LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



129 



cargo. Her chief work has been in the laying of ocean 

 telegraph cables. 



Great Pyramid, The. Is at Geezeh, Egypt. It is 

 484 feet high. 



Greenbacks. United States Treasury notes. So 

 named from their color. 



Green Isle, The. Ireland. Sometimes also called 

 the Emerald Isle. 



Greenwood. A cemetery in Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Gregorian Year. 1582; it being proved that the 

 years were eleven minutes shorter than what they were 

 counted at, Gregory XIII. took ten days of October out 

 of that year and advanced tho dates so as to correct the 

 calendar. The reform has been accepted throughout 

 Christendom, except in Russia. Example: George 

 Washington, born February 11, O. S. 



Gretna Green. A Scotch village famous for runa- 

 way matches. 



Grub Street. In London; used to be noted for its 

 literary denizens. 



Guelphs. The adherents in the thirteenth century 

 of the Papacy against the German Emperors. They 

 were the constant opponents of the Ghibellines, and 

 between them Italy was kept in turmoil. 



Guildhall. The London town hall. 



Gunpowder Plot, The. A plot to blow up the Eng- 

 lish Parliament in its House, November 5, 1605. A cellar 

 underneath was stored with gunpowder intended to be 

 touched off during the session by Guy Fawkes. The 

 discovery was made in time to prevent mischief. To 

 use a modern but inelegant phrase, the plot was consid- 

 ered by some people to be " a put up job." 



Gyges' King. A ring which made the wearer in- 

 visible. Gyges, having found a man's corpse in a 

 brazen horse that he discovered in a cave, took a ring 

 from the ringer of the dead that rendered him invisible. 

 By using this ring he entered unseen the chamber of 

 the King of Lydia and murdered him. He became 

 King. 



Habeas Corpus Act, The. "Was passed in the time 

 of Charles II. and provides that the body of any person 

 restrained of his liberty must on proper application be 

 brought before a judge and the reason of his confine- 

 ment stated. The judge will then determine the amount 

 of bail he shall furnish, or he will remand him to prison 

 or allow him his freedom, as the case may require. 



Halcyon Days. A period of happiness; days of 

 peace and tranquillity. The halcyon, as the kingfisher 

 was anciently called, was said to lay her eggs in nests 

 on rocks near the sea during the calm weather about 

 the winter solstice. 



Handicap. Apportionment of the weights that must 

 be carried in a race by different horses, considering 

 their age and strength, to equalize their chances. 



Hansard. Name of the firm which prints the de- 

 bates of the British Parliament. 



Hanse Towns. In the twelfth century some com- 

 mercial cities in the north of Germany formed an asso- 

 ciation for the protection of commerce. To these other 

 similar cities in Holland, England, France, Spain, and 

 Italy acceded, and for centuries this confederacy com- 

 manded the respect and defied the power of kings. 



Hanseatic League. The name of the confederation 

 of Hanse towns. There were seventy-two cities in the 

 league, and they held triennial conventions called 

 Hansa. It has long since fallen to pieces. Four of its 

 members, Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen, and Frankfort, 

 are called free cities, but are really part of the German 

 Kmpire. 



Hare, Mad as a March. The hare is wilder than 

 usual in March. 



Harpies. Three ravenous and filthy monsters, each 

 having a woman's face and the body of a vulture. 

 Their names were Aello, Ocypete, and Celeno. Juno 

 sent them to plunder the table of Phineus. 



Hari-Kari. (Happy dispatch.) Japanese official 

 suicide. 



Harvest Moon. The full moon at or nearest the fall 

 equinox ; rises for a number of days about sunset. 



Heathen Chinee, The. A poem. 



Heidelberg Castle. Ruins near Heidelberg, Ger- 

 many. 



Hegira. The date of Mohammed's flight from Mecca, 

 July 16, 622. The epoch from which the Mohammedans 

 compute their time. 



High Church. The more conservative portion of 

 the Episcopal Church. 



High Seas, The. The sea beyond three miles from 

 the coast. 



History, The Father of. Herodotus, the Greek 

 historian. 



Hobson's Choice. Take what is offered or go with- 

 out. Tobias Hobson, an English stable-keeper, made 

 whatever customer came to nire a horse take the one 

 nearest the door. 



Holborn. A street in London by which criminals 

 used to be carried out to execution at Tyburn. 



Holy Alliance. Formed in 1816 by Austria, Prussia, 

 and Russia. 



Holy Family, The. The name of pictures repre- 

 senting in group the infant Jesus, St. Joseph, the 

 Blessed Virgin, John the Baptist, Anna, and St. Eliza 

 beth. The most celebrated are by Michael Angelo at 

 Florence, by Raphael in London, and by Leonardo da 

 Vinci in the Louvre. 



Holy Land, The. Palestine. 



Holy League, The. The alliance of Pope Julius II., 

 France, Germany, Spain, and some of the Italian Re- 

 publics in 1508, against Venice. 



Honi soit qiii inal y pense. (Shame to him who 

 evil thinks.) Motto of the highest order of knight- 

 hood in Great Britain, that of the Garter, instituted 

 by Edward III. At a ball, a garter of the Countess of 

 Salisbury, having fallen off, was picked up by the King, 

 who expressed himself in the above phrase and fastened 

 it around his own knee. This incident led to the forma- 

 tion of the order. 



Honors of War. Allowing a surrendered enemy to 

 keep his arms. 



Hotel de Ville. The city hall in French and Belgian 

 cities. 



Houris. Beautiful virgins of Paradise ; promised by 

 the Koran for the delight of the true believers. 



Hundred Days, The. From March 20, 1815, when 

 Napoleon escaped from Elba, to June 22, 1815, when he 

 abdicated. 



Iconoclast. (Image-breaker.) A radical reformer. 



Iliad. A Greek epic poem by Homer, relating the 

 story of the siege of Troy by the Greeks. 



Independence, Declaration of. Issued July 4, 1776. 



Independence Hall. In Philadelphia, Pa., where 

 Congress met and adopted the Declaration of Inde 

 pendence. 



Index Expurgatorius. A list of books forbidden 

 to be read by the Roman Catholic Church. 



Inns of Court. The four London law societies which 

 have the sole right of admitting candidates to the Bar. 

 They are Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, the Inner Temple, 

 and the Middle Temple. 



Inquisition. A tribunal established in some coun- 

 tries to try heretics. 



Irish Agitator, The. Daniel O'Connell. 



Iron City, The. Pittsburg, Pa. 



Iron Duke, The. The Duke of Wellington. 



Iron Mask, The Man in the. A mysterious French 

 state prisoner. 



Jack Ketch. The hangman. The name of an Eng- 

 lish hangman. 



Jack Robinson. Before you can say Jack Robinson ; 

 at once. Jack Robinson was noted for the shortness of 

 his visits ; the servant had scarcely time to repeat his 

 name, before he would leave. 



Jack, The Giant Killer. A nursery hero. 



Jack, The American, or Union. The blue ground 

 of the American flag with the stars but without the 

 stripes. 



Jacobins. A revolutionary club, 1789, in Paris, held 

 its meetings in what had been the Jacobin Monastery. 

 They were violent and extreme in the measures they 

 proposed. The.r name spread to all similar organiza'- 

 tions and to individuals acting with them throughout 

 France. 



Jacobites. Adherents of James II. of England, and 

 of the Stuarts, his descendants. 



Jardin des Plantes. Botanical and zoological 

 garden in Paris. 



Jardin Mabille. Of world-wide notoriety. A Paris- 

 ian resort where the can-can flourished. Suppressed in 

 1882. 



Jericho, Gone to. Disappeared ; ruined. 



Jerusalem Delivered. An Italian epic poem by 

 Torquato Tasso. 



Jingo, Jingoism. Expression applied in England 

 to those who wanted the English Government to assume 

 an aggressive foreign policy, 1874-1880. 



John Bull. England. Nickname for an Englishman. 



John Chinaman. The Chinese in America. 



