130 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Johnny Cakes. Made of Indian meal baked in the 

 ashes. 



Jubilee, Year of. Among the Jews the jubilee came 

 every fiftieth year, which was the year after one week 

 of weeks of years had passed (seven times seven). All 

 slaves who were of Hebrew blood were freed, all debts 

 were canceled, and all lands returned to original owners 

 during the jubilee. In the Roman Catholic Church it 

 is observed every twenty-fifth year. 



juggernaut. A Hindoo god who has a famous 

 temple in India. There is an immense car in the serv- 

 ice of this god, which, when moved about the country, 

 causes the greatest excitement. The car resembles a 

 large building, and its weight is very heavy. It id 

 dragged along by the multitude, and their fanaticism 

 is so great that crowds of devotees cast themselves 

 under the wheels and are crushed to death, a fate which 

 they believe insures paradise. 



Julian Era, The. A method of reckoning time 

 from 46 B.C., when Caesar reformed the calendar. 



Junius, Letters of. Some remarkable political let- 

 ters written during the reign of George III. Their 

 authorship is unknown. 



Kansas, Bleeding. So called by Horace Greeley 

 during the Free Soil controversy. 



Kensington Gardens. A London Park near which 

 Queen Victoria was born. 



Kilkenny Cats, The. Disputing people ; from the 

 old verse : 



There once were two cats in Kilkenny, 



Who each thought there was one cat too many, 



So they howled and they fit, and they scratched 



and they bit, 

 Until instead of two cats there wasn't any. 



King can do no wrong, The. Meaning that the 

 Ministers and not the King are responsible for mistakes 

 of government. 



King of Yvetot. The Seigneur of Yvetot was made 

 king of his estate by the King of France as a recom- 

 pense for the killing of his father. It was a kingdom 

 of eight square miles. 



King Cole. A legendary king of Britain, who affected 

 tobacco and spirits. 



King Cotton. A name given to the great Southern 

 industry before the war. 



King's Evil. The scrofula. So called from the belief 

 that a king's touch would cure the disease. 



King Log. A good-for-nothing ruler. The name 

 comes from one of Esop's fables, wherein Jupiter puts 

 a log to rule over the frogs. 



King-Maker, The. Richard Nevill, the Earl of 

 Warwick, who set up and deposed kings at his will 

 during the Wars of the Roses, in the fifteenth centurv. 



King Stork. A tyrant. The sequel to the Esop fable 

 mentioned above. The frogs grew tired of King Log, 

 whereupon King Stork was brought in at their request, 

 who devoured the whole community. 



Kit Kat Club, The. A London club founded in 

 1688. It had many eminent members. 



Knickerbocker. A member of any old Dutch family 

 in New York. Derived fromlrving's immortal history. 



Knight of Malta. A chivalric and monastic order 

 founded during the Crusades, also called the Knights 

 Hospitallers of St. John. 



Know-Nothings. A political party in the United 

 States, whose cardinal principle was opposition to 

 foreign office-holders. 



Koh-i-Noor. A Golconda diamond, the largest in 

 the world, now one of the crown diamonds of England. 

 Value, $625,000. 



Koran, The. The Mohammedan Bible. 



Kremlin, The. The Royal Russian residence in 

 Moscow. 



Labyrinth, The. A celebrated structure built by 

 Minos, King of Crete, which consisted of a maze out of 

 which no one who entered could find the way back. 



Laconic. Curt. So called from the brief speech in 

 fashion in old Laconia, afterwards called Sparta. 



Lacrymal Christ!. An Italian wine. 



Lake School, The. A society of English poets con- 

 sisting of Coleridge, Wordsworth, and Southey. 



Land of Bondage, The. Egypt. 



Land o' Cakes, The. Scotland. 



Land of Nod, The. Sleep; Dreamland. 



Land of Promise, The. Canaan, the goal of the 

 Jewish wanderings in the wilderness. 



Lang Syne. Long ago. 



Langue d'Oc. Provence, a part of France so called 

 from the dialect in use. 



Langue <l"< i ,ii. All of France except Provence. 



Laocoon, The. A celebrated statue in the Vatican 

 representing Laocoon strangled by serpe'its. 



Laodicean. A person lukewarm in religion. 



Lares and Penates. The household gods. 



Last Judgment, The. The theme of a number of 

 frescoes of the Renaissance period in Italy. 



Last Supper, The. Similar to the above. Leonardo 

 da Vinci's uest canvas is on this subject. 



Lateran Palace, The. One of the Papal residences 

 at Kome. 



Laughing Philosopher, The. Democritus of Ab- 

 dera, who believed that life was only to be laughed at. 



Leaning Tower, The. A celebrated structure at 

 Pisa. Italy, which leans fourteen feet out of the perpen- 

 dicular; 180 feet hi^h. 



Learned Blacksmith, The. Elihu Burritt. 



Leonine Verses. Verses which rhyme at the middle 

 and the end. 



Libby Prison. A Confederate jail for prisoners of 

 war at Richmond, Va. 



Lilliput. The pigmy land in Gulliver's travels. 



Lingua Franca. A dialect of French, Italian, and 

 Arabic spoken on the Mediterranean Sea. 



Lion and Unicorn. The supporters of the British 

 royal arms. 



Lion of the North, The. Gustavus of Sweden, the 

 great leader of the Protestant forces during the Thirty 

 Yeare' War. 



Lion's Share. The bigger portion in a division. So 

 called from one of Esop's Tables. 



Little Corporal, The. Napoleon Bonaparte. 



Little Giant, The. Stephen A. Douglas. 



Lloyds. The originators of marine insurance. 



Lombard Street. The financial street of London. 



Lono Star State, The. Texas. 



Long Parliament. The Parliament which sat lor 

 thirteen years at the beginning of the civil war in 

 England. It sat from 1640 to 1653. 



Lorolei. A malignant but beautiful water-sprite of 

 the Rhine. 



Lotus-Eaters, The. Homer in the Odyssey describes 

 the effect of eating the lotus as making the eater forget 

 his home. 



Louvre, The. The art palace of Paris. 



Low Church, The. A part of the Episcopal Church 

 which is opposed to ceremonials. 



Lusiad, The. The Portuguese epic poem, written by 

 Camoens, describing Vasco da Gama's adventures. 



Lynch Law. Mob law. The name comes from a 

 Virginia farmer who instituted the first vigilance com- 

 mittee in America. 



Mab, Queen. The queen of the fairies. So calk-il 

 from an Irish fairy princess named Medh, who flourished 

 in the night of time. 



Macadamize. Paving with broken stones. So called 

 from the inventor, Sir John MacAdam. 



Macaronic Verse. A verse made by mixing different 

 languages. 



Macchiavellism. Political trickery. 



Madam Tussaud's Exhibition. A famous London 

 wax-works show. 



Mad Poet, The. Nathaniel Lee, an insane English 

 dramatist. 



Madman of Macedonia, The. Alexander the < ; ivat . 



Madman of the North, The. Charles III. of Swc. leu. 



Madonna. The Blessed Virgin. 



Maecenas. A noted patron of poets during the reign 

 of Augustus of Rome. 



Magiia Charta. The charter making the corner stone 

 of English liberty, extorted from King John Lack-Land. 



Mahomet's Coffin. The body of Mahomet is said to 

 hang in mid-air over Medina. 



Maid of Orleans. Joan of Arc. 



Maid of Saragossa. Augustina Zaragoza, the hero- 

 ine of the siege of Sarugossa in 1808-9. 



Maiden Queen, The. Elizabeth of England. 



Maine Law. A prohibitory law first adopted in 

 Maine. 



Malthusian Doctrine, The. The theory that the 

 population of the world is growing faster than the food 

 supply. 



Mammoth Cave. A cave near the Green River, 

 Kentucky, the largest cave in the world. 



Man in the Moon. According to the legend the 

 man who first broke the Sabbath. 



Man of Destiny, Napoleon Bonaparte. 



