A CYCLOPÆDIA OF IMPORTANT, CURIOUS, QUAINT, AND
UNIQUE INFORMATION

IN

HISTORY, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, ART, AND NATURE

INCLUDING NOTEWORTHY HISTORICAL EVENTS; CIVIL, MILITARY, AND RELIGIOUS IN-
STITUTIONS; SCIENTIFIC FACTS AND THEORIES; NATURAL CURIOSITIES; FAMOUS
BUILDINGS, MONUMENTS, STATUES, PAINTINGS, AND OTHER WORKS OF ART
AND UTILITY; CELEBRATED LITERARY PRODUCTIONS; SOBRIQUETS

AND NICKNAMES; LITERARY PSEUDONYMS; MYTHOLOGICAL AND
IMAGINARY CHARACTERS; POLITICAL AND SLANG TERMS;
DERIVATIONS OF PECULIAR WORDS AND PHRASES;
ETC., ETC.

Trifles make perfection, but perfection is no trifle.-Michael Angelo.
I have here made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own

but the string that ties them.-Montaigne.

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
NEW YORK AND LONDON
The knickerbocker Press

1913

TO THE

MEMORY OF MY MOTHER