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Charles C. Bombaugh. Facts and fancies for the curious from the harvest-fields of literature
Facts and fancies for the curious from the harvest-fields of literature
Table of Contents
PREFACE
AMERICANA
The Norse Adventures
The Icelandic Sagas
Foreknowledge
Erikson and Columbus
The Cabots
The Name America
What it Cost to Discover America
The American Indians
The Landing of the Pilgrims
The First Legislative Assembly
The Signing of the Declaration
The Authorship of the Declaration
Eminent Domain—National Sovereignty
Gun Flints Wanted
The Master Spirit of the Revolution
The Constitutional Convention
Division of Legislative Authority
Progress toward Position as a World Power
OUR NATIONAL AIRS
An Air of Twelve Nations
Hail Columbia
The Star-Spangled Banner
The Red, White, and Blue
Yankee Doodle
OUR HISTORIC CHARACTERS
Washington
Franklin
Hamilton
Jefferson
The Portrait of a good man by the most sublime of Poets, for your Imitation.[2]
A Decalogue of Canons for Observation in Practical Life
Marshall
Jackson
Webster
Lincoln at Gettysburg
Grant at Appomattox
Last Words
OUR WONDERLANDS
OUR LANGUAGE
Lingua Anglicana
The Alphabet
Phonetic Changes
Americanisms
Spelling Exercises
A Spelling Lesson
Dream of a Spelling-Bee
The Longest Words
Trifles
A Perplexing Word
Verbal Conceits
Philological Contrarieties
The Aspirate
Alliterative Tribute to Swinburne
Vulcan
Compressing the Alphabet
Alphabetical Fancies
Palindromes
Words Wrong, Pronunciation Right
The Power of Short Words
Legal Verbosity
Prayers Constructed with Elaborate Skill
Its
Rough
Either and Neither
If
Words that will not be put Down
Changes in Pronunciation
Pronunciation of Proper Names
Bryant’s Index Expurgatorious
Stilted Scientific Phraseology
Metaphorical Conceits
Guess
A Message from England
FIRST THINGS
First Marriage in the American Colonies
First Blood of the Revolution
The Oldest Buildings in America
First Duel Fought in New England
First Person Cremated in America
Old-Time Journalism
The First American Book
The Pioneer Furrier
College Papers
Damnatus
A Virginia Abolitionist
Suspension Bridge
Millions for Defence
Machine Politics
Anæsthesia
Anthracite Coal
Petroleum
Photography
Old Hickory
Eagle, the Emblematic
John Bull
The First Riddle
Boycott
Vivisection
Auld Kirk
Beer
Honeymoon
Gringo
Erasure
The Thimble
Bank Notes
Anno Domini
The Oldest Declaration of Independence
Punctuation
Sleeping-Cars
Eve’s Mirror
Order of the Garter
Coffee
Billiards
Cheap Postage
Postage Stamps
A Boston “Merchantman”
Theatrical Deadheads
Dollar
Marriage in Church
The Degree of M. D
The Title of “Reverend”
The First Christian Hymn
Mother Goose and Mary’s Lamb
The Umbrella
Equal Mark
Cardinal’s Red Hat
An Old Proverb
The Stereoscope
The Dark Horse
The First Gold Found in California
The Flag of the United States
National Political Conventions
The First United States Bank
The Oldest Living Things
PROTOTYPES
Shylock
Figaro
The Malaprops
The Pen and the Sword
The Best Service
Mark Twain Accused of Plagiary
The Bill of Fare
Ancestry
Cinderella
Crossing the Bar
Fourth Estate
Ne Sutor Ultra Crepidam
Chestnut
Milton’s Indebtedness
An Expressive Phrase
Overstrained Politeness
The Next to Godliness
Punchinello
Workmen’s Strikes
The Standing Egg
Setting up to Knock Down
The Guilds of London
Rip Van Winkle
Menteith
The Christmas-Tree
Shallows and Deeps
Platform
FORECASTS
Sic Vos Non Vobis
The Moons of Mars
The Suez Canal
The Panama Canal
Foreshadowing of the Germ Theory
The Telephone
Stenography
The Great Fire of London
The Plague of London
The Reformation
Emancipation
The French Revolution
The White Lady
MISCELLANEA CURIOSA
Loyalty to Prince, Disloyalty to Self
Singular Expedient
Queer Parliamentary Enactment
Bolingbroke’s Favorite Desk
Fourth of March
The Powwow
The Flowering Dogwood
Offensiveness Punished
Ropes made of Women’s Hair
Premonitory Caution
Realism
He couldn’t have shot him
Cromwell’s Grace
The Ocean Depths
Pleasant Reading
Bismarck in the Language of the Spirits
The Age of Niagara Falls
Tools of the Pyramid Builders
A Distant World
A Matter of Form
Sweet Auburn
Importance of Punctuation
Bottled Tears
As you read it
A Story of Witchcraft
Circumstantial Evidence
A Little Beggar’s Charity
Jack Sprat
Franklin’s Brown Coat
Sources of History
A Long Name
Hero Worship
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
None Such
The Ants’ Habits
Caroline Herschel’s many Years
Constitution of the Early Church
“Home, Sweet Home”
Marriage in Undress
A City in Darkness
The Graffiti at Pompeii
Superstition
An Itemized Bill
Latin Pronunciation
Prevention better than Cure
FACETIÆ
The Old Cock
Already had One
Ask Papa
Too Mild
The Eye of the Fly
Yale’s Way
Canard
Sothern’s Practical Joke
High Art Advertising
An Admissible Explanation
Second- or Third-Rate
The Wounded Amazon
Mr. Evarts’s Jocularity
Worse than Worst
A Poet-farmer in a Fix
A Venerable Joke
The Graduate
Coldblooded Criticism
Mock Heroics
Unwilling Willingness
Companion Pictures
Juxtaposition
Niagara
Compliant Courts
A Modern Judge on Portia’s Judgment
A Legal Dilemma
Virgil’s Æneid Dissected
Relative Size
The Cardinal’s Curse
The Berners Street Hoax
The Point of View
Vicissim
Jack and Jill
High Diddle Diddle, the Cat and the Fiddle
Mary’s Little Lamb
The Meeting
FLASHES OF REPARTEE
Hereditary Transmission
Fitting Answers
Left-Handed Compliments
Not Beyond Reach
Limitation of Authority
Like Topsy
Opposite Effects
Maternity
Date of Possession
The Old Dominion
No Jury Then and There
Each His Own Way
Nature’s Painting
A Boomerang
Relationship
Decay’s Effacement
A Woman’s Revenge
Best for Her
Ecclesiastical Tit-for-Tat
Even Chances
A Quick-Witted Damsel
Meeting an Emergency
Declined with Thanks
A Courteous Retort
Bearding the Lion
Distinction With a Difference
Future Provision
Sumner’s Legal Learning
Walk vs. Conversation
The Last Chance
Divine Knowledge
A Quaint Reproof—Acceptability Without a Dress Suit
Marriage in Heaven
Force and Argument
The Condemned Jester
Marjorie
THE WORD-TWISTING OF THE PUNSTERS
CLEVER HITS OF THE HUMORISTS
Mistaken Vanity
Toast
The Preferred Beverage
Identified
An Uncivil Retort
Unmistakable Legality
A Very Long Bill
Whittier’s Impromptu
Seeing is Believing
A Killarney Echo
Not Rousseau
Love of Specie-s
His Station
Frankness
Double X
Met the Emergency
A Similar Privilege
Caderousse’s Wager
According to Agreement
A Pulpit Wager
Rhus Toxicodendron
Mark Twain Convinced
Motto for a Tavern Sign
A New Light
Schweininger’s Thrust
Significant Change
The Remedy
Botanical Misnomer
Not Interchangeable
Business Economy
Completing an Unfinished Stanza
Sonnet to a Cow
Xanthippe Vindicated
Democritus at Belfast[3]
Christmas Chimes
The Nestling Shuttlecock
Proverbial Philosophy in New Dress
Theory and Practice
THE HITS OF THE SATIRISTS
Thanks for Victory
Battle Prayer
Silly Newspaper Queries
Puffery Extraordinary
Beaconsfield
Burns’s Impromptu
The Prince Regent
The American Eagle
The Drama as an Instrumentality
Compliments to Boswell
Forbidden Fruit
A Statesman as a Scientist
Lardner’s Mistaken Prediction
The Lawyers and the Playwrights
Bancroft as a Historian
Unsuspected Turns
Plain Speaking
Stanhope
Pens Dipped in Gall
Samuel Rogers
Junius on the Duke of Bedford
Ruskin on the Bicycle
A Serious Interruption
Imitation of Shakespeare’s Commentators
Wordsworth’s Horse
A Sylvan Reverie
Carlyle as a Masquerader
EVASIONS OF AMBIGUITY
The Greek Lexicographers
The Religion of Wise Men
A Deceiver
An Acknowledgment
An Artful Dodger
Rouge
A Difference
Which?
Divine Service
Doubtful Compliment
King or Pretender?
A Legal Question
A Judge Like Solomon
The Butchers
Meeting the Difficulty
A Tough Witness
Shifting Responsibility
Erskine’s Pleasantry
Mortuary Word-Play
COMICAL BLUNDERS
Disinfecting a Telegram
The Wrong Man Made a Count
Stiefel
A Happy Thought
Couldn’t Fool Him
Gibson’s Venus
Highgate
Both Sides
A Hopeless Case
A Question of Capacity
An Unexpected Reception
Half-Truths
The Happening of the Unexpected
A Great Mind
Psoriasis
Exchanging Errors
Betting on the Lord’s Prayer
Contradictory Phraseology
Individuals
Infelicities
A “Sufficient” Guide-Post
Faux Pas
One Form of Vanity
“Beats,” Not Turnips
Reasonable Excuse
Sending a Postscript
Didn’t Understand Quakerese
John the Baptist
A German Pickwick
Not a Chiropodist
Unfamiliar Familiarity
Alleged Danger of Rapid Movement
Aaron and Hur
Twenty Dunkards with an R
The Economy of Nature
Desirable Uniformity
False Doctrine
Poor Children
Help from Above
Minding One’s Business
Direct Information
Mistranslation
Misplaced Zeal
Before Railroads
The Wrong Word
MISSING THE POINT OF THE JOKES
EVEN HOMER SOMETIMES NODS
Jugurtha
Completing a Sentence
Racine vs. Voltaire
A Chinese Cycle
Watts vs. Cowper
Bret Harte’s Astronomy
Wolseley’s Mistake
Johnson’s Error
Milton’s Italian
Milton as a Botanist
Dante as a Naturalist
Cassio or Iago?
In Time of Peace Prepare for War
Collins vs. Prior
Gladstone’s Heber
Balboa
Cenotaph
Bishop Ken’s Doxology
St. Paul to the Ephesians
Byron’s Greek
Triple Error
Mistakes of Our Best Writers
THE STRETCHES OF POETIC LICENSE
MISQUOTATION
FALSITIES AND FALLACIES
False Ascription
The Lentulus Letter
Scott’s Fabrications
William Tell
The Finding of Moses
A Historic Phrase Disputed
The Maelstrom
Don’t Give Up the Ship
Specific Gravity
Pocahontas
The Penn Treaty
The Good Old Times
Shakespeare’s Defiance of Historical Fact
The Bacon Humbug
Stratford-on-Avon
L. E. L. Assumes a Virtue
The Burning of Rome, A.D. 54
Mummy Wheat
Anglo-Saxon as a Race Term
Guillotin
LEGENDARY LORE
Ilium Fuit
A Marred Destiny
Robinson Crusoe
Macaulay in the Role of a Pickpocket
A Minister’s Messenger and What He Saw
Tobacco in Diplomacy
The Mystery of the Dauphin
The Sistine Madonna and La Fornarina
The Letter M
The Iron Maiden
The Value of Practical Knowledge
The Marseillaise
Shakespeare and Burbage
A Circassian Legend
General Grouchy at Waterloo
Acadia
Wolfe at Quebec
The Chien d’Or
Maximilian at Queretaro
The Thieves’ Market
Amulets and Talismans
Christmas Observances
What Language did Jesus Speak?
Royalty’s Family Names
PARALLEL PASSAGES
Shakespeare’s Repetitions. Lightning
Children
Calumny
Boabdils
Compulsion
Effect of Ill News
Resignation
Allusion to an Old Proverb
Prayer
Early Hours
Fortitude
Posthumous Fame
Mercy
Madness
The King’s Name
Object of Imitation
Woman
“Bad Epitaph and Ill Report.”
Remembrance of Past Feats
Perverted Reason
Deceit
Thereby Hangs a Tale
DUO CHE INSIEME VANNO.—Dante
THE WIT OF THE EPIGRAMMATISTS
Jowett
Whewell
The Four Georges
The Ladies
Sarcastic
Gay With One Leg
“Never Cut Themselves”
Jenner’s Quacks
Loud Snoring
Bacon and Shakespeare
History
Fitness
Concerning Welsh Poets
Bulwer Lytton
Hic, Hæc, Hoc
Complimentary
A Crier
A Double Prize
War and Peace
Not Conclusive
Appropriate Petition
Expectancy
Keenness of Edge
Revenons à Nos Moutons
The Division of Labor
A Contrast
Lis et Victoria Mutua
The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
Horse-Breaker and Gray Mare
Washington
On Mackintosh
Ended in Smoke
Dryness
Debtor and Creditor
Why no Last Will and Testament
From the Dutch of Huijgens
Three Sportive Fishers
Ghosts
A Gamester’s Marriage
Changed Conditions
Distinction With a Difference
Better Late Than Never
None Missing
Four Kinds
To the Pretty Girl Who Lent Me a Candle
On “Quodcunque Infundis Ascescit”
Two Watering Places
Glen Urquhart
A Friend in Need
Retaliation
Not Distinguishable
A Bar Sinister
Communism
The Busy Bee
The Winning Team
Spirits
ENIGMAS
Archbishop Whately’s
Charles James Fox’s
Hallam’s
Lord Macaulay’s
Dr. S. Weir Mitchell’s
Miss Seward’s
Palindromic Enigma
A Fugitive Sigh
Arithmetical Puzzle
What Becomes of the Pins?
Charades
Richard Porson’s Charades
Genealogical Puzzle
Marigold
Sir Hilary’s Prayer
VOICES FROM GOD’S ACRE
The Blue and the Gray
George Eliot
Scott
Queen Elizabeth
Samuel Johnson
Beust
Elihu Yale
John Harvard
Cheyne
Huxley
André
Stevenson
Prince Christian
Condell and Heminge
Shakespeare’s Doctor
Little Ruth
Longfellow and Brooks
Grateful Memory
From Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
Somebody’s Darling
Bismarck
A Husbandman
THE HONEYED PHRASE OF COMPLIMENT
THE MAZES OF OBSCURITY
IDEAL PHYSICAL PROPORTIONS
The Perfect Woman, Nobly Planned
Grecian and American Standards
The Venus de Medici a Questionable Type
FAMOUS BEAUTIES
Cleopatra
Phryne
Isabella of Castile
Diana of Poitiers
Ninon de L’Enclos
Mary Stuart
Pompadour
Eugénie
FEMALE POISONERS
BREVITIES
TOASTS AND MOTTOES
The Pilgrim Fathers
Independence Day
Our Country
The American Commonwealth
The President of the United States
The Flag of Our Union
The Army
The Navy
The City
The Pulpit
The Law
Medicine
Woman
Christian Charity
Sexual Affinity
Temperance
The Press
Modern Transportation
Erskine’s Toast
Our Dead
Good-Night
FINIS CORONAT OPUS
The Burial Places of Europe
The Loved and Lost
At Last
Auld Lang Syne
In a Rose Garden
“Now I Lay Me”
Thanatopsis
Immortality
M. Guizot’s Confession of Faith
Thiers’s Faith
Patrick Henry’s Legacy
Goethe’s Last Words
A Rational View
Avoidance
A Scene at Old Hickory’s Death-bed
Imperator Augustus
Mary Stuart’s Prayer
Into the World and Out
Patientia
Death
INDEX
