Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 July 1896 — HISTORIOAL. [ARTICLE]

HISTORIOAL.

I* the light of history Napoleon m, becomes a curious phenomenon. Bui bis morose Idealism pro red to Pnnog the greatest misfortune that ever vimlted It. Until 18S8 that country wan surrounded by nothing but Inonnse (joentlal neighbors. At the downfall of Napoleon it touched elbows with two powers of magnitude. To the hurt of his reign Napoleon nourished thn illusion that at Magenta and Sol ferine he had procured for France a mighty and a faithful friend. The phrase, “Driving a ooach and six through an act of Parliament,” eeouw in the “Memoirs of Ireland," published anonymously In 1718, but ootnnxmly at. trlbuted to Oldmlxon. In speaking of Stephen Rice, who was made Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer by Tamil IL In 1688, and was removed by Wittlam lIL in 1880, Oldmlxon say»< “lie distinguished himself by his inveteracy against the Protestant interest and the settlement of Ireland, having been often heard to say before be was ‘that he would drive a ooach and she horses through the Act of Settlement/” This date (oiroa 1886) is at least a ceu» tury earlier than the date popularly) assigned to the origin of the phrase. Coltsfoot, or the leaves of the lettuce, being Bllghtly n&roetlc, would form a harmless make believe for the good folk who persuade themselves thsy could not sleep a wink were deprived of their evening comfort. AgSS ago both Greeks and Romans, aooord* ing to Dioscorides and Pliny, found comfort in smoking through a reed os Pipe the dried leaves of coltsfoot, which relieved them of old coughs and dlfficult breathing. We can picture the legionary in Britain’s bleak atmosphere, while pacing tho Roman wall, trying to console himself in bis lonely) vtgli with the vapor from his "elphhh pipe,” fragments of which have been found among the ruins of those early) memorials to the Scots’ persistent determination to travel southward. And as to the lettuce, it has been famous since the ttme of Galen (Claudius Gar lenus), who asserts that he found reHes from sleeplessness by taking it at night.

It Was Nothing Extraordinary. One of the stock of ancient legends relating to the Rock of Gibraltar relates how a young Scotch subaltern was on guard duty with a brother officer, when the latter In visiting tha sentries fell over a precipice and was killed. When the survivor was relieved from doty, he made the usual form, "Nothing extraordinary." a«4 this brought the brigade major down upon him In a rage. "What, when your brother officer on duty with you bos fallen down a precipice 4041 feet high and been killed, yon report nothing extraordinary?” "Weel, sir,’’ replied the Boot, calmly, "I dlna think there’s onyfcbln* extraordinary In it. If he had fiallen down four hander* feet and not been killed—weel, I should bee oa’d ***At extromomr-"