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THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



The eagle was first taken as a symbol of royal 

 power by the ancient Etruscans, who bore its 

 image upon their standards. In the year 87 

 B. C. a silver eagle, with expanded wings, 

 poised on the top of a spear, with a thunder- 

 bolt held in its claws, was adopted as the mili- 

 tary standard to be borne at the head of their 

 legions by the Romans. At the time of Ha- 

 drian a golden eagle was substituted for the sil- 

 ver one. A two-headed eagle was adopted by 

 the Byzantine emperors as a symbol of their 

 control of both the East and the West. The 

 double-headed eagle of Russia was adopted on 

 the marriage of Ivan I. with a Grecian princess 

 of the Eastern empire ; that of Austria was 

 first used when the Emperor of Germany took 

 the title of the Roman Emperor. The national 

 standard of Prussia bears a black eagle, that 

 of Poland a white one. Napoleon I. took a 

 golden eagle for" his standard, modeled of pure 

 gold, and bearing a thunderbolt, after the pat- 

 tern of the eagle of the Romans. This stand- 

 ard was disused under the Bourbons, but was 

 restored by a decree of Louis Napoleon in 1852. 

 The eagle was first used on American coins in 

 1788, on cents and half -cents issued from the 

 Massachusetts mint. It was adopted in the 

 plan of a national coinage as a design upon all 

 gold coins, and on the silver dollar, half dollar, 

 and quarter dollar. The design of an eagle 

 was at one time suggested for the national flag, 

 but was abandoned. 



Knighthood, originally a military dis- 

 tinction, came, in the sixteenth century, to be 

 occasionally conferred on civilians, as a re- 

 ward for valuable services rendered to the 

 crown or community. The first civil knight in 

 England was Sir William Walworth, Lord 

 Mayor of London, who won that distinction by 

 slaying the rebel, Wat Tyler, in the presence of 

 the king. The ceremonies practiced in con- 

 ferring knighthood have varied at different 

 periods. In general, fasting and bathing were 

 in early times necessary preparatives. In the 

 eleventh century, the creation of a knight was 

 preceded by solemn confession and a midnight 

 vigil in the church and followed by the recep- 

 tion of the Eucharist. The new knight offered 

 his sword on the altar, to signify his devotion 

 to the Church and determination to lead a 

 holy life. The sword was redeemed in a sum 

 of money, had a benediction pronounced over 

 it, and was girded on by the highest ecclesias- 

 tic present. The title was conferred by bind- 

 ing the sword and spurs on the candidate, after 

 which a blow was dealt him on the cheek or 

 shoulder, as the last affront which he was to 

 receive unrequited. He then took an oath to 

 protect the distressed, maintain right against 

 Qoigh<j, and never by word or deed to stain his 



character as a knight or a Christian. Upon 

 the infringement of any part of his oath a 

 knight could be degraded, in which case his 

 spurs were chopped off with a hatchet, his 

 sword broken, his escutcheon reversed, and 

 some religious observances were added during 

 which each piece of armor was taken off in 

 succession and cast from the recreant knight. 

 Knighthood is now generally bestowed by a 

 verbal declaration of the sovereign, accom- 

 panied with a simple ceremony of imposition 

 of the sword. 



Latin Union was formed in 1865 and orig- 

 inally embraced France, Italy, Belgium, and 

 Switzerland, but was joined by Greece in 1868, 

 Spain in 1871, and subsequently Servia and 

 Roumania. The object of this combination 

 was to regulate the amount of silver to be 

 coined yearly in each country, and to secure a 

 uniform coinage which would be received with- 

 out discount throughout the Union. The unit 

 of coinage in the Latin Union is the franc, and 

 although it is known in other countries under 

 different names the value is always the same. 

 The perfect decimal system of France is also 

 used. The convenience of this coinage system 

 has led to its adoption by about 148,000,000 

 people. In 1874 the States, by mutual con- 

 sent, practically suspended the coinage of sil- 

 ver. 



Blue Stockings. The term "blue stock- 

 ing " originated in England about a century 

 ago. Its invention is traced to the days of 

 Doctor Johnson and was applied then as now 

 to ladies who cultivated learned conversation, 

 and found enjoyment in the discussion of ques- 

 tions which had been monopolized by men. It 

 is said by Dr. John Doran, who, in his work 

 "A Lady of the Last Century, " gave an ac- 

 count of Mrs. Montagu and the " blue stock- 

 ings " of her time, that in 1757 it was quite 

 the thing for ladies to form evening assem- 

 blies, when they might participate in talk with 

 literary and ingenious men. One of the best 

 known and most popular members of one of 

 these societies was said to have been a Mr. 

 Stillingfleet, who always wore blue stockings, 

 and when at any time he happened to be ab- 

 sent from these gatherings it was usually re- 

 marked that "we can do nothing without blue 

 stockings"; and by degrees the term "blue 

 stockings " was applied to all clubs of the kind 

 described, and eventually to the ladies who at- 

 tended their meetings. 



Mound Builders. It is generally be- 

 lieved that the Mississippi valley and the 

 Atlantic coast were once populated by an agri- 

 cultural and partially civilized race quite dif- 

 ferent from the nomadic Indians, though 

 possibly the progenitors of some of the Indian 



