OF 40 10 CURIOUS INFORMATION COMPRISING STRANGE HAPPENINGS IN THE LIFE OF MEN LANDS OF THE EARTH AUTHOR OF BY WILLIAM S. WALSH A HANDY BOOK OF LITERARY CURIOSITIES,' CURIOSITIES OF · PHILADELPHIA & LONDON 145039.13.5 HARVARD COLLEGE ᎪᏢᏒ 21 1939 LIBRARY Manet fund COPYRIGHT, 1913 PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTRODUCTION THE series of handy books which reaches its third volume with the present publication,-and which is to be continued in the future if this third volume meets with the favor that was accorded to its predecessors,*-is primarily designed as a sort of supplement to the Encyclopædias. It exploits either such subjects as are deemed beneath the dignity of more pretentious works or else such lighter aspects of familiar subjects as are similarly ignored by the Big Wigs. For an example of the second group, take articles like BULLFIGHTS and PLAYING CARDS. Nothing can be more trite than the subjects themselves, but the special information here supplied would be looked for in vain in authoritative books of reference. Examples of the first group may be found on almost every page. They comprise the sort of "ana" which a host of readers are curious about. They form, in fact, the staple of the inquiri which are constantly addressed to the Correspondents' Column in our daily journal and are usually "left to our readers" and remain unanswered. Usually but not always, else this book, like its predecessors, would have lost a considerable part of such value as it may claim. Not to mention the London Notes and Queries-because all experts must take that for granted-there are several journals, English and American, which contain valuable departments receiving and answering queries, delving patiently into the quaint and curious lore of the past and rendering satisfactory explanations of recondite allusions, or determining mooted points in history, literature, biography, and science, or supplying lacunæ in otherwise accessible information. To these the present compiler gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness. He would specify the New York Sun, and Times, the Philadelphia Press, and Inquirer, and the Brooklyn Eagle as having furnished him with much raw material that otherwise he might have overlooked. So have periodicals like Harper's Weekly, Chambers' Journal and The Youth's Companion— periodicals that freely volunteer information of this sort without any interrogative spur. • "Handy-book of Literary Curiosities" and "Curiosities of Popular Customs" by W. S. Walsh, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia. iii |