THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY

by Ambrose Bierce

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

_The Devil's Dictionary_ was begun in a weekly paper in 1881, and wascontinued in a desultory way at long intervals until 1906. In thatyear a large part of it was published in covers with the title _TheCynic's Word Book_, a name which the author had not the power toreject or happiness to approve. To quote the publishers of thepresent work:

"This more reverent title had previously been forced upon him bythe religious scruples of the last newspaper in which a part of thework had appeared, with the natural consequence that when it came outin covers the country already had been flooded by its imitators with ascore of 'cynic' books--_The Cynic's This_, _The Cynic's That_, and_The Cynic's t'Other_. Most of these books were merely stupid, thoughsome of them added the distinction of silliness. Among them, theybrought the word 'cynic' into disfavor so deep that any book bearingit was discredited in advance of publication. "

Meantime, too, some of the enterprising humorists of the countryhad helped themselves to such parts of the work as served their needs, and many of its definitions, anecdotes, phrases and so forth, hadbecome more or less current in popular speech. This explanation ismade, not with any pride of priority in trifles, but in simple denialof possible charges of plagiarism, which is no trifle. In merelyresuming his own the author hopes to be held guiltless by those towhom the work is addressed--enlightened souls who prefer dry winesto sweet, sense to sentiment, wit to humor and clean English to slang. 

A conspicuous, and it is hoped not unpleasant, feature of the bookis its abundant illustrative quotations from eminent poets, chief ofwhom is that learned and ingenius cleric, Father Gassalasca Jape, S. J. , whose lines bear his initials. To Father Jape's kindlyencouragement and assistance the author of the prose text is greatlyindebted. 

A. B. 

A

ABASEMENT, n. A decent and customary mental attitude in the presenceof wealth or power. Peculiarly appropriate in an employee whenaddressing an employer. 

ABATIS, n. Rubbish in front of a fort, to prevent the rubbish outsidefrom molesting the rubbish inside. 

ABDICATION, n. An act whereby a sovereign attests his sense of thehigh temperature of the throne. 

 Poor Isabella's Dead, whose abdication Set all tongues wagging in the Spanish nation. For that performance 'twere unfair to scold her: She wisely left a throne too hot to hold her. To History she'll be no royal riddle-- Merely a plain parched pea that jumped the griddle. 

G. J. 

ABDOMEN, n. The temple of the god Stomach, in whose worship, withsacrificial rights, all true men engage. From women this ancientfaith commands but a stammering assent. They sometimes minister atthe altar in a half-hearted and ineffective way, but true reverencefor the one deity that men really adore they know not. If woman had afree hand in the world's marketing the race would becomegraminivorous. 

ABILITY, n. The natural equipment to accomplish some small part ofthe meaner ambitions distinguishing able men from dead ones. In thelast analysis ability is commonly found to consist mainly in a highdegree of solemnity. Perhaps, however, this impressive quality isrightly appraised; it is no easy task to be solemn. 

ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought andconduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to bedetested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward thestraiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death andthe hope of Hell. 

ABORIGINIES, n. Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of anewly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize. 

ABRACADABRA. 

 By _Abracadabra_ we signify An infinite number of things. 'Tis the answer to What? and How? and Why? And Whence? and Whither?--a word whereby The Truth (with the comfort it brings) Is open to all who grope in night, Crying for Wisdom's holy light. 

 Whether the word is a verb or a noun Is knowledge beyond my reach. I only know that 'tis handed down. From sage to sage, From age to age-- An immortal part of speech!

 Of an ancient man the tale is told That he lived to be ten centuries old, In a cave on a mountain side. (True, he finally died. ) The fame of his wisdom filled the land, For his head was bald, and you'll understand His beard was long and white And his eyes uncommonly bright. 

 Philosophers gathered from far and near To sit at his feet and hear and hear, Though he never was heard To utter a word But "_Abracadabra, abracadab_, _Abracada, abracad_, _Abraca, abrac, abra, ab!_" 'Twas all he had, 'Twas all they wanted to hear, and each Made copious notes of the mystical speech, Which they published next-- A trickle of text In the meadow of commentary. Mighty big books were these, In a number, as leaves of trees; In learning, remarkably--very!

 He's dead, As I said, And the books of the sages have perished, But his wisdom is sacredly cherished. In _Abracadabra_ it solemnly rings, Like an ancient bell that forever swings. O, I love to hear That word make clear Humanity's General Sense of Things. 

Jamrach Holobom

ABRIDGE, v. T. To shorten. 

 When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for people to abridge their king, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

Oliver Cromwell

ABRUPT, adj. Sudden, without ceremony, like the arrival of a cannon-shot and the departure of the soldier whose interests are mostaffected by it. Dr. Samuel Johnson beautifully said of anotherauthor's ideas that they were "concatenated without abruption. "

ABSCOND, v. I. To "move in a mysterious way, " commonly with theproperty of another. 

 Spring beckons! All things to the call respond; The trees are leaving and cashiers abscond. 

Phela Orm

ABSENT, adj. Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction; vilifed;hopelessly in the wrong; superseded in the consideration and affectionof another. 

 To men a man is but a mind. Who cares What face he carries or what form he wears? But woman's body is the woman. O, Stay thou, my sweetheart, and do never go, But heed the warning words the sage hath said: A woman absent is a woman dead. 

Jogo Tyree

ABSENTEE, n. A person with an income who has had the forethought toremove himself from the sphere of exaction. 

ABSOLUTE, adj. Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy isone in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleasesthe assassins. Not many absolute monarchies are left, most of themhaving been replaced by limited monarchies, where the sovereign'spower for evil (and for good) is greatly curtailed, and by republics, which are governed by chance. 

ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denyinghimself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains fromeverything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in theaffairs of others. 

 Said a man to a crapulent youth: "I thought You a total abstainer, my son. " "So I am, so I am, " said the scapegrace caught-- "But not, sir, a bigoted one. "

G. J. 

ABSURDITY, n. A statement or belief manifestly inconsistent withone's own opinion. 

ACADEME, n. An ancient school where morality and philosophy weretaught. 

ACADEMY, n. [from ACADEME] A modern school where football istaught. 

ACCIDENT, n. An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutablenatural laws. 

ACCOMPLICE, n. One associated with another in a crime, having guiltyknowledge and complicity, as an attorney who defends a criminal, knowing him guilty. This view of the attorney's position in thematter has not hitherto commanded the assent of attorneys, no onehaving offered them a fee for assenting. 

ACCORD, n. Harmony. 

ACCORDION, n. An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of anassassin. 

ACCOUNTABILITY, n. The mother of caution. 

 "My accountability, bear in mind, " Said the Grand Vizier: "Yes, yes, " Said the Shah: "I do--'tis the only kind Of ability you possess. "

Joram Tate

ACCUSE, v. T. To affirm another's guilt or unworth; most commonly as ajustification of ourselves for having wronged him. 

ACEPHALOUS, adj. In the surprising condition of the Crusader whoabsently pulled at his forelock some hours after a Saracen scimitarhad, unconsciously to him, passed through his neck, as related by deJoinville. 

ACHIEVEMENT, n. The death of endeavor and the birth of disgust. 

ACKNOWLEDGE, v. T. To confess. Acknowledgement of one another'sfaults is the highest duty imposed by our love of truth. 

ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slightwhen its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich orfamous. 

ACTUALLY, adv. Perhaps; possibly. 

ADAGE, n. Boned wisdom for weak teeth. 

ADAMANT, n. A mineral frequently found beneath a corset. Soluble insolicitate of gold. 

ADDER, n. A species of snake. So called from its habit of addingfuneral outlays to the other expenses of living. 

ADHERENT, n. A follower who has not yet obtained all that he expectsto get. 

ADMINISTRATION, n. An ingenious abstraction in politics, designed toreceive the kicks and cuffs due to the premier or president. A man ofstraw, proof against bad-egging and dead-catting. 

ADMIRAL, n. That part of a war-ship which does the talking while thefigure-head does the thinking. 

ADMIRATION, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance toourselves. 

ADMONITION, n. Gentle reproof, as with a meat-axe. Friendly warning. 

 Consigned by way of admonition, His soul forever to perdition. 

Judibras

ADORE, v. T. To venerate expectantly. 

ADVICE, n. The smallest current coin. 

 "The man was in such deep distress, " Said Tom, "that I could do no less Than give him good advice. " Said Jim: "If less could have been done for him I know you well enough, my son, To know that's what you would have done. "

Jebel Jocordy

AFFIANCED, pp. Fitted with an ankle-ring for the ball-and-chain. 

AFFLICTION, n. An acclimatizing process preparing the soul foranother and bitter world. 

AFRICAN, n. A nigger that votes our way. 

AGE, n. That period of life in which we compound for the vices thatwe still cherish by reviling those that we have no longer theenterprise to commit. 

AGITATOR, n. A statesman who shakes the fruit trees of his neighbors--to dislodge the worms. 

AIM, n. The task we set our wishes to. "Cheer up! Have you no aim in life?" She tenderly inquired. "An aim? Well, no, I haven't, wife; The fact is--I have fired. "

G. J. 

AIR, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence forthe fattening of the poor. 

ALDERMAN, n. An ingenious criminal who covers his secret thievingwith a pretence of open marauding. 

ALIEN, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state. 

ALLAH, n. The Mahometan Supreme Being, as distinguished from theChristian, Jewish, and so forth. 

 Allah's good laws I faithfully have kept, And ever for the sins of man have wept; And sometimes kneeling in the temple I Have reverently crossed my hands and slept. 

Junker Barlow

ALLEGIANCE, n. 

 This thing Allegiance, as I suppose, Is a ring fitted in the subject's nose, Whereby that organ is kept rightly pointed To smell the sweetness of the Lord's anointed. 

G. J. 

ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves whohave their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that theycannot separately plunder a third. 

ALLIGATOR, n. The crocodile of America, superior in every detail tothe crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World. Herodotussays the Indus is, with one exception, the only river that producescrocodiles, but they appear to have gone West and grown up with theother rivers. From the notches on his back the alligator is called asawrian. 

ALONE, adj. In bad company. 

 In contact, lo! the flint and steel, By spark and flame, the thought reveal That he the metal, she the stone, Had cherished secretly alone. 

Booley Fito

ALTAR, n. The place whereupon the priest formerly raveled out thesmall intestine of the sacrificial victim for purposes of divinationand cooked its flesh for the gods. The word is now seldom used, except with reference to the sacrifice of their liberty and peace by amale and a female tool. 

 They stood before the altar and supplied The fire themselves in which their fat was fried. In vain the sacrifice!--no god will claim An offering burnt with an unholy flame. 

M. P. Nopput

AMBIDEXTROUS, adj. Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocketor a left. 

AMBITION, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies whileliving and made ridiculous by friends when dead. 

AMNESTY, n. The state's magnanimity to those offenders whom it wouldbe too expensive to punish. 

ANOINT, v. T. To grease a king or other great functionary alreadysufficiently slippery. 

 As sovereigns are anointed by the priesthood, So pigs to lead the populace are greased good. 

Judibras

ANTIPATHY, n. The sentiment inspired by one's friend's friend. 

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. 

 The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. 

"The Mad Philosopher, " 1697

APOLOGIZE, v. I. To lay the foundation for a future offence. 

APOSTATE, n. A leech who, having penetrated the shell of a turtleonly to find that the creature has long been dead, deems it expedientto form a new attachment to a fresh turtle. 

APOTHECARY, n. The physician's accomplice, undertaker's benefactorand grave worm's provider. 

 When Jove sent blessings to all men that are, And Mercury conveyed them in a jar, That friend of tricksters introduced by stealth Disease for the apothecary's health, Whose gratitude impelled him to proclaim: "My deadliest drug shall bear my patron's name!"

G. J. 

APPEAL, v. T. In law, to put the dice into the box for another throw. 

APPETITE, n. An instinct thoughtfully implanted by Providence as asolution to the labor question. 

APPLAUSE, n. The echo of a platitude. 

APRIL FOOL, n. The March fool with another month added to his folly. 

ARCHBISHOP, n. An ecclesiastical dignitary one point holier than abishop. 

 If I were a jolly archbishop, On Fridays I'd eat all the fish up-- Salmon and flounders and smelts; On other days everything else. 

Jodo Rem

ARCHITECT, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draftof your money. 

ARDOR, n. The quality that distinguishes love without knowledge. 

ARENA, n. In politics, an imaginary rat-pit in which the statesmanwrestles with his record. 

ARISTOCRACY, n. Government by the best men. (In this sense the wordis obsolete; so is that kind of government. ) Fellows that wear downyhats and clean shirts--guilty of education and suspected of bankaccounts. 

ARMOR, n. The kind of clothing worn by a man whose tailor is ablacksmith. 

ARRAYED, pp. Drawn up and given an orderly disposition, as a rioterhanged to a lamppost. 

ARREST, v. T. Formally to detain one accused of unusualness. 

 God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. 

_The Unauthorized Version_

ARSENIC, n. A kind of cosmetic greatly affected by the ladies, whomit greatly affects in turn. 

 "Eat arsenic? Yes, all you get, " Consenting, he did speak up; "'Tis better you should eat it, pet, Than put it in my teacup. "

Joel Huck

ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related asfollows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, S. J. 

 One day a wag--what would the wretch be at?-- Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT, And said it was a god's name! Straight arose Fantastic priests and postulants (with shows, And mysteries, and mummeries, and hymns, And disputations dire that lamed their limbs) To serve his temple and maintain the fires, Expound the law, manipulate the wires. Amazed, the populace that rites attend, Believe whate'er they cannot comprehend, And, inly edified to learn that two Half-hairs joined so and so (as Art can do) Have sweeter values and a grace more fit Than Nature's hairs that never have been split, Bring cates and wines for sacrificial feasts, And sell their garments to support the priests. 

ARTLESSNESS, n. A certain engaging quality to which women attain bylong study and severe practice upon the admiring male, who is pleasedto fancy it resembles the candid simplicity of his young. 

ASPERSE, v. T. Maliciously to ascribe to another vicious actions whichone has not had the temptation and opportunity to commit. 

ASS, n. A public singer with a good voice but no ear. In VirginiaCity, Nevada, he is called the Washoe Canary, in Dakota, the Senator, and everywhere the Donkey. The animal is widely and variouslycelebrated in the literature, art and religion of every age andcountry; no other so engages and fires the human imagination as thisnoble vertebrate. Indeed, it is doubted by some (Ramasilus, _lib. II. , De Clem. _, and C. Stantatus, _De Temperamente_) if it is not agod; and as such we know it was worshiped by the Etruscans, and, if wemay believe Macrobious, by the Cupasians also. Of the only twoanimals admitted into the Mahometan Paradise along with the souls ofmen, the ass that carried Balaam is one, the dog of the Seven Sleepersthe other. This is no small distinction. From what has been writtenabout this beast might be compiled a library of great splendor andmagnitude, rivalling that of the Shakespearean cult, and that whichclusters about the Bible. It may be said, generally, that allliterature is more or less Asinine. 

 "Hail, holy Ass!" the quiring angels sing; "Priest of Unreason, and of Discords King!" Great co-Creator, let Thy glory shine: God made all else, the Mule, the Mule is thine!"

G. J. 

AUCTIONEER, n. The man who proclaims with a hammer that he has pickeda pocket with his tongue. 

AUSTRALIA, n. A country lying in the South Sea, whose industrial andcommercial development has been unspeakably retarded by an unfortunatedispute among geographers as to whether it is a continent or anisland. 

AVERNUS, n. The lake by which the ancients entered the infernalregions. The fact that access to the infernal regions was obtained bya lake is believed by the learned Marcus Ansello Scrutator to havesuggested the Christian rite of baptism by immersion. This, however, has been shown by Lactantius to be an error. 

 _Facilis descensus Averni, _ The poet remarks; and the sense Of it is that when down-hill I turn I Will get more of punches than pence. 

Jehal Dai Lupe

B

BAAL, n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names. As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he hadthe honor to be served by the priest Berosus, who wrote the famousaccount of the Deluge; as Babel he had a tower partly erected to hisglory on the Plain of Shinar. From Babel comes our English word"babble. " Under whatever name worshiped, Baal is the Sun-god. AsBeelzebub he is the god of flies, which are begotten of the sun's rayson the stagnant water. In Physicia Baal is still worshiped as Bolus, and as Belly he is adored and served with abundant sacrifice by thepriests of Guttledom. 

BABE or BABY, n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex, orcondition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies andantipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion. There have been famous babes; for example, little Moses, from whoseadventure in the bulrushes the Egyptian hierophants of seven centuriesbefore doubtless derived their idle tale of the child Osiris beingpreserved on a floating lotus leaf. 

 Ere babes were invented The girls were contended. Now man is tormented Until to buy babes he has squandered His money. And so I have pondered This thing, and thought may be 'T were better that Baby The First had been eagled or condored. 

Ro Amil

BACCHUS, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excusefor getting drunk. 

 Is public worship, then, a sin, That for devotions paid to Bacchus The lictors dare to run us in, And resolutely thump and whack us?

Jorace

BACK, n. That part of your friend which it is your privilege tocontemplate in your adversity. 

BACKBITE, v. T. To speak of a man as you find him when he can't findyou. 

BAIT, n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. Thebest kind is beauty. 

BAPTISM, n. A sacred rite of such efficacy that he who finds himselfin heaven without having undergone it will be unhappy forever. It isperformed with water in two ways--by immersion, or plunging, and byaspersion, or sprinkling. 

 But whether the plan of immersion Is better than simple aspersion Let those immersed And those aspersed Decide by the Authorized Version, And by matching their agues tertian. 

G. J. 

BAROMETER, n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind ofweather we are having. 

BARRACK, n. A house in which soldiers enjoy a portion of that ofwhich it is their business to deprive others. 

BASILISK, n. The cockatrice. A sort of serpent hatched form the eggof a cock. The basilisk had a bad eye, and its glance was fatal. Many infidels deny this creature's existence, but Semprello Auratorsaw and handled one that had been blinded by lightning as a punishmentfor having fatally gazed on a lady of rank whom Jupiter loved. Junoafterward restored the reptile's sight and hid it in a cave. Nothingis so well attested by the ancients as the existence of the basilisk, but the cocks have stopped laying. 

BASTINADO, n. The act of walking on wood without exertion. 

BATH, n. A kind of mystic ceremony substituted for religious worship, with what spiritual efficacy has not been determined. 

 The man who taketh a steam bath He loseth all the skin he hath, And, for he's boiled a brilliant red, Thinketh to cleanliness he's wed, Forgetting that his lungs he's soiling With dirty vapors of the boiling. 

Richard Gwow

BATTLE, n. A method of untying with the teeth of a political knotthat would not yield to the tongue. 

BEARD, n. The hair that is commonly cut off by those who justlyexecrate the absurd Chinese custom of shaving the head. 

BEAUTY, n. The power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies ahusband. 

BEFRIEND, v. T. To make an ingrate. 

BEG, v. To ask for something with an earnestness proportioned to thebelief that it will not be given. 

 Who is that, father? A mendicant, child, Haggard, morose, and unaffable--wild! See how he glares through the bars of his cell! With Citizen Mendicant all is not well. 

 Why did they put him there, father?

 Because Obeying his belly he struck at the laws. 

 His belly?

 Oh, well, he was starving, my boy-- A state in which, doubtless, there's little of joy. No bite had he eaten for days, and his cry Was "Bread!" ever "Bread!"

 What's the matter with pie?

 With little to wear, he had nothing to sell; To beg was unlawful--improper as well. 

 Why didn't he work?

 He would even have done that, But men said: "Get out!" and the State remarked: "Scat!" I mention these incidents merely to show That the vengeance he took was uncommonly low. Revenge, at the best, is the act of a Siou, But for trifles--

 Pray what did bad Mendicant do?

 Stole two loaves of bread to replenish his lack And tuck out the belly that clung to his back. 

 Is that _all_ father dear?

 There's little to tell: They sent him to jail, and they'll send him to--well, The company's better than here we can boast, And there's--

 Bread for the needy, dear father?

 Um--toast. 

Atka Mip

BEGGAR, n. One who has relied on the assistance of his friends. 

BEHAVIOR, n. Conduct, as determined, not by principle, but bybreeding. The word seems to be somewhat loosely used in Dr. JamrachHolobom's translation of the following lines from the _Dies Irae_:

 Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae. Ne me perdas illa die. 

 Pray remember, sacred Savior, Whose the thoughtless hand that gave your Death-blow. Pardon such behavior. 

BELLADONNA, n. In Italian a beautiful lady; in English a deadlypoison. A striking example of the essential identity of the twotongues. 

BENEDICTINES, n. An order of monks otherwise known as black friars. 

 She thought it a crow, but it turn out to be A monk of St. Benedict croaking a text. "Here's one of an order of cooks, " said she-- "Black friars in this world, fried black in the next. "

"The Devil on Earth" (London, 1712)

BENEFACTOR, n. One who makes heavy purchases of ingratitude, without, however, materially affecting the price, which is still within themeans of all. 

BERENICE'S HAIR, n. A constellation (_Coma Berenices_) named in honorof one who sacrificed her hair to save her husband. 

 Her locks an ancient lady gave Her loving husband's life to save; And men--they honored so the dame-- Upon some stars bestowed her name. 

 But to our modern married fair, Who'd give their lords to save their hair, No stellar recognition's given. There are not stars enough in heaven. 

G. J. 

BIGAMY, n. A mistake in taste for which the wisdom of the future willadjudge a punishment called trigamy. 

BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinionthat you do not entertain. 

BILLINGSGATE, n. The invective of an opponent. 

BIRTH, n. The first and direst of all disasters. As to the nature ofit there appears to be no uniformity. Castor and Pollux were bornfrom the egg. Pallas came out of a skull. Galatea was once a blockof stone. Peresilis, who wrote in the tenth century, avers that hegrew up out of the ground where a priest had spilled holy water. Itis known that Arimaxus was derived from a hole in the earth, made by astroke of lightning. Leucomedon was the son of a cavern in MountAetna, and I have myself seen a man come out of a wine cellar. 

BLACKGUARD, n. A man whose qualities, prepared for display like a boxof berries in a market--the fine ones on top--have been opened onthe wrong side. An inverted gentleman. 

BLANK-VERSE, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters--the most difficultkind of English verse to write acceptably; a kind, therefore, muchaffected by those who cannot acceptably write any kind. 

BODY-SNATCHER, n. A robber of grave-worms. One who supplies theyoung physicians with that with which the old physicians have suppliedthe undertaker. The hyena. 

 "One night, " a doctor said, "last fall, I and my comrades, four in all, When visiting a graveyard stood Within the shadow of a wall. 

 "While waiting for the moon to sink We saw a wild hyena slink About a new-made grave, and then Begin to excavate its brink!

 "Shocked by the horrid act, we made A sally from our ambuscade, And, falling on the unholy beast, Dispatched him with a pick and spade. "

Bettel K. Jhones

BONDSMAN, n. A fool who, having property of his own, undertakes tobecome responsible for that entrusted to another to a third. 

Philippe of Orleans wishing to appoint one of his favorites, adissolute nobleman, to a high office, asked him what security he wouldbe able to give. "I need no bondsmen, " he replied, "for I can giveyou my word of honor. " "And pray what may be the value of that?"inquired the amused Regent. "Monsieur, it is worth its weight in gold. "

BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. 

BOTANY, n. The science of vegetables--those that are not good toeat, as well as those that are. It deals largely with their flowers, which are commonly badly designed, inartistic in color, andill-smelling. 

BOTTLE-NOSED, adj. Having a nose created in the image of its maker. 

BOUNDARY, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between twonations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginaryrights of the other. 

BOUNTY, n. The liberality of one who has much, in permitting one whohas nothing to get all that he can. 

 A single swallow, it is said, devours ten millions of insects every year. The supplying of these insects I take to be a signal instance of the Creator's bounty in providing for the lives of His creatures. 

Henry Ward Beecher

BRAHMA, n. He who created the Hindoos, who are preserved by Vishnuand destroyed by Siva--a rather neater division of labor than isfound among the deities of some other nations. The Abracadabranese, for example, are created by Sin, maintained by Theft and destroyed byFolly. The priests of Brahma, like those of Abracadabranese, are holyand learned men who are never naughty. 

 O Brahma, thou rare old Divinity, First Person of the Hindoo Trinity, You sit there so calm and securely, With feet folded up so demurely-- You're the First Person Singular, surely. 

Polydore Smith

BRAIN, n. An apparatus with which we think what we think. That whichdistinguishes the man who is content to _be_ something from the manwho wishes to _do_ something. A man of great wealth, or one who hasbeen pitchforked into high station, has commonly such a headful ofbrain that his neighbors cannot keep their hats on. In ourcivilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is sohighly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares ofoffice. 

BRANDY, n. A cordial composed of one part thunder-and-lightning, onepart remorse, two parts bloody murder, one part death-hell-and-thegrave and four parts clarified Satan. Dose, a headful all the time. Brandy is said by Dr. Johnson to be the drink of heroes. Only a herowill venture to drink it. 

BRIDE, n. A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her. 

BRUTE, n. See HUSBAND. 

C

CAABA, n. A large stone presented by the archangel Gabriel to thepatriarch Abraham, and preserved at Mecca. The patriarch had perhapsasked the archangel for bread. 

CABBAGE, n. A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large andwise as a man's head. 

The cabbage is so called from Cabagius, a prince who on ascendingthe throne issued a decree appointing a High Council of Empireconsisting of the members of his predecessor's Ministry and thecabbages in the royal garden. When any of his Majesty's measures ofstate policy miscarried conspicuously it was gravely announced thatseveral members of the High Council had been beheaded, and hismurmuring subjects were appeased. 

CALAMITY, n. A more than commonly plain and unmistakable reminderthat the affairs of this life are not of our own ordering. Calamitiesare of two kinds: misfortune to ourselves, and good fortune toothers. 

CALLOUS, adj. Gifted with great fortitude to bear the evilsafflicting another. 

When Zeno was told that one of his enemies was no more he wasobserved to be deeply moved. "What!" said one of his disciples, "youweep at the death of an enemy?" "Ah, 'tis true, " replied the greatStoic; "but you should see me smile at the death of a friend. "

CALUMNUS, n. A graduate of the School for Scandal. 

CAMEL, n. A quadruped (the _Splaypes humpidorsus_) of great value tothe show business. There are two kinds of camels--the camel properand the camel improper. It is the latter that is always exhibited. 

CANNIBAL, n. A gastronome of the old school who preserves the simpletastes and adheres to the natural diet of the pre-pork period. 

CANNON, n. An instrument employed in the rectification of nationalboundaries. 

CANONICALS, n. The motley worm by Jesters of the Court of Heaven. 

CAPITAL, n. The seat of misgovernment. That which provides the fire, the pot, the dinner, the table and the knife and fork for theanarchist; the part of the repast that himself supplies is thedisgrace before meat. _Capital Punishment_, a penalty regarding thejustice and expediency of which many worthy persons--including allthe assassins--entertain grave misgivings. 

CARMELITE, n. A mendicant friar of the order of Mount Carmel. 

 As Death was a-rising out one day, Across Mount Camel he took his way, Where he met a mendicant monk, Some three or four quarters drunk, With a holy leer and a pious grin, Ragged and fat and as saucy as sin, Who held out his hands and cried: "Give, give in Charity's name, I pray. Give in the name of the Church. O give, Give that her holy sons may live!" And Death replied, Smiling long and wide: "I'll give, holy father, I'll give thee--a ride. "

 With a rattle and bang Of his bones, he sprang From his famous Pale Horse, with his spear; By the neck and the foot Seized the fellow, and put Him astride with his face to the rear. 

 The Monarch laughed loud with a sound that fell Like clods on the coffin's sounding shell: "Ho, ho! A beggar on horseback, they say, Will ride to the devil!"--and _thump_ Fell the flat of his dart on the rump Of the charger, which galloped away. 

 Faster and faster and faster it flew, Till the rocks and the flocks and the trees that grew By the road were dim and blended and blue To the wild, wild eyes Of the rider--in size Resembling a couple of blackberry pies. Death laughed again, as a tomb might laugh At a burial service spoiled, And the mourners' intentions foiled By the body erecting Its head and objecting To further proceedings in its behalf. 

 Many a year and many a day Have passed since these events away. The monk has long been a dusty corse, And Death has never recovered his horse. For the friar got hold of its tail, And steered it within the pale Of the monastery gray, Where the beast was stabled and fed With barley and oil and bread Till fatter it grew than the fattest friar, And so in due course was appointed Prior. 

G. J. 

CARNIVOROUS, adj. Addicted to the cruelty of devouring the timorousvegetarian, his heirs and assigns. 

CARTESIAN, adj. Relating to Descartes, a famous philosopher, authorof the celebrated dictum, _Cogito ergo sum_--whereby he was pleasedto suppose he demonstrated the reality of human existence. The dictummight be improved, however, thus: _Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum_--"I think that I think, therefore I think that I am;" as close anapproach to certainty as any philosopher has yet made. 

CAT, n. A soft, indestructible automaton provided by nature to bekicked when things go wrong in the domestic circle. 

 This is a dog, This is a cat. This is a frog, This is a rat. Run, dog, mew, cat. Jump, frog, gnaw, rat. 

Elevenson

CAVILER, n. A critic of our own work. 

CEMETERY, n. An isolated suburban spot where mourners match lies, poets write at a target and stone-cutters spell for a wager. Theinscriptions following will serve to illustrate the success attainedin these Olympian games:

 His virtues were so conspicuous that his enemies, unable to overlook them, denied them, and his friends, to whose loose lives they were a rebuke, represented them as vices. They are here commemorated by his family, who shared them. In the earth we here prepare a Place to lay our little Clara. 

Thomas M. And Mary Frazer

 P. S. --Gabriel will raise her. 

CENTAUR, n. One of a race of persons who lived before the division oflabor had been carried to such a pitch of differentiation, and whofollowed the primitive economic maxim, "Every man his own horse. " Thebest of the lot was Chiron, who to the wisdom and virtues of the horseadded the fleetness of man. The scripture story of the head of Johnthe Baptist on a charger shows that pagan myths have somewhatsophisticated sacred history. 

CERBERUS, n. The watch-dog of Hades, whose duty it was to guard theentrance--against whom or what does not clearly appear; everybody, sooner or later, had to go there, and nobody wanted to carry off theentrance. Cerberus is known to have had three heads, and some of thepoets have credited him with as many as a hundred. ProfessorGraybill, whose clerky erudition and profound knowledge of Greek givehis opinion great weight, has averaged all the estimates, and makesthe number twenty-seven--a judgment that would be entirelyconclusive is Professor Graybill had known (a) something about dogs, and (b) something about arithmetic. 

CHILDHOOD, n. The period of human life intermediate between theidiocy of infancy and the folly of youth--two removes from the sinof manhood and three from the remorse of age. 

CHRISTIAN, n. One who believes that the New Testament is a divinelyinspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbor. One who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are notinconsistent with a life of sin. 

 I dreamed I stood upon a hill, and, lo! The godly multitudes walked to and fro Beneath, in Sabbath garments fitly clad, With pious mien, appropriately sad, While all the church bells made a solemn din-- A fire-alarm to those who lived in sin. Then saw I gazing thoughtfully below, With tranquil face, upon that holy show A tall, spare figure in a robe of white, Whose eyes diffused a melancholy light. "God keep you, strange, " I exclaimed. "You are No doubt (your habit shows it) from afar; And yet I entertain the hope that you, Like these good people, are a Christian too. " He raised his eyes and with a look so stern It made me with a thousand blushes burn Replied--his manner with disdain was spiced: "What! I a Christian? No, indeed! I'm Christ. "

G. J. 

CIRCUS, n. A place where horses, ponies and elephants are permittedto see men, women and children acting the fool. 

CLAIRVOYANT, n. A person, commonly a woman, who has the power ofseeing that which is invisible to her patron, namely, that he is ablockhead. 

CLARIONET, n. An instrument of torture operated by a person withcotton in his ears. There are two instruments that are worse than aclarionet--two clarionets. 

CLERGYMAN, n. A man who undertakes the management of our spiritualaffairs as a method of better his temporal ones. 

CLIO, n. One of the nine Muses. Clio's function was to preside overhistory--which she did with great dignity, many of the prominentcitizens of Athens occupying seats on the platform, the meetings beingaddressed by Messrs. Xenophon, Herodotus and other popular speakers. 

CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concernfor the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him. 

 A busy man complained one day: "I get no time!" "What's that you say?" Cried out his friend, a lazy quiz; "You have, sir, all the time there is. There's plenty, too, and don't you doubt it-- We're never for an hour without it. "

Purzil Crofe

CLOSE-FISTED, adj. Unduly desirous of keeping that which manymeritorious persons wish to obtain. 

 "Close-fisted Scotchman!" Johnson cried To thrifty J. Macpherson; "See me--I'm ready to divide With any worthy person. " Sad Jamie: "That is very true-- The boast requires no backing; And all are worthy, sir, to you, Who have what you are lacking. "

Anita M. Bobe

COENOBITE, n. A man who piously shuts himself up to meditate upon thesin of wickedness; and to keep it fresh in his mind joins abrotherhood of awful examples. 

 O Coenobite, O coenobite, Monastical gregarian, You differ from the anchorite, That solitudinarian: With vollied prayers you wound Old Nick; With dropping shots he makes him sick. 

Quincy Giles

COMFORT, n. A state of mind produced by contemplation of a neighbor'suneasiness. 

COMMENDATION, n. The tribute that we pay to achievements thatresembles, but do not equal, our own. 

COMMERCE, n. A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B thegoods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of moneybelonging to E. 

COMMONWEALTH, n. An administrative entity operated by an incalculablemultitude of political parasites, logically active but fortuitouslyefficient. 

 This commonwealth's capitol's corridors view, So thronged with a hungry and indolent crew Of clerks, pages, porters and all attaches Whom rascals appoint and the populace pays That a cat cannot slip through the thicket of shins Nor hear its own shriek for the noise of their chins. On clerks and on pages, and porters, and all, Misfortune attend and disaster befall! May life be to them a succession of hurts; May fleas by the bushel inhabit their shirts; May aches and diseases encamp in their bones, Their lungs full of tubercles, bladders of stones; May microbes, bacilli, their tissues infest, And tapeworms securely their bowels digest; May corn-cobs be snared without hope in their hair, And frequent impalement their pleasure impair. Disturbed be their dreams by the awful discourse Of audible sofas sepulchrally hoarse, By chairs acrobatic and wavering floors-- The mattress that kicks and the pillow that snores! Sons of cupidity, cradled in sin! Your criminal ranks may the death angel thin, Avenging the friend whom I couldn't work in. 

K. Q. 

COMPROMISE, n. Such an adjustment of conflicting interests as giveseach adversary the satisfaction of thinking he has got what he oughtnot to have, and is deprived of nothing except what was justly hisdue. 

COMPULSION, n. The eloquence of power. 

CONDOLE, v. I. To show that bereavement is a smaller evil thansympathy. 

CONFIDANT, CONFIDANTE, n. One entrusted by A with the secrets of B, confided by _him_ to C. 

CONGRATULATION, n. The civility of envy. 

CONGRESS, n. A body of men who meet to repeal laws. 

CONNOISSEUR, n. A specialist who knows everything about something andnothing about anything else. 

An old wine-bibber having been smashed in a railway collision, some wine was pouted on his lips to revive him. "Pauillac, 1873, " hemurmured and died. 

CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, asdistinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them withothers. 

CONSOLATION, n. The knowledge that a better man is more unfortunatethan yourself. 

CONSUL, n. In American politics, a person who having failed to securean office from the people is given one by the Administration oncondition that he leave the country. 

CONSULT, v. I. To seek another's disapproval of a course alreadydecided on. 

CONTEMPT, n. The feeling of a prudent man for an enemy who is tooformidable safely to be opposed. 

CONTROVERSY, n. A battle in which spittle or ink replaces theinjurious cannon-ball and the inconsiderate bayonet. 

 In controversy with the facile tongue-- That bloodless warfare of the old and young-- So seek your adversary to engage That on himself he shall exhaust his rage, And, like a snake that's fastened to the ground, With his own fangs inflict the fatal wound. You ask me how this miracle is done? Adopt his own opinions, one by one, And taunt him to refute them; in his wrath He'll sweep them pitilessly from his path. Advance then gently all you wish to prove, Each proposition prefaced with, "As you've So well remarked, " or, "As you wisely say, And I cannot dispute, " or, "By the way, This view of it which, better far expressed, Runs through your argument. " Then leave the rest To him, secure that he'll perform his trust And prove your views intelligent and just. 

Conmore Apel Brune

CONVENT, n. A place of retirement for woman who wish for leisure tomeditate upon the vice of idleness. 

CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mentalcommodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement ofhis own wares to observe those of his neighbor. 

CORONATION, n. The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outwardand visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with adynamite bomb. 

CORPORAL, n. A man who occupies the lowest rung of the militaryladder. 

 Fiercely the battle raged and, sad to tell, Our corporal heroically fell! Fame from her height looked down upon the brawl And said: "He hadn't very far to fall. "

Giacomo Smith

CORPORATION, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profitwithout individual responsibility. 

CORSAIR, n. A politician of the seas. 

COURT FOOL, n. The plaintiff. 

COWARD, n. One who in a perilous emergency thinks with his legs. 

CRAYFISH, n. A small crustacean very much resembling the lobster, butless indigestible. 

 In this small fish I take it that human wisdom is admirably figured and symbolized; for whereas the crayfish doth move only backward, and can have only retrospection, seeing naught but the perils already passed, so the wisdom of man doth not enable him to avoid the follies that beset his course, but only to apprehend their nature afterward. 

Sir James Merivale

CREDITOR, n. One of a tribe of savages dwelling beyond the FinancialStraits and dreaded for their desolating incursions. 

CREMONA, n. A high-priced violin made in Connecticut. 

CRITIC, n. A person who boasts himself hard to please because nobodytries to please him. 

 There is a land of pure delight, Beyond the Jordan's flood, Where saints, apparelled all in white, Fling back the critic's mud. 

 And as he legs it through the skies, His pelt a sable hue, He sorrows sore to recognize The missiles that he threw. 

Orrin Goof

CROSS, n. An ancient religious symbol erroneously supposed to owe itssignificance to the most solemn event in the history of Christianity, but really antedating it by thousands of years. By many it has beenbelieved to be identical with the _crux ansata_ of the ancient phallicworship, but it has been traced even beyond all that we know of that, to the rites of primitive peoples. We have to-day the White Cross asa symbol of chastity, and the Red Cross as a badge of benevolentneutrality in war. Having in mind the former, the reverend FatherGassalasca Jape smites the lyre to the effect following:

 "Be good, be good!" the sisterhood Cry out in holy chorus, And, to dissuade from sin, parade Their various charms before us. 

 But why, O why, has ne'er an eye Seen her of winsome manner And youthful grace and pretty face Flaunting the White Cross banner?

 Now where's the need of speech and screed To better our behaving? A simpler plan for saving man (But, first, is he worth saving?)

 Is, dears, when he declines to flee From bad thoughts that beset him, Ignores the Law as 't were a straw, And wants to sin--don't let him. 

CUI BONO? [Latin] What good would that do _me_?

CUNNING, n. The faculty that distinguishes a weak animal or personfrom a strong one. It brings its possessor much mental satisfactionand great material adversity. An Italian proverb says: "The furriergets the skins of more foxes than asses. "

CUPID, n. The so-called god of love. This bastard creation of abarbarous fancy was no doubt inflicted upon mythology for the sins ofits deities. Of all unbeautiful and inappropriate conceptions this isthe most reasonless and offensive. The notion of symbolizing sexuallove by a semisexless babe, and comparing the pains of passion to thewounds of an arrow--of introducing this pudgy homunculus into artgrossly to materialize the subtle spirit and suggestion of the work--this is eminently worthy of the age that, giving it birth, laid it onthe doorstep of prosperity. 

CURIOSITY, n. An objectionable quality of the female mind. Thedesire to know whether or not a woman is cursed with curiosity is oneof the most active and insatiable passions of the masculine soul. 

CURSE, v. T. Energetically to belabor with a verbal slap-stick. Thisis an operation which in literature, particularly in the drama, iscommonly fatal to the victim. Nevertheless, the liability to acursing is a risk that cuts but a small figure in fixing the rates oflife insurance. 

CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians ofplucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision. 

D

DAMN, v. A word formerly much used by the Paphlagonians, the meaningof which is lost. By the learned Dr. Dolabelly Gak it is believed tohave been a term of satisfaction, implying the highest possible degreeof mental tranquillity. Professor Groke, on the contrary, thinks itexpressed an emotion of tumultuous delight, because it so frequentlyoccurs in combination with the word _jod_ or _god_, meaning "joy. " Itwould be with great diffidence that I should advance an opinionconflicting with that of either of these formidable authorities. 

DANCE, v. I. To leap about to the sound of tittering music, preferablywith arms about your neighbor's wife or daughter. There are manykinds of dances, but all those requiring the participation of the twosexes have two characteristics in common: they are conspicuouslyinnocent, and warmly loved by the vicious. 

DANGER, n. 

 A savage beast which, when it sleeps, Man girds at and despises, But takes himself away by leaps And bounds when it arises. 

Ambat Delaso

DARING, n. One of the most conspicuous qualities of a man insecurity. 

DATARY, n. A high ecclesiastic official of the Roman Catholic Church, whose important function is to brand the Pope's bulls with the words_Datum Romae_. He enjoys a princely revenue and the friendship ofGod. 

DAWN, n. The time when men of reason go to bed. Certain old menprefer to rise at about that time, taking a cold bath and a long walkwith an empty stomach, and otherwise mortifying the flesh. They thenpoint with pride to these practices as the cause of their sturdyhealth and ripe years; the truth being that they are hearty and old, not because of their habits, but in spite of them. The reason we findonly robust persons doing this thing is that it has killed all theothers who have tried it. 

DAY, n. A period of twenty-four hours, mostly misspent. This periodis divided into two parts, the day proper and the night, or dayimproper--the former devoted to sins of business, the latterconsecrated to the other sort. These two kinds of social activityoverlap. 

DEAD, adj. 

 Done with the work of breathing; done With all the world; the mad race run Though to the end; the golden goal Attained and found to be a hole!

Squatol Johnes

DEBAUCHEE, n. One who has so earnestly pursued pleasure that he hashad the misfortune to overtake it. 

DEBT, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of theslave-driver. 

 As, pent in an aquarium, the troutlet Swims round and round his tank to find an outlet, Pressing his nose against the glass that holds him, Nor ever sees the prison that enfolds him; So the poor debtor, seeing naught around him, Yet feels the narrow limits that impound him, Grieves at his debt and studies to evade it, And finds at last he might as well have paid it. 

Barlow S. Vode

DECALOGUE, n. A series of commandments, ten in number--just enoughto permit an intelligent selection for observance, but not enough toembarrass the choice. Following is the revised edition of theDecalogue, calculated for this meridian. 

 Thou shalt no God but me adore: 'Twere too expensive to have more. 

 No images nor idols make For Robert Ingersoll to break. 

 Take not God's name in vain; select A time when it will have effect. 

 Work not on Sabbath days at all, But go to see the teams play ball. 

 Honor thy parents. That creates For life insurance lower rates. 

 Kill not, abet not those who kill; Thou shalt not pay thy butcher's bill. 

 Kiss not thy neighbor's wife, unless Thine own thy neighbor doth caress

 Don't steal; thou'lt never thus compete Successfully in business. Cheat. 

 Bear not false witness--that is low-- But "hear 'tis rumored so and so. "

 Cover thou naught that thou hast not By hook or crook, or somehow, got. 

G. J. 

DECIDE, v. I. To succumb to the preponderance of one set of influencesover another set. 

 A leaf was riven from a tree, "I mean to fall to earth, " said he. 

 The west wind, rising, made him veer. "Eastward, " said he, "I now shall steer. "

 The east wind rose with greater force. Said he: "'Twere wise to change my course. "

 With equal power they contend. He said: "My judgment I suspend. "

 Down died the winds; the leaf, elate, Cried: "I've decided to fall straight. "

 "First thoughts are best?" That's not the moral; Just choose your own and we'll not quarrel. 

 Howe'er your choice may chance to fall, You'll have no hand in it at all. 

G. J. 

DEFAME, v. T. To lie about another. To tell the truth about another. 

DEFENCELESS, adj. Unable to attack. 

DEGENERATE, adj. Less conspicuously admirable than one's ancestors. The contemporaries of Homer were striking examples of degeneracy; itrequired ten of them to raise a rock or a riot that one of the heroesof the Trojan war could have raised with ease. Homer never tires ofsneering at "men who live in these degenerate days, " which is perhapswhy they suffered him to beg his bread--a marked instance ofreturning good for evil, by the way, for if they had forbidden him hewould certainly have starved. 

DEGRADATION, n. One of the stages of moral and social progress fromprivate station to political preferment. 

DEINOTHERIUM, n. An extinct pachyderm that flourished when thePterodactyl was in fashion. The latter was a native of Ireland, itsname being pronounced Terry Dactyl or Peter O'Dactyl, as the manpronouncing it may chance to have heard it spoken or seen it printed. 

DEJEUNER, n. The breakfast of an American who has been in Paris. Variously pronounced. 

DELEGATION, n. In American politics, an article of merchandise thatcomes in sets. 

DELIBERATION, n. The act of examining one's bread to determine whichside it is buttered on. 

DELUGE, n. A notable first experiment in baptism which washed awaythe sins (and sinners) of the world. 

DELUSION, n. The father of a most respectable family, comprisingEnthusiasm, Affection, Self-denial, Faith, Hope, Charity and manyother goodly sons and daughters. 

 All hail, Delusion! Were it not for thee The world turned topsy-turvy we should see; For Vice, respectable with cleanly fancies, Would fly abandoned Virtue's gross advances. 

Mumfrey Mappel

DENTIST, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket. 

DEPENDENT, adj. Reliant upon another's generosity for the supportwhich you are not in a position to exact from his fears. 

DEPUTY, n. A male relative of an office-holder, or of his bondsman. The deputy is commonly a beautiful young man, with a red necktie andan intricate system of cobwebs extending from his nose to his desk. When accidentally struck by the janitor's broom, he gives off a cloudof dust. 

 "Chief Deputy, " the Master cried, "To-day the books are to be tried By experts and accountants who Have been commissioned to go through Our office here, to see if we Have stolen injudiciously. Please have the proper entries made, The proper balances displayed, Conforming to the whole amount Of cash on hand--which they will count. I've long admired your punctual way-- Here at the break and close of day, Confronting in your chair the crowd Of business men, whose voices loud And gestures violent you quell By some mysterious, calm spell-- Some magic lurking in your look That brings the noisiest to book And spreads a holy and profound Tranquillity o'er all around. So orderly all's done that they Who came to draw remain to pay. But now the time demands, at last, That you employ your genius vast In energies more active. Rise And shake the lightnings from your eyes; Inspire your underlings, and fling Your spirit into everything!" The Master's hand here dealt a whack Upon the Deputy's bent back, When straightway to the floor there fell A shrunken globe, a rattling shell A blackened, withered, eyeless head! The man had been a twelvemonth dead. 

Jamrach Holobom

DESTINY, n. A tyrant's authority for crime and fool's excuse forfailure. 

DIAGNOSIS, n. A physician's forecast of the disease by the patient'spulse and purse. 

DIAPHRAGM, n. A muscular partition separating disorders of the chestfrom disorders of the bowels. 

DIARY, n. A daily record of that part of one's life, which he canrelate to himself without blushing. 

 Hearst kept a diary wherein were writ All that he had of wisdom and of wit. So the Recording Angel, when Hearst died, Erased all entries of his own and cried: "I'll judge you by your diary. " Said Hearst: "Thank you; 'twill show you I am Saint the First"-- Straightway producing, jubilant and proud, That record from a pocket in his shroud. The Angel slowly turned the pages o'er, Each stupid line of which he knew before, Glooming and gleaming as by turns he hit On Shallow sentiment and stolen wit; Then gravely closed the book and gave it back. "My friend, you've wandered from your proper track: You'd never be content this side the tomb-- For big ideas Heaven has little room, And Hell's no latitude for making mirth, " He said, and kicked the fellow back to earth. 

"The Mad Philosopher"

DICTATOR, n. The chief of a nation that prefers the pestilence ofdespotism to the plague of anarchy. 

DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growthof a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. 

DIE, n. The singular of "dice. " We seldom hear the word, becausethere is a prohibitory proverb, "Never say die. " At long intervals, however, some one says: "The die is cast, " which is not true, for itis cut. The word is found in an immortal couplet by that eminent poetand domestic economist, Senator Depew:

 A cube of cheese no larger than a die May bait the trap to catch a nibbling mie. 

DIGESTION, n. The conversion of victuals into virtues. When theprocess is imperfect, vices are evolved instead--a circumstance fromwhich that wicked writer, Dr. Jeremiah Blenn, infers that the ladiesare the greater sufferers from dyspepsia. 

DIPLOMACY, n. The patriotic art of lying for one's country. 

DISABUSE, v. T. The present your neighbor with another and bettererror than the one which he has deemed it advantageous to embrace. 

DISCRIMINATE, v. I. To note the particulars in which one person orthing is, if possible, more objectionable than another. 

DISCUSSION, n. A method of confirming others in their errors. 

DISOBEDIENCE, n. The silver lining to the cloud of servitude. 

DISOBEY, v. T. To celebrate with an appropriate ceremony the maturityof a command. 

 His right to govern me is clear as day, My duty manifest to disobey; And if that fit observance e'er I shut May I and duty be alike undone. 

Israfel Brown

DISSEMBLE, v. I. To put a clean shirt upon the character. Let us dissemble. 

Adam

DISTANCE, n. The only thing that the rich are willing for the poor tocall theirs, and keep. 

DISTRESS, n. A disease incurred by exposure to the prosperity of afriend. 

DIVINATION, n. The art of nosing out the occult. Divination is of asmany kinds as there are fruit-bearing varieties of the flowering dunceand the early fool. 

DOG, n. A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catchthe overflow and surplus of the world's worship. This Divine Being insome of his smaller and silkier incarnations takes, in the affectionof Woman, the place to which there is no human male aspirant. The Dogis a survival--an anachronism. He toils not, neither does he spin, yet Solomon in all his glory never lay upon a door-mat all day long, sun-soaked and fly-fed and fat, while his master worked for the meanswherewith to purchase the idle wag of the Solomonic tail, seasonedwith a look of tolerant recognition. 

DRAGOON, n. A soldier who combines dash and steadiness in so equalmeasure that he makes his advances on foot and his retreats onhorseback. 

DRAMATIST, n. One who adapts plays from the French. 

DRUIDS, n. Priests and ministers of an ancient Celtic religion whichdid not disdain to employ the humble allurement of human sacrifice. Very little is now known about the Druids and their faith. Pliny saystheir religion, originating in Britain, spread eastward as far asPersia. Caesar says those who desired to study its mysteries went toBritain. Caesar himself went to Britain, but does not appear to haveobtained any high preferment in the Druidical Church, although histalent for human sacrifice was considerable. 

Druids performed their religious rites in groves, and knew nothingof church mortgages and the season-ticket system of pew rents. Theywere, in short, heathens and--as they were once complacentlycatalogued by a distinguished prelate of the Church of England--Dissenters. 

DUCK-BILL, n. Your account at your restaurant during the canvas-backseason. 

DUEL, n. A formal ceremony preliminary to the reconciliation of twoenemies. Great skill is necessary to its satisfactory observance; ifawkwardly performed the most unexpected and deplorable consequencessometimes ensue. A long time ago a man lost his life in a duel. 

 That dueling's a gentlemanly vice I hold; and wish that it had been my lot To live my life out in some favored spot-- Some country where it is considered nice To split a rival like a fish, or slice A husband like a spud, or with a shot Bring down a debtor doubled in a knot And ready to be put upon the ice. Some miscreants there are, whom I do long To shoot, to stab, or some such way reclaim The scurvy rogues to better lives and manners, I seem to see them now--a mighty throng. It looks as if to challenge _me_ they came, Jauntily marching with brass bands and banners!

Xamba Q. Dar

DULLARD, n. A member of the reigning dynasty in letters and life. The Dullards came in with Adam, and being both numerous and sturdyhave overrun the habitable world. The secret of their power is theirinsensibility to blows; tickle them with a bludgeon and they laughwith a platitude. The Dullards came originally from Boeotia, whencethey were driven by stress of starvation, their dullness havingblighted the crops. For some centuries they infested Philistia, andmany of them are called Philistines to this day. In the turbulenttimes of the Crusades they withdrew thence and gradually overspreadall Europe, occupying most of the high places in politics, art, literature, science and theology. Since a detachment of Dullards cameover with the Pilgrims in the _Mayflower_ and made a favorable reportof the country, their increase by birth, immigration, and conversionhas been rapid and steady. According to the most trustworthystatistics the number of adult Dullards in the United States is butlittle short of thirty millions, including the statisticians. Theintellectual centre of the race is somewhere about Peoria, Illinois, but the New England Dullard is the most shockingly moral. 

DUTY, n. That which sternly impels us in the direction of profit, along the line of desire. 

 Sir Lavender Portwine, in favor at court, Was wroth at his master, who'd kissed Lady Port. His anger provoked him to take the king's head, But duty prevailed, and he took the king's bread, Instead. 

G. J. 

E

EAT, v. I. To perform successively (and successfully) the functions ofmastication, humectation, and deglutition. 

"I was in the drawing-room, enjoying my dinner, " said Brillat-Savarin, beginning an anecdote. "What!" interrupted Rochebriant; "eating dinnerin a drawing-room?" "I must beg you to observe, monsieur, " explainedthe great gastronome, "that I did not say I was eating my dinner, butenjoying it. I had dined an hour before. "

EAVESDROP, v. I. Secretly to overhear a catalogue of the crimes andvices of another or yourself. 

 A lady with one of her ears applied To an open keyhole heard, inside, Two female gossips in converse free-- The subject engaging them was she. "I think, " said one, "and my husband thinks That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!" As soon as no more of it she could hear The lady, indignant, removed her ear. "I will not stay, " she said, with a pout, "To hear my character lied about!"

Gopete Sherany

ECCENTRICITY, n. A method of distinction so cheap that fools employit to accentuate their incapacity. 

ECONOMY, n. Purchasing the barrel of whiskey that you do not need forthe price of the cow that you cannot afford. 

EDIBLE, adj. Good to eat, and wholesome to digest, as a worm to atoad, a toad to a snake, a snake to a pig, a pig to a man, and a manto a worm. 

EDITOR, n. A person who combines the judicial functions of Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, but is placable with an obolus; a severelyvirtuous censor, but so charitable withal that he tolerates thevirtues of others and the vices of himself; who flings about him thesplintering lightning and sturdy thunders of admonition till heresembles a bunch of firecrackers petulantly uttering his mind at thetail of a dog; then straightway murmurs a mild, melodious lay, soft asthe cooing of a donkey intoning its prayer to the evening star. Master of mysteries and lord of law, high-pinnacled upon the throne ofthought, his face suffused with the dim splendors of theTransfiguration, his legs intertwisted and his tongue a-cheek, theeditor spills his will along the paper and cuts it off in lengths tosuit. And at intervals from behind the veil of the temple is heardthe voice of the foreman demanding three inches of wit and six linesof religious meditation, or bidding him turn off the wisdom and whackup some pathos. 

 O, the Lord of Law on the Throne of Thought, A gilded impostor is he. Of shreds and patches his robes are wrought, His crown is brass, Himself an ass, And his power is fiddle-dee-dee. Prankily, crankily prating of naught, Silly old quilly old Monarch of Thought. Public opinion's camp-follower he, Thundering, blundering, plundering free. Affected, Ungracious, Suspected, Mendacious, Respected contemporaree! J. H. Bumbleshook

EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from thefoolish their lack of understanding. 

EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together inthe same order. The first, called a Cause, is said to generate theother--which is no more sensible than it would be for one who hasnever seen a dog except in the pursuit of a rabbit to declare therabbit the cause of a dog. 

EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me. 

 Megaceph, chosen to serve the State In the halls of legislative debate, One day with all his credentials came To the capitol's door and announced his name. The doorkeeper looked, with a comical twist Of the face, at the eminent egotist, And said: "Go away, for we settle here All manner of questions, knotty and queer, And we cannot have, when the speaker demands To be told how every member stands, A man who to all things under the sky Assents by eternally voting 'I'. "

EJECTION, n. An approved remedy for the disease of garrulity. It isalso much used in cases of extreme poverty. 

ELECTOR, n. One who enjoys the sacred privilege of voting for the manof another man's choice. 

ELECTRICITY, n. The power that causes all natural phenomena not knownto be caused by something else. It is the same thing as lightning, and its famous attempt to strike Dr. Franklin is one of the mostpicturesque incidents in that great and good man's career. The memoryof Dr. Franklin is justly held in great reverence, particularly inFrance, where a waxen effigy of him was recently on exhibition, bearing the following touching account of his life and services toscience:

 "Monsieur Franqulin, inventor of electricity. This illustrious savant, after having made several voyages around the world, died on the Sandwich Islands and was devoured by savages, of whom not a single fragment was ever recovered. "

 Electricity seems destined to play a most important part in thearts and industries. The question of its economical application tosome purposes is still unsettled, but experiment has already provedthat it will propel a street car better than a gas jet and give morelight than a horse. 

ELEGY, n. A composition in verse, in which, without employing any ofthe methods of humor, the writer aims to produce in the reader's mindthe dampest kind of dejection. The most famous English example beginssomewhat like this:

 The cur foretells the knell of parting day; The loafing herd winds slowly o'er the lea; The wise man homeward plods; I only stay To fiddle-faddle in a minor key. 

ELOQUENCE, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is thecolor that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any colorappear white. 

ELYSIUM, n. An imaginary delightful country which the ancientsfoolishly believed to be inhabited by the spirits of the good. Thisridiculous and mischievous fable was swept off the face of the earthby the early Christians--may their souls be happy in Heaven!

EMANCIPATION, n. A bondman's change from the tyranny of another tothe despotism of himself. 

 He was a slave: at word he went and came; His iron collar cut him to the bone. Then Liberty erased his owner's name, Tightened the rivets and inscribed his own. 

G. J. 

EMBALM, v. I. To cheat vegetation by locking up the gases upon whichit feeds. By embalming their dead and thereby deranging the naturalbalance between animal and vegetable life, the Egyptians made theironce fertile and populous country barren and incapable of supportingmore than a meagre crew. The modern metallic burial casket is a stepin the same direction, and many a dead man who ought now to beornamenting his neighbor's lawn as a tree, or enriching his table as abunch of radishes, is doomed to a long inutility. We shall get himafter awhile if we are spared, but in the meantime the violet and roseare languishing for a nibble at his _glutoeus maximus_. 

EMOTION, n. A prostrating disease caused by a determination of theheart to the head. It is sometimes accompanied by a copious dischargeof hydrated chloride of sodium from the eyes. 

ENCOMIAST, n. A special (but not particular) kind of liar. 

END, n. The position farthest removed on either hand from theInterlocutor. 

 The man was perishing apace Who played the tambourine; The seal of death was on his face-- 'Twas pallid, for 'twas clean. 

 "This is the end, " the sick man said In faint and failing tones. A moment later he was dead, And Tambourine was Bones. 

Tinley Roquot

ENOUGH, pro. All there is in the world if you like it. 

 Enough is as good as a feast--for that matter Enougher's as good as a feast for the platter. 

Arbely C. Strunk

ENTERTAINMENT, n. Any kind of amusement whose inroads stop short ofdeath by injection. 

ENTHUSIASM, n. A distemper of youth, curable by small doses ofrepentance in connection with outward applications of experience. Byron, who recovered long enough to call it "entuzy-muzy, " had arelapse, which carried him off--to Missolonghi. 

ENVELOPE, n. The coffin of a document; the scabbard of a bill; thehusk of a remittance; the bed-gown of a love-letter. 

ENVY, n. Emulation adapted to the meanest capacity. 

EPAULET, n. An ornamented badge, serving to distinguish a militaryofficer from the enemy--that is to say, from the officer of lowerrank to whom his death would give promotion. 

EPICURE, n. An opponent of Epicurus, an abstemious philosopher who, holding that pleasure should be the chief aim of man, wasted no timein gratification from the senses. 

EPIGRAM, n. A short, sharp saying in prose or verse, frequentlycharacterize by acidity or acerbity and sometimes by wisdom. Following are some of the more notable epigrams of the learned andingenious Dr. Jamrach Holobom:

 We know better the needs of ourselves than of others. To serve oneself is economy of administration. 

 In each human heart are a tiger, a pig, an ass and a nightingale. Diversity of character is due to their unequal activity. 

 There are three sexes; males, females and girls. 

 Beauty in women and distinction in men are alike in this: they seem to be the unthinking a kind of credibility. Women in love are less ashamed than men. They have less to be ashamed of. 

 While your friend holds you affectionately by both your hands you are safe, for you can watch both his. 

EPITAPH, n. An inscription on a tomb, showing that virtues acquiredby death have a retroactive effect. Following is a touching example:

 Here lie the bones of Parson Platt, Wise, pious, humble and all that, Who showed us life as all should live it; Let that be said--and God forgive it!

ERUDITION, n. Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull. 

 So wide his erudition's mighty span, He knew Creation's origin and plan And only came by accident to grief-- He thought, poor man, 'twas right to be a thief. 

Romach Pute

ESOTERIC, adj. Very particularly abstruse and consummately occult. The ancient philosophies were of two kinds, --_exoteric_, those thatthe philosophers themselves could partly understand, and _esoteric_, those that nobody could understand. It is the latter that have mostprofoundly affected modern thought and found greatest acceptance inour time. 

ETHNOLOGY, n. The science that treats of the various tribes of Man, as robbers, thieves, swindlers, dunces, lunatics, idiots andethnologists. 

EUCHARIST, n. A sacred feast of the religious sect of Theophagi. A dispute once unhappily arose among the members of this sect asto what it was that they ate. In this controversy some five hundredthousand have already been slain, and the question is still unsettled. 

EULOGY, n. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealthand power, or the consideration to be dead. 

EVANGELIST, n. A bearer of good tidings, particularly (in a religioussense) such as assure us of our own salvation and the damnation ofour neighbors. 

EVERLASTING, adj. Lasting forever. It is with no small diffidencethat I venture to offer this brief and elementary definition, for I amnot unaware of the existence of a bulky volume by a sometime Bishop ofWorcester, entitled, _A Partial Definition of the Word "Everlasting, "as Used in the Authorized Version of the Holy Scriptures_. His bookwas once esteemed of great authority in the Anglican Church, and isstill, I understand, studied with pleasure to the mind and profit ofthe soul. 

EXCEPTION, n. A thing which takes the liberty to differ from otherthings of its class, as an honest man, a truthful woman, etc. "Theexception proves the rule" is an expression constantly upon the lipsof the ignorant, who parrot it from one another with never a thoughtof its absurdity. In the Latin, "_Exceptio probat regulam_" meansthat the exception _tests_ the rule, puts it to the proof, not_confirms_ it. The malefactor who drew the meaning from thisexcellent dictum and substituted a contrary one of his own exerted anevil power which appears to be immortal. 

EXCESS, n. In morals, an indulgence that enforces by appropriatepenalties the law of moderation. 

 Hail, high Excess--especially in wine, To thee in worship do I bend the knee Who preach abstemiousness unto me-- My skull thy pulpit, as my paunch thy shrine. Precept on precept, aye, and line on line, Could ne'er persuade so sweetly to agree With reason as thy touch, exact and free, Upon my forehead and along my spine. At thy command eschewing pleasure's cup, With the hot grape I warm no more my wit; When on thy stool of penitence I sit I'm quite converted, for I can't get up. Ungrateful he who afterward would falter To make new sacrifices at thine altar!

EXCOMMUNICATION, n. 

 This "excommunication" is a word In speech ecclesiastical oft heard, And means the damning, with bell, book and candle, Some sinner whose opinions are a scandal-- A rite permitting Satan to enslave him Forever, and forbidding Christ to save him. 

Gat Huckle

EXECUTIVE, n. An officer of the Government, whose duty it is toenforce the wishes of the legislative power until such time as thejudicial department shall be pleased to pronounce them invalid and ofno effect. Following is an extract from an old book entitled, _TheLunarian Astonished_--Pfeiffer & Co. , Boston, 1803:

 LUNARIAN: Then when your Congress has passed a law it goes directly to the Supreme Court in order that it may at once be known whether it is constitutional? TERRESTRIAN: O no; it does not require the approval of the Supreme Court until having perhaps been enforced for many years somebody objects to its operation against himself--I mean his client. The President, if he approves it, begins to execute it at once. LUNARIAN: Ah, the executive power is a part of the legislative. Do your policemen also have to approve the local ordinances that they enforce? TERRESTRIAN: Not yet--at least not in their character of constables. Generally speaking, though, all laws require the approval of those whom they are intended to restrain. LUNARIAN: I see. The death warrant is not valid until signed by the murderer. TERRESTRIAN: My friend, you put it too strongly; we are not so consistent. LUNARIAN: But this system of maintaining an expensive judicial machinery to pass upon the validity of laws only after they have long been executed, and then only when brought before the court by some private person--does it not cause great confusion? TERRESTRIAN: It does. LUNARIAN: Why then should not your laws, previously to being executed, be validated, not by the signature of your President, but by that of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? TERRESTRIAN: There is no precedent for any such course. LUNARIAN: Precedent. What is that? TERRESTRIAN: It has been defined by five hundred lawyers in three volumes each. So how can any one know?

EXHORT, v. T. In religious affairs, to put the conscience of anotherupon the spit and roast it to a nut-brown discomfort. 

EXILE, n. One who serves his country by residing abroad, yet is notan ambassador. 

An English sea-captain being asked if he had read "The Exile ofErin, " replied: "No, sir, but I should like to anchor on it. " Yearsafterwards, when he had been hanged as a pirate after a career ofunparalleled atrocities, the following memorandum was found in theship's log that he had kept at the time of his reply:

 Aug. 3d, 1842. Made a joke on the ex-Isle of Erin. Coldly received. War with the whole world!

EXISTENCE, n. 

 A transient, horrible, fantastic dream, Wherein is nothing yet all things do seem: From which we're wakened by a friendly nudge Of our bedfellow Death, and cry: "O fudge!"

EXPERIENCE, n. The wisdom that enables us to recognize as anundesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced. 

 To one who, journeying through night and fog, Is mired neck-deep in an unwholesome bog, Experience, like the rising of the dawn, Reveals the path that he should not have gone. 

Joel Frad Bink

EXPOSTULATION, n. One of the many methods by which fools prefer tolose their friends. 

EXTINCTION, n. The raw material out of which theology created thefuture state. 

F

FAIRY, n. A creature, variously fashioned and endowed, that formerlyinhabited the meadows and forests. It was nocturnal in its habits, and somewhat addicted to dancing and the theft of children. Thefairies are now believed by naturalist to be extinct, though aclergyman of the Church of England saw three near Colchester as latelyas 1855, while passing through a park after dining with the lord ofthe manor. The sight greatly staggered him, and he was so affectedthat his account of it was incoherent. In the year 1807 a troop offairies visited a wood near Aix and carried off the daughter of apeasant, who had been seen to enter it with a bundle of clothing. Theson of a wealthy _bourgeois_ disappeared about the same time, butafterward returned. He had seen the abduction been in pursuit of thefairies. Justinian Gaux, a writer of the fourteenth century, aversthat so great is the fairies' power of transformation that he saw onechange itself into two opposing armies and fight a battle with greatslaughter, and that the next day, after it had resumed its originalshape and gone away, there were seven hundred bodies of the slainwhich the villagers had to bury. He does not say if any of thewounded recovered. In the time of Henry III, of England, a law wasmade which prescribed the death penalty for "Kyllynge, wowndynge, ormamynge" a fairy, and it was universally respected. 

FAITH, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speakswithout knowledge, of things without parallel. 

FAMOUS, adj. Conspicuously miserable. 

 Done to a turn on the iron, behold Him who to be famous aspired. Content? Well, his grill has a plating of gold, And his twistings are greatly admired. 

Hassan Brubuddy

FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey. 

 A king there was who lost an eye In some excess of passion; And straight his courtiers all did try To follow the new fashion. 

 Each dropped one eyelid when before The throne he ventured, thinking 'Twould please the king. That monarch swore He'd slay them all for winking. 

 What should they do? They were not hot To hazard such disaster; They dared not close an eye--dared not See better than their master. 

 Seeing them lacrymose and glum, A leech consoled the weepers: He spread small rags with liquid gum And covered half their peepers. 

 The court all wore the stuff, the flame Of royal anger dying. That's how court-plaster got its name Unless I'm greatly lying. 

Naramy Oof

FEAST, n. A festival. A religious celebration usually signalized bygluttony and drunkenness, frequently in honor of some holy persondistinguished for abstemiousness. In the Roman Catholic Churchfeasts are "movable" and "immovable, " but the celebrants are uniformlyimmovable until they are full. In their earliest development theseentertainments took the form of feasts for the dead; such were held bythe Greeks, under the name _Nemeseia_, by the Aztecs and Peruvians, as in modern times they are popular with the Chinese; though it isbelieved that the ancient dead, like the modern, were light eaters. Among the many feasts of the Romans was the _Novemdiale_, which washeld, according to Livy, whenever stones fell from heaven. 

FELON, n. A person of greater enterprise than discretion, who inembracing an opportunity has formed an unfortunate attachment. 

FEMALE, n. One of the opposing, or unfair, sex. 

 The Maker, at Creation's birth, With living things had stocked the earth. From elephants to bats and snails, They all were good, for all were males. But when the Devil came and saw He said: "By Thine eternal law Of growth, maturity, decay, These all must quickly pass away And leave untenanted the earth Unless Thou dost establish birth"-- Then tucked his head beneath his wing To laugh--he had no sleeve--the thing With deviltry did so accord, That he'd suggested to the Lord. The Master pondered this advice, Then shook and threw the fateful dice Wherewith all matters here below Are ordered, and observed the throw; Then bent His head in awful state, Confirming the decree of Fate. From every part of earth anew The conscious dust consenting flew, While rivers from their courses rolled To make it plastic for the mould. Enough collected (but no more, For niggard Nature hoards her store) He kneaded it to flexible clay, While Nick unseen threw some away. And then the various forms He cast, Gross organs first and finer last; No one at once evolved, but all By even touches grew and small Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade, To match all living things He'd made Females, complete in all their parts Except (His clay gave out) the hearts. "No matter, " Satan cried; "with speed I'll fetch the very hearts they need"-- So flew away and soon brought back The number needed, in a sack. That night earth range with sounds of strife-- Ten million males each had a wife; That night sweet Peace her pinions spread O'er Hell--ten million devils dead!

G. J. 

FIB, n. A lie that has not cut its teeth. An habitual liar's nearestapproach to truth: the perigee of his eccentric orbit. 

 When David said: "All men are liars, " Dave, Himself a liar, fibbed like any thief. Perhaps he thought to weaken disbelief By proof that even himself was not a slave To Truth; though I suspect the aged knave Had been of all her servitors the chief Had he but known a fig's reluctant leaf Is more than e'er she wore on land or wave. No, David served not Naked Truth when he Struck that sledge-hammer blow at all his race; Nor did he hit the nail upon the head: For reason shows that it could never be, And the facts contradict him to his face. Men are not liars all, for some are dead. 

Bartle Quinker

FICKLENESS, n. The iterated satiety of an enterprising affection. 

FIDDLE, n. An instrument to tickle human ears by friction of ahorse's tail on the entrails of a cat. 

 To Rome said Nero: "If to smoke you turn I shall not cease to fiddle while you burn. " To Nero Rome replied: "Pray do your worst, 'Tis my excuse that you were fiddling first. "

Orm Pludge

FIDELITY, n. A virtue peculiar to those who are about to be betrayed. 

FINANCE, n. The art or science of managing revenues and resources forthe best advantage of the manager. The pronunciation of this wordwith the i long and the accent on the first syllable is one ofAmerica's most precious discoveries and possessions. 

FLAG, n. A colored rag borne above troops and hoisted on forts andships. It appears to serve the same purpose as certain signs that onesees and vacant lots in London--"Rubbish may be shot here. "

FLESH, n. The Second Person of the secular Trinity. 

FLOP, v. Suddenly to change one's opinions and go over to anotherparty. The most notable flop on record was that of Saul of Tarsus, who has been severely criticised as a turn-coat by some of ourpartisan journals. 

FLY-SPECK, n. The prototype of punctuation. It is observed byGarvinus that the systems of punctuation in use by the variousliterary nations depended originally upon the social habits andgeneral diet of the flies infesting the several countries. Thesecreatures, which have always been distinguished for a neighborly andcompanionable familiarity with authors, liberally or niggardlyembellish the manuscripts in process of growth under the pen, according to their bodily habit, bringing out the sense of the work bya species of interpretation superior to, and independent of, thewriter's powers. The "old masters" of literature--that is to say, the early writers whose work is so esteemed by later scribes andcritics in the same language--never punctuated at all, but workedright along free-handed, without that abruption of the thought whichcomes from the use of points. (We observe the same thing in childrento-day, whose usage in this particular is a striking and beautifulinstance of the law that the infancy of individuals reproduces themethods and stages of development characterizing the infancy ofraces. ) In the work of these primitive scribes all the punctuation isfound, by the modern investigator with his optical instruments andchemical tests, to have been inserted by the writers' ingenious andserviceable collaborator, the common house-fly--_Musca maledicta_. In transcribing these ancient MSS, for the purpose of either makingthe work their own or preserving what they naturally regard as divinerevelations, later writers reverently and accurately copy whatevermarks they find upon the papyrus or parchment, to the unspeakableenhancement of the lucidity of the thought and value of the work. Writers contemporary with the copyists naturally avail themselves ofthe obvious advantages of these marks in their own work, and with suchassistance as the flies of their own household may be willing togrant, frequently rival and sometimes surpass the older compositions, in respect at least of punctuation, which is no small glory. Fully tounderstand the important services that flies perform to literature itis only necessary to lay a page of some popular novelist alongside asaucer of cream-and-molasses in a sunny room and observe "how the witbrightens and the style refines" in accurate proportion to theduration of exposure. 

FOLLY, n. That "gift and faculty divine" whose creative andcontrolling energy inspires Man's mind, guides his actions and adornshis life. 

 Folly! although Erasmus praised thee once In a thick volume, and all authors known, If not thy glory yet thy power have shown, Deign to take homage from thy son who hunts Through all thy maze his brothers, fool and dunce, To mend their lives and to sustain his own, However feebly be his arrows thrown, Howe'er each hide the flying weapons blunts. All-Father Folly! be it mine to raise, With lusty lung, here on his western strand With all thine offspring thronged from every land, Thyself inspiring me, the song of praise. And if too weak, I'll hire, to help me bawl, Dick Watson Gilder, gravest of us all. 

Aramis Loto Frope

FOOL, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculationand diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He isomnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscience, omnipotent. He it waswho invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, thetelegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He createdpatriotism and taught the nations war--founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republicangovernment. He is from everlasting to everlasting--such ascreation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sangupon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed theprocession of being. His grandmotherly hand was warmly tucked-in theset sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's eveningmeal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universalgrave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night ofeternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of humancivilization. 

FORCE, n. 

 "Force is but might, " the teacher said-- "That definition's just. " The boy said naught but thought instead, Remembering his pounded head: "Force is not might but must!"

FOREFINGER, n. The finger commonly used in pointing out twomalefactors. 

FOREORDINATION, n. This looks like an easy word to define, but when Iconsider that pious and learned theologians have spent long lives inexplaining it, and written libraries to explain their explanations;when I remember the nations have been divided and bloody battlescaused by the difference between foreordination and predestination, and that millions of treasure have been expended in the effort toprove and disprove its compatibility with freedom of the will and theefficacy of prayer, praise, and a religious life, --recalling theseawful facts in the history of the word, I stand appalled before themighty problem of its signification, abase my spiritual eyes, fearingto contemplate its portentous magnitude, reverently uncover and humblyrefer it to His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons and His Grace Bishop Potter. 

FORGETFULNESS, n. A gift of God bestowed upon doctors in compensationfor their destitution of conscience. 

FORK, n. An instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting deadanimals into the mouth. Formerly the knife was employed for thispurpose, and by many worthy persons is still thought to have manyadvantages over the other tool, which, however, they do not altogetherreject, but use to assist in charging the knife. The immunity ofthese persons from swift and awful death is one of the most strikingproofs of God's mercy to those that hate Him. 

FORMA PAUPERIS. [Latin] In the character of a poor person--amethod by which a litigant without money for lawyers is consideratelypermitted to lose his case. 

 When Adam long ago in Cupid's awful court (For Cupid ruled ere Adam was invented) Sued for Eve's favor, says an ancient law report, He stood and pleaded unhabilimented. 

 "You sue _in forma pauperis_, I see, " Eve cried; "Actions can't here be that way prosecuted. " So all poor Adam's motions coldly were denied: He went away--as he had come--nonsuited. 

G. J. 

FRANKALMOIGNE, n. The tenure by which a religious corporation holdslands on condition of praying for the soul of the donor. In mediaevaltimes many of the wealthiest fraternities obtained their estates inthis simple and cheap manner, and once when Henry VIII of England sentan officer to confiscate certain vast possessions which a fraternityof monks held by frankalmoigne, "What!" said the Prior, "would youmaster stay our benefactor's soul in Purgatory?" "Ay, " said theofficer, coldly, "an ye will not pray him thence for naught he muste'en roast. " "But look you, my son, " persisted the good man, "thisact hath rank as robbery of God!" "Nay, nay, good father, my masterthe king doth but deliver him from the manifold temptations of toogreat wealth. "

FREEBOOTER, n. A conqueror in a small way of business, whoseannexations lack of the sanctifying merit of magnitude. 

FREEDOM, n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly halfdozen of restraint's infinite multitude of methods. A politicalcondition that every nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtualmonopoly. Liberty. The distinction between freedom and liberty isnot accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find aliving specimen of either. 

 Freedom, as every schoolboy knows, Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell; On every wind, indeed, that blows I hear her yell. 

 She screams whenever monarchs meet, And parliaments as well, To bind the chains about her feet And toll her knell. 

 And when the sovereign people cast The votes they cannot spell, Upon the pestilential blast Her clamors swell. 

 For all to whom the power's given To sway or to compel, Among themselves apportion Heaven And give her Hell. 

Blary O'Gary

FREEMASONS, n. An order with secret rites, grotesque ceremonies andfantastic costumes, which, originating in the reign of Charles II, among working artisans of London, has been joined successively by thedead of past centuries in unbroken retrogression until now it embracesall the generations of man on the hither side of Adam and is drummingup distinguished recruits among the pre-Creational inhabitants ofChaos and Formless Void. The order was founded at different times byCharlemagne, Julius Caesar, Cyrus, Solomon, Zoroaster, Confucious, Thothmes, and Buddha. Its emblems and symbols have been found in theCatacombs of Paris and Rome, on the stones of the Parthenon and theChinese Great Wall, among the temples of Karnak and Palmyra and in theEgyptian Pyramids--always by a Freemason. 

FRIENDLESS, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense. 

FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, butonly one in foul. 

 The sea was calm and the sky was blue; Merrily, merrily sailed we two. (High barometer maketh glad. ) On the tipsy ship, with a dreadful shout, The tempest descended and we fell out. (O the walking is nasty bad!)

Armit Huff Bettle

FROG, n. A reptile with edible legs. The first mention of frogs inprofane literature is in Homer's narrative of the war between them andthe mice. Skeptical persons have doubted Homer's authorship of thework, but the learned, ingenious and industrious Dr. Schliemann hasset the question forever at rest by uncovering the bones of the slainfrogs. One of the forms of moral suasion by which Pharaoh wasbesought to favor the Israelities was a plague of frogs, but Pharaoh, who liked them _fricasees_, remarked, with truly oriental stoicism, that he could stand it as long as the frogs and the Jews could; so theprogramme was changed. The frog is a diligent songster, having a goodvoice but no ear. The libretto of his favorite opera, as written byAristophanes, is brief, simple and effective--"brekekex-koax"; themusic is apparently by that eminent composer, Richard Wagner. Horseshave a frog in each hoof--a thoughtful provision of nature, enablingthem to shine in a hurdle race. 

FRYING-PAN, n. One part of the penal apparatus employed in thatpunitive institution, a woman's kitchen. The frying-pan was inventedby Calvin, and by him used in cooking span-long infants that had diedwithout baptism; and observing one day the horrible torment of a trampwho had incautiously pulled a fried babe from the waste-dump anddevoured it, it occurred to the great divine to rob death of itsterrors by introducing the frying-pan into every household in Geneva. Thence it spread to all corners of the world, and has been ofinvaluable assistance in the propagation of his sombre faith. Thefollowing lines (said to be from the pen of his Grace Bishop Potter)seem to imply that the usefulness of this utensil is not limited tothis world; but as the consequences of its employment in this lifereach over into the life to come, so also itself may be found on theother side, rewarding its devotees:

 Old Nick was summoned to the skies. Said Peter: "Your intentions Are good, but you lack enterprise Concerning new inventions. 

 "Now, broiling in an ancient plan Of torment, but I hear it Reported that the frying-pan Sears best the wicked spirit. 

 "Go get one--fill it up with fat-- Fry sinners brown and good in't. " "I know a trick worth two o' that, " Said Nick--"I'll cook their food in't. "

FUNERAL, n. A pageant whereby we attest our respect for the dead byenriching the undertaker, and strengthen our grief by an expenditurethat deepens our groans and doubles our tears. 

 The savage dies--they sacrifice a horse To bear to happy hunting-grounds the corse. Our friends expire--we make the money fly In hope their souls will chase it to the sky. 

Jex Wopley

FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, ourfriends are true and our happiness is assured. 

G

GALLOWS, n. A stage for the performance of miracle plays, in whichthe leading actor is translated to heaven. In this country thegallows is chiefly remarkable for the number of persons who escape it. 

 Whether on the gallows high Or where blood flows the reddest, The noblest place for man to die-- Is where he died the deadest. 

(Old play)

GARGOYLE, n. A rain-spout projecting from the eaves of mediaevalbuildings, commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of somepersonal enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This wasespecially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structuresgenerally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues' galleryof local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a new deanand chapter were installed the old gargoyles were removed and otherssubstituted having a closer relation to the private animosities of thenew incumbents. 

GARTHER, n. An elastic band intended to keep a woman from coming outof her stockings and desolating the country. 

GENEROUS, adj. Originally this word meant noble by birth and wasrightly applied to a great multitude of persons. It now means nobleby nature and is taking a bit of a rest. 

GENEALOGY, n. An account of one's descent from an ancestor who didnot particularly care to trace his own. 

GENTEEL, adj. Refined, after the fashion of a gent. 

 Observe with care, my son, the distinction I reveal: A gentleman is gentle and a gent genteel. Heed not the definitions your "Unabridged" presents, For dictionary makers are generally gents. 

G. J. 

GEOGRAPHER, n. A chap who can tell you offhand the difference betweenthe outside of the world and the inside. 

 Habeam, geographer of wide reknown, Native of Abu-Keber's ancient town, In passing thence along the river Zam To the adjacent village of Xelam, Bewildered by the multitude of roads, Got lost, lived long on migratory toads, Then from exposure miserably died, And grateful travelers bewailed their guide. 

Henry Haukhorn

GEOLOGY, n. The science of the earth's crust--to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come upgarrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globealready noted are catalogued thus: The Primary, or lower one, consists of rocks, bones or mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. TheSecondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiarycomprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldyboots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools. 

GHOST, n. The outward and visible sign of an inward fear. 

 He saw a ghost. It occupied--that dismal thing!-- The path that he was following. Before he'd time to stop and fly, An earthquake trifled with the eye That saw a ghost. He fell as fall the early good; Unmoved that awful vision stood. The stars that danced before his ken He wildly brushed away, and then He saw a post. 

Jared Macphester

Accounting for the uncommon behavior of ghosts, Heine mentionssomebody's ingenious theory to the effect that they are as muchafraid of us as we of them. Not quite, if I may judge from suchtables of comparative speed as I am able to compile from memories ofmy own experience. 

There is one insuperable obstacle to a belief in ghosts. A ghostnever comes naked: he appears either in a winding-sheet or "in hishabit as he lived. " To believe in him, then, is to believe that notonly have the dead the power to make themselves visible after there isnothing left of them, but that the same power inheres in textilefabrics. Supposing the products of the loom to have this ability, what object would they have in exercising it? And why does not theapparition of a suit of clothes sometimes walk abroad without a ghostin it? These be riddles of significance. They reach away down andget a convulsive grip on the very tap-root of this flourishing faith. 

GHOUL, n. A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouringthe dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class ofcontroversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world ofcomforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place. In1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and frightenedit away with the sign of the cross. He describes it as gifted withmany heads an an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he saw it in morethan one place at a time. The good man was coming away from dinner atthe time and explains that if he had not been "heavy with eating" hewould have seized the demon at all hazards. Atholston relates that aghoul was caught by some sturdy peasants in a churchyard at Sudburyand ducked in a horsepond. (He appears to think that so distinguisheda criminal should have been ducked in a tank of rosewater. ) The waterturned at once to blood "and so contynues unto ys daye. " The pond hassince been bled with a ditch. As late as the beginning of thefourteenth century a ghoul was cornered in the crypt of the cathedralat Amiens and the whole population surrounded the place. Twenty armedmen with a priest at their head, bearing a crucifix, entered andcaptured the ghoul, which, thinking to escape by the stratagem, hadtransformed itself to the semblance of a well known citizen, but wasnevertheless hanged, drawn and quartered in the midst of hideouspopular orgies. The citizen whose shape the demon had assumed was soaffected by the sinister occurrence that he never again showed himselfin Amiens and his fate remains a mystery. 

GLUTTON, n. A person who escapes the evils of moderation bycommitting dyspepsia. 

GNOME, n. In North-European mythology, a dwarfish imp inhabiting theinterior parts of the earth and having special custody of mineraltreasures. Bjorsen, who died in 1765, says gnomes were common enoughin the southern parts of Sweden in his boyhood, and he frequently sawthem scampering on the hills in the evening twilight. LudwigBinkerhoof saw three as recently as 1792, in the Black Forest, andSneddeker avers that in 1803 they drove a party of miners out of aSilesian mine. Basing our computations upon data supplied by thesestatements, we find that the gnomes were probably extinct as early as1764. 

GNOSTICS, n. A sect of philosophers who tried to engineer a fusionbetween the early Christians and the Platonists. The former would notgo into the caucus and the combination failed, greatly to the chagrinof the fusion managers. 

GNU, n. An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated stateresembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it issomething like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone. 

 A hunter from Kew caught a distant view Of a peacefully meditative gnu, And he said: "I'll pursue, and my hands imbrue In its blood at a closer interview. " But that beast did ensue and the hunter it threw O'er the top of a palm that adjacent grew; And he said as he flew: "It is well I withdrew Ere, losing my temper, I wickedly slew That really meritorious gnu. "

Jarn Leffer

GOOD, adj. Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer. Alive, sir, to the advantages of letting him alone. 

GOOSE, n. A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by someoccult process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with variousdegrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper by a personcalled an "author, " there results a very fair and accurate transcriptof the fowl's thought and feeling. The difference in geese, asdiscovered by this ingenious method, is considerable: many are foundto have only trivial and insignificant powers, but some are seen to bevery great geese indeed. 

GORGON, n. 

 The Gorgon was a maiden bold Who turned to stone the Greeks of old That looked upon her awful brow. We dig them out of ruins now, And swear that workmanship so bad Proves all the ancient sculptors mad. 

GOUT, n. A physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient. 

GRACES, n. Three beautiful goddesses, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne, who attended upon Venus, serving without salary. They were at noexpense for board and clothing, for they ate nothing to speak of anddressed according to the weather, wearing whatever breeze happened tobe blowing. 

GRAMMAR, n. A system of pitfalls thoughtfully prepared for the feetfor the self-made man, along the path by which he advances todistinction. 

GRAPE, n. 

 Hail noble fruit!--by Homer sung, Anacreon and Khayyam; Thy praise is ever on the tongue Of better men than I am. 

 The lyre in my hand has never swept, The song I cannot offer: My humbler service pray accept-- I'll help to kill the scoffer. The water-drinkers and the cranks Who load their skins with liquor-- I'll gladly bear their belly-tanks And tap them with my sticker. 

 Fill up, fill up, for wisdom cools When e'er we let the wine rest. Here's death to Prohibition's fools, And every kind of vine-pest!

Jamrach Holobom

GRAPESHOT, n. An argument which the future is preparing in answer tothe demands of American Socialism. 

GRAVE, n. A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming ofthe medical student. 

 Beside a lonely grave I stood-- With brambles 'twas encumbered; The winds were moaning in the wood, Unheard by him who slumbered, A rustic standing near, I said: "He cannot hear it blowing!" "'Course not, " said he: "the feller's dead-- He can't hear nowt [sic] that's going. "

 "Too true, " I said; "alas, too true-- No sound his sense can quicken!" "Well, mister, wot is that to you?-- The deadster ain't a-kickin'. "

 I knelt and prayed: "O Father, smile On him, and mercy show him!" That countryman looked on the while, And said: "Ye didn't know him. "

Pobeter Dunko

GRAVITATION, n. The tendency of all bodies to approach one anotherwith a strength proportion to the quantity of matter they contain--the quantity of matter they contain being ascertained by the strengthof their tendency to approach one another. This is a lovely andedifying illustration of how science, having made A the proof of B, makes B the proof of A. 

GREAT, adj. 

 "I'm great, " the Lion said--"I reign The monarch of the wood and plain!"

 The Elephant replied: "I'm great-- No quadruped can match my weight!"

 "I'm great--no animal has half So long a neck!" said the Giraffe. 

 "I'm great, " the Kangaroo said--"see My femoral muscularity!"

 The 'Possum said: "I'm great--behold, My tail is lithe and bald and cold!"

 An Oyster fried was understood To say: "I'm great because I'm good!"

 Each reckons greatness to consist In that in which he heads the list, And Vierick thinks he tops his class Because he is the greatest ass. 

Arion Spurl Doke

GUILLOTINE, n. A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulderswith good reason. 

In his great work on _Divergent Lines of Racial Evolution_, thelearned Professor Brayfugle argues from the prevalence of this gesture--the shrug--among Frenchmen, that they are descended from turtlesand it is simply a survival of the habit of retracing the head insidethe shell. It is with reluctance that I differ with so eminent anauthority, but in my judgment (as more elaborately set forth andenforced in my work entitled _Hereditary Emotions_--lib. II, c. XI)the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important atheory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown. Ihave not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror inspiredby the guillotine during the period of that instrument's activity. 

GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for thesettlement of disputes which might become troublesome if leftunadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed tothe Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says itwas invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinionseems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels. Moreover, it has the hearty concurrence of the Hon. James Wilson, Secretary ofAgriculture. 

Secretary Wilson became interested in gunpowder through an eventthat occurred on the Government experimental farm in the District ofColumbia. One day, several years ago, a rogue imperfectly reverent ofthe Secretary's profound attainments and personal character presentedhim with a sack of gunpowder, representing it as the sed of the_Flashawful flabbergastor_, a Patagonian cereal of great commercialvalue, admirably adapted to this climate. The good Secretary wasinstructed to spill it along in a furrow and afterward inhume it withsoil. This he at once proceeded to do, and had made a continuous lineof it all the way across a ten-acre field, when he was made to lookbackward by a shout from the generous donor, who at once dropped alighted match into the furrow at the starting-point. Contact with theearth had somewhat dampened the powder, but the startled functionarysaw himself pursued by a tall moving pillar of fire and smoke andfierce evolution. He stood for a moment paralyzed and speechless, then he recollected an engagement and, dropping all, absented himselfthence with such surprising celerity that to the eyes of spectatorsalong the route selected he appeared like a long, dim streakprolonging itself with inconceivable rapidity through seven villages, and audibly refusing to be comforted. "Great Scott! what is that?"cried a surveyor's chainman, shading his eyes and gazing at the fadingline of agriculturist which bisected his visible horizon. "That, "said the surveyor, carelessly glancing at the phenomenon and againcentering his attention upon his instrument, "is the Meridian ofWashington. "

H

HABEAS CORPUS. A writ by which a man may be taken out of jail whenconfined for the wrong crime. 

HABIT, n. A shackle for the free. 

HADES, n. The lower world; the residence of departed spirits; theplace where the dead live. 

Among the ancients the idea of Hades was not synonymous with ourHell, many of the most respectable men of antiquity residing there ina very comfortable kind of way. Indeed, the Elysian Fields themselveswere a part of Hades, though they have since been removed to Paris. When the Jacobean version of the New Testament was in process ofevolution the pious and learned men engaged in the work insisted by amajority vote on translating the Greek word "Aides" as "Hell"; but aconscientious minority member secretly possessed himself of the recordand struck out the objectional word wherever he could find it. At thenext meeting, the Bishop of Salisbury, looking over the work, suddenlysprang to his feet and said with considerable excitement: "Gentlemen, somebody has been razing 'Hell' here!" Years afterward the goodprelate's death was made sweet by the reflection that he had been themeans (under Providence) of making an important, serviceable andimmortal addition to the phraseology of the English tongue. 

HAG, n. An elderly lady whom you do not happen to like; sometimescalled, also, a hen, or cat. Old witches, sorceresses, etc. , werecalled hags from the belief that their heads were surrounded by a kindof baleful lumination or nimbus--hag being the popular name of thatpeculiar electrical light sometimes observed in the hair. At one timehag was not a word of reproach: Drayton speaks of a "beautiful hag, all smiles, " much as Shakespeare said, "sweet wench. " It would notnow be proper to call your sweetheart a hag--that compliment isreserved for the use of her grandchildren. 

HALF, n. One of two equal parts into which a thing may be divided, orconsidered as divided. In the fourteenth century a heated discussionarose among theologists and philosophers as to whether Omnisciencecould part an object into three halves; and the pious FatherAldrovinus publicly prayed in the cathedral at Rouen that God woulddemonstrate the affirmative of the proposition in some signal andunmistakable way, and particularly (if it should please Him) upon thebody of that hardy blasphemer, Manutius Procinus, who maintained thenegative. Procinus, however, was spared to die of the bite of aviper. 

HALO, n. Properly, a luminous ring encircling an astronomical body, but not infrequently confounded with "aureola, " or "nimbus, " asomewhat similar phenomenon worn as a head-dress by divinities andsaints. The halo is a purely optical illusion, produced by moisturein the air, in the manner of a rainbow; but the aureola is conferredas a sign of superior sanctity, in the same way as a bishop's mitre, or the Pope's tiara. In the painting of the Nativity, by Szedgkin, apious artist of Pesth, not only do the Virgin and the Child wear thenimbus, but an ass nibbling hay from the sacred manger is similarlydecorated and, to his lasting honor be it said, appears to bear hisunaccustomed dignity with a truly saintly grace. 

HAND, n. A singular instrument worn at the end of the human arm andcommonly thrust into somebody's pocket. 

HANDKERCHIEF, n. A small square of silk or linen, used in variousignoble offices about the face and especially serviceable at funeralsto conceal the lack of tears. The handkerchief is of recentinvention; our ancestors knew nothing of it and intrusted its dutiesto the sleeve. Shakespeare's introducing it into the play of"Othello" is an anachronism: Desdemona dried her nose with her skirt, as Dr. Mary Walker and other reformers have done with their coattailsin our own day--an evidence that revolutions sometimes go backward. 

HANGMAN, n. An officer of the law charged with duties of the highestdignity and utmost gravity, and held in hereditary disesteem by apopulace having a criminal ancestry. In some of the American Stateshis functions are now performed by an electrician, as in New Jersey, where executions by electricity have recently been ordered--thefirst instance known to this lexicographer of anybody questioning theexpediency of hanging Jerseymen. 

HAPPINESS, n. An agreeable sensation arising from contemplating themisery of another. 

HARANGUE, n. A speech by an opponent, who is known as anharrangue-outang. 

HARBOR, n. A place where ships taking shelter from stores are exposedto the fury of the customs. 

HARMONISTS, n. A sect of Protestants, now extinct, who came fromEurope in the beginning of the last century and were distinguished forthe bitterness of their internal controversies and dissensions. 

HASH, x. There is no definition for this word--nobody knows whathash is. 

HATCHET, n. A young axe, known among Indians as a Thomashawk. 

 "O bury the hatchet, irascible Red, For peace is a blessing, " the White Man said. The Savage concurred, and that weapon interred, With imposing rites, in the White Man's head. 

John Lukkus

HATRED, n. A sentiment appropriate to the occasion of another'ssuperiority. 

HEAD-MONEY, n. A capitation tax, or poll-tax. 

 In ancient times there lived a king Whose tax-collectors could not wring From all his subjects gold enough To make the royal way less rough. For pleasure's highway, like the dames Whose premises adjoin it, claims Perpetual repairing. So The tax-collectors in a row Appeared before the throne to pray Their master to devise some way To swell the revenue. "So great, " Said they, "are the demands of state A tithe of all that we collect Will scarcely meet them. Pray reflect: How, if one-tenth we must resign, Can we exist on t'other nine?" The monarch asked them in reply: "Has it occurred to you to try The advantage of economy?" "It has, " the spokesman said: "we sold All of our gray garrotes of gold; With plated-ware we now compress The necks of those whom we assess. Plain iron forceps we employ To mitigate the miser's joy Who hoards, with greed that never tires, That which your Majesty requires. " Deep lines of thought were seen to plow Their way across the royal brow. "Your state is desperate, no question; Pray favor me with a suggestion. " "O King of Men, " the spokesman said, "If you'll impose upon each head A tax, the augmented revenue We'll cheerfully divide with you. " As flashes of the sun illume The parted storm-cloud's sullen gloom, The king smiled grimly. "I decree That it be so--and, not to be In generosity outdone, Declare you, each and every one, Exempted from the operation Of this new law of capitation. But lest the people censure me Because they're bound and you are free, 'Twere well some clever scheme were laid By you this poll-tax to evade. I'll leave you now while you confer With my most trusted minister. " The monarch from the throne-room walked And straightway in among them stalked A silent man, with brow concealed, Bare-armed--his gleaming axe revealed!

G. J. 

HEARSE, n. Death's baby-carriage. 

HEART, n. An automatic, muscular blood-pump. Figuratively, thisuseful organ is said to be the seat of emotions and sentiments--avery pretty fancy which, however, is nothing but a survival of a onceuniversal belief. It is now known that the sentiments and emotionsreside in the stomach, being evolved from food by chemical action ofthe gastric fluid. The exact process by which a beefsteak becomes afeeling--tender or not, according to the age of the animal fromwhich it was cut; the successive stages of elaboration through which acaviar sandwich is transmuted to a quaint fancy and reappears as apungent epigram; the marvelous functional methods of converting ahard-boiled egg into religious contrition, or a cream-puff into a sighof sensibility--these things have been patiently ascertained by M. Pasteur, and by him expounded with convincing lucidity. (See, also, my monograph, _The Essential Identity of the Spiritual Affections andCertain Intestinal Gases Freed in Digestion_--4to, 687 pp. ) In ascientific work entitled, I believe, _Delectatio Demonorum_ (JohnCamden Hotton, London, 1873) this view of the sentiments receives astriking illustration; and for further light consult Professor Dam'sfamous treatise on _Love as a Product of Alimentary Maceration_. 

HEAT, n. 

 Heat, says Professor Tyndall, is a mode Of motion, but I know now how he's proving His point; but this I know--hot words bestowed With skill will set the human fist a-moving, And where it stops the stars burn free and wild. _Crede expertum_--I have seen them, child. 

Gorton Swope

HEATHEN, n. A benighted creature who has the folly to worshipsomething that he can see and feel. According to Professor Howison, of the California State University, Hebrews are heathens. 

 "The Hebrews are heathens!" says Howison. He's A Christian philosopher. I'm A scurril agnostical chap, if you please, Addicted too much to the crime Of religious discussion in my rhyme. 

 Though Hebrew and Howison cannot agree On a _modus vivendi_--not they!-- Yet Heaven has had the designing of me, And I haven't been reared in a way To joy in the thick of the fray. 

 For this of my creed is the soul and the gist, And the truth of it I aver: Who differs from me in his faith is an 'ist, And 'ite, an 'ie, or an 'er-- And I'm down upon him or her!

 Let Howison urge with perfunctory chin Toleration--that's all very well, But a roast is "nuts" to his nostril thin, And he's running--I know by the smell-- A secret and personal Hell!

Bissell Gip

HEAVEN, n. A place where the wicked cease from troubling you withtalk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attentionwhile you expound your own. 

HEBREW, n. A male Jew, as distinguished from the Shebrew, analtogether superior creation. 

HELPMATE, n. A wife, or bitter half. 

 "Now, why is yer wife called a helpmate, Pat?" Says the priest. "Since the time 'o yer wooin' She's niver [sic] assisted in what ye were at-- For it's naught ye are ever doin'. "

 "That's true of yer Riverence [sic], " Patrick replies, And no sign of contrition envices; "But, bedad, it's a fact which the word implies, For she helps to mate the expinses [sic]!"

Marley Wottel

HEMP, n. A plant from whose fibrous bark is made an article ofneckwear which is frequently put on after public speaking in the openair and prevents the wearer from taking cold. 

HERMIT, n. A person whose vices and follies are not sociable. 

HERS, pron. His. 

HIBERNATE, v. I. To pass the winter season in domestic seclusion. There have been many singular popular notions about the hibernation ofvarious animals. Many believe that the bear hibernates during thewhole winter and subsists by mechanically sucking its paws. It isadmitted that it comes out of its retirement in the spring so leanthat it had to try twice before it can cast a shadow. Three or fourcenturies ago, in England, no fact was better attested than thatswallows passed the winter months in the mud at the bottom of theirbrooks, clinging together in globular masses. They have apparentlybeen compelled to give up the custom and account of the foulness ofthe brooks. Sotus Ecobius discovered in Central Asia a whole nationof people who hibernate. By some investigators, the fasting of Lentis supposed to have been originally a modified form of hibernation, towhich the Church gave a religious significance; but this view wasstrenuously opposed by that eminent authority, Bishop Kip, who did notwish any honors denied to the memory of the Founder of his family. 

HIPPOGRIFF, n. An animal (now extinct) which was half horse and halfgriffin. The griffin was itself a compound creature, half lion andhalf eagle. The hippogriff was actually, therefore, a one-quartereagle, which is two dollars and fifty cents in gold. The study ofzoology is full of surprises. 

HISTORIAN, n. A broad-gauge gossip. 

HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostlyfools. 

 Of Roman history, great Niebuhr's shown 'Tis nine-tenths lying. Faith, I wish 'twere known, Ere we accept great Niebuhr as a guide, Wherein he blundered and how much he lied. 

Salder Bupp

HOG, n. A bird remarkable for the catholicity of its appetite andserving to illustrate that of ours. Among the Mahometans and Jews, the hog is not in favor as an article of diet, but is respected forthe delicacy and the melody of its voice. It is chiefly as a songsterthat the fowl is esteemed; the cage of him in full chorus has beenknown to draw tears from two persons at once. The scientific name ofthis dicky-bird is _Porcus Rockefelleri_. Mr. Rockefeller did notdiscover the hog, but it is considered his by right of resemblance. 

HOMOEOPATHIST, n. The humorist of the medical profession. 

HOMOEOPATHY, n. A school of medicine midway between Allopathy andChristian Science. To the last both the others are distinctlyinferior, for Christian Science will cure imaginary diseases, and theycan not. 

HOMICIDE, n. The slaying of one human being by another. There arefour kinds of homocide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, andpraiseworthy, but it makes no great difference to the person slainwhether he fell by one kind or another--the classification is foradvantage of the lawyers. 

HOMILETICS, n. The science of adapting sermons to the spiritualneeds, capacities and conditions of the congregation. 

 So skilled the parson was in homiletics That all his normal purges and emetics To medicine the spirit were compounded With a most just discrimination founded Upon a rigorous examination Of tongue and pulse and heart and respiration. Then, having diagnosed each one's condition, His scriptural specifics this physician Administered--his pills so efficacious And pukes of disposition so vivacious That souls afflicted with ten kinds of Adam Were convalescent ere they knew they had 'em. But Slander's tongue--itself all coated--uttered Her bilious mind and scandalously muttered That in the case of patients having money The pills were sugar and the pukes were honey. 

_Biography of Bishop Potter_

HONORABLE, adj. Afflicted with an impediment in one's reach. Inlegislative bodies it is customary to mention all members ashonorable; as, "the honorable gentleman is a scurvy cur. "

HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one. 

 Delicious Hope! when naught to man it left-- Of fortune destitute, of friends bereft; When even his dog deserts him, and his goat With tranquil disaffection chews his coat While yet it hangs upon his back; then thou, The star far-flaming on thine angel brow, Descendest, radiant, from the skies to hint The promise of a clerkship in the Mint. 

Fogarty Weffing

HOSPITALITY, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certainpersons who are not in need of food and lodging. 

HOSTILITY, n. A peculiarly sharp and specially applied sense of theearth's overpopulation. Hostility is classified as active andpassive; as (respectively) the feeling of a woman for her femalefriends, and that which she entertains for all the rest of her sex. 

HOURI, n. A comely female inhabiting the Mohammedan Paradise to makethings cheery for the good Mussulman, whose belief in her existencemarks a noble discontent with his earthly spouse, whom he denies asoul. By that good lady the Houris are said to be held in deficientesteem. 

HOUSE, n. A hollow edifice erected for the habitation of man, rat, mouse, beetle, cockroach, fly, mosquito, flea, bacillus and microbe. _House of Correction_, a place of reward for political and personalservice, and for the detention of offenders and appropriations. _House of God_, a building with a steeple and a mortgage on it. _House-dog_, a pestilent beast kept on domestic premises to insultpersons passing by and appal the hardy visitor. _House-maid_, ayoungerly person of the opposing sex employed to be variouslydisagreeable and ingeniously unclean in the station in which it haspleased God to place her. 

HOUSELESS, adj. Having paid all taxes on household goods. 

HOVEL, n. The fruit of a flower called the Palace. 

 Twaddle had a hovel, Twiddle had a palace; Twaddle said: "I'll grovel Or he'll think I bear him malice"-- A sentiment as novel As a castor on a chalice. 

 Down upon the middle Of his legs fell Twaddle And astonished Mr. Twiddle, Who began to lift his noddle. Feed upon the fiddle- Faddle flummery, unswaddle A new-born self-sufficiency and think himself a [mockery. ]

G. J. 

HUMANITY, n. The human race, collectively, exclusive of theanthropoid poets. 

HUMORIST, n. A plague that would have softened down the hoarausterity of Pharaoh's heart and persuaded him to dismiss Israel withhis best wishes, cat-quick. 

 Lo! the poor humorist, whose tortured mind See jokes in crowds, though still to gloom inclined-- Whose simple appetite, untaught to stray, His brains, renewed by night, consumes by day. He thinks, admitted to an equal sty, A graceful hog would bear his company. 

Alexander Poke

HURRICANE, n. An atmospheric demonstration once very common but nowgenerally abandoned for the tornado and cyclone. The hurricane isstill in popular use in the West Indies and is preferred by certainold-fashioned sea-captains. It is also used in the construction ofthe upper decks of steamboats, but generally speaking, the hurricane'susefulness has outlasted it. 

HURRY, n. The dispatch of bunglers. 

HUSBAND, n. One who, having dined, is charged with the care of theplate. 

HYBRID, n. A pooled issue. 

HYDRA, n. A kind of animal that the ancients catalogued under manyheads. 

HYENA, n. A beast held in reverence by some oriental nations from itshabit of frequenting at night the burial-places of the dead. But themedical student does that. 

HYPOCHONDRIASIS, n. Depression of one's own spirits. 

 Some heaps of trash upon a vacant lot Where long the village rubbish had been shot Displayed a sign among the stuff and stumps-- "Hypochondriasis. " It meant The Dumps. 

Bogul S. Purvy

HYPOCRITE, n. One who, profession virtues that he does not respectsecures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises. 

I

I is the first letter of the alphabet, the first word of the language, the first thought of the mind, the first object of affection. Ingrammar it is a pronoun of the first person and singular number. Itsplural is said to be _We_, but how there can be more than one myselfis doubtless clearer the grammarians than it is to the author of thisincomparable dictionary. Conception of two myselfs is difficult, butfine. The frank yet graceful use of "I" distinguishes a good writerfrom a bad; the latter carries it with the manner of a thief trying tocloak his loot. 

ICHOR, n. A fluid that serves the gods and goddesses in place ofblood. 

 Fair Venus, speared by Diomed, Restrained the raging chief and said: "Behold, rash mortal, whom you've bled-- Your soul's stained white with ichorshed!"

Mary Doke

ICONOCLAST, n. A breaker of idols, the worshipers whereof areimperfectly gratified by the performance, and most strenuously protestthat he unbuildeth but doth not reedify, that he pulleth down butpileth not up. For the poor things would have other idols in place ofthose he thwacketh upon the mazzard and dispelleth. But theiconoclast saith: "Ye shall have none at all, for ye need them not;and if the rebuilder fooleth round hereabout, behold I will depressthe head of him and sit thereon till he squawk it. "

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence inhuman affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot'sactivity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but "pervades and regulates the whole. " He has the last word ineverything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions andopinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribesconduct with a dead-line. 

IDLENESS, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds ofnew sins and promotes the growth of staple vices. 

IGNORAMUS, n. A person unacquainted with certain kinds of knowledgefamiliar to yourself, and having certain other kinds that you knownothing about. 

 Dumble was an ignoramus, Mumble was for learning famous. Mumble said one day to Dumble: "Ignorance should be more humble. Not a spark have you of knowledge That was got in any college. " Dumble said to Mumble: "Truly You're self-satisfied unduly. Of things in college I'm denied A knowledge--you of all beside. "

Borelli

ILLUMINATI, n. A sect of Spanish heretics of the latter part of thesixteenth century; so called because they were light weights--_cunctationes illuminati_. 

ILLUSTRIOUS, adj. Suitably placed for the shafts of malice, envy anddetraction. 

IMAGINATION, n. A warehouse of facts, with poet and liar in jointownership. 

IMBECILITY, n. A kind of divine inspiration, or sacred fire affectingcensorious critics of this dictionary. 

IMMIGRANT, n. An unenlightened person who thinks one country betterthan another. 

IMMODEST, adj. Having a strong sense of one's own merit, coupled witha feeble conception of worth in others. 

 There was once a man in Ispahan Ever and ever so long ago, And he had a head, the phrenologists said, That fitted him for a show. 

 For his modesty's bump was so large a lump (Nature, they said, had taken a freak) That its summit stood far above the wood Of his hair, like a mountain peak. 

 So modest a man in all Ispahan, Over and over again they swore-- So humble and meek, you would vainly seek; None ever was found before. 

 Meantime the hump of that awful bump Into the heavens contrived to get To so great a height that they called the wight The man with the minaret. 

 There wasn't a man in all Ispahan Prouder, or louder in praise of his chump: With a tireless tongue and a brazen lung He bragged of that beautiful bump

 Till the Shah in a rage sent a trusty page Bearing a sack and a bow-string too, And that gentle child explained as he smiled: "A little present for you. "

 The saddest man in all Ispahan, Sniffed at the gift, yet accepted the same. "If I'd lived, " said he, "my humility Had given me deathless fame!"

Sukker Uffro

IMMORAL, adj. Inexpedient. Whatever in the long run and with regardto the greater number of instances men find to be generallyinexpedient comes to be considered wrong, wicked, immoral. If man'snotions of right and wrong have any other basis than this ofexpediency; if they originated, or could have originated, in any otherway; if actions have in themselves a moral character apart from, andnowise dependent on, their consequences--then all philosophy is alie and reason a disorder of the mind. 

IMMORTALITY, n. 

 A toy which people cry for, And on their knees apply for, Dispute, contend and lie for, And if allowed Would be right proud Eternally to die for. 

G. J. 

IMPALE, v. T. In popular usage to pierce with any weapon which remainsfixed in the wound. This, however, is inaccurate; to impale is, properly, to put to death by thrusting an upright sharp stake into thebody, the victim being left in a sitting position. This was a commonmode of punishment among many of the nations of antiquity, and isstill in high favor in China and other parts of Asia. Down to thebeginning of the fifteenth century it was widely employed in"churching" heretics and schismatics. Wolecraft calls it the "stooleof repentynge, " and among the common people it was jocularly known as"riding the one legged horse. " Ludwig Salzmann informs us that inThibet impalement is considered the most appropriate punishment forcrimes against religion; and although in China it is sometimes awardedfor secular offences, it is most frequently adjudged in cases ofsacrilege. To the person in actual experience of impalement it mustbe a matter of minor importance by what kind of civil or religiousdissent he was made acquainted with its discomforts; but doubtless hewould feel a certain satisfaction if able to contemplate himself inthe character of a weather-cock on the spire of the True Church. 

IMPARTIAL, adj. Unable to perceive any promise of personal advantagefrom espousing either side of a controversy or adopting either of twoconflicting opinions. 

IMPENITENCE, n. A state of mind intermediate in point of time betweensin and punishment. 

IMPIETY, n. Your irreverence toward my deity. 

IMPOSITION, n. The act of blessing or consecrating by the laying onof hands--a ceremony common to many ecclesiastical systems, butperformed with the frankest sincerity by the sect known as Thieves. 

 "Lo! by the laying on of hands, " Say parson, priest and dervise, "We consecrate your cash and lands To ecclesiastical service. No doubt you'll swear till all is blue At such an imposition. Do. "

Pollo Doncas

IMPOSTOR n. A rival aspirant to public honors. 

IMPROBABILITY, n. 

 His tale he told with a solemn face And a tender, melancholy grace. Improbable 'twas, no doubt, When you came to think it out, But the fascinated crowd Their deep surprise avowed And all with a single voice averred 'Twas the most amazing thing they'd heard-- All save one who spake never a word, But sat as mum As if deaf and dumb, Serene, indifferent and unstirred. Then all the others turned to him And scrutinized him limb from limb-- Scanned him alive; But he seemed to thrive And tranquiler grow each minute, As if there were nothing in it. "What! what!" cried one, "are you not amazed At what our friend has told?" He raised Soberly then his eyes and gazed In a natural way And proceeded to say, As he crossed his feet on the mantel-shelf: "O no--not at all; I'm a liar myself. "

IMPROVIDENCE, n. Provision for the needs of to-day from the revenuesof to-morrow. 

IMPUNITY, n. Wealth. 

INADMISSIBLE, adj. Not competent to be considered. Said of certainkinds of testimony which juries are supposed to be unfit to beentrusted with, and which judges, therefore, rule out, even ofproceedings before themselves alone. Hearsay evidence is inadmissiblebecause the person quoted was unsworn and is not before the court forexamination; yet most momentous actions, military, political, commercial and of every other kind, are daily undertaken on hearsayevidence. There is no religion in the world that has any other basisthan hearsay evidence. Revelation is hearsay evidence; that theScriptures are the word of God we have only the testimony of men longdead whose identity is not clearly established and who are not knownto have been sworn in any sense. Under the rules of evidence as theynow exist in this country, no single assertion in the Bible has in itssupport any evidence admissible in a court of law. It cannot beproved that the battle of Blenheim ever was fought, that there wassuch as person as Julius Caesar, such an empire as Assyria. 

But as records of courts of justice are admissible, it can easilybe proved that powerful and malevolent magicians once existed and werea scourge to mankind. The evidence (including confession) upon whichcertain women were convicted of witchcraft and executed was without aflaw; it is still unimpeachable. The judges' decisions based on itwere sound in logic and in law. Nothing in any existing court wasever more thoroughly proved than the charges of witchcraft and sorceryfor which so many suffered death. If there were no witches, humantestimony and human reason are alike destitute of value. 

INAUSPICIOUSLY, adv. In an unpromising manner, the auspices beingunfavorable. Among the Romans it was customary before undertaking anyimportant action or enterprise to obtain from the augurs, or stateprophets, some hint of its probable outcome; and one of their favoriteand most trustworthy modes of divination consisted in observing theflight of birds--the omens thence derived being called _auspices_. Newspaper reporters and certain miscreant lexicographers have decidedthat the word--always in the plural--shall mean "patronage" or"management"; as, "The festivities were under the auspices of theAncient and Honorable Order of Body-Snatchers"; or, "The hilaritieswere auspicated by the Knights of Hunger. "

 A Roman slave appeared one day Before the Augur. "Tell me, pray, If--" here the Augur, smiling, made A checking gesture and displayed His open palm, which plainly itched, For visibly its surface twitched. A _denarius_ (the Latin nickel) Successfully allayed the tickle, And then the slave proceeded: "Please Inform me whether Fate decrees Success or failure in what I To-night (if it be dark) shall try. Its nature? Never mind--I think 'Tis writ on this"--and with a wink Which darkened half the earth, he drew Another denarius to view, Its shining face attentive scanned, Then slipped it into the good man's hand, Who with great gravity said: "Wait While I retire to question Fate. " That holy person then withdrew His scared clay and, passing through The temple's rearward gate, cried "Shoo!" Waving his robe of office. Straight Each sacred peacock and its mate (Maintained for Juno's favor) fled With clamor from the trees o'erhead, Where they were perching for the night. The temple's roof received their flight, For thither they would always go, When danger threatened them below. Back to the slave the Augur went: "My son, forecasting the event By flight of birds, I must confess The auspices deny success. " That slave retired, a sadder man, Abandoning his secret plan-- Which was (as well the craft seer Had from the first divined) to clear The wall and fraudulently seize On Juno's poultry in the trees. 

G. J. 

INCOME, n. The natural and rational gauge and measure ofrespectability, the commonly accepted standards being artificial, arbitrary and fallacious; for, as "Sir Sycophas Chrysolater" in theplay has justly remarked, "the true use and function of property (inwhatsoever it consisteth--coins, or land, or houses, or merchant-stuff, or anything which may be named as holden of right to one's ownsubservience) as also of honors, titles, preferments and place, andall favor and acquaintance of persons of quality or ableness, are butto get money. Hence it followeth that all things are truly to berated as of worth in measure of their serviceableness to that end; andtheir possessors should take rank in agreement thereto, neither thelord of an unproducing manor, howsoever broad and ancient, nor he whobears an unremunerate dignity, nor yet the pauper favorite of a king, being esteemed of level excellency with him whose riches are of dailyaccretion; and hardly should they whose wealth is barren claim andrightly take more honor than the poor and unworthy. "

INCOMPATIBILITY, n. In matrimony a similarity of tastes, particularlythe taste for domination. Incompatibility may, however, consist of ameek-eyed matron living just around the corner. It has even beenknown to wear a moustache. 

INCOMPOSSIBLE, adj. Unable to exist if something else exists. Twothings are incompossible when the world of being has scope enough forone of them, but not enough for both--as Walt Whitman's poetry andGod's mercy to man. Incompossibility, it will be seen, is onlyincompatibility let loose. Instead of such low language as "Go heelyourself--I mean to kill you on sight, " the words, "Sir, we areincompossible, " would convey and equally significant intimation and instately courtesy are altogether superior. 

INCUBUS, n. One of a race of highly improper demons who, thoughprobably not wholly extinct, may be said to have seen their bestnights. For a complete account of _incubi_ and _succubi_, including_incubae_ and _succubae_, see the _Liber Demonorum_ of Protassus(Paris, 1328), which contains much curious information that would beout of place in a dictionary intended as a text-book for the publicschools. 

Victor Hugo relates that in the Channel Islands Satan himself--tempted more than elsewhere by the beauty of the women, doubtless--sometimes plays at _incubus_, greatly to the inconvenience and alarmof the good dames who wish to be loyal to their marriage vows, generally speaking. A certain lady applied to the parish priest tolearn how they might, in the dark, distinguish the hardy intruder fromtheir husbands. The holy man said they must feel his brown for horns;but Hugo is ungallant enough to hint a doubt of the efficacy of thetest. 

INCUMBENT, n. A person of the liveliest interest to the outcumbents. 

INDECISION, n. The chief element of success; "for whereas, " saith SirThomas Brewbold, "there is but one way to do nothing and divers way todo something, whereof, to a surety, only one is the right way, itfolloweth that he who from indecision standeth still hath not so manychances of going astray as he who pusheth forwards"--a most clearand satisfactory exposition on the matter. 

"Your prompt decision to attack, " said Genera Grant on a certainoccasion to General Gordon Granger, "was admirable; you had but fiveminutes to make up your mind in. "

"Yes, sir, " answered the victorious subordinate, "it is a greatthing to be know exactly what to do in an emergency. When in doubtwhether to attack or retreat I never hesitate a moment--I toss us acopper. "

"Do you mean to say that's what you did this time?"

"Yes, General; but for Heaven's sake don't reprimand me: Idisobeyed the coin. "

INDIFFERENT, adj. Imperfectly sensible to distinctions among things. 

 "You tiresome man!" cried Indolentio's wife, "You've grown indifferent to all in life. " "Indifferent?" he drawled with a slow smile; "I would be, dear, but it is not worth while. "

Apuleius M. Gokul

INDIGESTION, n. A disease which the patient and his friendsfrequently mistake for deep religious conviction and concern for thesalvation of mankind. As the simple Red Man of the western wild putit, with, it must be confessed, a certain force: "Plenty well, nopray; big bellyache, heap God. "

INDISCRETION, n. The guilt of woman. 

INEXPEDIENT, adj. Not calculated to advance one's interests. 

INFANCY, n. The period of our lives when, according to Wordsworth, "Heaven lies about us. " The world begins lying about us pretty soonafterward. 

INFERIAE, n. [Latin] Among the Greeks and Romans, sacrifices forpropitiation of the _Dii Manes_, or souls of the dead heroes; for thepious ancients could not invent enough gods to satisfy their spiritualneeds, and had to have a number of makeshift deities, or, as a sailormight say, jury-gods, which they made out of the most unpromisingmaterials. It was while sacrificing a bullock to the spirit ofAgamemnon that Laiaides, a priest of Aulis, was favored with anaudience of that illustrious warrior's shade, who propheticallyrecounted to him the birth of Christ and the triumph of Christianity, giving him also a rapid but tolerably complete review of events downto the reign of Saint Louis. The narrative ended abruptly at thepoint, owing to the inconsiderate crowing of a cock, which compelledthe ghosted King of Men to scamper back to Hades. There is a finemediaeval flavor to this story, and as it has not been traced backfurther than Pere Brateille, a pious but obscure writer at the courtof Saint Louis, we shall probably not err on the side of presumptionin considering it apocryphal, though Monsignor Capel's judgment of thematter might be different; and to that I bow--wow. 

INFIDEL, n. In New York, one who does not believe in the Christianreligion; in Constantinople, one who does. (See GIAOUR. ) A kind ofscoundrel imperfectly reverent of, and niggardly contributory to, divines, ecclesiastics, popes, parsons, canons, monks, mollahs, voodoos, presbyters, hierophants, prelates, obeah-men, abbes, nuns, missionaries, exhorters, deacons, friars, hadjis, high-priests, muezzins, brahmins, medicine-men, confessors, eminences, elders, primates, prebendaries, pilgrims, prophets, imaums, beneficiaries, clerks, vicars-choral, archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, preachers, padres, abbotesses, caloyers, palmers, curates, patriarchs, bonezs, santons, beadsmen, canonesses, residentiaries, diocesans, deans, subdeans, rural deans, abdals, charm-sellers, archdeacons, hierarchs, class-leaders, incumbents, capitulars, sheiks, talapoins, postulants, scribes, gooroos, precentors, beadles, fakeers, sextons, reverences, revivalists, cenobites, perpetual curates, chaplains, mudjoes, readers, novices, vicars, pastors, rabbis, ulemas, lamas, sacristans, vergers, dervises, lectors, church wardens, cardinals, prioresses, suffragans, acolytes, rectors, cures, sophis, mutifs andpumpums. 

INFLUENCE, n. In politics, a visionary _quo_ given in exchange for asubstantial _quid_. 

INFRALAPSARIAN, n. One who ventures to believe that Adam need not havesinned unless he had a mind to--in opposition to the Supralapsarians, who hold that that luckless person's fall was decreed from thebeginning. Infralapsarians are sometimes called Sublapsarians withoutmaterial effect upon the importance and lucidity of their views aboutAdam. 

 Two theologues once, as they wended their way To chapel, engaged in colloquial fray-- An earnest logomachy, bitter as gall, Concerning poor Adam and what made him fall. "'Twas Predestination, " cried one--"for the Lord Decreed he should fall of his own accord. " "Not so--'twas Free will, " the other maintained, "Which led him to choose what the Lord had ordained. " So fierce and so fiery grew the debate That nothing but bloodshed their dudgeon could sate; So off flew their cassocks and caps to the ground And, moved by the spirit, their hands went round. Ere either had proved his theology right By winning, or even beginning, the fight, A gray old professor of Latin came by, A staff in his hand and a scowl in his eye, And learning the cause of their quarrel (for still As they clumsily sparred they disputed with skill Of foreordination freedom of will) Cried: "Sirrahs! this reasonless warfare compose: Atwixt ye's no difference worthy of blows. The sects ye belong to--I'm ready to swear Ye wrongly interpret the names that they bear. _You_--Infralapsarian son of a clown!-- Should only contend that Adam slipped down; While _you_--you Supralapsarian pup!-- Should nothing aver but that Adam slipped up. It's all the same whether up or down You slip on a peel of banana brown. Even Adam analyzed not his blunder, But thought he had slipped on a peal of thunder!

G. J. 

INGRATE, n. One who receives a benefit from another, or is otherwisean object of charity. 

 "All men are ingrates, " sneered the cynic. "Nay, " The good philanthropist replied; "I did great service to a man one day Who never since has cursed me to repay, Nor vilified. "

 "Ho!" cried the cynic, "lead me to him straight-- With veneration I am overcome, And fain would have his blessing. " "Sad your fate-- He cannot bless you, for AI grieve to state This man is dumb. "

Ariel Selp

INJURY, n. An offense next in degree of enormity to a slight. 

INJUSTICE, n. A burden which of all those that we load upon othersand carry ourselves is lightest in the hands and heaviest upon theback. 

INK, n. A villainous compound of tannogallate of iron, gum-arabic andwater, chiefly used to facilitate the infection of idiocy and promoteintellectual crime. The properties of ink are peculiar andcontradictory: it may be used to make reputations and unmake them; toblacken them and to make them white; but it is most generally andacceptably employed as a mortar to bind together the stones of anedifice of fame, and as a whitewash to conceal afterward the rascalquality of the material. There are men called journalists who haveestablished ink baths which some persons pay money to get into, othersto get out of. Not infrequently it occurs that a person who has paidto get in pays twice as much to get out. 

INNATE, adj. Natural, inherent--as innate ideas, that is to say, ideas that we are born with, having had them previously imparted tous. The doctrine of innate ideas is one of the most admirable faithsof philosophy, being itself an innate idea and therefore inaccessibleto disproof, though Locke foolishly supposed himself to have given it"a black eye. " Among innate ideas may be mentioned the belief inone's ability to conduct a newspaper, in the greatness of one'scountry, in the superiority of one's civilization, in the importanceof one's personal affairs and in the interesting nature of one'sdiseases. 

IN'ARDS, n. The stomach, heart, soul and other bowels. Many eminentinvestigators do not class the soul as an in'ard, but that acuteobserver and renowned authority, Dr. Gunsaulus, is persuaded that themysterious organ known as the spleen is nothing less than ourimportant part. To the contrary, Professor Garrett P. Servis holdsthat man's soul is that prolongation of his spinal marrow which formsthe pith of his no tail; and for demonstration of his faith pointsconfidently to the fact that no tailed animals have no souls. Concerning these two theories, it is best to suspend judgment bybelieving both. 

INSCRIPTION, n. Something written on another thing. Inscriptions areof many kinds, but mostly memorial, intended to commemorate the fameof some illustrious person and hand down to distant ages the record ofhis services and virtues. To this class of inscriptions belongs thename of John Smith, penciled on the Washington monument. Followingare examples of memorial inscriptions on tombstones: (See EPITAPH. )

 "In the sky my soul is found, And my body in the ground. By and by my body'll rise To my spirit in the skies, Soaring up to Heaven's gate. 1878. "

 "Sacred to the memory of Jeremiah Tree. Cut down May 9th, 1862, aged 27 yrs. 4 mos. And 12 ds. Indigenous. "

 "Affliction sore long time she boar, Phisicians was in vain, Till Deth released the dear deceased And left her a remain. Gone to join Ananias in the regions of bliss. "

 "The clay that rests beneath this stone As Silas Wood was widely known. Now, lying here, I ask what good It was to let me be S. Wood. O Man, let not ambition trouble you, Is the advice of Silas W. "

 "Richard Haymon, of Heaven. Fell to Earth Jan. 20, 1807, and hadthe dust brushed off him Oct. 3, 1874. "

INSECTIVORA, n. 

 "See, " cries the chorus of admiring preachers, "How Providence provides for all His creatures!" "His care, " the gnat said, "even the insects follows: For us He has provided wrens and swallows. "

Sempen Railey

INSURANCE, n. An ingenious modern game of chance in which the playeris permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beatingthe man who keeps the table. 

 INSURANCE AGENT: My dear sir, that is a fine house--pray let me insure it. HOUSE OWNER: With pleasure. Please make the annual premium so low that by the time when, according to the tables of your actuary, it will probably be destroyed by fire I will have paid you considerably less than the face of the policy. INSURANCE AGENT: O dear, no--we could not afford to do that. We must fix the premium so that you will have paid more. HOUSE OWNER: How, then, can _I_ afford _that_? INSURANCE AGENT: Why, your house may burn down at any time. There was Smith's house, for example, which-- HOUSE OWNER: Spare me--there were Brown's house, on the contrary, and Jones's house, and Robinson's house, which-- INSURANCE AGENT: Spare _me_! HOUSE OWNER: Let us understand each other. You want me to pay you money on the supposition that something will occur previously to the time set by yourself for its occurrence. In other words, you expect me to bet that my house will not last so long as you say that it will probably last. INSURANCE AGENT: But if your house burns without insurance it will be a total loss. HOUSE OWNER: Beg your pardon--by your own actuary's tables I shall probably have saved, when it burns, all the premiums I would otherwise have paid to you--amounting to more than the face of the policy they would have bought. But suppose it to burn, uninsured, before the time upon which your figures are based. If I could not afford that, how could you if it were insured? INSURANCE AGENT: O, we should make ourselves whole from our luckier ventures with other clients. Virtually, they pay your loss. HOUSE OWNER: And virtually, then, don't I help to pay their losses? Are not their houses as likely as mine to burn before they have paid you as much as you must pay them? The case stands this way: you expect to take more money from your clients than you pay to them, do you not? INSURANCE AGENT: Certainly; if we did not-- HOUSE OWNER: I would not trust you with my money. Very well then. If it is _certain_, with reference to the whole body of your clients, that they lose money on you it is _probable_, with reference to any one of them, that _he_ will. It is these individual probabilities that make the aggregate certainty. INSURANCE AGENT: I will not deny it--but look at the figures in this pamph-- HOUSE OWNER: Heaven forbid! INSURANCE AGENT: You spoke of saving the premiums which you would otherwise pay to me. Will you not be more likely to squander them? We offer you an incentive to thrift. HOUSE OWNER: The willingness of A to take care of B's money is not peculiar to insurance, but as a charitable institution you command esteem. Deign to accept its expression from a Deserving Object. 

INSURRECTION, n. An unsuccessful revolution. Disaffection's failureto substitute misrule for bad government. 

INTENTION, n. The mind's sense of the prevalence of one set ofinfluences over another set; an effect whose cause is the imminence, immediate or remote, of the performance of an involuntary act. 

INTERPRETER, n. One who enables two persons of different languages tounderstand each other by repeating to each what it would have been tothe interpreter's advantage for the other to have said. 

INTERREGNUM, n. The period during which a monarchical country isgoverned by a warm spot on the cushion of the throne. The experimentof letting the spot grow cold has commonly been attended by mostunhappy results from the zeal of many worthy persons to make it warmagain. 

INTIMACY, n. A relation into which fools are providentially drawn fortheir mutual destruction. 

 Two Seidlitz powders, one in blue And one in white, together drew And having each a pleasant sense Of t'other powder's excellence, Forsook their jackets for the snug Enjoyment of a common mug. So close their intimacy grew One paper would have held the two. To confidences straight they fell, Less anxious each to hear than tell; Then each remorsefully confessed To all the virtues he possessed, Acknowledging he had them in So high degree it was a sin. The more they said, the more they felt Their spirits with emotion melt, Till tears of sentiment expressed Their feelings. Then they effervesced! So Nature executes her feats Of wrath on friends and sympathetes The good old rule who don't apply, That you are you and I am I. 

INTRODUCTION, n. A social ceremony invented by the devil for thegratification of his servants and the plaguing of his enemies. Theintroduction attains its most malevolent development in this century, being, indeed, closely related to our political system. EveryAmerican being the equal of every other American, it follows thateverybody has the right to know everybody else, which implies theright to introduce without request or permission. The Declaration ofIndependence should have read thus:

 "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, and the right to make that of another miserable by thrusting upon him an incalculable quantity of acquaintances; liberty, particularly the liberty to introduce persons to one another without first ascertaining if they are not already acquainted as enemies; and the pursuit of another's happiness with a running pack of strangers. "

INVENTOR, n. A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization. 

IRRELIGION, n. The principal one of the great faiths of the world. 

ITCH, n. The patriotism of a Scotchman. 

J

J is a consonant in English, but some nations use it as a vowel--than which nothing could be more absurd. Its original form, which hasbeen but slightly modified, was that of the tail of a subdued dog, andit was not a letter but a character, standing for a Latin verb, _jacere_, "to throw, " because when a stone is thrown at a dog thedog's tail assumes that shape. This is the origin of the letter, asexpounded by the renowned Dr. Jocolpus Bumer, of the University ofBelgrade, who established his conclusions on the subject in a work ofthree quarto volumes and committed suicide on being reminded that thej in the Roman alphabet had originally no curl. 

JEALOUS, adj. Unduly concerned about the preservation of that whichcan be lost only if not worth keeping. 

JESTER, n. An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whosebusiness it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions andutterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. Theking himself being attired with dignity, it took the world somecenturies to discover that his own conduct and decrees weresufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but ofall mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets andromancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wiseand witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of thecourt fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the samejests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged thepatrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears. 

 The widow-queen of Portugal Had an audacious jester Who entered the confessional Disguised, and there confessed her. 

 "Father, " she said, "thine ear bend down-- My sins are more than scarlet: I love my fool--blaspheming clown, And common, base-born varlet. "

 "Daughter, " the mimic priest replied, "That sin, indeed, is awful: The church's pardon is denied To love that is unlawful. "But since thy stubborn heart will be For him forever pleading, Thou'dst better make him, by decree, A man of birth and breeding. "

 She made the fool a duke, in hope With Heaven's taboo to palter; Then told a priest, who told the Pope, Who damned her from the altar!

Barel Dort

JEWS-HARP, n. An unmusical instrument, played by holding it fast withthe teeth and trying to brush it away with the finger. 

JOSS-STICKS, n. Small sticks burned by the Chinese in their pagantomfoolery, in imitation of certain sacred rites of our holy religion. 

JUSTICE, n. A commodity which is a more or less adulterated conditionthe State sells to the citizen as a reward for his allegiance, taxesand personal service. 

K

K is a consonant that we get from the Greeks, but it can be tracedaway back beyond them to the Cerathians, a small commercial nationinhabiting the peninsula of Smero. In their tongue it was called_Klatch_, which means "destroyed. " The form of the letter wasoriginally precisely that of our H, but the erudite Dr. Snedekerexplains that it was altered to its present shape to commemorate thedestruction of the great temple of Jarute by an earthquake, _circa_730 B. C. This building was famous for the two lofty columns of itsportico, one of which was broken in half by the catastrophe, the otherremaining intact. As the earlier form of the letter is supposed tohave been suggested by these pillars, so, it is thought by the greatantiquary, its later was adopted as a simple and natural--not to saytouching--means of keeping the calamity ever in the national memory. It is not known if the name of the letter was altered as an additionalmnemonic, or if the name was always _Klatch_ and the destruction oneof nature's puns. As each theory seems probable enough, I see noobjection to believing both--and Dr. Snedeker arrayed himself onthat side of the question. 

KEEP, v. T. 

 He willed away his whole estate, And then in death he fell asleep, Murmuring: "Well, at any rate, My name unblemished I shall keep. " But when upon the tomb 'twas wrought Whose was it?--for the dead keep naught. 

Durang Gophel Arn

KILL, v. T. To create a vacancy without nominating a successor. 

KILT, n. A costume sometimes worn by Scotchmen in America andAmericans in Scotland. 

KINDNESS, n. A brief preface to ten volumes of exaction. 

KING, n. A male person commonly known in America as a "crowned head, "although he never wears a crown and has usually no head to speak of. 

 A king, in times long, long gone by, Said to his lazy jester: "If I were you and you were I My moments merrily would fly-- Nor care nor grief to pester. "

 "The reason, Sire, that you would thrive, " The fool said--"if you'll hear it-- Is that of all the fools alive Who own you for their sovereign, I've The most forgiving spirit. "

Oogum Bem

KING'S EVIL, n. A malady that was formerly cured by the touch of thesovereign, but has now to be treated by the physicians. Thus "themost pious Edward" of England used to lay his royal hand upon theailing subjects and make them whole--

 a crowd of wretched souls That stay his cure: their malady convinces The great essay of art; but at his touch, Such sanctity hath Heaven given his hand, They presently amend, as the "Doctor" in _Macbeth_ hath it. This useful property of theroyal hand could, it appears, be transmitted along with other crownproperties; for according to "Malcolm, "

 'tis spoken To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction. 

But the gift somewhere dropped out of the line of succession: thelater sovereigns of England have not been tactual healers, and thedisease once honored with the name "king's evil" now bears the humblerone of "scrofula, " from _scrofa_, a sow. The date and author of thefollowing epigram are known only to the author of this dictionary, butit is old enough to show that the jest about Scotland's nationaldisorder is not a thing of yesterday. 

 Ye Kynge his evill in me laye, Wh. He of Scottlande charmed awaye. He layde his hand on mine and sayd: "Be gone!" Ye ill no longer stayd. But O ye wofull plyght in wh. I'm now y-pight: I have ye itche!

The superstition that maladies can be cured by royal taction isdead, but like many a departed conviction it has left a monument ofcustom to keep its memory green. The practice of forming a line andshaking the President's hand had no other origin, and when that greatdignitary bestows his healing salutation on

 strangely visited people, All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he and his patients are handing along an extinguished torch which oncewas kindled at the altar-fire of a faith long held by all classes ofmen. It is a beautiful and edifying "survival"--one which bringsthe sainted past close home in our "business and bosoms. "

KISS, n. A word invented by the poets as a rhyme for "bliss. " It issupposed to signify, in a general way, some kind of rite or ceremonyappertaining to a good understanding; but the manner of itsperformance is unknown to this lexicographer. 

KLEPTOMANIAC, n. A rich thief. 

KNIGHT, n. 

 Once a warrior gentle of birth, Then a person of civic worth, Now a fellow to move our mirth. Warrior, person, and fellow--no more: We must knight our dogs to get any lower. Brave Knights Kennelers then shall be, Noble Knights of the Golden Flea, Knights of the Order of St. Steboy, Knights of St. Gorge and Sir Knights Jawy. God speed the day when this knighting fad Shall go to the dogs and the dogs go mad. 

KORAN, n. A book which the Mohammedans foolishly believe to have beenwritten by divine inspiration, but which Christians know to be awicked imposture, contradictory to the Holy Scriptures. 

L

LABOR, n. One of the processes by which A acquires property for B. 

LAND, n. A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. Thetheory that land is property subject to private ownership and controlis the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of thesuperstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that somehave the right to prevent others from living; for the right to ownimplies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespassare enacted wherever property in land is recognized. It follows thatif the whole area of _terra firma_ is owned by A, B and C, there willbe no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, toexist. 

 A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep, For the spark the nature gave I have there the right to keep. 

 They give me the cat-o'-nine Whenever I go ashore. Then ho! for the flashing brine-- I'm a natural commodore!

Dodle

LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guardinganother's treasure. 

LAOCOON, n. A famous piece of antique scripture representing a priestof that name and his two sons in the folds of two enormous serpents. The skill and diligence with which the old man and lads support theserpents and keep them up to their work have been justly regarded asone of the noblest artistic illustrations of the mastery of humanintelligence over brute inertia. 

LAP, n. One of the most important organs of the female system--anadmirable provision of nature for the repose of infancy, but chieflyuseful in rural festivities to support plates of cold chicken andheads of adult males. The male of our species has a rudimentary lap, imperfectly developed and in no way contributing to the animal'ssubstantial welfare. 

LAST, n. A shoemaker's implement, named by a frowning Providence asopportunity to the maker of puns. 

 Ah, punster, would my lot were cast, Where the cobbler is unknown, So that I might forget his last And hear your own. 

Gargo Repsky

LAUGHTER, n. An interior convulsion, producing a distortion of thefeatures and accompanied by inarticulate noises. It is infectiousand, though intermittent, incurable. Liability to attacks of laughteris one of the characteristics distinguishing man from the animals--these being not only inaccessible to the provocation of his example, but impregnable to the microbes having original jurisdiction inbestowal of the disease. Whether laughter could be imparted toanimals by inoculation from the human patient is a question that hasnot been answered by experimentation. Dr. Meir Witchell holds thatthe infection character of laughter is due to the instantaneousfermentation of _sputa_ diffused in a spray. From this peculiarity henames the disorder _Convulsio spargens_. 

LAUREATE, adj. Crowned with leaves of the laurel. In England thePoet Laureate is an officer of the sovereign's court, acting asdancing skeleton at every royal feast and singing-mute at every royalfuneral. Of all incumbents of that high office, Robert Southey hadthe most notable knack at drugging the Samson of public joy andcutting his hair to the quick; and he had an artistic color-sensewhich enabled him so to blacken a public grief as to give it theaspect of a national crime. 

LAUREL, n. The _laurus_, a vegetable dedicated to Apollo, andformerly defoliated to wreathe the brows of victors and such poets ashad influence at court. (_Vide supra. _)

LAW, n. 

 Once Law was sitting on the bench, And Mercy knelt a-weeping. "Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench! Nor come before me creeping. Upon your knees if you appear, 'Tis plain your have no standing here. "

 Then Justice came. His Honor cried: "_Your_ status?--devil seize you!" "_Amica curiae, _" she replied-- "Friend of the court, so please you. " "Begone!" he shouted--"there's the door-- I never saw your face before!"

G. J. 

LAWFUL, adj. Compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction. 

LAWYER, n. One skilled in circumvention of the law. 

LAZINESS, n. Unwarranted repose of manner in a person of low degree. 

LEAD, n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used in giving stability tolight lovers--particularly to those who love not wisely but othermen's wives. Lead is also of great service as a counterpoise to anargument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrongway. An interesting fact in the chemistry of internationalcontroversy is that at the point of contact of two patriotisms lead isprecipitated in great quantities. 

 Hail, holy Lead!--of human feuds the great And universal arbiter; endowed With penetration to pierce any cloud Fogging the field of controversial hate, And with a sift, inevitable, straight, Searching precision find the unavowed But vital point. Thy judgment, when allowed By the chirurgeon, settles the debate. O useful metal!--were it not for thee We'd grapple one another's ears alway: But when we hear thee buzzing like a bee We, like old Muhlenberg, "care not to stay. " And when the quick have run away like pellets Jack Satan smelts the dead to make new bullets. 

LEARNING, n. The kind of ignorance distinguishing the studious. 

LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your earand his faith in your patience. 

LEGACY, n. A gift from one who is legging it out of this vale oftears. 

LEONINE, adj. Unlike a menagerie lion. Leonine verses are those inwhich a word in the middle of a line rhymes with a word at the end, asin this famous passage from Bella Peeler Silcox:

 The electric light invades the dunnest deep of Hades. Cries Pluto, 'twixt his snores: "O tempora! O mores!"

It should be explained that Mrs. Silcox does not undertake toteach pronunciation of the Greek and Latin tongues. Leonine versesare so called in honor of a poet named Leo, whom prosodists appear tofind a pleasure in believing to have been the first to discover that arhyming couplet could be run into a single line. 

LETTUCE, n. An herb of the genus _Lactuca_, "Wherewith, " says thatpious gastronome, Hengist Pelly, "God has been pleased to reward thegood and punish the wicked. For by his inner light the righteous manhas discerned a manner of compounding for it a dressing to theappetency whereof a multitude of gustible condiments conspire, beingreconciled and ameliorated with profusion of oil, the entirecomestible making glad the heart of the godly and causing his face toshine. But the person of spiritual unworth is successfully tempted tothe Adversary to eat of lettuce with destitution of oil, mustard, egg, salt and garlic, and with a rascal bath of vinegar polluted withsugar. Wherefore the person of spiritual unworth suffers anintestinal pang of strange complexity and raises the song. "

LEVIATHAN, n. An enormous aquatic animal mentioned by Job. Somesuppose it to have been the whale, but that distinguishedichthyologer, Dr. Jordan, of Stanford University, maintains withconsiderable heat that it was a species of gigantic Tadpole (_ThaddeusPolandensis_) or Polliwig--_Maria pseudo-hirsuta_. For anexhaustive description and history of the Tadpole consult the famousmonograph of Jane Potter, _Thaddeus of Warsaw_. 

LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense ofrecording some particular stage in the development of a language, doeswhat he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility andmechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written hisdictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority, " whereashis function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The naturalservility of the human understanding having invested him with judicialpower, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to achronicle as if it were a statue. Let the dictionary (for example)mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few menthereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and howeverdesirable its restoration to favor--whereby the process ofimpoverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it growat all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, hasno following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary"--although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heavenforgive him!) no author ever had used a word that _was_ in thedictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; whenfrom the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their ownmeaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakespeare and aBacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one endand slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardypreservation--sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion--thelexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation whichhis Creator had not created him to create. 

 God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form, " And lexicographers arose, a swarm! Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took, And catalogued each garment in a book. Now, from her leafy covert when she cries: "Give me my clothes and I'll return, " they rise And scan the list, and say without compassion: "Excuse us--they are mostly out of fashion. "

Sigismund Smith

LIAR, n. A lawyer with a roving commission. 

LIBERTY, n. One of Imagination's most precious possessions. 

 The rising People, hot and out of breath, Roared around the palace: "Liberty or death!" "If death will do, " the King said, "let me reign; You'll have, I'm sure, no reason to complain. "

Martha Braymance

LICKSPITTLE, n. A useful functionary, not infrequently found editinga newspaper. In his character of editor he is closely allied to theblackmailer by the tie of occasional identity; for in truth thelickspittle is only the blackmailer under another aspect, although thelatter is frequently found as an independent species. Lickspittlingis more detestable than blackmailing, precisely as the business of aconfidence man is more detestable than that of a highway robber; andthe parallel maintains itself throughout, for whereas few robbers willcheat, every sneak will plunder if he dare. 

LIFE, n. A spiritual pickle preserving the body from decay. We livein daily apprehension of its loss; yet when lost it is not missed. The question, "Is life worth living?" has been much discussed;particularly by those who think it is not, many of whom have writtenat great length in support of their view and by careful observance ofthe laws of health enjoyed for long terms of years the honors ofsuccessful controversy. 

 "Life's not worth living, and that's the truth, " Carelessly caroled the golden youth. In manhood still he maintained that view And held it more strongly the older he grew. When kicked by a jackass at eighty-three, "Go fetch me a surgeon at once!" cried he. 

Han Soper

LIGHTHOUSE, n. A tall building on the seashore in which thegovernment maintains a lamp and the friend of a politician. 

LIMB, n. The branch of a tree or the leg of an American woman. 

 'Twas a pair of boots that the lady bought, And the salesman laced them tight To a very remarkable height-- Higher, indeed, than I think he ought-- Higher than _can_ be right. For the Bible declares--but never mind: It is hardly fit To censure freely and fault to find With others for sins that I'm not inclined Myself to commit. Each has his weakness, and though my own Is freedom from every sin, It still were unfair to pitch in, Discharging the first censorious stone. Besides, the truth compels me to say, The boots in question were _made_ that way. As he drew the lace she made a grimace, And blushingly said to him: "This boot, I'm sure, is too high to endure, It hurts my--hurts my--limb. " The salesman smiled in a manner mild, Like an artless, undesigning child; Then, checking himself, to his face he gave A look as sorrowful as the grave, Though he didn't care two figs For her paints and throes, As he stroked her toes, Remarking with speech and manner just Befitting his calling: "Madam, I trust That it doesn't hurt your twigs. "

B. Percival Dike

LINEN, n. "A kind of cloth the making of which, when made of hemp, entails a great waste of hemp. "--Calcraft the Hangman. 

LITIGANT, n. A person about to give up his skin for the hope ofretaining his bones. 

LITIGATION, n. A machine which you go into as a pig and come out ofas a sausage. 

LIVER, n. A large red organ thoughtfully provided by nature to bebilious with. The sentiments and emotions which every literaryanatomist now knows to haunt the heart were anciently believed toinfest the liver; and even Gascoygne, speaking of the emotional sideof human nature, calls it "our hepaticall parte. " It was at one timeconsidered the seat of life; hence its name--liver, the thing welive with. The liver is heaven's best gift to the goose; without itthat bird would be unable to supply us with the Strasbourg _pate_. 

LL. D. Letters indicating the degree _Legumptionorum Doctor_, onelearned in laws, gifted with legal gumption. Some suspicion is castupon this derivation by the fact that the title was formerly _LL. D. _, and conferred only upon gentlemen distinguished for their wealth. Atthe date of this writing Columbia University is considering theexpediency of making another degree for clergymen, in place of the oldD. D. --_Damnator Diaboli_. The new honor will be known as _SanctorumCustus_, and written _$$c_. The name of the Rev. John Satan has beensuggested as a suitable recipient by a lover of consistency, whopoints out that Professor Harry Thurston Peck has long enjoyed theadvantage of a degree. 

LOCK-AND-KEY, n. The distinguishing device of civilization andenlightenment. 

LODGER, n. A less popular name for the Second Person of thatdelectable newspaper Trinity, the Roomer, the Bedder, and the Mealer. 

LOGIC, n. The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance withthe limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding. Thebasic of logic is the syllogism, consisting of a major and a minorpremise and a conclusion--thus:

_Major Premise_: Sixty men can do a piece of work sixty times asquickly as one man. 

_Minor Premise_: One man can dig a posthole in sixty seconds;therefore--

_Conclusion_: Sixty men can dig a posthole in one second. 

This may be called the syllogism arithmetical, in which, bycombining logic and mathematics, we obtain a double certainty and aretwice blessed. 

LOGOMACHY, n. A war in which the weapons are words and the woundspunctures in the swim-bladder of self-esteem--a kind of contest inwhich, the vanquished being unconscious of defeat, the victor isdenied the reward of success. 

 'Tis said by divers of the scholar-men That poor Salmasius died of Milton's pen. Alas! we cannot know if this is true, For reading Milton's wit we perish too. 

LONGANIMITY, n. The disposition to endure injury with meek forbearancewhile maturing a plan of revenge. 

LONGEVITY, n. Uncommon extension of the fear of death. 

LOOKING-GLASS, n. A vitreous plane upon which to display a fleetingshow for man's disillusion given. 

The King of Manchuria had a magic looking-glass, whereon whosolooked saw, not his own image, but only that of the king. A certaincourtier who had long enjoyed the king's favor and was therebyenriched beyond any other subject of the realm, said to the king:"Give me, I pray, thy wonderful mirror, so that when absent out ofthine august presence I may yet do homage before thy visible shadow, prostrating myself night and morning in the glory of thy benigncountenance, as which nothing has so divine splendor, O Noonday Sun ofthe Universe!"

Please with the speech, the king commanded that the mirror beconveyed to the courtier's palace; but after, having gone thitherwithout apprisal, he found it in an apartment where was naught butidle lumber. And the mirror was dimmed with dust and overlaced withcobwebs. This so angered him that he fisted it hard, shattering theglass, and was sorely hurt. Enraged all the more by this mischance, he commanded that the ungrateful courtier be thrown into prison, andthat the glass be repaired and taken back to his own palace; and thiswas done. But when the king looked again on the mirror he saw not hisimage as before, but only the figure of a crowned ass, having a bloodybandage on one of its hinder hooves--as the artificers and all whohad looked upon it had before discerned but feared to report. Taughtwisdom and charity, the king restored his courtier to liberty, had themirror set into the back of the throne and reigned many years withjustice and humility; and one day when he fell asleep in death whileon the throne, the whole court saw in the mirror the luminous figureof an angel, which remains to this day. 

LOQUACITY, n. A disorder which renders the sufferer unable to curbhis tongue when you wish to talk. 

LORD, n. In American society, an English tourist above the state of acostermonger, as, lord 'Aberdasher, Lord Hartisan and so forth. Thetraveling Briton of lesser degree is addressed as "Sir, " as, Sir 'ArryDonkiboi, or 'Amstead 'Eath. The word "Lord" is sometimes used, also, as a title of the Supreme Being; but this is thought to be ratherflattery than true reverence. 

 Miss Sallie Ann Splurge, of her own accord, Wedded a wandering English lord-- Wedded and took him to dwell with her "paw, " A parent who throve by the practice of Draw. Lord Cadde I don't hesitate to declare Unworthy the father-in-legal care Of that elderly sport, notwithstanding the truth That Cadde had renounced all the follies of youth; For, sad to relate, he'd arrived at the stage Of existence that's marked by the vices of age. Among them, cupidity caused him to urge Repeated demands on the pocket of Splurge, Till, wrecked in his fortune, that gentleman saw Inadequate aid in the practice of Draw, And took, as a means of augmenting his pelf, To the business of being a lord himself. His neat-fitting garments he wilfully shed And sacked himself strangely in checks instead; Denuded his chin, but retained at each ear A whisker that looked like a blasted career. He painted his neck an incarnadine hue Each morning and varnished it all that he knew. The moony monocular set in his eye Appeared to be scanning the Sweet Bye-and-Bye. His head was enroofed with a billycock hat, And his low-necked shoes were aduncous and flat. In speech he eschewed his American ways, Denying his nose to the use of his A's And dulling their edge till the delicate sense Of a babe at their temper could take no offence. His H's--'twas most inexpressibly sweet, The patter they made as they fell at his feet! Re-outfitted thus, Mr. Splurge without fear Began as Lord Splurge his recouping career. Alas, the Divinity shaping his end Entertained other views and decided to send His lordship in horror, despair and dismay From the land of the nobleman's natural prey. For, smit with his Old World ways, Lady Cadde Fell--suffering Caesar!--in love with her dad!

G. J. 

LORE, n. Learning--particularly that sort which is not derived froma regular course of instruction but comes of the reading of occultbooks, or by nature. This latter is commonly designated as folk-loreand embraces popularly myths and superstitions. In Baring-Gould's_Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_ the reader will find many of thesetraced backward, through various people son converging lines, toward acommon origin in remote antiquity. Among these are the fables of"Teddy the Giant Killer, " "The Sleeping John Sharp Williams, " "LittleRed Riding Hood and the Sugar Trust, " "Beauty and the Brisbane, " "TheSeven Aldermen of Ephesus, " "Rip Van Fairbanks, " and so forth. Thefable with Goethe so affectingly relates under the title of "TheErl-King" was known two thousand years ago in Greece as "The Demos andthe Infant Industry. " One of the most general and ancient of thesemyths is that Arabian tale of "Ali Baba and the Forty Rockefellers. "

LOSS, n. Privation of that which we had, or had not. Thus, in thelatter sense, it is said of a defeated candidate that he "lost hiselection"; and of that eminent man, the poet Gilder, that he has "losthis mind. " It is in the former and more legitimate sense, that theword is used in the famous epitaph:

 Here Huntington's ashes long have lain Whose loss is our eternal gain, For while he exercised all his powers Whatever he gained, the loss was ours. 

LOVE, n. A temporary insanity curable by marriage or by removal ofthe patient from the influences under which he incurred the disorder. This disease, like _caries_ and many other ailments, is prevalent onlyamong civilized races living under artificial conditions; barbarousnations breathing pure air and eating simple food enjoy immunity fromits ravages. It is sometimes fatal, but more frequently to thephysician than to the patient. 

LOW-BRED, adj. "Raised" instead of brought up. 

LUMINARY, n. One who throws light upon a subject; as an editor by notwriting about it. 

LUNARIAN, n. An inhabitant of the moon, as distinguished fromLunatic, one whom the moon inhabits. The Lunarians have beendescribed by Lucian, Locke and other observers, but without muchagreement. For example, Bragellos avers their anatomical identitywith Man, but Professor Newcomb says they are more like the hilltribes of Vermont. 

LYRE, n. An ancient instrument of torture. The word is now used in afigurative sense to denote the poetic faculty, as in the followingfiery lines of our great poet, Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

 I sit astride Parnassus with my lyre, And pick with care the disobedient wire. That stupid shepherd lolling on his crook With deaf attention scarcely deigns to look. I bide my time, and it shall come at length, When, with a Titan's energy and strength, I'll grab a fistful of the strings, and O, The word shall suffer when I let them go!

Farquharson Harris

M

MACE, n. A staff of office signifying authority. Its form, that of aheavy club, indicates its original purpose and use in dissuading fromdissent. 

MACHINATION, n. The method employed by one's opponents in bafflingone's open and honorable efforts to do the right thing. 

 So plain the advantages of machination It constitutes a moral obligation, And honest wolves who think upon't with loathing Feel bound to don the sheep's deceptive clothing. So prospers still the diplomatic art, And Satan bows, with hand upon his heart. 

R. S. K. 

MACROBIAN, n. One forgotten of the gods and living to a great age. History is abundantly supplied with examples, from Methuselah to OldParr, but some notable instances of longevity are less well known. ACalabrian peasant named Coloni, born in 1753, lived so long that hehad what he considered a glimpse of the dawn of universal peace. Scanavius relates that he knew an archbishop who was so old that hecould remember a time when he did not deserve hanging. In 1566 alinen draper of Bristol, England, declared that he had lived fivehundred years, and that in all that time he had never told a lie. There are instances of longevity (_macrobiosis_) in our own country. Senator Chauncey Depew is old enough to know better. The editor of_The American_, a newspaper in New York City, has a memory that goesback to the time when he was a rascal, but not to the fact. ThePresident of the United States was born so long ago that many of thefriends of his youth have risen to high political and militarypreferment without the assistance of personal merit. The versesfollowing were written by a macrobian:

 When I was young the world was fair And amiable and sunny. A brightness was in all the air, In all the waters, honey. The jokes were fine and funny, The statesmen honest in their views, And in their lives, as well, And when you heard a bit of news 'Twas true enough to tell. Men were not ranting, shouting, reeking, Nor women "generally speaking. "

 The Summer then was long indeed: It lasted one whole season! The sparkling Winter gave no heed When ordered by Unreason To bring the early peas on. Now, where the dickens is the sense In calling that a year Which does no more than just commence Before the end is near? When I was young the year extended From month to month until it ended. I know not why the world has changed To something dark and dreary, And everything is now arranged To make a fellow weary. The Weather Man--I fear he Has much to do with it, for, sure, The air is not the same: It chokes you when it is impure, When pure it makes you lame. With windows closed you are asthmatic; Open, neuralgic or sciatic. 

 Well, I suppose this new regime Of dun degeneration Seems eviler than it would seem To a better observation, And has for compensation Some blessings in a deep disguise Which mortal sight has failed To pierce, although to angels' eyes They're visible unveiled. If Age is such a boon, good land! He's costumed by a master hand!

Venable Strigg

MAD, adj. Affected with a high degree of intellectual independence;not conforming to standards of thought, speech and action derived bythe conformants from study of themselves; at odds with the majority;in short, unusual. It is noteworthy that persons are pronounced madby officials destitute of evidence that themselves are sane. Forillustration, this present (and illustrious) lexicographer is nofirmer in the faith of his own sanity than is any inmate of anymadhouse in the land; yet for aught he knows to the contrary, insteadof the lofty occupation that seems to him to be engaging his powers hemay really be beating his hands against the window bars of an asylumand declaring himself Noah Webster, to the innocent delight of manythoughtless spectators. 

MAGDALENE, n. An inhabitant of Magdala. Popularly, a woman foundout. This definition of the word has the authority of ignorance, Maryof Magdala being another person than the penitent woman mentioned bySt. Luke. It has also the official sanction of the governments ofGreat Britain and the United States. In England the word ispronounced Maudlin, whence maudlin, adjective, unpleasantlysentimental. With their Maudlin for Magdalene, and their Bedlam forBethlehem, the English may justly boast themselves the greatest ofrevisers. 

MAGIC, n. An art of converting superstition into coin. There areother arts serving the same high purpose, but the discreetlexicographer does not name them. 

MAGNET, n. Something acted upon by magnetism. 

MAGNETISM, n. Something acting upon a magnet. 

The two definitions immediately foregoing are condensed from theworks of one thousand eminent scientists, who have illuminated thesubject with a great white light, to the inexpressible advancement ofhuman knowledge. 

MAGNIFICENT, adj. Having a grandeur or splendor superior to that towhich the spectator is accustomed, as the ears of an ass, to a rabbit, or the glory of a glowworm, to a maggot. 

MAGNITUDE, n. Size. Magnitude being purely relative, nothing islarge and nothing small. If everything in the universe were increasedin bulk one thousand diameters nothing would be any larger than it wasbefore, but if one thing remain unchanged all the others would belarger than they had been. To an understanding familiar with therelativity of magnitude and distance the spaces and masses of theastronomer would be no more impressive than those of the microscopist. For anything we know to the contrary, the visible universe may be asmall part of an atom, with its component ions, floating in thelife-fluid (luminiferous ether) of some animal. Possibly the weecreatures peopling the corpuscles of our own blood are overcome with theproper emotion when contemplating the unthinkable distance from one ofthese to another. 

MAGPIE, n. A bird whose thievish disposition suggested to someonethat it might be taught to talk. 

MAIDEN, n. A young person of the unfair sex addicted to clewlessconduct and views that madden to crime. The genus has a widegeographical distribution, being found wherever sought and deploredwherever found. The maiden is not altogether unpleasing to the eye, nor (without her piano and her views) insupportable to the ear, thoughin respect to comeliness distinctly inferior to the rainbow, and, withregard to the part of her that is audible, bleating out of the fieldby the canary--which, also, is more portable. 

 A lovelorn maiden she sat and sang-- This quaint, sweet song sang she; "It's O for a youth with a football bang And a muscle fair to see! The Captain he Of a team to be! On the gridiron he shall shine, A monarch by right divine, And never to roast on it--me!"

Opoline Jones

MAJESTY, n. The state and title of a king. Regarded with a justcontempt by the Most Eminent Grand Masters, Grand Chancellors, GreatIncohonees and Imperial Potentates of the ancient and honorable ordersof republican America. 

MALE, n. A member of the unconsidered, or negligible sex. The maleof the human race is commonly known (to the female) as Mere Man. Thegenus has two varieties: good providers and bad providers. 

MALEFACTOR, n. The chief factor in the progress of the human race. 

MALTHUSIAN, adj. Pertaining to Malthus and his doctrines. Malthusbelieved in artificially limiting population, but found that it couldnot be done by talking. One of the most practical exponents of theMalthusian idea was Herod of Judea, though all the famous soldiershave been of the same way of thinking. 

MAMMALIA, n. Pl. A family of vertebrate animals whose females in astate of nature suckle their young, but when civilized and enlightenedput them out to nurse, or use the bottle. 

MAMMON, n. The god of the world's leading religion. The chief templeis in the holy city of New York. 

 He swore that all other religions were gammon, And wore out his knees in the worship of Mammon. 

Jared Oopf

MAN, n. An animal so lost in rapturous contemplation of what hethinks he is as to overlook what he indubitably ought to be. Hischief occupation is extermination of other animals and his ownspecies, which, however, multiplies with such insistent rapidity as toinfest the whole habitable earth and Canada. 

 When the world was young and Man was new, And everything was pleasant, Distinctions Nature never drew 'Mongst kings and priest and peasant. We're not that way at present, Save here in this Republic, where We have that old regime, For all are kings, however bare Their backs, howe'er extreme Their hunger. And, indeed, each has a voice To accept the tyrant of his party's choice. 

 A citizen who would not vote, And, therefore, was detested, Was one day with a tarry coat (With feathers backed and breasted) By patriots invested. "It is your duty, " cried the crowd, "Your ballot true to cast For the man o' your choice. " He humbly bowed, And explained his wicked past: "That's what I very gladly would have done, Dear patriots, but he has never run. "

Apperton Duke

MANES, n. The immortal parts of dead Greeks and Romans. They were ina state of dull discomfort until the bodies from which they hadexhaled were buried and burned; and they seem not to have beenparticularly happy afterward. 

MANICHEISM, n. The ancient Persian doctrine of an incessant warfarebetween Good and Evil. When Good gave up the fight the Persiansjoined the victorious Opposition. 

MANNA, n. A food miraculously given to the Israelites in thewilderness. When it was no longer supplied to them they settleddown and tilled the soil, fertilizing it, as a rule, with the bodiesof the original occupants. 

MARRIAGE, n. The state or condition of a community consisting of amaster, a mistress and two slaves, making in all, two. 

MARTYR, n. One who moves along the line of least reluctance to adesired death. 

MATERIAL, adj. Having an actual existence, as distinguished from animaginary one. Important. 

 Material things I know, or fell, or see; All else is immaterial to me. 

Jamrach Holobom

MAUSOLEUM, n. The final and funniest folly of the rich. 

MAYONNAISE, n. One of the sauces which serve the French in place of astate religion. 

ME, pro. The objectionable case of I. The personal pronoun inEnglish has three cases, the dominative, the objectionable and theoppressive. Each is all three. 

MEANDER, n. To proceed sinuously and aimlessly. The word is theancient name of a river about one hundred and fifty miles south ofTroy, which turned and twisted in the effort to get out of hearingwhen the Greeks and Trojans boasted of their prowess. 

MEDAL, n. A small metal disk given as a reward for virtues, attainments or services more or less authentic. 

It is related of Bismark, who had been awarded a medal forgallantly rescuing a drowning person, that, being asked the meaning ofthe medal, he replied: "I save lives sometimes. " And sometimes hedidn't. 

MEDICINE, n. A stone flung down the Bowery to kill a dog in Broadway. 

MEEKNESS, n. Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worthwhile. 

 M is for Moses, Who slew the Egyptian. As sweet as a rose is The meekness of Moses. No monument shows his Post-mortem inscription, But M is for Moses Who slew the Egyptian. 

_The Biographical Alphabet_

MEERSCHAUM, n. (Literally, seafoam, and by many erroneously supposedto be made of it. ) A fine white clay, which for convenience incoloring it brown is made into tobacco pipes and smoked by the workmenengaged in that industry. The purpose of coloring it has not beendisclosed by the manufacturers. 

 There was a youth (you've heard before, This woeful tale, may be), Who bought a meerschaum pipe and swore That color it would he!

 He shut himself from the world away, Nor any soul he saw. He smoke by night, he smoked by day, As hard as he could draw. 

 His dog died moaning in the wrath Of winds that blew aloof; The weeds were in the gravel path, The owl was on the roof. 

 "He's gone afar, he'll come no more, " The neighbors sadly say. And so they batter in the door To take his goods away. 

 Dead, pipe in mouth, the youngster lay, Nut-brown in face and limb. "That pipe's a lovely white, " they say, "But it has colored him!"

 The moral there's small need to sing-- 'Tis plain as day to you: Don't play your game on any thing That is a gamester too. 

Martin Bulstrode

MENDACIOUS, adj. Addicted to rhetoric. 

MERCHANT, n. One engaged in a commercial pursuit. A commercialpursuit is one in which the thing pursued is a dollar. 

MERCY, n. An attribute beloved of detected offenders. 

MESMERISM, n. Hypnotism before it wore good clothes, kept a carriageand asked Incredulity to dinner. 

METROPOLIS, n. A stronghold of provincialism. 

MILLENNIUM, n. The period of a thousand years when the lid is to bescrewed down, with all reformers on the under side. 

MIND, n. A mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Itschief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothingbut itself to know itself with. From the Latin _mens_, a fact unknownto that honest shoe-seller, who, observing that his learned competitorover the way had displayed the motto "_Mens conscia recti_, "emblazoned his own front with the words "Men's, women's and children'sconscia recti. "

MINE, adj. Belonging to me if I can hold or seize it. 

MINISTER, n. An agent of a higher power with a lower responsibility. In diplomacy and officer sent into a foreign country as the visibleembodiment of his sovereign's hostility. His principal qualificationis a degree of plausible inveracity next below that of an ambassador. 

MINOR, adj. Less objectionable. 

MINSTREL, adj. Formerly a poet, singer or musician; now a nigger witha color less than skin deep and a humor more than flesh and blood canbear. 

MIRACLE, n. An act or event out of the order of nature andunaccountable, as beating a normal hand of four kings and an ace withfour aces and a king. 

MISCREANT, n. A person of the highest degree of unworth. Etymologically, the word means unbeliever, and its presentsignification may be regarded as theology's noblest contribution tothe development of our language. 

MISDEMEANOR, n. An infraction of the law having less dignity than afelony and constituting no claim to admittance into the best criminalsociety. 

 By misdemeanors he essays to climb Into the aristocracy of crime. O, woe was him!--with manner chill and grand "Captains of industry" refused his hand, "Kings of finance" denied him recognition And "railway magnates" jeered his low condition. He robbed a bank to make himself respected. They still rebuffed him, for he was detected. 

S. V. Hanipur

MISERICORDE, n. A dagger which in mediaeval warfare was used by thefoot soldier to remind an unhorsed knight that he was mortal. 

MISFORTUNE, n. The kind of fortune that never misses. 

MISS, n. The title with which we brand unmarried women to indicatethat they are in the market. Miss, Missis (Mrs. ) and Mister (Mr. ) arethe three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in soundand sense. Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master. Inthe general abolition of social titles in this our country theymiraculously escaped to plague us. If we must have them let us beconsistent and give one to the unmarried man. I venture to suggestMush, abbreviated to Mh. 

MOLECULE, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. It isdistinguished from the corpuscle, also the ultimate, indivisible unitof matter, by a closer resemblance to the atom, also the ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. Three great scientific theories of thestructure of the universe are the molecular, the corpuscular and theatomic. A fourth affirms, with Haeckel, the condensation ofprecipitation of matter from ether--whose existence is proved by thecondensation of precipitation. The present trend of scientificthought is toward the theory of ions. The ion differs from themolecule, the corpuscle and the atom in that it is an ion. A fifththeory is held by idiots, but it is doubtful if they know any moreabout the matter than the others. 

MONAD, n. The ultimate, indivisible unit of matter. (See_Molecule_. ) According to Leibnitz, as nearly as he seems willing tobe understood, the monad has body without bulk, and mind withoutmanifestation--Leibnitz knows him by the innate power ofconsidering. He has founded upon him a theory of the universe, whichthe creature bears without resentment, for the monad is a gentleman. Small as he is, the monad contains all the powers and possibilitiesneedful to his evolution into a German philosopher of the first class--altogether a very capable little fellow. He is not to beconfounded with the microbe, or bacillus; by its inability to discernhim, a good microscope shows him to be of an entirely distinctspecies. 

MONARCH, n. A person engaged in reigning. Formerly the monarchruled, as the derivation of the word attests, and as many subjectshave had occasion to learn. In Russia and the Orient the monarch hasstill a considerable influence in public affairs and in thedisposition of the human head, but in western Europe politicaladministration is mostly entrusted to his ministers, he beingsomewhat preoccupied with reflections relating to the status of hisown head. 

MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT, n. Government. 

MONDAY, n. In Christian countries, the day after the baseball game. 

MONEY, n. A blessing that is of no advantage to us excepting when wepart with it. An evidence of culture and a passport to politesociety. Supportable property. 

MONKEY, n. An arboreal animal which makes itself at home ingenealogical trees. 

MONOSYLLABIC, adj. Composed of words of one syllable, for literarybabes who never tire of testifying their delight in the vapid compoundby appropriate googoogling. The words are commonly Saxon--that isto say, words of a barbarous people destitute of ideas and incapableof any but the most elementary sentiments and emotions. 

 The man who writes in Saxon Is the man to use an ax on

Judibras

MONSIGNOR, n. A high ecclesiastical title, of which the Founder ofour religion overlooked the advantages. 

MONUMENT, n. A structure intended to commemorate something whicheither needs no commemoration or cannot be commemorated. 

 The bones of Agammemnon are a show, And ruined is his royal monument, but Agammemnon's fame suffers no diminution in consequence. Themonument custom has its _reductiones ad absurdum_ in monuments "to theunknown dead"--that is to say, monuments to perpetuate the memory ofthose who have left no memory. 

MORAL, adj. Conforming to a local and mutable standard of right. Having the quality of general expediency. 

 It is sayd there be a raunge of mountaynes in the Easte, on one syde of the which certayn conducts are immorall, yet on the other syde they are holden in good esteeme; wherebye the mountayneer is much conveenyenced, for it is given to him to goe downe eyther way and act as it shall suite his moode, withouten offence. 

 _Gooke's Meditations_

MORE, adj. The comparative degree of too much. 

MOUSE, n. An animal which strews its path with fainting women. As inRome Christians were thrown to the lions, so centuries earlier inOtumwee, the most ancient and famous city of the world, femaleheretics were thrown to the mice. Jakak-Zotp, the historian, the onlyOtumwump whose writings have descended to us, says that these martyrsmet their death with little dignity and much exertion. He evenattempts to exculpate the mice (such is the malice of bigotry) bydeclaring that the unfortunate women perished, some from exhaustion, some of broken necks from falling over their own feet, and some fromlack of restoratives. The mice, he avers, enjoyed the pleasures ofthe chase with composure. But if "Roman history is nine-tenthslying, " we can hardly expect a smaller proportion of that rhetoricalfigure in the annals of a people capable of so incredible cruelty to alovely women; for a hard heart has a false tongue. 

MOUSQUETAIRE, n. A long glove covering a part of the arm. Worn inNew Jersey. But "mousquetaire" is a might poor way to spellmuskeeter. 

MOUTH, n. In man, the gateway to the soul; in woman, the outlet ofthe heart. 

MUGWUMP, n. In politics one afflicted with self-respect and addictedto the vice of independence. A term of contempt. 

MULATTO, n. A child of two races, ashamed of both. 

MULTITUDE, n. A crowd; the source of political wisdom and virtue. Ina republic, the object of the statesman's adoration. "In a multitudeof counsellors there is wisdom, " saith the proverb. If many men ofequal individual wisdom are wiser than any one of them, it must bethat they acquire the excess of wisdom by the mere act of gettingtogether. Whence comes it? Obviously from nowhere--as well saythat a range of mountains is higher than the single mountainscomposing it. A multitude is as wise as its wisest member if it obeyhim; if not, it is no wiser than its most foolish. 

MUMMY, n. An ancient Egyptian, formerly in universal use among moderncivilized nations as medicine, and now engaged in supplying art withan excellent pigment. He is handy, too, in museums in gratifying thevulgar curiosity that serves to distinguish man from the loweranimals. 

 By means of the Mummy, mankind, it is said, Attests to the gods its respect for the dead. We plunder his tomb, be he sinner or saint, Distil him for physic and grind him for paint, Exhibit for money his poor, shrunken frame, And with levity flock to the scene of the shame. O, tell me, ye gods, for the use of my rhyme: For respecting the dead what's the limit of time?

Scopas Brune

MUSTANG, n. An indocile horse of the western plains. In Englishsociety, the American wife of an English nobleman. 

MYRMIDON, n. A follower of Achilles--particularly when he didn'tlead. 

MYTHOLOGY, n. The body of a primitive people's beliefs concerning itsorigin, early history, heroes, deities and so forth, as distinguishedfrom the true accounts which it invents later. 

N

NECTAR, n. A drink served at banquets of the Olympian deities. Thesecret of its preparation is lost, but the modern Kentuckians believethat they come pretty near to a knowledge of its chief ingredient. 

 Juno drank a cup of nectar, But the draught did not affect her. Juno drank a cup of rye-- Then she bad herself good-bye. 

J. G. 

NEGRO, n. The _piece de resistance_ in the American politicalproblem. Representing him by the letter n, the Republicans begin tobuild their equation thus: "Let n = the white man. " This, however, appears to give an unsatisfactory solution. 

NEIGHBOR, n. One whom we are commanded to love as ourselves, and whodoes all he knows how to make us disobedient. 

NEPOTISM, n. Appointing your grandmother to office for the good ofthe party. 

NEWTONIAN, adj. Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe inventedby Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall to the ground, butwas unable to say why. His successors and disciples have advanced sofar as to be able to say when. 

NIHILIST, n. A Russian who denies the existence of anything butTolstoi. The leader of the school is Tolstoi. 

NIRVANA, n. In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurableannihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough tounderstand it. 

NOBLEMAN, n. Nature's provision for wealthy American minds ambitiousto incur social distinction and suffer high life. 

NOISE, n. A stench in the ear. Undomesticated music. The chiefproduct and authenticating sign of civilization. 

NOMINATE, v. To designate for the heaviest political assessment. Toput forward a suitable person to incur the mudgobbling and deadcattingof the opposition. 

NOMINEE, n. A modest gentleman shrinking from the distinction ofprivate life and diligently seeking the honorable obscurity of publicoffice. 

NON-COMBATANT, n. A dead Quaker. 

NONSENSE, n. The objections that are urged against this excellentdictionary. 

NOSE, n. The extreme outpost of the face. From the circumstance thatgreat conquerors have great noses, Getius, whose writings antedate theage of humor, calls the nose the organ of quell. It has been observedthat one's nose is never so happy as when thrust into the affairs ofothers, from which some physiologists have drawn the inference thatthe nose is devoid of the sense of smell. 

 There's a man with a Nose, And wherever he goes The people run from him and shout: "No cotton have we For our ears if so be He blow that interminous snout!"

 So the lawyers applied For injunction. "Denied, " Said the Judge: "the defendant prefixion, Whate'er it portend, Appears to transcend The bounds of this court's jurisdiction. "

Arpad Singiny

NOTORIETY, n. The fame of one's competitor for public honors. Thekind of renown most accessible and acceptable to mediocrity. AJacob's-ladder leading to the vaudeville stage, with angels ascendingand descending. 

NOUMENON, n. That which exists, as distinguished from that whichmerely seems to exist, the latter being a phenomenon. The noumenon isa bit difficult to locate; it can be apprehended only be a process ofreasoning--which is a phenomenon. Nevertheless, the discovery andexposition of noumena offer a rich field for what Lewes calls "theendless variety and excitement of philosophic thought. " Hurrah(therefore) for the noumenon!

NOVEL, n. A short story padded. A species of composition bearing thesame relation to literature that the panorama bears to art. As it istoo long to be read at a sitting the impressions made by itssuccessive parts are successively effaced, as in the panorama. Unity, totality of effect, is impossible; for besides the few pages last readall that is carried in mind is the mere plot of what has gone before. To the romance the novel is what photography is to painting. Itsdistinguishing principle, probability, corresponds to the literalactuality of the photograph and puts it distinctly into the categoryof reporting; whereas the free wing of the romancer enables him tomount to such altitudes of imagination as he may be fitted to attain;and the first three essentials of the literary art are imagination, imagination and imagination. The art of writing novels, such as itwas, is long dead everywhere except in Russia, where it is new. Peaceto its ashes--some of which have a large sale. 

NOVEMBER, n. The eleventh twelfth of a weariness. 

O

OATH, n. In law, a solemn appeal to the Deity, made binding upon theconscience by a penalty for perjury. 

OBLIVION, n. The state or condition in which the wicked cease fromstruggling and the dreary are at rest. Fame's eternal dumping ground. Cold storage for high hopes. A place where ambitious authors meettheir works without pride and their betters without envy. A dormitorywithout an alarm clock. 

OBSERVATORY, n. A place where astronomers conjecture away the guessesof their predecessors. 

OBSESSED, p. P. Vexed by an evil spirit, like the Gadarene swine andother critics. Obsession was once more common than it is now. Arasthus tells of a peasant who was occupied by a different devil forevery day in the week, and on Sundays by two. They were frequentlyseen, always walking in his shadow, when he had one, but were finallydriven away by the village notary, a holy man; but they took thepeasant with them, for he vanished utterly. A devil thrown out of awoman by the Archbishop of Rheims ran through the trees, pursued by ahundred persons, until the open country was reached, where by a leaphigher than a church spire he escaped into a bird. A chaplain inCromwell's army exorcised a soldier's obsessing devil by throwing thesoldier into the water, when the devil came to the surface. Thesoldier, unfortunately, did not. 

OBSOLETE, adj. No longer used by the timid. Said chiefly of words. A word which some lexicographer has marked obsolete is ever thereafteran object of dread and loathing to the fool writer, but if it is agood word and has no exact modern equivalent equally good, it is goodenough for the good writer. Indeed, a writer's attitude toward"obsolete" words is as true a measure of his literary ability asanything except the character of his work. A dictionary of obsoleteand obsolescent words would not only be singularly rich in strong andsweet parts of speech; it would add large possessions to thevocabulary of every competent writer who might not happen to be acompetent reader. 

OBSTINATE, adj. Inaccessible to the truth as it is manifest in thesplendor and stress of our advocacy. 

The popular type and exponent of obstinacy is the mule, a mostintelligent animal. 

OCCASIONAL, adj. Afflicting us with greater or less frequency. That, however, is not the sense in which the word is used in the phrase"occasional verses, " which are verses written for an "occasion, " suchas an anniversary, a celebration or other event. True, they afflictus a little worse than other sorts of verse, but their name has noreference to irregular recurrence. 

OCCIDENT, n. The part of the world lying west (or east) of theOrient. It is largely inhabited by Christians, a powerful subtribe ofthe Hypocrites, whose principal industries are murder and cheating, which they are pleased to call "war" and "commerce. " These, also, arethe principal industries of the Orient. 

OCEAN, n. A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world madefor man--who has no gills. 

OFFENSIVE, adj. Generating disagreeable emotions or sensations, asthe advance of an army against its enemy. 

"Were the enemy's tactics offensive?" the king asked. "I shouldsay so!" replied the unsuccessful general. "The blackguard wouldn'tcome out of his works!"

OLD, adj. In that stage of usefulness which is not inconsistent withgeneral inefficiency, as an _old man_. Discredited by lapse of timeand offensive to the popular taste, as an _old_ book. 

 "Old books? The devil take them!" Goby said. "Fresh every day must be my books and bread. " Nature herself approves the Goby rule And gives us every moment a fresh fool. 

Harley Shum

OLEAGINOUS, adj. Oily, smooth, sleek. 

Disraeli once described the manner of Bishop Wilberforce as"unctuous, oleaginous, saponaceous. " And the good prelate was everafterward known as Soapy Sam. For every man there is something in thevocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemieshave only to find it. 

OLYMPIAN, adj. Relating to a mountain in Thessaly, once inhabited bygods, now a repository of yellowing newspapers, beer bottles andmutilated sardine cans, attesting the presence of the tourist and hisappetite. 

 His name the smirking tourist scrawls Upon Minerva's temple walls, Where thundered once Olympian Zeus, And marks his appetite's abuse. 

Averil Joop

OMEN, n. A sign that something will happen if nothing happens. 

ONCE, adv. Enough. 

OPERA, n. A play representing life in another world, whoseinhabitants have no speech but song, no motions but gestures and nopostures but attitudes. All acting is simulation, and the word_simulation_ is from _simia_, an ape; but in opera the actor takes forhis model _Simia audibilis_ (or _Pithecanthropos stentor_)--the apethat howls. 

 The actor apes a man--at least in shape; The opera performer apes and ape. 

OPIATE, n. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads intothe jail yard. 

OPPORTUNITY, n. A favorable occasion for grasping a disappointment. 

OPPOSE, v. To assist with obstructions and objections. 

 How lonely he who thinks to vex With bandinage the Solemn Sex! Of levity, Mere Man, beware; None but the Grave deserve the Unfair. 

Percy P. Orminder

OPPOSITION, n. In politics the party that prevents the Government fromrunning amuck by hamstringing it. 

The King of Ghargaroo, who had been abroad to study the science ofgovernment, appointed one hundred of his fattest subjects as membersof a parliament to make laws for the collection of revenue. Forty ofthese he named the Party of Opposition and had his Prime Ministercarefully instruct them in their duty of opposing every royal measure. Nevertheless, the first one that was submitted passed unanimously. Greatly displeased, the King vetoed it, informing the Opposition thatif they did that again they would pay for their obstinacy with theirheads. The entire forty promptly disemboweled themselves. 

"What shall we do now?" the King asked. "Liberal institutionscannot be maintained without a party of Opposition. "

"Splendor of the universe, " replied the Prime Minister, "it istrue these dogs of darkness have no longer their credentials, but allis not lost. Leave the matter to this worm of the dust. "

So the Minister had the bodies of his Majesty's Oppositionembalmed and stuffed with straw, put back into the seats of power andnailed there. Forty votes were recorded against every bill and thenation prospered. But one day a bill imposing a tax on warts wasdefeated--the members of the Government party had not been nailed totheir seats! This so enraged the King that the Prime Minister was putto death, the parliament was dissolved with a battery of artillery, and government of the people, by the people, for the people perishedfrom Ghargaroo. 

OPTIMISM, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, andeverything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity bythose most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, andis most acceptably expounded with the grin that apes a smile. Being ablind faith, it is inaccessible to the light of disproof--anintellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It ishereditary, but fortunately not contagious. 

OPTIMIST, n. A proponent of the doctrine that black is white. 

A pessimist applied to God for relief. 

"Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness, " said God. 

"No, " replied the petitioner, "I wish you to create something thatwould justify them. "

"The world is all created, " said God, "but you have overlookedsomething--the mortality of the optimist. "

ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat theunderstanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography. 

ORPHAN, n. A living person whom death has deprived of the power offilial ingratitude--a privation appealing with a particulareloquence to all that is sympathetic in human nature. When young theorphan is commonly sent to an asylum, where by careful cultivation ofits rudimentary sense of locality it is taught to know its place. Itis then instructed in the arts of dependence and servitude andeventually turned loose to prey upon the world as a bootblack orscullery maid. 

ORTHODOX, n. An ox wearing the popular religious joke. 

ORTHOGRAPHY, n. The science of spelling by the eye instead of theear. Advocated with more heat than light by the outmates of everyasylum for the insane. They have had to concede a few things sincethe time of Chaucer, but are none the less hot in defence of those tobe conceded hereafter. 

 A spelling reformer indicted For fudge was before the court cicted. The judge said: "Enough-- His candle we'll snough, And his sepulchre shall not be whicted. "

OSTRICH, n. A large bird to which (for its sins, doubtless) naturehas denied that hinder toe in which so many pious naturalists haveseen a conspicuous evidence of design. The absence of a good workingpair of wings is no defect, for, as has been ingeniously pointed out, the ostrich does not fly. 

OTHERWISE, adv. No better. 

OUTCOME, n. A particular type of disappointment. By the kind ofintelligence that sees in an exception a proof of the rule the wisdomof an act is judged by the outcome, the result. This is immortalnonsense; the wisdom of an act is to be juded by the light that thedoer had when he performed it. 

OUTDO, v. T. To make an enemy. 

OUT-OF-DOORS, n. That part of one's environment upon which nogovernment has been able to collect taxes. Chiefly useful to inspirepoets. 

 I climbed to the top of a mountain one day To see the sun setting in glory, And I thought, as I looked at his vanishing ray, Of a perfectly splendid story. 

 'Twas about an old man and the ass he bestrode Till the strength of the beast was o'ertested; Then the man would carry him miles on the road Till Neddy was pretty well rested. 

 The moon rising solemnly over the crest Of the hills to the east of my station Displayed her broad disk to the darkening west Like a visible new creation. 

 And I thought of a joke (and I laughed till I cried) Of an idle young woman who tarried About a church-door for a look at the bride, Although 'twas herself that was married. 

 To poets all Nature is pregnant with grand Ideas--with thought and emotion. I pity the dunces who don't understand The speech of earth, heaven and ocean. 

Stromboli Smith

OVATION, n. N ancient Rome, a definite, formal pageant in honor ofone who had been disserviceable to the enemies of the nation. Alesser "triumph. " In modern English the word is improperly used tosignify any loose and spontaneous expression of popular homage to thehero of the hour and place. 

 "I had an ovation!" the actor man said, But I thought it uncommonly queer, That people and critics by him had been led By the ear. 

 The Latin lexicon makes his absurd Assertion as plain as a peg; In "ovum" we find the true root of the word. It means egg. 

Dudley Spink

OVEREAT, v. To dine. 

 Hail, Gastronome, Apostle of Excess, Well skilled to overeat without distress! Thy great invention, the unfatal feast, Shows Man's superiority to Beast. 

John Boop

OVERWORK, n. A dangerous disorder affecting high public functionarieswho want to go fishing. 

OWE, v. To have (and to hold) a debt. The word formerly signifiednot indebtedness, but possession; it meant "own, " and in the minds ofdebtors there is still a good deal of confusion between assets andliabilities. 

OYSTER, n. A slimy, gobby shellfish which civilization gives men thehardihood to eat without removing its entrails! The shells aresometimes given to the poor. 

P

PAIN, n. An uncomfortable frame of mind that may have a physicalbasis in something that is being done to the body, or may be purelymental, caused by the good fortune of another. 

PAINTING, n. The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather andexposing them to the critic. 

Formerly, painting and sculpture were combined in the same work:the ancients painted their statues. The only present alliance betweenthe two arts is that the modern painter chisels his patrons. 

PALACE, n. A fine and costly residence, particularly that of a greatofficial. The residence of a high dignitary of the Christian Churchis called a palace; that of the Founder of his religion was known as afield, or wayside. There is progress. 

PALM, n. A species of tree having several varieties, of which thefamiliar "itching palm" (_Palma hominis_) is most widely distributedand sedulously cultivated. This noble vegetable exudes a kind ofinvisible gum, which may be detected by applying to the bark a pieceof gold or silver. The metal will adhere with remarkable tenacity. The fruit of the itching palm is so bitter and unsatisfying that aconsiderable percentage of it is sometimes given away in what are knownas "benefactions. "

PALMISTRY, n. The 947th method (according to Mimbleshaw'sclassification) of obtaining money by false pretences. It consists in"reading character" in the wrinkles made by closing the hand. Thepretence is not altogether false; character can really be read veryaccurately in this way, for the wrinkles in every hand submittedplainly spell the word "dupe. " The imposture consists in not readingit aloud. 

PANDEMONIUM, n. Literally, the Place of All the Demons. Most of themhave escaped into politics and finance, and the place is now used as alecture hall by the Audible Reformer. When disturbed by his voice theancient echoes clamor appropriate responses most gratifying to hispride of distinction. 

PANTALOONS, n. A nether habiliment of the adult civilized male. Thegarment is tubular and unprovided with hinges at the points offlexion. Supposed to have been invented by a humorist. Called"trousers" by the enlightened and "pants" by the unworthy. 

PANTHEISM, n. The doctrine that everything is God, incontradistinction to the doctrine that God is everything. 

PANTOMIME, n. A play in which the story is told without violence tothe language. The least disagreeable form of dramatic action. 

PARDON, v. To remit a penalty and restore to the life of crime. Toadd to the lure of crime the temptation of ingratitude. 

PASSPORT, n. A document treacherously inflicted upon a citizen goingabroad, exposing him as an alien and pointing him out for specialreprobation and outrage. 

PAST, n. That part of Eternity with some small fraction of which wehave a slight and regrettable acquaintance. A moving line called thePresent parts it from an imaginary period known as the Future. Thesetwo grand divisions of Eternity, of which the one is continuallyeffacing the other, are entirely unlike. The one is dark with sorrowand disappointment, the other bright with prosperity and joy. ThePast is the region of sobs, the Future is the realm of song. In theone crouches Memory, clad in sackcloth and ashes, mumbling penitentialprayer; in the sunshine of the other Hope flies with a free wing, beckoning to temples of success and bowers of ease. Yet the Past isthe Future of yesterday, the Future is the Past of to-morrow. Theyare one--the knowledge and the dream. 

PASTIME, n. A device for promoting dejection. Gentle exercise forintellectual debility. 

PATIENCE, n. A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue. 

PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior tothose of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors. 

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish read to the torch of any oneambitious to illuminate his name. 

In Dr. Johnson's famous dictionary patriotism is defined as thelast resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightenedbut inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first. 

PEACE, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between twoperiods of fighting. 

 O, what's the loud uproar assailing Mine ears without cease? 'Tis the voice of the hopeful, all-hailing The horrors of peace. 

 Ah, Peace Universal; they woo it-- Would marry it, too. If only they knew how to do it 'Twere easy to do. 

 They're working by night and by day On their problem, like moles. Have mercy, O Heaven, I pray, On their meddlesome souls!

Ro Amil

PEDESTRIAN, n. The variable (an audible) part of the roadway for anautomobile. 

PEDIGREE, n. The known part of the route from an arboreal ancestorwith a swim bladder to an urban descendant with a cigarette. 

PENITENT, adj. Undergoing or awaiting punishment. 

PERFECTION, n. An imaginary state of quality distinguished from theactual by an element known as excellence; an attribute of the critic. 

The editor of an English magazine having received a letterpointing out the erroneous nature of his views and style, and signed"Perfection, " promptly wrote at the foot of the letter: "I don'tagree with you, " and mailed it to Matthew Arnold. 

PERIPATETIC, adj. Walking about. Relating to the philosophy ofAristotle, who, while expounding it, moved from place to place inorder to avoid his pupil's objections. A needless precaution--theyknew no more of the matter than he. 

PERORATION, n. The explosion of an oratorical rocket. It dazzles, but to an observer having the wrong kind of nose its most conspicuouspeculiarity is the smell of the several kinds of powder used inpreparing it. 

PERSEVERANCE, n. A lowly virtue whereby mediocrity achieves aninglorious success. 

 "Persevere, persevere!" cry the homilists all, Themselves, day and night, persevering to bawl. "Remember the fable of tortoise and hare-- The one at the goal while the other is--where?" Why, back there in Dreamland, renewing his lease Of life, all his muscles preserving the peace, The goal and the rival forgotten alike, And the long fatigue of the needless hike. His spirit a-squat in the grass and the dew Of the dogless Land beyond the Stew, He sleeps, like a saint in a holy place, A winner of all that is good in a race. 

Sukker Uffro

PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of theobserver by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with hisscarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. 

PHILANTHROPIST, n. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who hastrained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket. 

PHILISTINE, n. One whose mind is the creature of its environment, following the fashion in thought, feeling and sentiment. He issometimes learned, frequently prosperous, commonly clean and alwayssolemn. 

PHILOSOPHY, n. A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing. 

PHOENIX, n. The classical prototype of the modern "small hot bird. "

PHONOGRAPH, n. An irritating toy that restores life to dead noises. 

PHOTOGRAPH, n. A picture painted by the sun without instruction inart. It is a little better than the work of an Apache, but not quiteso good as that of a Cheyenne. 

PHRENOLOGY, n. The science of picking the pocket through the scalp. It consists in locating and exploiting the organ that one is a dupewith. 

PHYSICIAN, n. One upon whom we set our hopes when ill and our dogswhen well. 

PHYSIOGNOMY, n. The art of determining the character of another bythe resemblances and differences between his face and our own, whichis the standard of excellence. 

 "There is no art, " says Shakespeare, foolish man, "To read the mind's construction in the face. " The physiognomists his portrait scan, And say: "How little wisdom here we trace! He knew his face disclosed his mind and heart, So, in his own defence, denied our art. "

Lavatar Shunk

PIANO, n. A parlor utensil for subduing the impenitent visitor. Itis operated by pressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of theaudience. 

PICKANINNY, n. The young of the _Procyanthropos_, or _Americanusdominans_. It is small, black and charged with political fatalities. 

PICTURE, n. A representation in two dimensions of something wearisomein three. 

 "Behold great Daubert's picture here on view-- Taken from Life. " If that description's true, Grant, heavenly Powers, that I be taken, too. 

Jali Hane

PIE, n. An advance agent of the reaper whose name is Indigestion. 

 Cold pie was highly esteemed by the remains. 

Rev. Dr. Mucker

(in a funeral sermon over a British nobleman)

 Cold pie is a detestable American comestible. That's why I'm done--or undone-- So far from that dear London. 

(from the headstone of a British nobleman in Kalamazoo)

PIETY, n. Reverence for the Supreme Being, based upon His supposedresemblance to man. 

 The pig is taught by sermons and epistles To think the God of Swine has snout and bristles. 

Judibras

PIG, n. An animal (_Porcus omnivorus_) closely allied to the humanrace by the splendor and vivacity of its appetite, which, however, isinferior in scope, for it sticks at pig. 

PIGMY, n. One of a tribe of very small men found by ancient travelersin many parts of the world, but by modern in Central Africa only. ThePigmies are so called to distinguish them from the bulkier Caucasians--who are Hogmies. 

PILGRIM, n. A traveler that is taken seriously. A Pilgrim Father wasone who, leaving Europe in 1620 because not permitted to sing psalmsthrough his nose, followed it to Massachusetts, where he couldpersonate God according to the dictates of his conscience. 

PILLORY, n. A mechanical device for inflicting personal distinction--prototype of the modern newspaper conducted by persons of austerevirtues and blameless lives. 

PIRACY, n. Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it. 

PITIFUL, adj. The state of an enemy of opponent after an imaginaryencounter with oneself. 

PITY, n. A failing sense of exemption, inspired by contrast. 

PLAGIARISM, n. A literary coincidence compounded of a discreditablepriority and an honorable subsequence. 

PLAGIARIZE, v. To take the thought or style of another writer whomone has never, never read. 

PLAGUE, n. In ancient times a general punishment of the innocent foradmonition of their ruler, as in the familiar instance of Pharaoh theImmune. The plague as we of to-day have the happiness to know it ismerely Nature's fortuitous manifestation of her purposelessobjectionableness. 

PLAN, v. T. To bother about the best method of accomplishing anaccidental result. 

PLATITUDE, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popularliterature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom ofa million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment inartificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of adeparted truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-mortality. The Pope's-noseof a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of thesea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram. 

PLATONIC, adj. Pertaining to the philosophy of Socrates. PlatonicLove is a fool's name for the affection between a disability and afrost. 

PLAUDITS, n. Coins with which the populace pays those who tickle anddevour it. 

PLEASE, v. To lay the foundation for a superstructure of imposition. 

PLEASURE, n. The least hateful form of dejection. 

PLEBEIAN, n. An ancient Roman who in the blood of his country stainednothing but his hands. Distinguished from the Patrician, who was asaturated solution. 

PLEBISCITE, n. A popular vote to ascertain the will of the sovereign. 

PLENIPOTENTIARY, adj. Having full power. A Minister Plenipotentiaryis a diplomatist possessing absolute authority on condition that henever exert it. 

PLEONASM, n. An army of words escorting a corporal of thought. 

PLOW, n. An implement that cries aloud for hands accustomed to thepen. 

PLUNDER, v. To take the property of another without observing thedecent and customary reticences of theft. To effect a change ofownership with the candid concomitance of a brass band. To wrest thewealth of A from B and leave C lamenting a vanishing opportunity. 

POCKET, n. The cradle of motive and the grave of conscience. Inwoman this organ is lacking; so she acts without motive, and herconscience, denied burial, remains ever alive, confessing the sins ofothers. 

POETRY, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond theMagazines. 

POKER, n. A game said to be played with cards for some purpose tothis lexicographer unknown. 

POLICE, n. An armed force for protection and participation. 

POLITENESS, n. The most acceptable hypocrisy. 

POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest ofprinciples. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. 

POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which thesuperstructure of organized society is reared. When we wriggles hemistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of beingalive. 

POLYGAMY, n. A house of atonement, or expiatory chapel, fitted withseveral stools of repentance, as distinguished from monogamy, whichhas but one. 

POPULIST, n. A fossil patriot of the early agricultural period, foundin the old red soapstone underlying Kansas; characterized by anuncommon spread of ear, which some naturalists contend gave him thepower of flight, though Professors Morse and Whitney, pursuingindependent lines of thought, have ingeniously pointed out that had hepossessed it he would have gone elsewhere. In the picturesque speechof his period, some fragments of which have come down to us, he wasknown as "The Matter with Kansas. "

PORTABLE, adj. Exposed to a mutable ownership through vicissitudes ofpossession. 

 His light estate, if neither he did make it Nor yet its former guardian forsake it, Is portable improperly, I take it. 

Worgum Slupsky

PORTUGUESE, n. Pl. A species of geese indigenous to Portugal. Theyare mostly without feathers and imperfectly edible, even when stuffedwith garlic. 

POSITIVE, adj. Mistaken at the top of one's voice. 

POSITIVISM, n. A philosophy that denies our knowledge of the Real andaffirms our ignorance of the Apparent. Its longest exponent is Comte, its broadest Mill and its thickest Spencer. 

POSTERITY, n. An appellate court which reverses the judgment of apopular author's contemporaries, the appellant being his obscurecompetitor. 

POTABLE, n. Suitable for drinking. Water is said to be potable;indeed, some declare it our natural beverage, although even they findit palatable only when suffering from the recurrent disorder known asthirst, for which it is a medicine. Upon nothing has so great anddiligent ingenuity been brought to bear in all ages and in allcountries, except the most uncivilized, as upon the invention ofsubstitutes for water. To hold that this general aversion to thatliquid has no basis in the preservative instinct of the race is to beunscientific--and without science we are as the snakes and toads. 

POVERTY, n. A file provided for the teeth of the rats of reform. Thenumber of plans for its abolition equals that of the reformers whosuffer from it, plus that of the philosophers who know nothing aboutit. Its victims are distinguished by possession of all the virtuesand by their faith in leaders seeking to conduct them into aprosperity where they believe these to be unknown. 

PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalfof a single petitioner confessedly unworthy. 

PRE-ADAMITE, n. One of an experimental and apparently unsatisfactoryrace of antedated Creation and lived under conditions not easilyconceived. Melsius believed them to have inhabited "the Void" and tohave been something intermediate between fishes and birds. Little itsknown of them beyond the fact that they supplied Cain with a wife andtheologians with a controversy. 

PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, inthe absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority aJudge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task ofdoing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he hasonly to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuatethose in the line of his desire. Invention of the precedent elevatesthe trial-at-law from the low estate of a fortuitous ordeal to thenoble attitude of a dirigible arbitrament. 

PRECIPITATE, adj. Anteprandial. 

 Precipitate in all, this sinner Took action first, and then his dinner. 

Judibras

PREDESTINATION, n. The doctrine that all things occur according toprogramme. This doctrine should not be confused with that offoreordination, which means that all things are programmed, but doesnot affirm their occurrence, that being only an implication from otherdoctrines by which this is entailed. The difference is great enoughto have deluged Christendom with ink, to say nothing of the gore. With the distinction of the two doctrines kept well in mind, and areverent belief in both, one may hope to escape perdition if spared. 

PREDICAMENT, n. The wage of consistency. 

PREDILECTION, n. The preparatory stage of disillusion. 

PRE-EXISTENCE, n. An unnoted factor in creation. 

PREFERENCE, n. A sentiment, or frame of mind, induced by theerroneous belief that one thing is better than another. 

An ancient philosopher, expounding his conviction that life is nobetter than death, was asked by a disciple why, then, he did not die. "Because, " he replied, "death is no better than life. "

It is longer. 

PREHISTORIC, adj. Belonging to an early period and a museum. Antedating the art and practice of perpetuating falsehood. 

 He lived in a period prehistoric, When all was absurd and phantasmagoric. Born later, when Clio, celestial recorded, Set down great events in succession and order, He surely had seen nothing droll or fortuitous In anything here but the lies that she threw at us. 

Orpheus Bowen

PREJUDICE, n. A vagrant opinion without visible means of support. 

PRELATE, n. A church officer having a superior degree of holiness anda fat preferment. One of Heaven's aristocracy. A gentleman of God. 

PREROGATIVE, n. A sovereign's right to do wrong. 

PRESBYTERIAN, n. One who holds the conviction that the governmentauthorities of the Church should be called presbyters. 

PRESCRIPTION, n. A physician's guess at what will best prolong thesituation with least harm to the patient. 

PRESENT, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain ofdisappointment from the realm of hope. 

PRESENTABLE, adj. Hideously appareled after the manner of the timeand place. 

In Boorioboola-Gha a man is presentable on occasions of ceremonyif he have his abdomen painted a bright blue and wear a cow's tail; inNew York he may, if it please him, omit the paint, but after sunset hemust wear two tails made of the wool of a sheep and dyed black. 

PRESIDE, v. To guide the action of a deliberative body to a desirableresult. In Journalese, to perform upon a musical instrument; as, "Hepresided at the piccolo. "

 The Headliner, holding the copy in hand, Read with a solemn face: "The music was very uncommonly grand-- The best that was every provided, For our townsman Brown presided At the organ with skill and grace. " The Headliner discontinued to read, And, spread the paper down On the desk, he dashed in at the top of the screed: "Great playing by President Brown. "

Orpheus Bowen

PRESIDENCY, n. The greased pig in the field game of Americanpolitics. 

PRESIDENT, n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom--and of whom only--it is positively known that immense numbers oftheir countrymen did not want any of them for President. 

 If that's an honor surely 'tis a greater To have been a simple and undamned spectator. Behold in me a man of mark and note Whom no elector e'er denied a vote!-- An undiscredited, unhooted gent Who might, for all we know, be President By acclimation. Cheer, ye varlets, cheer-- I'm passing with a wide and open ear!

Jonathan Fomry

PREVARICATOR, n. A liar in the caterpillar estate. 

PRICE, n. Value, plus a reasonable sum for the wear and tear ofconscience in demanding it. 

PRIMATE, n. The head of a church, especially a State church supportedby involuntary contributions. The Primate of England is theArchbishop of Canterbury, an amiable old gentleman, who occupiesLambeth Palace when living and Westminster Abbey when dead. He iscommonly dead. 

PRISON, n. A place of punishments and rewards. The poet assures usthat--

 "Stone walls do not a prison make, "

but a combination of the stone wall, the political parasite and themoral instructor is no garden of sweets. 

PRIVATE, n. A military gentleman with a field-marshal's baton in hisknapsack and an impediment in his hope. 

PROBOSCIS, n. The rudimentary organ of an elephant which serves himin place of the knife-and-fork that Evolution has as yet denied him. For purposes of humor it is popularly called a trunk. 

Asked how he knew that an elephant was going on a journey, theillustrious Jo. Miller cast a reproachful look upon his tormentor, andanswered, absently: "When it is ajar, " and threw himself from a highpromontory into the sea. Thus perished in his pride the most famoushumorist of antiquity, leaving to mankind a heritage of woe! Nosuccessor worthy of the title has appeared, though Mr. Edward Bok, of_The Ladies' Home Journal_, is much respected for the purity andsweetness of his personal character. 

PROJECTILE, n. The final arbiter in international disputes. Formerlythese disputes were settled by physical contact of the disputants, with such simple arguments as the rudimentary logic of the times couldsupply--the sword, the spear, and so forth. With the growth ofprudence in military affairs the projectile came more and more intofavor, and is now held in high esteem by the most courageous. Itscapital defect is that it requires personal attendance at the point ofpropulsion. 

PROOF, n. Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than ofunlikelihood. The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed tothat of only one. 

PROOF-READER, n. A malefactor who atones for making your writingnonsense by permitting the compositor to make it unintelligible. 

PROPERTY, n. Any material thing, having no particular value, that maybe held by A against the cupidity of B. Whatever gratifies thepassion for possession in one and disappoints it in all others. Theobject of man's brief rapacity and long indifference. 

PROPHECY, n. The art and practice of selling one's credibility forfuture delivery. 

PROSPECT, n. An outlook, usually forbidding. An expectation, usuallyforbidden. 

 Blow, blow, ye spicy breezes-- O'er Ceylon blow your breath, Where every prospect pleases, Save only that of death. 

Bishop Sheber

PROVIDENTIAL, adj. Unexpectedly and conspicuously beneficial to theperson so describing it. 

PRUDE, n. A bawd hiding behind the back of her demeanor. 

PUBLISH, n. In literary affairs, to become the fundamental element ina cone of critics. 

PUSH, n. One of the two things mainly conducive to success, especially in politics. The other is Pull. 

PYRRHONISM, n. An ancient philosophy, named for its inventor. Itconsisted of an absolute disbelief in everything but Pyrrhonism. Itsmodern professors have added that. 

Q

QUEEN, n. A woman by whom the realm is ruled when there is a king, and through whom it is ruled when there is not. 

QUILL, n. An implement of torture yielded by a goose and commonlywielded by an ass. This use of the quill is now obsolete, but itsmodern equivalent, the steel pen, is wielded by the same everlastingPresence. 

QUIVER, n. A portable sheath in which the ancient statesman and theaboriginal lawyer carried their lighter arguments. 

 He extracted from his quiver, Did the controversial Roman, An argument well fitted To the question as submitted, Then addressed it to the liver, Of the unpersuaded foeman. 

Oglum P. Boomp

QUIXOTIC, adj. Absurdly chivalric, like Don Quixote. An insight intothe beauty and excellence of this incomparable adjective is unhappilydenied to him who has the misfortune to know that the gentleman's nameis pronounced Ke-ho-tay. 

 When ignorance from out of our lives can banish Philology, 'tis folly to know Spanish. 

Juan Smith

QUORUM, n. A sufficient number of members of a deliberative body tohave their own way and their own way of having it. In the UnitedStates Senate a quorum consists of the chairman of the Committee onFinance and a messenger from the White House; in the House ofRepresentatives, of the Speaker and the devil. 

QUOTATION, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated. 

 Intent on making his quotation truer, He sought the page infallible of Brewer, Then made a solemn vow that we would be Condemned eternally. Ah, me, ah, me!

Stumpo Gaker

QUOTIENT, n. A number showing how many times a sum of money belongingto one person is contained in the pocket of another--usually aboutas many times as it can be got there. 

R

RABBLE, n. In a republic, those who exercise a supreme authoritytempered by fraudulent elections. The rabble is like the sacredSimurgh, of Arabian fable--omnipotent on condition that it donothing. (The word is Aristocratese, and has no exact equivalent inour tongue, but means, as nearly as may be, "soaring swine. ")

RACK, n. An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuadingdevotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call tothe unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is nowheld in light popular esteem. 

RANK, n. Relative elevation in the scale of human worth. 

 He held at court a rank so high That other noblemen asked why. "Because, " 'twas answered, "others lack His skill to scratch the royal back. "

Aramis Jukes

RANSOM, n. The purchase of that which neither belongs to the seller, nor can belong to the buyer. The most unprofitable of investments. 

RAPACITY, n. Providence without industry. The thrift of power. 

RAREBIT, n. A Welsh rabbit, in the speech of the humorless, who pointout that it is not a rabbit. To whom it may be solemnly explainedthat the comestible known as toad-in-a-hole is really not a toad, andthat _riz-de-veau a la financiere_ is not the smile of a calf preparedafter the recipe of a she banker. 

RASCAL, n. A fool considered under another aspect. 

RASCALITY, n. Stupidity militant. The activity of a cloudedintellect. 

RASH, adj. Insensible to the value of our advice. 

 "Now lay your bet with mine, nor let These gamblers take your cash. " "Nay, this child makes no bet. " "Great snakes! How can you be so rash?"

Bootle P. Gish

RATIONAL, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection. 

RATTLESNAKE, n. Our prostrate brother, _Homo ventrambulans_. 

RAZOR, n. An instrument used by the Caucasian to enhance his beauty, by the Mongolian to make a guy of himself, and by the Afro-American toaffirm his worth. 

REACH, n. The radius of action of the human hand. The area withinwhich it is possible (and customary) to gratify directly thepropensity to provide. 

 This is a truth, as old as the hills, That life and experience teach: The poor man suffers that keenest of ills, An impediment of his reach. 

G. J. 

READING, n. The general body of what one reads. In our country itconsists, as a rule, of Indiana novels, short stories in "dialect" andhumor in slang. 

 We know by one's reading His learning and breeding; By what draws his laughter We know his Hereafter. Read nothing, laugh never-- The Sphinx was less clever!

Jupiter Muke

RADICALISM, n. The conservatism of to-morrow injected into theaffairs of to-day. 

RADIUM, n. A mineral that gives off heat and stimulates the organthat a scientist is a fool with. 

RAILROAD, n. The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to getaway from where we are to where we are no better off. For this purposethe railroad is held in highest favor by the optimist, for it permitshim to make the transit with great expedition. 

RAMSHACKLE, adj. Pertaining to a certain order of architecture, otherwise known as the Normal American. Most of the public buildingsof the United States are of the Ramshackle order, though some of ourearlier architects preferred the Ironic. Recent additions to theWhite House in Washington are Theo-Doric, the ecclesiastic order ofthe Dorians. They are exceedingly fine and cost one hundred dollars abrick. 

REALISM, n. The art of depicting nature as it is seen by toads. Thecharm suffusing a landscape painted by a mole, or a story written by ameasuring-worm. 

REALITY, n. The dream of a mad philosopher. That which would remainin the cupel if one should assay a phantom. The nucleus of a vacuum. 

REALLY, adv. Apparently. 

REAR, n. In American military matters, that exposed part of the armythat is nearest to Congress. 

REASON, v. I. To weight probabilities in the scales of desire. 

REASON, n. Propensitate of prejudice. 

REASONABLE, adj. Accessible to the infection of our own opinions. Hospitable to persuasion, dissuasion and evasion. 

REBEL, n. A proponent of a new misrule who has failed to establishit. 

RECOLLECT, v. To recall with additions something not previouslyknown. 

RECONCILIATION, n. A suspension of hostilities. An armed truce forthe purpose of digging up the dead. 

RECONSIDER, v. To seek a justification for a decision already made. 

RECOUNT, n. In American politics, another throw of the dice, accordedto the player against whom they are loaded. 

RECREATION, n. A particular kind of dejection to relieve a generalfatigue. 

RECRUIT, n. A person distinguishable from a civilian by his uniformand from a soldier by his gait. 

 Fresh from the farm or factory or street, His marching, in pursuit or in retreat, Were an impressive martial spectacle Except for two impediments--his feet. 

Thompson Johnson

RECTOR, n. In the Church of England, the Third Person of theparochial Trinity, the Cruate and the Vicar being the other two. 

REDEMPTION, n. Deliverance of sinners from the penalty of their sin, through their murder of the deity against whom they sinned. Thedoctrine of Redemption is the fundamental mystery of our holyreligion, and whoso believeth in it shall not perish, but haveeverlasting life in which to try to understand it. 

 We must awake Man's spirit from his sin, And take some special measure for redeeming it; Though hard indeed the task to get it in Among the angels any way but teaming it, Or purify it otherwise than steaming it. I'm awkward at Redemption--a beginner: My method is to crucify the sinner. 

Golgo Brone

REDRESS, n. Reparation without satisfaction. 

Among the Anglo-Saxon a subject conceiving himself wronged by theking was permitted, on proving his injury, to beat a brazen image ofthe royal offender with a switch that was afterward applied to his ownnaked back. The latter rite was performed by the public hangman, andit assured moderation in the plaintiff's choice of a switch. 

RED-SKIN, n. A North American Indian, whose skin is not red--atleast not on the outside. 

REDUNDANT, adj. Superfluous; needless; _de trop_. 

 The Sultan said: "There's evidence abundant To prove this unbelieving dog redundant. " To whom the Grand Vizier, with mien impressive, Replied: "His head, at least, appears excessive. "

Habeeb Suleiman

 Mr. Debs is a redundant citizen. 

Theodore Roosevelt

REFERENDUM, n. A law for submission of proposed legislation to apopular vote to learn the nonsensus of public opinion. 

REFLECTION, n. An action of the mind whereby we obtain a clearer viewof our relation to the things of yesterday and are able to avoid theperils that we shall not again encounter. 

REFORM, v. A thing that mostly satisfies reformers opposed toreformation. 

REFUGE, n. Anything assuring protection to one in peril. Moses andJoshua provided six cities of refuge--Bezer, Golan, Ramoth, Kadesh, Schekem and Hebron--to which one who had taken life inadvertentlycould flee when hunted by relatives of the deceased. This admirableexpedient supplied him with wholesome exercise and enabled them toenjoy the pleasures of the chase; whereby the soul of the dead man wasappropriately honored by observations akin to the funeral games ofearly Greece. 

REFUSAL, n. Denial of something desired; as an elderly maiden's handin marriage, to a rich and handsome suitor; a valuable franchise to arich corporation, by an alderman; absolution to an impenitent king, bya priest, and so forth. Refusals are graded in a descending scale offinality thus: the refusal absolute, the refusal condition, therefusal tentative and the refusal feminine. The last is called bysome casuists the refusal assentive. 

REGALIA, n. Distinguishing insignia, jewels and costume of suchancient and honorable orders as Knights of Adam; Visionaries ofDetectable Bosh; the Ancient Order of Modern Troglodytes; the Leagueof Holy Humbug; the Golden Phalanx of Phalangers; the Genteel Societyof Expurgated Hoodlums; the Mystic Alliances of Georgeous Regalians;Knights and Ladies of the Yellow Dog; the Oriental Order of Sons ofthe West; the Blatherhood of Insufferable Stuff; Warriors of the LongBow; Guardians of the Great Horn Spoon; the Band of Brutes; theImpenitent Order of Wife-Beaters; the Sublime Legion of FlamboyantConspicuants; Worshipers at the Electroplated Shrine; ShiningInaccessibles; Fee-Faw-Fummers of the inimitable Grip; Jannissaries ofthe Broad-Blown Peacock; Plumed Increscencies of the Magic Temple; theGrand Cabal of Able-Bodied Sedentarians; Associated Deities of theButter Trade; the Garden of Galoots; the Affectionate Fraternity ofMen Similarly Warted; the Flashing Astonishers; Ladies of Horror;Cooperative Association for Breaking into the Spotlight; Dukes of Eden;Disciples Militant of the Hidden Faith; Knights-Champions of theDomestic Dog; the Holy Gregarians; the Resolute Optimists; the AncientSodality of Inhospitable Hogs; Associated Sovereigns of Mendacity;Dukes-Guardian of the Mystic Cess-Pool; the Society for Prevention ofPrevalence; Kings of Drink; Polite Federation of Gents-Consequential;the Mysterious Order of the Undecipherable Scroll; Uniformed Rank ofLousy Cats; Monarchs of Worth and Hunger; Sons of the South Star;Prelates of the Tub-and-Sword. 

RELIGION, n. A daughter of Hope and Fear, explaining to Ignorance thenature of the Unknowable. 

 "What is your religion my son?" inquired the Archbishop of Rheims. "Pardon, monseigneur, " replied Rochebriant; "I am ashamed of it. " "Then why do you not become an atheist?" "Impossible! I should be ashamed of atheism. " "In that case, monsieur, you should join the Protestants. "

RELIQUARY, n. A receptacle for such sacred objects as pieces of thetrue cross, short-ribs of the saints, the ears of Balaam's ass, thelung of the cock that called Peter to repentance and so forth. Reliquaries are commonly of metal, and provided with a lock to preventthe contents from coming out and performing miracles at unseasonabletimes. A feather from the wing of the Angel of the Annunciation onceescaped during a sermon in Saint Peter's and so tickled the noses ofthe congregation that they woke and sneezed with great vehemence threetimes each. It is related in the "Gesta Sanctorum" that a sacristanin the Canterbury cathedral surprised the head of Saint Dennis in thelibrary. Reprimanded by its stern custodian, it explained that it wasseeking a body of doctrine. This unseemly levity so raged thediocesan that the offender was publicly anathematized, thrown into theStour and replaced by another head of Saint Dennis, brought from Rome. 

RENOWN, n. A degree of distinction between notoriety and fame--alittle more supportable than the one and a little more intolerablethan the other. Sometimes it is conferred by an unfriendly andinconsiderate hand. 

 I touched the harp in every key, But found no heeding ear; And then Ithuriel touched me With a revealing spear. 

 Not all my genius, great as 'tis, Could urge me out of night. I felt the faint appulse of his, And leapt into the light!

W. J. Candleton

REPARATION, n. Satisfaction that is made for a wrong and deductedfrom the satisfaction felt in committing it. 

REPARTEE, n. Prudent insult in retort. Practiced by gentlemen with aconstitutional aversion to violence, but a strong disposition tooffend. In a war of words, the tactics of the North American Indian. 

REPENTANCE, n. The faithful attendant and follower of Punishment. Itis usually manifest in a degree of reformation that is notinconsistent with continuity of sin. 

 Desirous to avoid the pains of Hell, You will repent and join the Church, Parnell? How needless!--Nick will keep you off the coals And add you to the woes of other souls. 

Jomater Abemy

REPLICA, n. A reproduction of a work of art, by the artist that madethe original. It is so called to distinguish it from a "copy, " whichis made by another artist. When the two are mae with equal skill thereplica is the more valuable, for it is supposed to be more beautifulthan it looks. 

REPORTER, n. A writer who guesses his way to the truth and dispels itwith a tempest of words. 

 "More dear than all my bosom knows, O thou Whose 'lips are sealed' and will not disavow!" So sang the blithe reporter-man as grew Beneath his hand the leg-long "interview. "

Barson Maith

REPOSE, v. I. To cease from troubling. 

REPRESENTATIVE, n. In national politics, a member of the Lower Housein this world, and without discernible hope of promotion in the next. 

REPROBATION, n. In theology, the state of a luckless mortalprenatally damned. The doctrine of reprobation was taught by Calvin, whose joy in it was somewhat marred by the sad sincerity of hisconviction that although some are foredoomed to perdition, others arepredestined to salvation. 

REPUBLIC, n. A nation in which, the thing governing and the thinggoverned being the same, there is only a permitted authority toenforce an optional obedience. In a republic, the foundation ofpublic order is the ever lessening habit of submission inherited fromancestors who, being truly governed, submitted because they had to. There are as many kinds of republics as there are graduations betweenthe despotism whence they came and the anarchy whither they lead. 

REQUIEM, n. A mass for the dead which the minor poets assure us thewinds sing o'er the graves of their favorites. Sometimes, by way ofproviding a varied entertainment, they sing a dirge. 

RESIDENT, adj. Unable to leave. 

RESIGN, v. T. To renounce an honor for an advantage. To renounce anadvantage for a greater advantage. 

 'Twas rumored Leonard Wood had signed A true renunciation Of title, rank and every kind Of military station-- Each honorable station. 

 By his example fired--inclined To noble emulation, The country humbly was resigned To Leonard's resignation-- His Christian resignation. 

Politian Greame

RESOLUTE, adj. Obstinate in a course that we approve. 

RESPECTABILITY, n. The offspring of a _liaison_ between a bald headand a bank account. 

RESPIRATOR, n. An apparatus fitted over the nose and mouth of aninhabitant of London, whereby to filter the visible universe in itspassage to the lungs. 

RESPITE, n. A suspension of hostilities against a sentenced assassin, to enable the Executive to determine whether the murder may not havebeen done by the prosecuting attorney. Any break in the continuity ofa disagreeable expectation. 

 Altgeld upon his incandescent bed Lay, an attendant demon at his head. 

 "O cruel cook, pray grant me some relief-- Some respite from the roast, however brief. "

 "Remember how on earth I pardoned all Your friends in Illinois when held in thrall. "

 "Unhappy soul! for that alone you squirm O'er fire unquenched, a never-dying worm. 

 "Yet, for I pity your uneasy state, Your doom I'll mollify and pains abate. 

 "Naught, for a season, shall your comfort mar, Not even the memory of who you are. "

 Throughout eternal space dread silence fell; Heaven trembled as Compassion entered Hell. 

 "As long, sweet demon, let my respite be As, governing down here, I'd respite thee. "

 "As long, poor soul, as any of the pack You thrust from jail consumed in getting back. "

 A genial chill affected Altgeld's hide While they were turning him on t'other side. 

Joel Spate Woop

RESPLENDENT, adj. Like a simple American citizen beduking himself inhis lodge, or affirming his consequence in the Scheme of Things as anelemental unit of a parade. 

 The Knights of Dominion were so resplendent in their velvet- and-gold that their masters would hardly have known them. 

"Chronicles of the Classes"

RESPOND, v. I. To make answer, or disclose otherwise a consciousnessof having inspired an interest in what Herbert Spencer calls "externalcoexistences, " as Satan "squat like a toad" at the ear of Eve, responded to the touch of the angel's spear. To respond in damages isto contribute to the maintenance of the plaintiff's attorney and, incidentally, to the gratification of the plaintiff. 

RESPONSIBILITY, n. A detachable burden easily shifted to theshoulders of God, Fate, Fortune, Luck or one's neighbor. In the daysof astrology it was customary to unload it upon a star. 

 Alas, things ain't what we should see If Eve had let that apple be; And many a feller which had ought To set with monarchses of thought, Or play some rosy little game With battle-chaps on fields of fame, Is downed by his unlucky star And hollers: "Peanuts!--here you are!"

"The Sturdy Beggar"

RESTITUTIONS, n. The founding or endowing of universities and publiclibraries by gift or bequest. 

RESTITUTOR, n. Benefactor; philanthropist. 

RETALIATION, n. The natural rock upon which is reared the Temple ofLaw. 

RETRIBUTION, n. A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike uponthe just and such of the unjust as have not procured shelter byevicting them. 

In the lines following, addressed to an Emperor in exile by FatherGassalasca Jape, the reverend poet appears to hint his sense of theimproduence of turning about to face Retribution when it is talkingexercise:

 What, what! Dom Pedro, you desire to go Back to Brazil to end your days in quiet? Why, what assurance have you 'twould be so? 'Tis not so long since you were in a riot, And your dear subjects showed a will to fly at Your throat and shake you like a rat. You know That empires are ungrateful; are you certain Republics are less handy to get hurt in?

REVEILLE, n. A signal to sleeping soldiers to dream of battlefieldsno more, but get up and have their blue noses counted. In theAmerican army it is ingeniously called "rev-e-lee, " and to thatpronunciation our countrymen have pledged their lives, theirmisfortunes and their sacred dishonor. 

REVELATION, n. A famous book in which St. John the Divine concealedall that he knew. The revealing is done by the commentators, who knownothing. 

REVERENCE, n. The spiritual attitude of a man to a god and a dog to aman. 

REVIEW, v. T. 

 To set your wisdom (holding not a doubt of it, Although in truth there's neither bone nor skin to it) At work upon a book, and so read out of it The qualities that you have first read into it. 

REVOLUTION, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form ofmisgovernment. Specifically, in American history, the substitution ofthe rule of an Administration for that of a Ministry, whereby thewelfare and happiness of the people were advanced a full half-inch. Revolutions are usually accompanied by a considerable effusion ofblood, but are accounted worth it--this appraisement being made bybeneficiaries whose blood had not the mischance to be shed. TheFrench revolution is of incalculable value to the Socialist of to-day;when he pulls the string actuating its bones its gestures areinexpressibly terrifying to gory tyrants suspected of fomenting lawand order. 

RHADOMANCER, n. One who uses a divining-rod in prospecting forprecious metals in the pocket of a fool. 

RIBALDRY, n. Censorious language by another concerning oneself. 

RIBROASTER, n. Censorious language by oneself concerning another. The word is of classical refinement, and is even said to have beenused in a fable by Georgius Coadjutor, one of the most fastidiouswriters of the fifteenth century--commonly, indeed, regarded as thefounder of the Fastidiotic School. 

RICE-WATER, n. A mystic beverage secretly used by our most popularnovelists and poets to regulate the imagination and narcotize theconscience. It is said to be rich in both obtundite and lethargine, and is brewed in a midnight fog by a fat which of the Dismal Swamp. 

RICH, adj. Holding in trust and subject to an accounting the propertyof the indolent, the incompetent, the unthrifty, the envious and theluckless. That is the view that prevails in the underworld, where theBrotherhood of Man finds its most logical development and candidadvocacy. To denizens of the midworld the word means good and wise. 

RICHES, n. 

 A gift from Heaven signifying, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. "

John D. Rockefeller

 The reward of toil and virtue. 

J. P. Morgan

 The sayings of many in the hands of one. 

Eugene Debs

To these excellent definitions the inspired lexicographer feelsthat he can add nothing of value. 

RIDICULE, n. Words designed to show that the person of whom they areuttered is devoid of the dignity of character distinguishing him whoutters them. It may be graphic, mimetic or merely rident. Shaftesbury is quoted as having pronounced it the test of truth--aridiculous assertion, for many a solemn fallacy has undergonecenturies of ridicule with no abatement of its popular acceptance. What, for example, has been more valorously derided than the doctrineof Infant Respectability?

RIGHT, n. Legitimate authority to be, to do or to have; as the rightto be a king, the right to do one's neighbor, the right to havemeasles, and the like. The first of these rights was once universallybelieved to be derived directly from the will of God; and this isstill sometimes affirmed _in partibus infidelium_ outside theenlightened realms of Democracy; as the well known lines of SirAbednego Bink, following:

 By what right, then, do royal rulers rule? Whose is the sanction of their state and pow'r? He surely were as stubborn as a mule Who, God unwilling, could maintain an hour His uninvited session on the throne, or air His pride securely in the Presidential chair. 

 Whatever is is so by Right Divine; Whate'er occurs, God wills it so. Good land! It were a wondrous thing if His design A fool could baffle or a rogue withstand! If so, then God, I say (intending no offence) Is guilty of contributory negligence. 

RIGHTEOUSNESS, n. A sturdy virtue that was once found among thePantidoodles inhabiting the lower part of the peninsula of Oque. Somefeeble attempts were made by returned missionaries to introduce itinto several European countries, but it appears to have beenimperfectly expounded. An example of this faulty exposition is foundin the only extant sermon of the pious Bishop Rowley, a characteristicpassage from which is here given:

 "Now righteousness consisteth not merely in a holy state of mind, nor yet in performance of religious rites and obedience to the letter of the law. It is not enough that one be pious and just: one must see to it that others also are in the same state; and to this end compulsion is a proper means. Forasmuch as my injustice may work ill to another, so by his injustice may evil be wrought upon still another, the which it is as manifestly my duty to estop as to forestall mine own tort. Wherefore if I would be righteous I am bound to restrain my neighbor, by force if needful, in all those injurious enterprises from which, through a better disposition and by the help of Heaven, I do myself restrain. "

RIME, n. Agreeing sounds in the terminals of verse, mostly bad. Theverses themselves, as distinguished from prose, mostly dull. Usually(and wickedly) spelled "rhyme. "

RIMER, n. A poet regarded with indifference or disesteem. 

 The rimer quenches his unheeded fires, The sound surceases and the sense expires. Then the domestic dog, to east and west, Expounds the passions burning in his breast. The rising moon o'er that enchanted land Pauses to hear and yearns to understand. 

Mowbray Myles

RIOT, n. A popular entertainment given to the military by innocentbystanders. 

R. I. P. A careless abbreviation of _requiescat in pace_, attesting toindolent goodwill to the dead. According to the learned Dr. Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than _reductus inpulvis_. 

RITE, n. A religious or semi-religious ceremony fixed by law, preceptor custom, with the essential oil of sincerity carefully squeezed outof it. 

RITUALISM, n. A Dutch Garden of God where He may walk in rectilinearfreedom, keeping off the grass. 

ROAD, n. A strip of land along which one may pass from where it istoo tiresome to be to where it is futile to go. 

 All roads, howsoe'er they diverge, lead to Rome, Whence, thank the good Lord, at least one leads back home. 

Borey the Bald

ROBBER, n. A candid man of affairs. It is related of Voltaire that one night he and some travelingcompanion lodged at a wayside inn. The surroundings were suggestive, and after supper they agreed to tell robber stories in turn. "Oncethere was a Farmer-General of the Revenues. " Saying nothing more, hewas encouraged to continue. "That, " he said, "is the story. "

ROMANCE, n. Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things asThey Are. In the novel the writer's thought is tethered toprobability, as a domestic horse to the hitching-post, but in romanceit ranges at will over the entire region of the imagination--free, lawless, immune to bit and rein. Your novelist is a poor creature, asCarlyle might say--a mere reporter. He may invent his charactersand plot, but he must not imagine anything taking place that might notoccur, albeit his entire narrative is candidly a lie. Why he imposesthis hard condition on himself, and "drags at each remove alengthening chain" of his own forging he can explain in ten thickvolumes without illuminating by so much as a candle's ray the blackprofound of his own ignorance of the matter. There are great novels, for great writers have "laid waste their powers" to write them, but itremains true that far and away the most fascinating fiction that wehave is "The Thousand and One Nights. "

ROPE, n. An obsolescent appliance for reminding assassins that theytoo are mortal. It is put about the neck and remains in place one'swhole life long. It has been largely superseded by a more complexelectrical device worn upon another part of the person; and this israpidly giving place to an apparatus known as the preachment. 

ROSTRUM, n. In Latin, the beak of a bird or the prow of a ship. InAmerica, a place from which a candidate for office energeticallyexpounds the wisdom, virtue and power of the rabble. 

ROUNDHEAD, n. A member of the Parliamentarian party in the Englishcivil war--so called from his habit of wearing his hair short, whereas his enemy, the Cavalier, wore his long. There were otherpoints of difference between them, but the fashion in hair was thefundamental cause of quarrel. The Cavaliers were royalists becausethe king, an indolent fellow, found it more convenient to let his hairgrow than to wash his neck. This the Roundheads, who were mostlybarbers and soap-boilers, deemed an injury to trade, and the royalneck was therefore the object of their particular indignation. Descendants of the belligerents now wear their hair all alike, but thefires of animosity enkindled in that ancient strife smoulder to thisday beneath the snows of British civility. 

RUBBISH, n. Worthless matter, such as the religions, philosophies, literatures, arts and sciences of the tribes infesting the regionslying due south from Boreaplas. 

RUIN, v. To destroy. Specifically, to destroy a maid's belief in thevirtue of maids. 

RUM, n. Generically, fiery liquors that produce madness in totalabstainers. 

RUMOR, n. A favorite weapon of the assassins of character. 

 Sharp, irresistible by mail or shield, By guard unparried as by flight unstayed, O serviceable Rumor, let me wield Against my enemy no other blade. His be the terror of a foe unseen, His the inutile hand upon the hilt, And mine the deadly tongue, long, slender, keen, Hinting a rumor of some ancient guilt. So shall I slay the wretch without a blow, Spare me to celebrate his overthrow, And nurse my valor for another foe. 

Joel Buxter

RUSSIAN, n. A person with a Caucasian body and a Mongolian soul. ATartar Emetic. 

S

SABBATH, n. A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that Godmade the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. Among theJews observance of the day was enforced by a Commandment of which thisis the Christian version: "Remember the seventh day to make thyneighbor keep it wholly. " To the Creator it seemed fit and expedientthat the Sabbath should be the last day of the week, but the EarlyFathers of the Church held other views. So great is the sanctity ofthe day that even where the Lord holds a doubtful and precariousjurisdiction over those who go down to (and down into) the sea it isreverently recognized, as is manifest in the following deep-waterversion of the Fourth Commandment:

 Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh holystone the deck and scrape the cable. 

Decks are no longer holystoned, but the cable still supplies thecaptain with opportunity to attest a pious respect for the divineordinance. 

SACERDOTALIST, n. One who holds the belief that a clergyman is apriest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challengethat is now flung into the teeth of the Episcopalian church by theNeo-Dictionarians. 

SACRAMENT, n. A solemn religious ceremony to which several degrees ofauthority and significance are attached. Rome has seven sacraments, but the Protestant churches, being less prosperous, feel that they canafford only two, and these of inferior sanctity. Some of the smallersects have no sacraments at all--for which mean economy they willindubitable be damned. 

SACRED, adj. Dedicated to some religious purpose; having a divinecharacter; inspiring solemn thoughts or emotions; as, the Dalai Lamaof Thibet; the Moogum of M'bwango; the temple of Apes in Ceylon; theCow in India; the Crocodile, the Cat and the Onion of ancient Egypt;the Mufti of Moosh; the hair of the dog that bit Noah, etc. 

 All things are either sacred or profane. The former to ecclesiasts bring gain; The latter to the devil appertain. 

Dumbo Omohundro

SANDLOTTER, n. A vertebrate mammal holding the political views ofDenis Kearney, a notorious demagogue of San Francisco, whose audiencesgathered in the open spaces (sandlots) of the town. True to thetraditions of his species, this leader of the proletariat was finallybought off by his law-and-order enemies, living prosperously silentand dying impenitently rich. But before his treason he imposed uponCalifornia a constitution that was a confection of sin in a diction ofsolecisms. The similarity between the words "sandlotter" and"sansculotte" is problematically significant, but indubitablysuggestive. 

SAFETY-CLUTCH, n. A mechanical device acting automatically to preventthe fall of an elevator, or cage, in case of an accident to thehoisting apparatus. 

 Once I seen a human ruin In an elevator-well, And his members was bestrewin' All the place where he had fell. 

 And I says, apostrophisin' That uncommon woful wreck: "Your position's so surprisin' That I tremble for your neck!"

 Then that ruin, smilin' sadly And impressive, up and spoke: "Well, I wouldn't tremble badly, For it's been a fortnight broke. "

 Then, for further comprehension Of his attitude, he begs I will focus my attention On his various arms and legs--

 How they all are contumacious; Where they each, respective, lie; How one trotter proves ungracious, T'other one an _alibi_. 

 These particulars is mentioned For to show his dismal state, Which I wasn't first intentioned To specifical relate. 

 None is worser to be dreaded That I ever have heard tell Than the gent's who there was spreaded In that elevator-well. 

 Now this tale is allegoric-- It is figurative all, For the well is metaphoric And the feller didn't fall. 

 I opine it isn't moral For a writer-man to cheat, And despise to wear a laurel As was gotten by deceit. 

 For 'tis Politics intended By the elevator, mind, It will boost a person splendid If his talent is the kind. 

 Col. Bryan had the talent (For the busted man is him) And it shot him up right gallant Till his head begun to swim. 

 Then the rope it broke above him And he painful come to earth Where there's nobody to love him For his detrimented worth. 

 Though he's livin' none would know him, Or at leastwise not as such. Moral of this woful poem: Frequent oil your safety-clutch. 

Porfer Poog

SAINT, n. A dead sinner revised and edited. 

The Duchess of Orleans relates that the irreverent oldcalumniator, Marshal Villeroi, who in his youth had known St. Francisde Sales, said, on hearing him called saint: "I am delighted to hearthat Monsieur de Sales is a saint. He was fond of saying indelicatethings, and used to cheat at cards. In other respects he was aperfect gentleman, though a fool. "

SALACITY, n. A certain literary quality frequently observed inpopular novels, especially in those written by women and young girls, who give it another name and think that in introducing it they areoccupying a neglected field of letters and reaping an overlookedharvest. If they have the misfortune to live long enough they aretormented with a desire to burn their sheaves. 

SALAMANDER, n. Originally a reptile inhabiting fire; later, ananthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are nowbelieved to be extinct, the last one of which we have an accounthaving been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised itwith a bucket of holy water. 

SARCOPHAGUS, n. Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of acertain kind of carnivorous stone, had the peculiar property ofdevouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagus known to modernobsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter's art. 

SATAN, n. One of the Creator's lamentable mistakes, repented insashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan madehimself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled fromHeaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought amoment and at last went back. "There is one favor that I should liketo ask, " said he. 

"Name it. "

"Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws. "

"What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawnof eternity with hatred of his soul--you ask for the right to makehis laws?"

"Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make themhimself. "

It was so ordered. 

SATIETY, n. The feeling that one has for the plate after he has eatenits contents, madam. 

SATIRE, n. An obsolete kind of literary composition in which thevices and follies of the author's enemies were expounded withimperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than asickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein weare dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like allhumor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americansare "endowed by their Creator" with abundant vice and folly, it is notgenerally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore thesatirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his evervictim's outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent. 

 Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung In the dead language of a mummy's tongue, For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well-- Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell. Had it been such as consecrates the Bible Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel. 

Barney Stims

SATYR, n. One of the few characters of the Grecian mythology accordedrecognition in the Hebrew. (Leviticus, xvii, 7. ) The satyr was atfirst a member of the dissolute community acknowledging a looseallegiance with Dionysius, but underwent many transformations andimprovements. Not infrequently he is confounded with the faun, alater and decenter creation of the Romans, who was less like a man andmore like a goat. 

SAUCE, n. The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with onesauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce inventedand accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven. 

SAW, n. A trite popular saying, or proverb. (Figurative andcolloquial. ) So called because it makes its way into a wooden head. Following are examples of old saws fitted with new teeth. 

 A penny saved is a penny to squander. 

 A man is known by the company that he organizes. 

 A bad workman quarrels with the man who calls him that. 

 A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring. 

 Better late than before anybody has invited you. 

 Example is better than following it. 

 Half a loaf is better than a whole one if there is much else. 

 Think twice before you speak to a friend in need. 

 What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do it. 

 Least said is soonest disavowed. 

 He laughs best who laughs least. 

 Speak of the Devil and he will hear about it. 

 Of two evils choose to be the least. 

 Strike while your employer has a big contract. 

 Where there's a will there's a won't. 

SCARABAEUS, n. The sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians, allied toour familiar "tumble-bug. " It was supposed to symbolize immortality, the fact that God knew why giving it its peculiar sanctity. Its habitof incubating its eggs in a ball of ordure may also have commended itto the favor of the priesthood, and may some day assure it an equalreverence among ourselves. True, the American beetle is an inferiorbeetle, but the American priest is an inferior priest. 

SCARABEE, n. The same as scarabaeus. 

 He fell by his own hand Beneath the great oak tree. He'd traveled in a foreign land. He tried to make her understand The dance that's called the Saraband, But he called it Scarabee. He had called it so through an afternoon, And she, the light of his harem if so might be, Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see, All frosted there in the shine o' the moon-- Dead for a Scarabee And a recollection that came too late. O Fate! They buried him where he lay, He sleeps awaiting the Day, In state, And two Possible Puns, moon-eyed and wan, Gloom over the grave and then move on. Dead for a Scarabee! Fernando Tapple

SCARIFICATION, n. A form of penance practised by the mediaeval pious. The rite was performed, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a hotiron, but always, says Arsenius Asceticus, acceptably if the penitentspared himself no pain nor harmless disfigurement. Scarification, with other crude penances, has now been superseded by benefaction. The founding of a library or endowment of a university is said toyield to the penitent a sharper and more lasting pain than isconferred by the knife or iron, and is therefore a surer means ofgrace. There are, however, two grave objections to it as apenitential method: the good that it does and the taint of justice. 

SCEPTER, n. A king's staff of office, the sign and symbol of hisauthority. It was originally a mace with which the sovereignadmonished his jester and vetoed ministerial measures by breaking thebones of their proponents. 

SCIMETAR, n. A curved sword of exceeding keenness, in the conduct ofwhich certain Orientals attain a surprising proficiency, as theincident here related will serve to show. The account is translatedfrom the Japanese by Shusi Itama, a famous writer of the thirteenthcentury. 

 When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he condemned to decapitation Jijiji Ri, a high officer of the Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite what was his Majesty's surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man who should have been at that time ten minutes dead! "Seventeen hundred impossible dragons!" shouted the enraged monarch. "Did I not sentence you to stand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the public executioner at three o'clock? And is it not now 3:10?" "Son of a thousand illustrious deities, " answered the condemned minister, "all that you say is so true that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty's sunny and vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran and placed my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with his bare scimetar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightly upon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever a favorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable and treasonous head. " "To what regiment of executioners does the black-boweled caitiff belong?" asked the Mikado. "To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty-seventh--I know the man. His name is Sakko-Samshi. " "Let him be brought before me, " said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later the culprit stood in the Presence. "Thou bastard son of a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!" roared the sovereign--"why didst thou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?" "Lord of Cranes of Cherry Blooms, " replied the executioner, unmoved, "command him to blow his nose with his fingers. " Being commanded, Jijiji Ri laid hold of his nose and trumpeted like an elephant, all expecting to see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: the performance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident. All eyes were now turned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit of Fujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror. "Several kinds of spike-tailed brass lions!" he cried; "I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! I struck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimetar I had accidentally passed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office. " So saying, he gasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid it humbly at the Mikado's feet. 

SCRAP-BOOK, n. A book that is commonly edited by a fool. Manypersons of some small distinction compile scrap-books containingwhatever they happen to read about themselves or employ others tocollect. One of these egotists was addressed in the lines following, by Agamemnon Melancthon Peters:

 Dear Frank, that scrap-book where you boast You keep a record true Of every kind of peppered roast That's made of you;

 Wherein you paste the printed gibes That revel round your name, Thinking the laughter of the scribes Attests your fame;

 Where all the pictures you arrange That comic pencils trace-- Your funny figure and your strange Semitic face--

 Pray lend it me. Wit I have not, Nor art, but there I'll list The daily drubbings you'd have got Had God a fist. 

SCRIBBLER, n. A professional writer whose views are antagonistic toone's own. 

SCRIPTURES, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, asdistinguished from the false and profane writings on which all otherfaiths are based. 

SEAL, n. A mark impressed upon certain kinds of documents to attesttheir authenticity and authority. Sometimes it is stamped upon wax, and attached to the paper, sometimes into the paper itself. Sealing, in this sense, is a survival of an ancient custom of inscribingimportant papers with cabalistic words or signs to give them a magicalefficacy independent of the authority that they represent. In theBritish museum are preserved many ancient papers, mostly of asacerdotal character, validated by necromantic pentagrams and otherdevices, frequently initial letters of words to conjure with; and inmany instances these are attached in the same way that seals areappended now. As nearly every reasonless and apparently meaninglesscustom, rite or observance of modern times had origin in some remoteutility, it is pleasing to note an example of ancient nonsenseevolving in the process of ages into something really useful. Ourword "sincere" is derived from _sine cero_, without wax, but thelearned are not in agreement as to whether this refers to the absenceof the cabalistic signs, or to that of the wax with which letters wereformerly closed from public scrutiny. Either view of the matter willserve one in immediate need of an hypothesis. The initials L. S. , commonly appended to signatures of legal documents, mean _locumsigillis_, the place of the seal, although the seal is no longer used--an admirable example of conservatism distinguishing Man from thebeasts that perish. The words _locum sigillis_ are humbly suggestedas a suitable motto for the Pribyloff Islands whenever they shall taketheir place as a sovereign State of the American Union. 

SEINE, n. A kind of net for effecting an involuntary change ofenvironment. For fish it is made strong and coarse, but women aremore easily taken with a singularly delicate fabric weighted withsmall, cut stones. 

 The devil casting a seine of lace, (With precious stones 'twas weighted) Drew it into the landing place And its contents calculated. 

 All souls of women were in that sack-- A draft miraculous, precious! But ere he could throw it across his back They'd all escaped through the meshes. 

Baruch de Loppis

SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement. 

SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else. 

SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others. 

SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties andmisdemeanors. 

SERIAL, n. A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine. Frequently appended to each installment is a "synposis of precedingchapters" for those who have not read them, but a direr need is asynposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read_them_. A synposis of the entire work would be still better. 

The late James F. Bowman was writing a serial tale for a weeklypaper in collaboration with a genius whose name has not come down tous. They wrote, not jointly but alternately, Bowman supplying theinstallment for one week, his friend for the next, and so on, worldwithout end, they hoped. Unfortunately they quarreled, and one Mondaymorning when Bowman read the paper to prepare himself for his task, hefound his work cut out for him in a way to surprise and pain him. Hiscollaborator had embarked every character of the narrative on a shipand sunk them all in the deepest part of the Atlantic. 

SEVERALTY, n. Separateness, as, lands in severalty, i. E. , lands heldindividually, not in joint ownership. Certain tribes of Indians arebelieved now to be sufficiently civilized to have in severalty thelands that they have hitherto held as tribal organizations, and couldnot sell to the Whites for waxen beads and potato whiskey. 

 Lo! the poor Indian whose unsuited mind Saw death before, hell and the grave behind; Whom thrifty settler ne'er besought to stay-- His small belongings their appointed prey; Whom Dispossession, with alluring wile, Persuaded elsewhere every little while! His fire unquenched and his undying worm By "land in severalty" (charming term!) Are cooled and killed, respectively, at last, And he to his new holding anchored fast!

SHERIFF, n. In America the chief executive office of a country, whosemost characteristic duties, in some of the Western and SouthernStates, are the catching and hanging of rogues. 

 John Elmer Pettibone Cajee (I write of him with little glee) Was just as bad as he could be. 

 'Twas frequently remarked: "I swon! The sun has never looked upon So bad a man as Neighbor John. "

 A sinner through and through, he had This added fault: it made him mad To know another man was bad. 

 In such a case he thought it right To rise at any hour of night And quench that wicked person's light. 

 Despite the town's entreaties, he Would hale him to the nearest tree And leave him swinging wide and free. 

 Or sometimes, if the humor came, A luckless wight's reluctant frame Was given to the cheerful flame. 

 While it was turning nice and brown, All unconcerned John met the frown Of that austere and righteous town. 

 "How sad, " his neighbors said, "that he So scornful of the law should be-- An anar c, h, i, s, t. "

 (That is the way that they preferred To utter the abhorrent word, So strong the aversion that it stirred. )

 "Resolved, " they said, continuing, "That Badman John must cease this thing Of having his unlawful fling. 

 "Now, by these sacred relics"--here Each man had out a souvenir Got at a lynching yesteryear--

 "By these we swear he shall forsake His ways, nor cause our hearts to ache By sins of rope and torch and stake. 

 "We'll tie his red right hand until He'll have small freedom to fulfil The mandates of his lawless will. "

 So, in convention then and there, They named him Sheriff. The affair Was opened, it is said, with prayer. 

J. Milton Sloluck

SIREN, n. One of several musical prodigies famous for a vain attemptto dissuade Odysseus from a life on the ocean wave. Figuratively, anylady of splendid promise, dissembled purpose and disappointingperformance. 

SLANG, n. The grunt of the human hog (_Pignoramus intolerabilis_)with an audible memory. The speech of one who utters with his tonguewhat he thinks with his ear, and feels the pride of a creator inaccomplishing the feat of a parrot. A means (under Providence) ofsetting up as a wit without a capital of sense. 

SMITHAREEN, n. A fragment, a decomponent part, a remain. The word isused variously, but in the following verse on a noted female reformerwho opposed bicycle-riding by women because it "led them to the devil"it is seen at its best:

 The wheels go round without a sound-- The maidens hold high revel; In sinful mood, insanely gay, True spinsters spin adown the way From duty to the devil! They laugh, they sing, and--ting-a-ling! Their bells go all the morning; Their lanterns bright bestar the night Pedestrians a-warning. With lifted hands Miss Charlotte stands, Good-Lording and O-mying, Her rheumatism forgotten quite, Her fat with anger frying. She blocks the path that leads to wrath, Jack Satan's power defying. The wheels go round without a sound The lights burn red and blue and green. What's this that's found upon the ground? Poor Charlotte Smith's a smithareen!

John William Yope

SOPHISTRY, n. The controversial method of an opponent, distinguishedfrom one's own by superior insincerity and fooling. This method isthat of the later Sophists, a Grecian sect of philosophers who beganby teaching wisdom, prudence, science, art and, in brief, whatever menought to know, but lost themselves in a maze of quibbles and a fog ofwords. 

 His bad opponent's "facts" he sweeps away, And drags his sophistry to light of day; Then swears they're pushed to madness who resort To falsehood of so desperate a sort. Not so; like sods upon a dead man's breast, He lies most lightly who the least is pressed. 

Polydore Smith

SORCERY, n. The ancient prototype and forerunner of politicalinfluence. It was, however, deemed less respectable and sometimes waspunished by torture and death. Augustine Nicholas relates that a poorpeasant who had been accused of sorcery was put to the torture tocompel a confession. After enduring a few gentle agonies thesuffering simpleton admitted his guilt, but naively asked histormentors if it were not possible to be a sorcerer without knowingit. 

SOUL, n. A spiritual entity concerning which there hath been bravedisputation. Plato held that those souls which in a previous state ofexistence (antedating Athens) had obtained the clearest glimpses ofeternal truth entered into the bodies of persons who becamephilosophers. Plato himself was a philosopher. The souls that hadleast contemplated divine truth animated the bodies of usurpers anddespots. Dionysius I, who had threatened to decapitate thebroad-browed philosopher, was a usurper and a despot. Plato, doubtless, was not the first to construct a system of philosophy that could bequoted against his enemies; certainly he was not the last. 

"Concerning the nature of the soul, " saith the renowned author of_Diversiones Sanctorum_, "there hath been hardly more argument thanthat of its place in the body. Mine own belief is that the soul hathher seat in the abdomen--in which faith we may discern and interpreta truth hitherto unintelligible, namely that the glutton is of all menmost devout. He is said in the Scripture to 'make a god of his belly'--why, then, should he not be pious, having ever his Deity with himto freshen his faith? Who so well as he can know the might andmajesty that he shrines? Truly and soberly, the soul and the stomachare one Divine Entity; and such was the belief of Promasius, whonevertheless erred in denying it immortality. He had observed thatits visible and material substance failed and decayed with the rest ofthe body after death, but of its immaterial essence he knew nothing. This is what we call the Appetite, and it survives the wreck and reekof mortality, to be rewarded or punished in another world, accordingto what it hath demanded in the flesh. The Appetite whose coarseclamoring was for the unwholesome viands of the general market and thepublic refectory shall be cast into eternal famine, whilst that whichfirmly through civilly insisted on ortolans, caviare, terrapin, anchovies, _pates de foie gras_ and all such Christian comestiblesshall flesh its spiritual tooth in the souls of them forever and ever, and wreak its divine thirst upon the immortal parts of the rarest andrichest wines ever quaffed here below. Such is my religious faith, though I grieve to confess that neither His Holiness the Pope nor HisGrace the Archbishop of Canterbury (whom I equally and profoundlyrevere) will assent to its dissemination. "

SPOOKER, n. A writer whose imagination concerns itself withsupernatural phenomena, especially in the doings of spooks. One ofthe most illustrious spookers of our time is Mr. William D. Howells, who introduces a well-credentialed reader to as respectable andmannerly a company of spooks as one could wish to meet. To the terrorthat invests the chairman of a district school board, the Howellsghost adds something of the mystery enveloping a farmer from anothertownship. 

STORY, n. A narrative, commonly untrue. The truth of the storieshere following has, however, not been successfully impeached. 

One evening Mr. Rudolph Block, of New York, found himself seatedat dinner alongside Mr. Percival Pollard, the distinguished critic. 

"Mr. Pollard, " said he, "my book, _The Biography of a Dead Cow_, is published anonymously, but you can hardly be ignorant of itsauthorship. Yet in reviewing it you speak of it as the work of theIdiot of the Century. Do you think that fair criticism?"

"I am very sorry, sir, " replied the critic, amiably, "but it didnot occur to me that you really might not wish the public to know whowrote it. "

Mr. W. C. Morrow, who used to live in San Jose, California, wasaddicted to writing ghost stories which made the reader feel as if astream of lizards, fresh from the ice, were streaking it up his backand hiding in his hair. San Jose was at that time believed to behaunted by the visible spirit of a noted bandit named Vasquez, who hadbeen hanged there. The town was not very well lighted, and it isputting it mildly to say that San Jose was reluctant to be out o'nights. One particularly dark night two gentlemen were abroad in theloneliest spot within the city limits, talking loudly to keep up theircourage, when they came upon Mr. J. J. Owen, a well-known journalist. 

"Why, Owen, " said one, "what brings you here on such a night asthis? You told me that this is one of Vasquez' favorite haunts! Andyou are a believer. Aren't you afraid to be out?"

"My dear fellow, " the journalist replied with a drear autumnalcadence in his speech, like the moan of a leaf-laden wind, "I amafraid to be in. I have one of Will Morrow's stories in my pocket andI don't dare to go where there is light enough to read it. "

Rear-Admiral Schley and Representative Charles F. Joy werestanding near the Peace Monument, in Washington, discussing thequestion, Is success a failure? Mr. Joy suddenly broke off in themiddle of an eloquent sentence, exclaiming: "Hello! I've heard thatband before. Santlemann's, I think. "

"I don't hear any band, " said Schley. 

"Come to think, I don't either, " said Joy; "but I see GeneralMiles coming down the avenue, and that pageant always affects me inthe same way as a brass band. One has to scrutinize one's impressionspretty closely, or one will mistake their origin. "

While the Admiral was digesting this hasty meal of philosophyGeneral Miles passed in review, a spectacle of impressive dignity. When the tail of the seeming procession had passed and the twoobservers had recovered from the transient blindness caused by itseffulgence--

"He seems to be enjoying himself, " said the Admiral. 

"There is nothing, " assented Joy, thoughtfully, "that he enjoysone-half so well. "

The illustrious statesman, Champ Clark, once lived about a milefrom the village of Jebigue, in Missouri. One day he rode into townon a favorite mule, and, hitching the beast on the sunny side of astreet, in front of a saloon, he went inside in his character ofteetotaler, to apprise the barkeeper that wine is a mocker. It was adreadfully hot day. Pretty soon a neighbor came in and seeing Clark, said:

"Champ, it is not right to leave that mule out there in the sun. He'll roast, sure!--he was smoking as I passed him. "

"O, he's all right, " said Clark, lightly; "he's an inveteratesmoker. "

The neighbor took a lemonade, but shook his head and repeated thatit was not right. 

He was a conspirator. There had been a fire the night before: astable just around the corner had burned and a number of horses hadput on their immortality, among them a young colt, which was roastedto a rich nut-brown. Some of the boys had turned Mr. Clark's muleloose and substituted the mortal part of the colt. Presently anotherman entered the saloon. 

"For mercy's sake!" he said, taking it with sugar, "do remove thatmule, barkeeper: it smells. "

"Yes, " interposed Clark, "that animal has the best nose inMissouri. But if he doesn't mind, you shouldn't. "

In the course of human events Mr. Clark went out, and there, apparently, lay the incinerated and shrunken remains of his charger. The boys did not have any fun out of Mr. Clarke, who looked at thebody and, with the non-committal expression to which he owes so muchof his political preferment, went away. But walking home late thatnight he saw his mule standing silent and solemn by the wayside in themisty moonlight. Mentioning the name of Helen Blazes with uncommonemphasis, Mr. Clark took the back track as hard as ever he could hookit, and passed the night in town. 

General H. H. Wotherspoon, president of the Army War College, has apet rib-nosed baboon, an animal of uncommon intelligence butimperfectly beautiful. Returning to his apartment one evening, theGeneral was surprised and pained to find Adam (for so the creature isnamed, the general being a Darwinian) sitting up for him and wearinghis master's best uniform coat, epaulettes and all. 

"You confounded remote ancestor!" thundered the great strategist, "what do you mean by being out of bed after naps?--and with my coaton!"

Adam rose and with a reproachful look got down on all fours in themanner of his kind and, scuffling across the room to a table, returnedwith a visiting-card: General Barry had called and, judging by anempty champagne bottle and several cigar-stumps, had been hospitablyentertained while waiting. The general apologized to his faithfulprogenitor and retired. The next day he met General Barry, who said:

"Spoon, old man, when leaving you last evening I forgot to ask youabout those excellent cigars. Where did you get them?"

General Wotherspoon did not deign to reply, but walked away. 

"Pardon me, please, " said Barry, moving after him; "I was jokingof course. Why, I knew it was not you before I had been in the roomfifteen minutes. "

SUCCESS, n. The one unpardonable sin against one's fellows. Inliterature, and particularly in poetry, the elements of success areexceedingly simple, and are admirably set forth in the following linesby the reverend Father Gassalasca Jape, entitled, for some mysteriousreason, "John A. Joyce. "

 The bard who would prosper must carry a book, Do his thinking in prose and wear A crimson cravat, a far-away look And a head of hexameter hair. Be thin in your thought and your body'll be fat; If you wear your hair long you needn't your hat. 

SUFFRAGE, n. Expression of opinion by means of a ballot. The rightof suffrage (which is held to be both a privilege and a duty) means, as commonly interpreted, the right to vote for the man of anotherman's choice, and is highly prized. Refusal to do so has the bad nameof "incivism. " The incivilian, however, cannot be properly arraignedfor his crime, for there is no legitimate accuser. If the accuser ishimself guilty he has no standing in the court of opinion; if not, heprofits by the crime, for A's abstention from voting gives greaterweight to the vote of B. By female suffrage is meant the right of awoman to vote as some man tells her to. It is based on femaleresponsibility, which is somewhat limited. The woman most eager tojump out of her petticoat to assert her rights is first to jump backinto it when threatened with a switching for misusing them. 

SYCOPHANT, n. One who approaches Greatness on his belly so that hemay not be commanded to turn and be kicked. He is sometimes aneditor. 

 As the lean leech, its victim found, is pleased To fix itself upon a part diseased Till, its black hide distended with bad blood, It drops to die of surfeit in the mud, So the base sycophant with joy descries His neighbor's weak spot and his mouth applies, Gorges and prospers like the leech, although, Unlike that reptile, he will not let go. Gelasma, if it paid you to devote Your talent to the service of a goat, Showing by forceful logic that its beard Is more than Aaron's fit to be revered; If to the task of honoring its smell Profit had prompted you, and love as well, The world would benefit at last by you And wealthy malefactors weep anew-- Your favor for a moment's space denied And to the nobler object turned aside. Is't not enough that thrifty millionaires Who loot in freight and spoliate in fares, Or, cursed with consciences that bid them fly To safer villainies of darker dye, Forswearing robbery and fain, instead, To steal (they call it "cornering") our bread May see you groveling their boots to lick And begging for the favor of a kick? Still must you follow to the bitter end Your sycophantic disposition's trend, And in your eagerness to please the rich Hunt hungry sinners to their final ditch? In Morgan's praise you smite the sounding wire, And sing hosannas to great Havemeyher! What's Satan done that him you should eschew? He too is reeking rich--deducting _you_. 

SYLLOGISM, n. A logical formula consisting of a major and a minorassumption and an inconsequent. (See LOGIC. )

SYLPH, n. An immaterial but visible being that inhabited the air whenthe air was an element and before it was fatally polluted with factorysmoke, sewer gas and similar products of civilization. Sylphs wereallied to gnomes, nymphs and salamanders, which dwelt, respectively, in earth, water and fire, all now insalubrious. Sylphs, like fowls ofthe air, were male and female, to no purpose, apparently, for if theyhad progeny they must have nested in accessible places, none of thechicks having ever been seen. 

SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand forsomething else. Many symbols are mere "survivals"--things whichhaving no longer any utility continue to exist because we haveinherited the tendency to make them; as funereal urns carved onmemorial monuments. They were once real urns holding the ashes of thedead. We cannot stop making them, but we can give them a name thatconceals our helplessness. 

SYMBOLIC, adj. Pertaining to symbols and the use and interpretationof symbols. 

 They say 'tis conscience feels compunction; I hold that that's the stomach's function, For of the sinner I have noted That when he's sinned he's somewhat bloated, Or ill some other ghastly fashion Within that bowel of compassion. True, I believe the only sinner Is he that eats a shabby dinner. You know how Adam with good reason, For eating apples out of season, Was "cursed. " But that is all symbolic: The truth is, Adam had the colic. 

G. J. 

T

T, the twentieth letter of the English alphabet, was by the Greeksabsurdly called _tau_. In the alphabet whence ours comes it had theform of the rude corkscrew of the period, and when it stood alone(which was more than the Phoenicians could always do) signified_Tallegal_, translated by the learned Dr. Brownrigg, "tanglefoot. "

TABLE D'HOTE, n. A caterer's thrifty concession to the universalpassion for irresponsibility. 

 Old Paunchinello, freshly wed, Took Madam P. To table, And there deliriously fed As fast as he was able. 

 "I dote upon good grub, " he cried, Intent upon its throatage. "Ah, yes, " said the neglected bride, "You're in your _table d'hotage_. "

Associated Poets

TAIL, n. The part of an animal's spine that has transcended itsnatural limitations to set up an independent existence in a world ofits own. Excepting in its foetal state, Man is without a tail, aprivation of which he attests an hereditary and uneasy consciousnessby the coat-skirt of the male and the train of the female, and by amarked tendency to ornament that part of his attire where the tailshould be, and indubitably once was. This tendency is most observablein the female of the species, in whom the ancestral sense is strongand persistent. The tailed men described by Lord Monboddo are nowgenerally regarded as a product of an imagination unusuallysusceptible to influences generated in the golden age of our pithecanpast. 

TAKE, v. T. To acquire, frequently by force but preferably by stealth. 

TALK, v. T. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from animpulse without purpose. 

TARIFF, n. A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect thedomestic producer against the greed of his consumer. 

 The Enemy of Human Souls Sat grieving at the cost of coals; For Hell had been annexed of late, And was a sovereign Southern State. 

 "It were no more than right, " said he, "That I should get my fuel free. The duty, neither just nor wise, Compels me to economize-- Whereby my broilers, every one, Are execrably underdone. What would they have?--although I yearn To do them nicely to a turn, I can't afford an honest heat. This tariff makes even devils cheat! I'm ruined, and my humble trade All rascals may at will invade: Beneath my nose the public press Outdoes me in sulphureousness; The bar ingeniously applies To my undoing my own lies; My medicines the doctors use (Albeit vainly) to refuse To me my fair and rightful prey And keep their own in shape to pay; The preachers by example teach What, scorning to perform, I teach; And statesmen, aping me, all make More promises than they can break. Against such competition I Lift up a disregarded cry. Since all ignore my just complaint, By Hokey-Pokey! I'll turn saint!" Now, the Republicans, who all Are saints, began at once to bawl Against _his_ competition; so There was a devil of a go! They locked horns with him, tete-a-tete In acrimonious debate, Till Democrats, forlorn and lone, Had hopes of coming by their own. That evil to avert, in haste The two belligerents embraced; But since 'twere wicked to relax A tittle of the Sacred Tax, 'Twas finally agreed to grant The bold Insurgent-protestant A bounty on each soul that fell Into his ineffectual Hell. 

Edam Smith

TECHNICALITY, n. In an English court a man named Home was tried forslander in having accused his neighbor of murder. His exact wordswere: "Sir Thomas Holt hath taken a cleaver and stricken his cookupon the head, so that one side of the head fell upon one shoulder andthe other side upon the other shoulder. " The defendant was acquittedby instruction of the court, the learned judges holding that the wordsdid not charge murder, for they did not affirm the death of the cook, that being only an inference. 

TEDIUM, n. Ennui, the state or condition of one that is bored. Manyfanciful derivations of the word have been affirmed, but so high anauthority as Father Jape says that it comes from a very obvioussource--the first words of the ancient Latin hymn _Te DeumLaudamus_. In this apparently natural derivation there is somethingthat saddens. 

TEETOTALER, n. One who abstains from strong drink, sometimes totally, sometimes tolerably totally. 

TELEPHONE, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of theadvantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance. 

TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to thatof the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague uswith a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with abell summoning us to the sacrifice. 

TENACITY, n. A certain quality of the human hand in its relation tothe coin of the realm. It attains its highest development in the handof authority and is considered a serviceable equipment for a career inpolitics. The following illustrative lines were written of aCalifornian gentleman in high political preferment, who has passed tohis accounting:

 Of such tenacity his grip That nothing from his hand can slip. Well-buttered eels you may o'erwhelm In tubs of liquid slippery-elm In vain--from his detaining pinch They cannot struggle half an inch! 'Tis lucky that he so is planned That breath he draws not with his hand, For if he did, so great his greed He'd draw his last with eager speed. Nay, that were well, you say. Not so He'd draw but never let it go!

THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religionand all the mystery of science. The modern Theosophist holds, withthe Buddhists, that we live an incalculable number of times on thisearth, in as many several bodies, because one life is not long enoughfor our complete spiritual development; that is, a single lifetimedoes not suffice for us to become as wise and good as we choose towish to become. To be absolutely wise and good--that is perfection;and the Theosophist is so keen-sighted as to have observed thateverything desirous of improvement eventually attains perfection. Less competent observers are disposed to except cats, which seemneither wiser nor better than they were last year. The greatest andfattest of recent Theosophists was the late Madame Blavatsky, who hadno cat. 

TIGHTS, n. An habiliment of the stage designed to reinforce thegeneral acclamation of the press agent with a particular publicity. Public attention was once somewhat diverted from this garment to MissLillian Russell's refusal to wear it, and many were the conjectures asto her motive, the guess of Miss Pauline Hall showing a high order ofingenuity and sustained reflection. It was Miss Hall's belief thatnature had not endowed Miss Russell with beautiful legs. This theorywas impossible of acceptance by the male understanding, but theconception of a faulty female leg was of so prodigious originality asto rank among the most brilliant feats of philosophical speculation!It is strange that in all the controversy regarding Miss Russell'saversion to tights no one seems to have thought to ascribe it to whatwas known among the ancients as "modesty. " The nature of thatsentiment is now imperfectly understood, and possibly incapable ofexposition with the vocabulary that remains to us. The study of lostarts has, however, been recently revived and some of the artsthemselves recovered. This is an epoch of _renaissances_, and thereis ground for hope that the primitive "blush" may be dragged from itshiding-place amongst the tombs of antiquity and hissed on to thestage. 

TOMB, n. The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consentinvested with a certain sanctity, but when they have been longtenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr. Huggyns, explaining that a tomb may beinnocently "glened" as soon as its occupant is done "smellynge, " thesoul being then all exhaled. This reasonable view is now generallyaccepted by archaeologists, whereby the noble science of Curiosity hasbeen greatly dignified. 

TOPE, v. To tipple, booze, swill, soak, guzzle, lush, bib, or swig. In the individual, toping is regarded with disesteem, but topingnations are in the forefront of civilization and power. When pittedagainst the hard-drinking Christians the abstemious Mahometans go downlike grass before the scythe. In India one hundred thousandbeef-eating and brandy-and-soda guzzling Britons hold in subjection twohundred and fifty million vegetarian abstainers of the same Aryan race. With what an easy grace the whisky-loving American pushed the temperateSpaniard out of his possessions! From the time when the Berserkersravaged all the coasts of western Europe and lay drunk in everyconquered port it has been the same way: everywhere the nations thatdrink too much are observed to fight rather well and not toorighteously. Wherefore the estimable old ladies who abolished thecanteen from the American army may justly boast of having materiallyaugmented the nation's military power. 

TORTOISE, n. A creature thoughtfully created to supply occasion forthe following lines by the illustrious Ambat Delaso:

TO MY PET TORTOISE

 My friend, you are not graceful--not at all; Your gait's between a stagger and a sprawl. 

 Nor are you beautiful: your head's a snake's To look at, and I do not doubt it aches. 

 As to your feet, they'd make an angel weep. 'Tis true you take them in whene'er you sleep. 

 No, you're not pretty, but you have, I own, A certain firmness--mostly you're [sic] backbone. 

 Firmness and strength (you have a giant's thews) Are virtues that the great know how to use--

 I wish that they did not; yet, on the whole, You lack--excuse my mentioning it--Soul. 

 So, to be candid, unreserved and true, I'd rather you were I than I were you. 

 Perhaps, however, in a time to be, When Man's extinct, a better world may see

 Your progeny in power and control, Due to the genesis and growth of Soul. 

 So I salute you as a reptile grand Predestined to regenerate the land. 

 Father of Possibilities, O deign To accept the homage of a dying reign!

 In the far region of the unforeknown I dream a tortoise upon every throne. 

 I see an Emperor his head withdraw Into his carapace for fear of Law;

 A King who carries something else than fat, Howe'er acceptably he carries that;

 A President not strenuously bent On punishment of audible dissent--

 Who never shot (it were a vain attack) An armed or unarmed tortoise in the back;

 Subject and citizens that feel no need To make the March of Mind a wild stampede;

 All progress slow, contemplative, sedate, And "Take your time" the word, in Church and State. 

 O Tortoise, 'tis a happy, happy dream, My glorious testudinous regime!

 I wish in Eden you'd brought this about By slouching in and chasing Adam out. 

TREE, n. A tall vegetable intended by nature to serve as a penalapparatus, though through a miscarriage of justice most trees bearonly a negligible fruit, or none at all. When naturally fruited, thetree is a beneficient agency of civilization and an important factorin public morals. In the stern West and the sensitive South its fruit(white and black respectively) though not eaten, is agreeable to thepublic taste and, though not exported, profitable to the generalwelfare. That the legitimate relation of the tree to justice was nodiscovery of Judge Lynch (who, indeed, conceded it no primacy over thelamp-post and the bridge-girder) is made plain by the followingpassage from Morryster, who antedated him by two centuries:

 While in yt londe I was carried to see ye Ghogo tree, whereof I had hearde moch talk; but sayynge yt I saw naught remarkabyll in it, ye hed manne of ye villayge where it grewe made answer as followeth: "Ye tree is not nowe in fruite, but in his seasonne you shall see dependynge fr. His braunches all soch as have affroynted ye King his Majesty. " And I was furder tolde yt ye worde "Ghogo" sygnifyeth in yr tong ye same as "rapscal" in our owne. 

_Trauvells in ye Easte_

TRIAL, n. A formal inquiry designed to prove and put upon record theblameless characters of judges, advocates and jurors. In order toeffect this purpose it is necessary to supply a contrast in the personof one who is called the defendant, the prisoner, or the accused. Ifthe contrast is made sufficiently clear this person is made to undergosuch an affliction as will give the virtuous gentlemen a comfortablesense of their immunity, added to that of their worth. In our day theaccused is usually a human being, or a socialist, but in mediaevaltimes, animals, fishes, reptiles and insects were brought to trial. Abeast that had taken human life, or practiced sorcery, was dulyarrested, tried and, if condemned, put to death by the publicexecutioner. Insects ravaging grain fields, orchards or vineyardswere cited to appeal by counsel before a civil tribunal, and aftertestimony, argument and condemnation, if they continued _incontumaciam_ the matter was taken to a high ecclesiastical court, where they were solemnly excommunicated and anathematized. In astreet of Toledo, some pigs that had wickedly run between theviceroy's legs, upsetting him, were arrested on a warrant, tried andpunished. In Naples and ass was condemned to be burned at the stake, but the sentence appears not to have been executed. D'Addosio relatesfrom the court records many trials of pigs, bulls, horses, cocks, dogs, goats, etc. , greatly, it is believed, to the betterment of theirconduct and morals. In 1451 a suit was brought against the leechesinfesting some ponds about Berne, and the Bishop of Lausanne, instructed by the faculty of Heidelberg University, directed that someof "the aquatic worms" be brought before the local magistracy. Thiswas done and the leeches, both present and absent, were ordered toleave the places that they had infested within three days on pain ofincurring "the malediction of God. " In the voluminous records of this_cause celebre_ nothing is found to show whether the offenders bravedthe punishment, or departed forthwith out of that inhospitablejurisdiction. 

TRICHINOSIS, n. The pig's reply to proponents of porcophagy. 

Moses Mendlessohn having fallen ill sent for a Christianphysician, who at once diagnosed the philosopher's disorder astrichinosis, but tactfully gave it another name. "You need andimmediate change of diet, " he said; "you must eat six ounces of porkevery other day. "

"Pork?" shrieked the patient--"pork? Nothing shall induce me totouch it!"

"Do you mean that?" the doctor gravely asked. 

"I swear it!"

"Good!--then I will undertake to cure you. "

TRINITY, n. In the multiplex theism of certain Christian churches, three entirely distinct deities consistent with only one. Subordinatedeities of the polytheistic faith, such as devils and angels, are notdowered with the power of combination, and must urge individuallytheir claims to adoration and propitiation. The Trinity is one of themost sublime mysteries of our holy religion. In rejecting it becauseit is incomprehensible, Unitarians betray their inadequate sense oftheological fundamentals. In religion we believe only what we do notunderstand, except in the instance of an intelligible doctrine thatcontradicts an incomprehensible one. In that case we believe theformer as a part of the latter. 

TROGLODYTE, n. Specifically, a cave-dweller of the paleolithicperiod, after the Tree and before the Flat. A famous community oftroglodytes dwelt with David in the Cave of Adullam. The colonyconsisted of "every one that was in distress, and every one that wasin debt, and every one that was discontented"--in brief, all theSocialists of Judah. 

TRUCE, n. Friendship. 

TRUTH, n. An ingenious compound of desirability and appearance. Discovery of truth is the sole purpose of philosophy, which is themost ancient occupation of the human mind and has a fair prospect ofexisting with increasing activity to the end of time. 

TRUTHFUL, adj. Dumb and illiterate. 

TRUST, n. In American politics, a large corporation composed ingreater part of thrifty working men, widows of small means, orphans inthe care of guardians and the courts, with many similar malefactorsand public enemies. 

TURKEY, n. A large bird whose flesh when eaten on certain religiousanniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety andgratitude. Incidentally, it is pretty good eating. 

TWICE, adv. Once too often. 

TYPE, n. Pestilent bits of metal suspected of destroyingcivilization and enlightenment, despite their obvious agency in thisincomparable dictionary. 

TZETZE (or TSETSE) FLY, n. An African insect (_Glossina morsitans_)whose bite is commonly regarded as nature's most efficacious remedyfor insomnia, though some patients prefer that of the Americannovelist (_Mendax interminabilis_). 

U

UBIQUITY, n. The gift or power of being in all places at one time, but not in all places at all times, which is omnipresence, anattribute of God and the luminiferous ether only. This importantdistinction between ubiquity and omnipresence was not clear to themediaeval Church and there was much bloodshed about it. CertainLutherans, who affirmed the presence everywhere of Christ's body wereknown as Ubiquitarians. For this error they were doubtless damned, for Christ's body is present only in the eucharist, though thatsacrament may be performed in more than one place simultaneously. Inrecent times ubiquity has not always been understood--not even bySir Boyle Roche, for example, who held that a man cannot be in twoplaces at once unless he is a bird. 

UGLINESS, n. A gift of the gods to certain women, entailing virtuewithout humility. 

ULTIMATUM, n. In diplomacy, a last demand before resorting toconcessions. 

Having received an ultimatum from Austria, the Turkish Ministrymet to consider it. 

"O servant of the Prophet, " said the Sheik of the Imperial Chiboukto the Mamoosh of the Invincible Army, "how many unconquerablesoldiers have we in arms?"

"Upholder of the Faith, " that dignitary replied after examininghis memoranda, "they are in numbers as the leaves of the forest!"

"And how many impenetrable battleships strike terror to the heartsof all Christian swine?" he asked the Imaum of the Ever VictoriousNavy. 

"Uncle of the Full Moon, " was the reply, "deign to know that theyare as the waves of the ocean, the sands of the desert and the starsof Heaven!"

For eight hours the broad brow of the Sheik of the ImperialChibouk was corrugated with evidences of deep thought: he wascalculating the chances of war. Then, "Sons of angels, " he said, "thedie is cast! I shall suggest to the Ulema of the Imperial Ear that headvise inaction. In the name of Allah, the council is adjourned. "

UN-AMERICAN, adj. Wicked, intolerable, heathenish. 

UNCTION, n. An oiling, or greasing. The rite of extreme unctionconsists in touching with oil consecrated by a bishop several parts ofthe body of one engaged in dying. Marbury relates that after the ritehad been administered to a certain wicked English nobleman it wasdiscovered that the oil had not been properly consecrated and no othercould be obtained. When informed of this the sick man said in anger:"Then I'll be damned if I die!"

"My son, " said the priest, "this is what we fear. "

UNDERSTANDING, n. A cerebral secretion that enables one having it toknow a house from a horse by the roof on the house. Its nature andlaws have been exhaustively expounded by Locke, who rode a house, andKant, who lived in a horse. 

 His understanding was so keen That all things which he'd felt, heard, seen, He could interpret without fail If he was in or out of jail. He wrote at Inspiration's call Deep disquisitions on them all, Then, pent at last in an asylum, Performed the service to compile 'em. So great a writer, all men swore, They never had not read before. 

Jorrock Wormley

UNITARIAN, n. One who denies the divinity of a Trinitarian. 

UNIVERSALIST, n. One who forgoes the advantage of a Hell for personsof another faith. 

URBANITY, n. The kind of civility that urban observers ascribe todwellers in all cities but New York. Its commonest expression isheard in the words, "I beg your pardon, " and it is not consistent withdisregard of the rights of others. 

 The owner of a powder mill Was musing on a distant hill-- Something his mind foreboded-- When from the cloudless sky there fell A deviled human kidney! Well, The man's mill had exploded. His hat he lifted from his head; "I beg your pardon, sir, " he said; "I didn't know 'twas loaded. "

Swatkin

USAGE, n. The First Person of the literary Trinity, the Second andThird being Custom and Conventionality. Imbued with a decentreverence for this Holy Triad an industrious writer may hope toproduce books that will live as long as the fashion. 

UXORIOUSNESS, n. A perverted affection that has strayed to one's ownwife. 

V

VALOR, n. A soldierly compound of vanity, duty and the gambler'shope. 

"Why have you halted?" roared the commander of a division andChickamauga, who had ordered a charge; "move forward, sir, at once. "

"General, " said the commander of the delinquent brigade, "I ampersuaded that any further display of valor by my troops will bringthem into collision with the enemy. "

VANITY, n. The tribute of a fool to the worth of the nearest ass. 

 They say that hens do cackle loudest when There's nothing vital in the eggs they've laid; And there are hens, professing to have made A study of mankind, who say that men Whose business 'tis to drive the tongue or pen Make the most clamorous fanfaronade O'er their most worthless work; and I'm afraid They're not entirely different from the hen. Lo! the drum-major in his coat of gold, His blazing breeches and high-towering cap-- Imperiously pompous, grandly bold, Grim, resolute, an awe-inspiring chap! Who'd think this gorgeous creature's only virtue Is that in battle he will never hurt you?

Hannibal Hunsiker

VIRTUES, n. Pl. Certain abstentions. 

VITUPERATION, n. Saite, as understood by dunces and all such assuffer from an impediment in their wit. 

VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make afool of himself and a wreck of his country. 

W

W (double U) has, of all the letters in our alphabet, the onlycumbrous name, the names of the others being monosyllabic. Thisadvantage of the Roman alphabet over the Grecian is the more valuedafter audibly spelling out some simple Greek word, like_epixoriambikos_. Still, it is now thought by the learned that otheragencies than the difference of the two alphabets may have beenconcerned in the decline of "the glory that was Greece" and the riseof "the grandeur that was Rome. " There can be no doubt, however, thatby simplifying the name of W (calling it "wow, " for example) ourcivilization could be, if not promoted, at least better endured. 

WALL STREET, n. A symbol for sin for every devil to rebuke. ThatWall Street is a den of thieves is a belief that serves everyunsuccessful thief in place of a hope in Heaven. Even the great andgood Andrew Carnegie has made his profession of faith in the matter. 

 Carnegie the dauntless has uttered his call To battle: "The brokers are parasites all!" Carnegie, Carnegie, you'll never prevail; Keep the wind of your slogan to belly your sail, Go back to your isle of perpetual brume, Silence your pibroch, doff tartan and plume: Ben Lomond is calling his son from the fray-- Fly, fly from the region of Wall Street away! While still you're possessed of a single baubee (I wish it were pledged to endowment of me) 'Twere wise to retreat from the wars of finance Lest its value decline ere your credit advance. For a man 'twixt a king of finance and the sea, Carnegie, Carnegie, your tongue is too free!

Anonymus Bink

WAR, n. A by-product of the arts of peace. The most menacingpolitical condition is a period of international amity. The studentof history who has not been taught to expect the unexpected may justlyboast himself inaccessible to the light. "In time of peace preparefor war" has a deeper meaning than is commonly discerned; it means, not merely that all things earthly have an end--that change is theone immutable and eternal law--but that the soil of peace is thicklysown with the seeds of war and singularly suited to their germinationand growth. It was when Kubla Khan had decreed his "stately pleasuredome"--when, that is to say, there were peace and fat feasting inXanadu--that he

 heard from afar Ancestral voices prophesying war. 

One of the greatest of poets, Coleridge was one of the wisest ofmen, and it was not for nothing that he read us this parable. Let ushave a little less of "hands across the sea, " and a little more ofthat elemental distrust that is the security of nations. War loves tocome like a thief in the night; professions of eternal amity providethe night. 

WASHINGTONIAN, n. A Potomac tribesman who exchanged the privilege ofgoverning himself for the advantage of good government. In justice tohim it should be said that he did not want to. 

 They took away his vote and gave instead The right, when he had earned, to _eat_ his bread. In vain--he clamors for his "boss, " pour soul, To come again and part him from his roll. 

Offenbach Stutz

WEAKNESSES, n. Pl. Certain primal powers of Tyrant Woman wherewith sheholds dominion over the male of her species, binding him to theservice of her will and paralyzing his rebellious energies. 

WEATHER, n. The climate of the hour. A permanent topic ofconversation among persons whom it does not interest, but who haveinherited the tendency to chatter about it from naked arborealancestors whom it keenly concerned. The setting up official weatherbureaus and their maintenance in mendacity prove that even governmentsare accessible to suasion by the rude forefathers of the jungle. 

 Once I dipt into the future far as human eye could see, And I saw the Chief Forecaster, dead as any one can be-- Dead and damned and shut in Hades as a liar from his birth, With a record of unreason seldom paralleled on earth. While I looked he reared him solemnly, that incandescent youth, From the coals that he'd preferred to the advantages of truth. He cast his eyes about him and above him; then he wrote On a slab of thin asbestos what I venture here to quote-- For I read it in the rose-light of the everlasting glow: "Cloudy; variable winds, with local showers; cooler; snow. "

Halcyon Jones

WEDDING, n. A ceremony at which two persons undertake to become one, one undertakes to become nothing, and nothing undertakes to becomesupportable. 

WEREWOLF, n. A wolf that was once, or is sometimes, a man. Allwerewolves are of evil disposition, having assumed a bestial form togratify a beastial appetite, but some, transformed by sorcery, are ashumane and is consistent with an acquired taste for human flesh. 

Some Bavarian peasants having caught a wolf one evening, tied itto a post by the tail and went to bed. The next morning nothing wasthere! Greatly perplexed, they consulted the local priest, who toldthem that their captive was undoubtedly a werewolf and had resumed itshuman for during the night. "The next time that you take a wolf, " thegood man said, "see that you chain it by the leg, and in the morningyou will find a Lutheran. "

WHANGDEPOOTENAWAH, n. In the Ojibwa tongue, disaster; an unexpectedaffliction that strikes hard. 

 Should you ask me whence this laughter, Whence this audible big-smiling, With its labial extension, With its maxillar distortion And its diaphragmic rhythmus Like the billowing of an ocean, Like the shaking of a carpet, I should answer, I should tell you: From the great deeps of the spirit, From the unplummeted abysmus Of the soul this laughter welleth As the fountain, the gug-guggle, Like the river from the canon [sic], To entoken and give warning That my present mood is sunny. Should you ask me further question-- Why the great deeps of the spirit, Why the unplummeted abysmus Of the soule extrudes this laughter, This all audible big-smiling, I should answer, I should tell you With a white heart, tumpitumpy, With a true tongue, honest Injun: William Bryan, he has Caught It, Caught the Whangdepootenawah!

 Is't the sandhill crane, the shankank, Standing in the marsh, the kneedeep, Standing silent in the kneedeep With his wing-tips crossed behind him And his neck close-reefed before him, With his bill, his william, buried In the down upon his bosom, With his head retracted inly, While his shoulders overlook it? Does the sandhill crane, the shankank, Shiver grayly in the north wind, Wishing he had died when little, As the sparrow, the chipchip, does? No 'tis not the Shankank standing, Standing in the gray and dismal Marsh, the gray and dismal kneedeep. No, 'tis peerless William Bryan Realizing that he's Caught It, Caught the Whangdepootenawah!

WHEAT, n. A cereal from which a tolerably good whisky can with somedifficulty be made, and which is used also for bread. The French aresaid to eat more bread _per capita_ of population than any otherpeople, which is natural, for only they know how to make the stuffpalatable. 

WHITE, adj. And n. Black. 

WIDOW, n. A pathetic figure that the Christian world has agreed totake humorously, although Christ's tenderness towards widows was oneof the most marked features of his character. 

WINE, n. Fermented grape-juice known to the Women's Christian Unionas "liquor, " sometimes as "rum. " Wine, madam, is God's next best giftto man. 

WIT, n. The salt with which the American humorist spoils hisintellectual cookery by leaving it out. 

WITCH, n. (1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked leaguewith the devil. (2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, inwickedness a league beyond the devil. 

WITTICISM, n. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted, and seldomnoted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a "joke. "

WOMAN, n. 

 An animal usually living in the vicinity of Man, and having a rudimentary susceptibility to domestication. It is credited by many of the elder zoologists with a certain vestigial docility acquired in a former state of seclusion, but naturalists of the postsusananthony period, having no knowledge of the seclusion, deny the virtue and declare that such as creation's dawn beheld, it roareth now. The species is the most widely distributed of all beasts of prey, infesting all habitable parts of the globe, from Greeland's spicy mountains to India's moral strand. The popular name (wolfman) is incorrect, for the creature is of the cat kind. The woman is lithe and graceful in its movement, especially the American variety (_felis pugnans_), is omnivorous and can be taught not to talk. 

Balthasar Pober

WORMS'-MEAT, n. The finished product of which we are the rawmaterial. The contents of the Taj Mahal, the Tombeau Napoleon and theGranitarium. Worms'-meat is usually outlasted by the structure thathouses it, but "this too must pass away. " Probably the silliest workin which a human being can engage is construction of a tomb forhimself. The solemn purpose cannot dignify, but only accentuates bycontrast the foreknown futility. 

 Ambitious fool! so mad to be a show! How profitless the labor you bestow Upon a dwelling whose magnificence The tenant neither can admire nor know. 

 Build deep, build high, build massive as you can, The wanton grass-roots will defeat the plan By shouldering asunder all the stones In what to you would be a moment's span. 

 Time to the dead so all unreckoned flies That when your marble is all dust, arise, If wakened, stretch your limbs and yawn-- You'll think you scarcely can have closed your eyes. 

 What though of all man's works your tomb alone Should stand till Time himself be overthrown? Would it advantage you to dwell therein Forever as a stain upon a stone?

Joel Huck

WORSHIP, n. Homo Creator's testimony to the sound construction andfine finish of Deus Creatus. A popular form of abjection, having anelement of pride. 

WRATH, n. Anger of a superior quality and degree, appropriate toexalted characters and momentous occasions; as, "the wrath of God, ""the day of wrath, " etc. Amongst the ancients the wrath of kings wasdeemed sacred, for it could usually command the agency of some god forits fit manifestation, as could also that of a priest. The Greeksbefore Troy were so harried by Apollo that they jumped out of thefrying-pan of the wrath of Cryses into the fire of the wrath ofAchilles, though Agamemnon, the sole offender, was neither fried norroasted. A similar noted immunity was that of David when he incurredthe wrath of Yahveh by numbering his people, seventy thousand of whompaid the penalty with their lives. God is now Love, and a director ofthe census performs his work without apprehension of disaster. 

X

X in our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibilityto the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, willdoubtless last as long as the language. X is the sacred symbol of tendollars, and in such words as Xmas, Xn, etc. , stands for Christ, not, as is popular supposed, because it represents a cross, but because thecorresponding letter in the Greek alphabet is the initial of his name--_Xristos_. If it represented a cross it would stand for St. Andrew, who "testified" upon one of that shape. In the algebra ofpsychology x stands for Woman's mind. Words beginning with X areGrecian and will not be defined in this standard English dictionary. 

Y

YANKEE, n. In Europe, an American. In the Northern States of ourUnion, a New Englander. In the Southern States the word is unknown. (See DAMNYANK. )

YEAR, n. A period of three hundred and sixty-five disappointments. 

YESTERDAY, n. The infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entirepast of age. 

 But yesterday I should have thought me blest To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak Of middle life and look adown the bleak And unfamiliar foreslope to the West, Where solemn shadows all the land invest And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak The haunted twilight of the Dark of Rest. Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame To stay the shadow on the dial's face At manhood's noonmark! Now, in God His name I chide aloud the little interspace Disparting me from Certitude, and fain Would know the dream and vision ne'er again. 

Baruch Arnegriff

It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff wasattended at different times by seven doctors. 

YOKE, n. An implement, madam, to whose Latin name, _jugum_, we oweone of the most illuminating words in our language--a word thatdefines the matrimonial situation with precision, point and poignancy. A thousand apologies for withholding it. 

YOUTH, n. The Period of Possibility, when Archimedes finds a fulcrum, Cassandra has a following and seven cities compete for the honor ofendowing a living Homer. 

 Youth is the true Saturnian Reign, the Golden Age on earth again, when figs are grown on thistles, and pigs betailed with whistles and, wearing silken bristles, live ever in clover, and cows fly over, delivering milk at every door, and Justice never is heard to snore, and every assassin is made a ghost and, howling, is cast into Baltimost!

Polydore Smith

Z

ZANY, n. A popular character in old Italian plays, who imitated withludicrous incompetence the _buffone_, or clown, and was therefore theape of an ape; for the clown himself imitated the serious charactersof the play. The zany was progenitor to the specialist in humor, aswe to-day have the unhappiness to know him. In the zany we see anexample of creation; in the humorist, of transmission. Anotherexcellent specimen of the modern zany is the curate, who apes therector, who apes the bishop, who apes the archbishop, who apes thedevil. 

ZANZIBARI, n. An inhabitant of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, off theeastern coast of Africa. The Zanzibaris, a warlike people, are bestknown in this country through a threatening diplomatic incident thatoccurred a few years ago. The American consul at the capital occupieda dwelling that faced the sea, with a sandy beach between. Greatly tothe scandal of this official's family, and against repeatedremonstrances of the official himself, the people of the citypersisted in using the beach for bathing. One day a woman came downto the edge of the water and was stooping to remove her attire (a pairof sandals) when the consul, incensed beyond restraint, fired a chargeof bird-shot into the most conspicuous part of her person. Unfortunately for the existing _entente cordiale_ between two greatnations, she was the Sultana. 

ZEAL, n. A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young andinexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl. 

 When Zeal sought Gratitude for his reward He went away exclaiming: "O my Lord!" "What do you want?" the Lord asked, bending down. "An ointment for my cracked and bleeding crown. "

Jum Coople

ZENITH, n. The point in the heavens directly overhead to a manstanding or a growing cabbage. A man in bed or a cabbage in the potis not considered as having a zenith, though from this view of thematter there was once a considerably dissent among the learned, someholding that the posture of the body was immaterial. These werecalled Horizontalists, their opponents, Verticalists. TheHorizontalist heresy was finally extinguished by Xanobus, thephilosopher-king of Abara, a zealous Verticalist. Entering anassembly of philosophers who were debating the matter, he cast asevered human head at the feet of his opponents and asked them todetermine its zenith, explaining that its body was hanging by theheels outside. Observing that it was the head of their leader, theHorizontalists hastened to profess themselves converted to whateveropinion the Crown might be pleased to hold, and Horizontalism took itsplace among _fides defuncti_. 

ZEUS, n. The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiterand by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog. Some explorerswho have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes tohave penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thoughtthat these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in hismonumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the nativesare monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom heworships under many sacred names. 

ZIGZAG, v. T. To move forward uncertainly, from side to side, as onecarrying the white man's burden. (From _zed_, _z_, and _jag_, anIcelandic word of unknown meaning. )

 He zedjagged so uncomen wyde Thet non coude pas on eyder syde; So, to com saufly thruh, I been Constreynet for to doodge betwene. 

Munwele

ZOOLOGY, n. The science and history of the animal kingdom, includingits king, the House Fly (_Musca maledicta_). The father of Zoologywas Aristotle, as is universally conceded, but the name of its motherhas not come down to us. Two of the science's most illustriousexpounders were Buffon and Oliver Goldsmith, from both of whom welearn (_L'Histoire generale des animaux_ and _A History of AnimatedNature_) that the domestic cow sheds its horn every two years.