132 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



Plymouth Rock. The rook at Plymouth, Mass., 

 where the pilgrims landed in 1620. 



Poet's Corner. A corner in Westminster Abbey 

 where poets are buried. The poetical column in a news- 

 paper. 



Pons Asinornm. (The bridge of asses.) Fifth prop- 

 osition, first book Euclid's Geometry. 



Poor Richard. Benjamin Franklin. 



Porkopolis. Cincinnati. 



Prater, The. A promenade in Vienna, Austria. 



Protestant Duke, The. The Duke of Monmouth, 

 natural son of Charles II. of England. 



Pyramids. A number of remarkable old structures 

 in Egypt. 



Quaker City, The. Philadelphia, Pa. 

 Ouaker Poet, The. John G. Whittier. 

 Quartier Latin. A district of Paris inhabited prin- 

 cipally by students. 

 Queen"of the Antilles. The island of Cuba. 



Ran/, des Vaches. The air the Swiss mountaineers 

 play on the Alpine horns when tending their cattle. 



Railway King, The. George Hudson, an English- 

 man. 



Rebellion, The Great. The war between Charles I. 

 of England and Parliament. 



Red Letter Day. A fortunate day. In old calendars 

 a red letter was used to mark the saints' days. 



Red Tape. Official routine. 



Reign of Terror. The time during the French Revo- 

 lution between the overthrow of the Girondists, May 

 31, 1793, and the fall of Robespierre, July 27, 1794. 



Reynard the Fox. A romance of the fourteenth 

 century. 



Rialto, The. A bridge over the Grand Canal, 



Rights, Declaration of. An instrument securing 

 annual Parliaments, trial by jury, free elections, the 

 right of petition, and denying to the crown the privi- 

 lege of keeping a standing'army or of levying taxes, was 

 drawn up after the revolution of 1C89, and accepted by 

 William and Mary. 



Roost, To Rule the. To take the leading part. 



Robert the Devil. The first Duke of Normandy. 



Robin Goodfellow. Puck, a celebrated fairy. 



Roland for an Oliver, A. Tit for tat. Roland and 

 Oliver, two peers of Charlemagne. So many romances 

 were related of these knights that whenever one told 

 an improbable storv to match one that had been told 

 before, it was called" giving a Roland for an Oliver. 



Rossius, The British. David Garrick. 



Rough and Ready. Gen. Zachary Taylor. 



Round Robin. A petition or remonstrance signed 

 by the names in a circle, so as to conceal who signed it 

 first. 



Round Table, The. King Arthur's knights sat at 

 a round table so that any distinction of rank was 

 avoided. 



Roundheads. The Puritans, who wore short hair. 



Royal Martyr, The. Charles I. of England. 



Royal Society, The. A society for the advancement 

 of natural science, founded at London, Iti45. 



Rozinante. The horse of Don Quixote. 



Rubicon, To Pass the. To takean irretrievable step. 

 WhenCu'sar crossed the Rubicon he became an enemy 

 of the Republic. 



Rule Britannia. An English song. 



Rump Parliament, The. A remnant of the Long 

 Parliament broken up by Cromwell. 



Rye House Plot. A conspiracy in 1683 to assassinate 

 Charles 1 1 . and the Duke of York. Rye House was the 

 name of the conspirators' place of meeting. 



Sabbath Day's Journey. About one mile. 



Sack, To Get the. To be discharged. The Sultan, 

 when he wants to be rid of one of his harem, has her put 

 into ;i sack and thrown into tho Bosphorus. 



Sadducee*. A sect of the ancient Jews who denied 

 the resurrection of the dead and the expectation <>( a 

 future state. 



Sagas. Scandinavian books containing the Northern 

 legends. 



Saint Bartholomew, Massacre of. Massacre of the 

 French Huguenots in the reign of Charles IX., on St. 

 Bartholomew's day, l.">7'_'. 



Sailor King, The. William IV. of England. 



Saint Cloud. A once famous French palace, de- 

 stroyed in the Franco-Prussian war 



Saint James, The Court of. The English court, so 

 called from the Palace of St. James in London, formerly 

 a royal residence. 



st. Mark's. Cathedral of Venice, Italy. 



Saint Paul's. The cathedral of London ; designed 

 by Sir Christopher Wren. 



"Saint Peter's. At Rome; is the most splendid 

 church building in the world. 



Saint Sophia. A mosque in Constantinople, Turkey. 



Saint Stephens. A Gothic cathedral in Vienna, 

 Austria. 



Salt River. Oblivion. Gone up Salt River i 

 erally taken to mean political defeat. 



Sambo. Nickname for colored man. 



Sanctum. One's private office. 



Sandwich. A piece of meat between two pieces of 

 bread. 



Sang Azul. Of aristocratic descent. 



Sanhedrim. The Jewish court of seventy elders. 



Sans-Culottes. (Without trousers.) The l-'n-nHi 

 revolutionists. 



Sans Souci. Palace of Frederick the Great, at \'<>r- 

 dam, near Berlin. 



Santa Croce. A church in Florence, Italy ; the burial 

 place of Michael Angelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, and 

 others. 



Saturnalia. A festival in honor of Saturn observed 

 annually by the Romans by giving way to the wilde>t 

 disorders. Unrestrained license for all classes, even t<> 

 the slaves, ruled the city for three days, December 17, 

 18, and 19. 



Schoolmen. The medieval theologians. 



Scotland Yard. The headquarters of the London 

 police. 



Scourge of God, The. Attila, King of the Huns. 



Scratch, Old. The Devil. 



Scylla. (Avoiding Scylla he fell into Charybdis.1 In 

 trying to avoid one danger he fell into another. Scylla 

 ami Charybdis were the two dangers in the Straits of 

 Messina, "Italy. 



Sea-girt Isle, The. Great Britain. 



Secessia. The seceding Southern States. 



Secular Games. Games held by the Romans once 

 in a century. 



Semiramisof the North. Catherine II., r-in^n - < ! 

 Russia. 



September Massacres. The massacre of the r rein 

 Royalist prisoners in Paris, September _', 3, and 4, 17!>-J. 

 About 8,000 were killed. 



Septuagint. A Greek version of the Old Testament 

 prepared by seventy doctors. 



Seven-hilled City, The. Rome. 



Seven Wonders of the World. The pyramids <>f 

 Egvpt; the Temple of Diana at Ephesus; the hanging 

 rdensof Babylon; the Colossus at Rhodes: the .Mau- 



soleum at Halicarnassus ; the statue of Zeus by Phidias 

 at Olympus; and the Pharos (or lighthouse) of Alexan- 

 dria in Egypt. 



Seven Years' War. The war of Frederick tin- < , n at 

 against France, Austria, and Russia, 175G to 1763. 



Shamrock. The emblem of Ireland. St. Patrick 

 made use of it to prove the doctrine of the Trinity. 



Shibboleth. A countersign. The password of 

 secret society. When the Ephraiuiites, after being 

 routed by Jephthah, tried to pass the Jordan, they were 

 detected by not being able to pronounce properly tin- 

 word Shibboleth. 



Sick Man, The. The Ottoman Empire. 



Sinews of War, The. Money. 



Single-Speech Hamilton. An English statesman <>l 

 the eighteenth century, W. G. Hamilton. He never 

 made but one speech, but that one was most eloquent. 



Six Hundred, Charge of the. At the battle of 

 Balaklava, October 25, 1N>1. by a mistaken order, the 

 British light cavalry, 670 strong, made a most gallant 

 charge on the Russians. 



Sleeping Beauty. The. A fairy tale. 



Smell of the Lamp. A phrase first applied to the 

 orations of Demosthenes, snowing their caretul 

 labored preparation. Demosthenes studied in a rave 

 by lamplight. 



"Song of Roland. An old French poem recounting 

 the deaths of Oliver and Roland at Roncesvalles. 



Sorboiine, The. A university in Paris founded by 

 Robert de Sorbonne in the thirteenth century. 



Sortes Biblica;. Fortune telling by consulting t 



South Kensington Museum. A collection of works 

 of art and manufactures in London. 

 South Sea Bubble, The. A company formed in 1,10 



