthesia — Anthracite Coal — Petroleum — Photography — Old Hickory — Eagle, the Emblematic — John Bull — The First Riddle — Boycott — Vivisection — Auld Kirk — Beer — Honeymoon — Gringo — Erasure — The Thimble — Bank Notes — Anno Domini — The Oldest Declaration of Independence — Punctuation — Sleeping-Cars — Eve’s Mirror — Order of the Garter — Coffee — Billiards — Cheap Postage — Postage Stamps — A Boston “Merchantman” — Theatrical Deadheads — Dollar — Marriage in Church — The Degree of M. D. — The Title of “Reverend” — The First Christian Hymn — Mother Goose and Mary’s Lamb — The Umbrella — Equal Mark — Cardinal’s Red Hat — An Old Proverb — The Stereoscope — The Dark Horse — The First Gold Found in California — The Flag of the United States — National Political Conventions — The First United States Bank — The Oldest Living Things
9. 9.PROTOTYPES — Shylock — Figaro — The Malaprops — The Pen and the Sword — The Best Service — Mark Twain Accused of Plagiary — The Bill of Fare — Ancestry — Cinderella — Crossing the Bar — Fourth Estate — Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam — Chestnut — Milton’s Indebtedness — An Expressive Phrase — Overstrained Politeness — The Next to Godliness — Punchinello — Workmen’s Strikes — The Standing Egg — Setting up to Knock Down — The Guilds of London — Rip Van Winkle — Menteith — The Christmas-Tree — Shallows and Deeps — Platform
10. 10.FORECASTS — Sic Vos Non Vobis — The Moons of Mars — The Suez Canal — The Panama Canal — Foreshadowing of the Germ Theory — The Telephone — Stenography — The Great Fire of London — The Plague of London — The Reformation — Emancipation — The French Revolution — The White Lady
11. 11.MISCELLANEA CURIOSA — Loyalty to Prince, Disloyalty to Self — Singular Expedient — Queer Parliamentary Enactment — Bolingbroke’s Favorite Desk — Fourth of March — The Powwow — The Flowering Dogwood — Offensiveness Punished — Ropes made of Women’s Hair — Premonitory Caution — Realism — He couldn’t have shot him — Cromwell’s Grace — The Ocean Depths — Pleasant Reading — Bismarck in the Language of the Spirits — The Age of Niagara Falls — Tools of the Pyramid Builders — A Distant World — A Matter of Form — Sweet Auburn — Importance of Punctuation — Bottled Tears — As you read it — A Story of Witchcraft — Circumstantial Evidence — A Little Beggar’s Charity — Jack Sprat — Franklin’s Brown Coat — Sources of History — A Long Name — Hero Worship — Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? — None Such — The Ants’ Habits — Caroline Herschel’s many Years — Constitution of the Early Church — “ Home, Sweet Home ” — Marriage in Undress — A City in Darkness — The Graffiti at Pompeii — Superstition — An Itemized Bill — Latin Pronunciation — Prevention better than Cure
12. 12.FACETIÆ — The Old Cock — Already had One — Ask Papa — Too Mild — The Eye of the Fly — Yale’s Way — Canard — Sothern’s Practical Joke — High Art Advertising — An Admissible Explanation — Second- or Third-Rate — The Wounded Amazon — Mr. Evarts’s Jocularity — Worse than Worst — A Poet-farmer in a Fix — A Venerable Joke — The Graduate — Coldblooded Criticism — Mock Heroics — Unwilling Willingness — Companion Pictures — Juxtaposition — Niagara — Compliant Courts — A Modern Judge on Portia’s Judgment — A Legal Dilemma — Virgil’s Æneid Dissected — Relative Size — The Cardinal’s Curse — The Berners Street Hoax — The Point of View — Vicissim — Jack and Jill — High Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle — Mary’s Little Lamb — The Meeting
13. 13.FLASHES OF REPARTEE — Hereditary Transmission — Fitting Answers — Left-Handed Compliments — Not Beyond Reach — Limitation of Authority — Like Topsy — Opposite Effects — Maternity — Date of Possession — The Old Dominion — No Jury Then and There — Each His Own Way — Nature’s Painting — A Boomerang — Relationship — Decay’s Effacement — A Woman’s Revenge — Best for Her — Ecclesiastical Tit-for-Tat — Even Chances — A Quick-Witted Damsel — Meeting an Emergency — Declined with Thanks — A Courteous Retort — Bearding the Lion — Distinction With a Difference — Future Provision — Sumner’s Legal Learning — Walk vs. Conversation — The Last Chance — Divine Knowledge — A Quaint Reproof—Acceptability Without a Dress Suit — Marriage in Heaven — Force and Argument — The Condemned Jester — Marjorie
14. 14.THE WORD-TWISTING OF THE PUNSTERS
15. 15.CLEVER HITS OF THE HUMORISTS — Mistaken Vanity — Toast — The Preferred Beverage — Identified — An Uncivil Retort — Unmistakable Legality — A Very Long Bill — Whittier’s Impromptu — Seeing is Believing — A Killarney Echo — Not Rousseau — Love of Specie-s — His Station — Frankness — Double X — Met the Emergency — A Similar Privilege — Caderousse’s Wager — According to Agreement — A Pulpit Wager — Rhus Toxicodendron — Mark Twain Convinced — Motto for a Tavern Sign — A New Light — Schweininger’s Thrust — Significant Change — The Remedy — Botanical Misnomer — Not Interchangeable — Business Economy — Completing an Unfinished Stanza — Sonnet to a Cow — Xanthippe Vindicated — Democritus at Belfast [3] — Christmas Chimes — The Nestling Shuttlecock — Proverbial Philosophy in New Dress — Theory and Practice
16. 16.THE HITS OF THE SATIRISTS — Thanks for Victory — Battle Prayer — Silly Newspaper Queries — Puffery Extraordinary — Beaconsfield — Burns’s Impromptu — The Prince Regent — The American Eagle — The Drama as an Instrumentality — Compliments to Boswell — Forbidden Fruit — A Statesman as a Scientist — Lardner’s Mistaken Prediction — The Lawyers and the Playwrights — Bancroft as a Historian — Unsuspected Turns — Plain Speaking — Stanhope — Pens Dipped in Gall — Samuel Rogers — Junius on the Duke of Bedford — Ruskin on the Bicycle — A Serious Interruption — Imitation of Shakespeare’s Commentators — Wordsworth’s Horse — A Sylvan Reverie — Carlyle as a Masquerader
17. 17.EVASIONS OF AMBIGUITY — The Greek Lexicographers — The Religion of Wise Men — A Deceiver — An Acknowledgment — An Artful Dodger — Rouge — A Difference — Which? — Divine Service — Doubtful Compliment — King or Pretender? — A Legal Question — A Judge Like Solomon — The Butchers — Meeting the Difficulty — A Tough Witness — Shifting Responsibility — Erskine’s Pleasantry — Mortuary Word-Play
18. 18.COMICAL BLUNDERS — Disinfecting a Telegram — The Wrong Man Made a Count — Stiefel — A Happy Thought — Couldn’t Fool Him — Gibson’s Venus — Highgate — Both Sides — A Hopeless Case — A Question of Capacity — An Unexpected Reception — Half-Truths — The Happening of the Unexpected — A Great Mind — Psoriasis — Exchanging Errors — Betting on the Lord’s Prayer — Contradictory Phraseology — Individuals — Infelicities — A “Sufficient” Guide-Post — Faux Pas — One Form of Vanity — “Beats,” Not Turnips — Reasonable Excuse — Sending a Postscript — Didn’t Understand Quakerese — John the Baptist — A German Pickwick — Not a Chiropodist — Unfamiliar Familiarity — Alleged Danger of Rapid Movement — Aaron and Hur — Twenty Dunkards with an R — The Economy of Nature — Desirable Uniformity — False Doctrine — Poor Children — Help from Above — Minding One’s Business — Direct Information — Mistranslation — Misplaced Zeal — Before Railroads — The Wrong Word
19. 19.MISSING THE POINT OF THE JOKES
20. 20.EVEN HOMER SOMETIMES NODS — Jugurtha — Completing a Sentence — Racine vs. Voltaire — A Chinese Cycle — Watts vs. Cowper — Bret Harte’s Astronomy — Wolseley’s Mistake — Johnson’s Error — Milton’s Italian — Milton as a Botanist — Dante as a Naturalist — Cassio or Iago? — In Time of Peace Prepare for War — Collins vs. Prior — Gladstone’s Heber — Balboa — Cenotaph — Bishop Ken’s Doxology — St. Paul to the Ephesians — Byron’s Greek — Triple Error — Mistakes of Our Best Writers
21. 21.THE STRETCHES OF POETIC LICENSE
22. 22.MISQUOTATION
23. 23.FALSITIES AND FALLACIES — False Ascription — The Lentulus Letter — Scott’s Fabrications — William Tell — The Finding of Moses — A Historic Phrase Disputed — The Maelstrom — Don’t Give Up the Ship — Specific Gravity — Pocahontas — The Penn Treaty — The Good Old Times — Shakespeare’s Defiance of Historical Fact — The Bacon Humbug — Stratford-on-Avon — L. E. L. Assumes a Virtue — The Burning of Rome , A.D. 54 — Mummy Wheat — Anglo-Saxon as a Race Term — Guillotin
24. 24.LEGENDARY LORE — Ilium Fuit — A Marred Destiny — Robinson Crusoe — Macaulay in the Role of a Pickpocket — A Minister’s Messenger and What He Saw — Tobacco in Diplomacy — The Mystery of the Dauphin — The Sistine Madonna and La Fornarina — The Letter M — The Iron Maiden — The Value of Practical Knowledge — The Marseillaise — Shakespeare and Burbage — A Circassian Legend — General Grouchy at Waterloo — Acadia — Wolfe at Quebec — The Chien d’Or — Maximilian at Queretaro — The Thieves’ Market — Amulets and Talismans — Christmas Observances — What Language did Jesus Speak? — Royalty’s Family Names
25. 25.PARALLEL PASSAGES — Shakespeare’s Repetitions — Lightning. — Children. — Calumny. — Boabdils. — Compulsion. — Effect of Ill News. — Resignation. — Allusion to an Old Proverb. — Prayer. — Early Hours. — Fortitude. — Posthumous Fame. — Mercy. — Madness. — The King’s Name. — Object of Imitation. — Woman. — “ Bad Epitaph and Ill Report. ” — Remembrance of Past Feats. — Perverted Reason. — Deceit. — Thereby Hangs a Tale. — DUO CHE INSIEME VANNO. — Dante.
26. 26.THE WIT OF THE EPIGRAMMATISTS — Jowett — Whewell — The Four Georges — The Ladies — Sarcastic — Gay With One Leg — “ Never Cut Themselves ” — Jenner’s Quacks — Loud Snoring — Bacon and Shakespeare — History — Fitness — Concerning Welsh Poets — Bulwer Lytton — Hic, Hæc, Hoc — Complimentary — A Crier — A Double Prize — War and Peace — Not Conclusive — Appropriate Petition — Expectancy — Keenness of Edge — Revenons à Nos Moutons — The Division of Labor — A Contrast — Lis et Victoria Mutua — The World, the Flesh, and the Devil — Horse-Breaker and Gray Mare — Washington — On Mackintosh — Ended in Smoke — Dryness — Debtor and Creditor — Why no Last Will and Testament — From the Dutch of Huijgens — Three Sportive Fishers — Ghosts — A Gamester’s Marriage — Changed Conditions — Distinction With a Difference — Better Late Than Never — None Missing — Four Kinds — To the Pretty Girl Who Lent Me a Candle — On “ Quodcunque Infundis Ascescit ” — Two Watering Places — Glen Urquhart — A Friend in Need — Retaliation — Not Distinguishable — A Bar Sinister — Communism — The Busy Bee — The Winning Team — Spirits
27. 27.ENIGMAS — Archbishop Whately’s — Charles James Fox’s — Hallam’s — Lord Macaulay’s — Dr. S. Weir Mitchell’s — Miss Seward’s — Palindromic Enigma — A Fugitive Sigh — Arithmetical Puzzle — What Becomes of the Pins? — Charades — Richard Porson’s Charades — Genealogical Puzzle — Marigold — Sir Hilary’s Prayer
28. 28.VOICES FROM GOD’S ACRE — The Blue and the Gray — George Eliot — Scott — Queen Elizabeth — Samuel Johnson — Beust — Elihu Yale — John Harvard — Cheyne — Huxley — André — Stevenson — Prince Christian — Condell and Heminge — Shakespeare’s Doctor — Little Ruth — Longfellow and Brooks — Grateful Memory — From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage — Somebody’s Darling — Bismarck — A Husbandman
29. 29.THE HONEYED PHRASE OF COMPLIMENT
30. 30.THE MAZES OF OBSCURITY
31. 31.IDEAL PHYSICAL PROPORTIONS — The Perfect Woman, Nobly Planned — Grecian and American Standards — The Venus de Medici a Questionable Type
32. 32.FAMOUS BEAUTIES — Cleopatra — Phryne — Isabella of Castile — Diana of Poitiers — Ninon de L’Enclos — Mary Stuart — Pompadour — Eugénie
33. 33.FEMALE POISONERS
34. 34.BREVITIES
35. 35.TOASTS AND MOTTOES — The Pilgrim Fathers — Independence Day — Our Country — The American Commonwealth — The President of the United States — The Flag of Our Union — The Army — The Navy — The City — The Pulpit — The Law — Medicine — Woman — Christian Charity — Sexual Affinity — Temperance — The Press — Modern Transportation — Erskine’s Toast — Our Dead — Good-Night
36. 36.FINIS CORONAT OPUS — The Burial Places of Europe — The Loved and Lost — At Last — Auld Lang Syne — In a Rose Garden — “ Now I Lay Me ” — Thanatopsis — Immortality — M. Guizot’s Confession of Faith — Thiers’s Faith — Patrick Henry’s Legacy — Goethe’s Last Words — A Rational View — Avoidance — A Scene at Old Hickory’s Death-bed — Imperator Augustus — Mary Stuart’s Prayer — Into the World and Out — Patientia — Death
37. 37.INDEX

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