25. Oh Fatherland! - how thou art far! Oh Time! - how art thou long!
26. Full details of this excursion were published in a pamphlet, entitled "Three Thousand Miles in a Railroad Car," and also in letters written by Mr. J. G. Hazzard for the New York Tribune.
27. In American-German festivals, cards are sometimes sold by the quantity, which are "good" for refreshments. This is done to avoid trouble in making change.
28. Breitmann and bride-man, breit and krumm (bride and groom), or broad and crooked, &c.
29. This refers to the passage of bills in the Legislature of a state by means of bribery. In Pennsylvania, as in many other states, bills which have "nothing in them" - i.e. no money - are rarely allowed to pass.
30. "Die Welt gleicht einer Bierbouteille."
31. Harrisburg is the capital of the state of Pennsylvania.
32. In a certain edition of the Breitmann Ballads, this phrase is said to have originated in 1845. In 1835, I heard it said that General Jackson in a letter spelt all correct "oll korrekt," and this I believe to be the real origin of the expression. - C.G.L.
33. This incident, and the one narrated in the preceding verse, are literally true.
34. "No more interlect than a half-grown shad," is a phrase which occurs, if the author remembers aright, in the Charcoal Sketches, by J. C. Neal. The Western people have carried this idea a step further, and applied it to sardines, as "small fishes," all of an average size, packed closely together in tin cans and excluded from the light of day. A man who has never travelled, and has during all his life been packed tightly among those who were his equals in ignorance and inexperience, is therefore a "sardine."