Democratic Sentinel, Volume 4, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 May 1880 — BITS OF INFORMATION. [ARTICLE]

BITS OF INFORMATION.

The practice of throwing down a glove as a challenge is mentioned as far back as 1245 ; and a glove was worn in the hat or cap as a mistress’ favor, as the memorial of a friend, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy.

The language of the precious stones is as follows: Diamond, innocence; ruby, beauty and elegance; emerald, success in love; opal, hope; amethyst, sincerity; topaz, fidelity’; garnet, constancy and fidelity; turquoise, prosperity; cornelian, contented mind; sardonyx, conjugal felicity; agate, health and longlife; bloodstone, courage. The curious name “ state ” for rooms on a steamboat is said to have originated in this way : A certain Western steamboat Captain called the rooms in his boat after the States of the Union— Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampsliire, etc. The name Texas, which fell to the lot of the pilot-house, remains in common use on our Western waters to-day. Tobias Hobson was a carrier at Cambridge, England, in the seventeenth century. He kept a livery stable, but obliged the university students to take his horses in rotation—always the one nearest to the door of the stable. Hence arose the term “ Hobson’s choice,” signifying “ this or none.” Milton (in 1660) wrote two humorous poems on the death of the old carrier.

The name Esquire originally signified a warrior armed with a shield and javelin. Under the Roman Emperors it was given to soldiers to whom was assigned the defense of the palace and person of the Emperor. The name was adopted in France to designate those holding the first rank in the army. In the age of chivalry the rank of Esquire followed that of valet or page, and was the last degree of apprenticeship before attaining the honor of Knighthood in England. The title is now so generally bestowed that it has lost its technical value.

Before the invention of paper, many devices were had recourse to for writing materials ; inscriptions were engraved on rock, and the letters filled up with lead ; they were also cut on prepared tablets of stone, of which kind were the tables given to Moses, containing the ten commandments. The Assyrians stamped the impress of their letters upon baked bricks and cylinders of clay, which were afterward baked. The Greeks and Romans used their wooden boards covered with a coating of wax. They were written upon with a metal stylus, and the writing could be easily effaced when no longer needed. Plates of metal and thin sheets of ivory were also employed, and the skins of animals, either in the form of parchment or in a less-prepared state. The lea ves of trees were used. Those of the talipot tree are still used in some parts of the East. The papyrus or paperreed, of Egypt, superseded all other material, whenever it could be obtained.