LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 



133 



in England to pay the national debt and to have in 

 return a monopoly of the South Sea trade. This com- 

 pany lasted about ten years, and its failure was the ruin 

 of thousands. 



Spanish Main. The southwestern part of the Gulf 

 of Mexico. 



Sphinx. An emblem of silence and mystery. A 

 monument near Cairo, Egypt ; half woman, half lion. 



St a bat Mater. A Latin nymn on the Crucifixion. 



Stalwart. A member of the Republican party of the 

 United States clinging to the principles and practices 

 of the party. His opposite, a " Half-Breed," is a Re- 

 publican unwilling to be controlled by the party 

 leaders. 



Star Chamber. A court of criminal jurisdiction in 

 England having extensive powers. It existed from the 

 time of Henry VIII. until that of Charles I. 



"Stonewall" Jackson. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson, 

 Confederate General. 



Strasburg Cathedral. At Strasburg ; Gothic ; 468 

 feet high ; has a wonderful clock. 



Swedish Nightingale. Jenny Lind (Mme. Gold- 

 schmidt). 



Tabooed. Prohibited. A Polynesian word meaning 

 consecrated; used for what is out of date or in bad 

 taste. 



Tammany Hall. A section of the Democratic party 

 in New Yoru City, named from their place of meeting. 



Tammany Ring, or the "Tweed Ring," or "the 

 Ring." A set of New York City officials which absorbed 

 large sums of the city money. Exposed in 1871. 



Tammany, Saint. Patron saint of the Democratic 

 party in New York. He was an Indian chief, whose 

 name was really Timenund. 



Tapis, On the. On the carpet; proposed for discus- 

 sion. From the tapis or cloth on a council table. 



Temple Bar. A stone house in London over which 

 the heads of traitors used to be exposed. Torn down 

 in 1878. 



Termagant. A shrew. Termagant was, according 

 to the Crusaders, the wife of Mahomet. 



Terra Firma. Dry land. 



Xertium Quid. A third somebody not to be named. 



Theatre Trancais. A theater in Paris. 



Theleme, Abbey of. A creation of Rabelais in his 

 Gargantua. Its motto was, "Do as you please." 



Thirty Years' War, The. Between the Catholics 

 and Protestants in Germany, 1618-1648. 



Thistle. The national emblem of Scotland. One 

 night when the Danes were attempting to surprise an 

 encampment of the Scotch, one of them trod upon a 

 thistle ; the pain caused him to raise an alarm and the 

 Scotch defeated them. Ever since the thistle has been 

 the insignia of Scotland. 



Thor. The god of war, son of Odin, the Scandinavian 

 Myth. 



Threadneedle Street, The Old Lady of. The Bank 

 of England. 



Three Estates of the Realm. The nobility, the 

 clergy, and the commonalty, represented in the two 

 houses of Parliament. 



Thunderer, The. The London Times (newspaper). 



Tick, On. On credit. 



Tit for Tat. An equivalent ; this for that 



Tom Thumb. Charles A. Stratton. Also a fairy tale. 



Tory. The name of an English political party , oppo- 

 site of Whig. 



Tour, The Grand. From England, through France, 

 Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and home. 



Tower, The. The citadel of London. 



Transfiguration, The. One of Raphael's most fa- 

 mous pictures, now in the Vatican. 



Trimmer. One who takes a moderate course in 

 politics. 



Trinity Church. ' An Episcopal church on Broad- 

 way at the head of Wall street, New York. The richest 

 church in America. 



Triple Alliance, The. Alliance between Great Brit- 

 ain, Holland, and Sweden against France, 1668. 



Troubadours. Provincial poets from the eleven ih 

 to the fourteenth century. 



Trouveres. Northern French poets 1100 to 1400. 



Trumpet, To Sound One's Own. To boast. The 

 entrance of knights into a list was announced by the 

 heralds with a flourish of trumpets. 



Tuft-Hunter. A toady. At Oxford a nobleman was 

 called a tuft because of the gold tuft on his college cap. 



Tuileries. A French royal palace burned by the 

 Commune in 1871. 



Tulip Mania. A European craze of the seventeenth 

 century centering in Holland. Everybody was buying 

 tulip bulbs, which ran up to enormous prices. Many 

 fortunes were sunk in their acquisition. 



Tune the Old Cow Died of. Words instead of alms. 

 Old song : a man having nothing with which to feed 

 his cow, sings to her of the grass which is to grow. The 

 expression is also used for a worn-out, tiresome tune. 



Tyburn. Once a London place of execution, now a 

 wealthy and fashionable quarter called Tyburnia. 



Ufflzi. A building in Florence in which is a magnifi- 

 cent art collection. 



Ultramontanes. In France, the more extreme ad- 

 herents of the Pope. 



_Underground Railroad, The. Organization of the 

 different means used for the escape of: runaway slaves, 

 about the middle of the present century. 



Under the Rose. (Sub rosa.) Confidentially. 



Unlicked Cub. An ill-bred boy. The bear "cub was 

 believed to be licked into shape by its dam. 



Unter den Linden. A street in Berlin having four 

 rows of lime trees. 



Unwashed, The Great. The mob. 



Up the Spout, or, more elegantly, " gone where the 

 woodbine twineth," or "at my uncle's," means in pawn. 



Upas Tree. An object that does harm and should be 

 avoided. The upas tree is common in Java ; its gum i s 

 poisonous, and fable states that the atmosphere about 

 it is as deadly. 



Upper Ten Thousand. The aristocracy; fashion- 

 able society. 



Utilitarians. Those who believe that the fitness of 

 anything to promote happiness is the right standard of 

 morality. 



Utopia. An ideal commonwealth. The imaginary 

 Jteland, scene of Sir Thomas More's romance of Utopia." 



Valhalla. The palace of immortality, where the 

 heroes slain in battle dwell. (From the Saga legends.) 



Vampire. An extortioner. A fabulous oat said to 

 suck the blood of persons during sleep. 



Vatican. The palace of the Popes, Rome. 



Vatican, Council of the. The (Ecumenical Council, 

 1869, promulgated Papal infallibility. 



Vedas, The. Revelations of Brahma in four sacred 

 books. 



Veni, Vidi, Vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.) Phrase 

 used by Julius Cit'sar. announcing his victory at Zela. 



Venus de Medici. A Greek statue at Florence. 



Venus of Milo. A Greek statue found in the Island 

 of Melos, 1820 ; it is now in the Louvre. 



Verbum Sap. A word to the wise. 



Veronica. A relic at St. Peter's, Rome. 



Versailles. A palace at Versailles, ten miles from 

 Paris. 



Vespers, The Sicilian. The massacre of the French 

 in Sicily, March 30, 1282. The sounding of the vesper 

 bell was the signal. 



Via Dolorosa. The sorrowful way of our Lord from 

 the Mount of Olives to Golgotha. 



Vinegar Bible, The. Has "vinegar" for " vineyard " 

 in the head line of Luke xx., Oxford, 1017. 



Virgin Queen, The. Queen Elizabeth of England. 



Vitus Dance, St. A disease anciently supposed to 

 be under control of St. Vitus. 



Wabash Avenue. A street in Chicago. 



Wall of China, The. A wall 1,200 miles long and 20 

 feet high, built as a protection against the Tartars. 



Wall Street. The great financial street of New York. 



Wallack's. A theater in New York. 



Walton, An Izaak. An angler. 



Wandering t T e w, The. A legendary personage con- 

 demned to wander over the world until the day of 

 judgment. 



War of 1812. Between Great Britain and the United 

 States, 1812-1815. 



War of the Roses. The English civil wars in the 

 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, between the houses 

 of York and Lancaster. 



Ward, Artemus. C. F. Browne. 



Washington Street. A street in Boston, Mass. 



Wassail. (What hail !) A bowl of spiced ale used on 

 New Year's day is the Wassail bowl. 



Waters, The Father of. The Mississippi. 



Ways and Means. An important committee of the 

 House of Representatives; is charged with the duty of 

 devising ways and means for the supply of the Govern- 

 ment expenses. 



