The First Steamboats on Western Waters. -The first steamboat on Western waters, said the late Mr. J. B. H. Latrobe before the Maryland Historical Society, was the New Orleans, which was built at and started from Pittsburg, Pa., in September, 1811, and reached the city of New Orleans in October of the same year. This boat was built from the designs of Robert Fulton by Nicholas J. Roosevelt, who was associated in this enterprise with Fulton and Chancellor Livingston. The New Orleans was 116 feet long, 20 feet beam, and had an engine with a 34 inch cylinder. The second and third steamboats built for this service were the Vesuvius and the Ætna, and the fourth boat, the Buffalo, was built under the direction of Mr. B. H. Latrobe, Sr, the architect of the first capitol at Washington, who became interested with Fulton and Livingston in the navigation of Western waters about 1813. (Scientific American.)

The Origin of Hoodlum (Vol. viii, p. 39.) -An old resident of San Francisco says a great deal of time has been wasted in searching for the derivation of the word "hoodlum," and it has been credited to many different languages, but all the derivations given

are wrong.

Some twenty or twenty-five years ago there lived in that section of San Francisco known as the Barbar Coast, a couple by the name of O'Houghlihan, who were blessed with a family of boys who were the terror of that unsavory region; ignorant, brutal young toughs, whose sole delight was getting drunk, whose only pastime was tormenting, abusing and beating all the other youngsters in the neighborhood. They were so much dreaded by the neighbors that when they were seen approaching, children were called in doors and kept there till they had gone by to a safe distance, and it was easy to know when they were in sight by hearing women calling "Patsy, Mary Ann, come in, the Houghlihans is comin'." The O was dropped in the haste of calling the young ones, and after a little the name, a somewhat difficult one to pronounce at the best, was in the mouths of the Germans, Italians, Chinese, and other nationalities on the Barbar Coast, corrupted into "hoodlums," and the Houghlihan boys and their associates became generally known as the hoodlums. (The Oregonian).

Fatality, for a Certainty!-Says the N. Y. Times, London correspondent, anent the untimely death of Prince Eddie, Duke of Clarence, etc.:

The

"When the time came to choose a title for him, that, which in all English history was most evil-starred, was selected. There have been five Dukes of Clarence. Of these, four were Plantagenets, the first of whom ate and drank himself to death in Italy. second was killed in the battle of Baugy, in France. The third was murdered in the Tower, and the fourth beheaded outside the Tower, all meeting their fate before their thirtieth year. People talked about this when the unfortunate lad's new dignity was announced, as if with the premonition that it was the forerunner of calamity.

People who have a leaning toward the unnatural are talking about the curious coincidence in the predictions of Zadkiel's Almanac, which enjoyed a fearful kind of repute for years, on the strength of having predicted the Prince Consort's death for December, 1863. In a familiar penny publication called "Old Moore's Almanac", issued a month ago, is set down for January an unexpected and unwelcome event in the royal family."

T. D.

An Old-time Mansion, in Maine. The old Pepperell mansion at Kittery Point, Me., built over two hundred years ago, has probably sheltered more famous people than any other house on this side of the Atlantic, with the exception of Mount Vernon and Monticello. The house was built by the first William Pepperell, a great merchant and shipbuilder of his time, who accumulated vast wealth by trade, and his mansion reflected the extent of his means. Facing the sea and surrounded by a great park where herds of deer disported, the old mansion was a delightful place of residence. The famous Sir William Pepperell, son of the builder, enlarged and adorned the mansion at the time of his marriage in 1734. This William Pepperell, the only American baronet, was a remarkable man. He was the richest man in the colonies, and had, at times, as many as 200 vessels afloat. He was a very successful general, as was seen at Louisburg, and his political influence was very great. (New York Sun).

nacelle. Here we may note the modern sneak-boat, the word boat having been added when the meaning of the first part was forgotten, and the compound is now generally considered as referring to the sneaking movement of the boat. Old Flemish snebbe, equivalent to German Schnabel, was applied to the beak of a vessel and also to a vessel, described as barque longuete." These instances of naming a vessel by synecdoche from the prow give some support to Wedgwood's suggestion that navy, Latin navis, Greek vas, may be from the same root as nose, and that our words bark and barge and their European cognates may be from Old Norse barki, throat.

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The comparison to the animal form is extended to other parts of the vessel, as in German Bauch, belly, English bilge, the part that bulges, the belly of the ship; the waist, the midship portion; the back, the keel and kelson; broken-backed, to be hogged, or, as the Germans say, einem Katzenrücken aufgestochen haben, to be strained so as to bend the hull like a hog or cat's back; the ribs, Spanish costillage, French côtes, timbers which spring from the keel as ribs from the backbone; quarters, equivalent to the hind-quarters of an animal, called by French sailors hanches, hips; and buttocks, German Hinterbacken, French cul and fesses and their English monosyllabic equivalent, applied to the after part or stern of the vessel. From a particular resemblance to the animal the many-oared vessels of former times were facetiously called hedgehogs, just as later an iron-clad was known as hog-in-armor. Another likeness in shape gives the lately introduced whaleback-an idea which was expressed earlier in turtle-back, a deck curving from the sides upward to protect the machinery within, and the phrase "to turn turtle ", to capsize, with reference to a vessel's appearance when overset.

But when the name of an animal is applied to a ship, the transfer arises from the lifelike movements of the vessel rather than from resemblance of form. The use of the feminine pronoun in speaking of a vessel * may be considered as a general expression of this idea, though the appellative nouns are not without some freaks in the matter of gender. Homer's metaphor, áλós innot, is *See A. N. and Q., Vol. V, p. 309.

paralleled by modern instances. Arabian baggala, mule, is applied to a two-masted vessel of the Indian Ocean, doubtless in reference to it as a ship of burden. Monkeyboat and boat and cat-boat, German Katzschiff, French chat and chatte, names of small boats, seem to refer to quick, light movement. Light-horse-man, a former name for the boat we now call the gig, alludes to speed, a characteristic still more plainly referred to in the term greyhound which it is said was first applied to the Atlantic Liner Alaska in 1882 on her breaking the record by making the trip across in less than seven days. This recalls yacht, ultimately from Dutch jaghen, to chase, hunt. Ram, like Latin aries, English battering-ram, refers to the characteristic action of the animal. In contrast with these active vessels, those without sails or steam-power, as lighters, punts and canal-boats, are described by the sailor as dumb craft.

who must off hand improvise his poem, (recited or sung on the spot), in accord with a species of mot d'ordre, or given phrase, cast to him by a nun through the iron bars of the convent. "No amplo terreiro passeiavam outros grupos, ou de poetas que martellavam os laboriosos improvisos ", p. 160. If the rhythmical responses to the line on which a sonnet should be composed, turned out happily, the outside improvisor (trovatore) was rewarded with a shower of applauses and sweet meats:" Os doces pagaram as glosas e as gargalhadas do epigramma entre meiaram-se com os suspiros do madrigal" ibid, p. 171.

Among the many songs thus sung at the "Outeiro" and cited by the author quoted above, one of especial beauty seems to have been sung at a distance from the more elegant fête in a wood house and by a strolling minstrel accompanying it with the guitar. The opening stanzas are worthy of reproduction, as specimens *:

“Consonant.”—There is another matter worthy of note in the line from Tennyson, quoted by Menòna on p. 142. That is that the Laureate pronounced the adjective consonant with the accent on the second syllable, "Cons'nant chords shiver," he says, but "Con'sonant chords" should certainly make everybody else shiver. The dictionaries, however, allow the accent only on the first. Can any other quotation from a poet of recognized authority be given for accenting the second? ACCENT.

Catantiphrasis.—I can recall three wellknown instances: lucus a non lucendo; mons a non movendo; Parcæ a non parcendo.

Who can help me with more?

OLIVER TWIST. Ulalume. Is this place name which occurs in the writings of E. A. Poe, an invention of that writer?

The "Keystone" Commonwealth. Dr. Egle, in his beautiful History of Pennsylvania, says:

"In the address of the Democratic Committee for 1803, is used the following language: As Pennsylvania is the Keystone of the Democratic arch, every engine will be used to sever it from its place '-being probably the first instance in which the comparison of the Commonwealth to the Keystone of an arch was used, and the origin of a figure of speech since very common.'

The eminent historian qualifies the above statement with the adverb "probably;' does anybody know of an earlier use of the figure?

IGNORANS.