Page:Bassetts scrap book 1907 03-1909 02.djvu/33

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BASSETT'S SCRAP BOOK
251

SCRAPS OF INFORMATION.

"All things I thought I knew; but now confess the more I know I know, I know the less." — Owen.

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Quotation. — Who said, "The religion of one age is the literary entertainment of the next?"

Ans. — Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Witch-Hazel.— Why do they call it "witch-hazel"?

Ans. — Because in former times it was supposed to be efficacious in discovering witches. A forked twig of the hazel was made into a divining rod for the purpose.

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End Seat Hog. — Which is the end-seat hog; the one that has it, or the one that wants to get it away from him?

Ans. — The early bird is entitled to the worm. Possession is nine points of the worm. The tardy hog would push the early bird away and take the provender. Sit pat and keep the end from view.

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Pharaoh's Horses. — Why is the well-known picture of three horses' heads called "Pharaoh's horses"?

Ans. — There is no reason whatever why the three horses, painted by John F. Herring, Sr. (died 1840), should be called "Pharaoh's Horses," and not Alexander's, or Caesar's horses, unless it be that the Pharaohs are, as a rule, represented with three horses on their chariots.

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Double Dating. — Please explain why in noting his-