The first duel in the United States was at Plymouth, Mass., on June 18, 1621, between Edward Doty and Edward Leicester, two servants, both of whom were wounded. For this outrage they were sentenced to the punishment of having their heads and feet tied together, and of lying thus twenty-four hours without food or drink. After suffering, however, in that posture an hour, at their master’s intercession and their humble request, with the promise of amendment, they were released by the governor.
27. How is the northern boundary line of the United States marked?
The northern boundary line of this country is marked by stone cairns, iron pillars, wood pillars, earth mounds, and timber posts. A stone cairn is seven and a half feet by eight feet; an earth mound seven feet by fourteen feet; an iron pillar seven feet high, eight inches square at the bottom, and four inches at the top; timber posts five feet high and eight inches square. There are three hundred and eighty-five of these marks between the Lake of the Woods and the base of the Rocky Mountains. That portion of the boundary which lies east and west of the Red River Valley is marked by cast-iron pillars at even mile intervals. The British place one every two miles, and the United States one between each British post. Our pillars or markers were made at Detroit, Mich. They are hollow iron castings, three eighths of an inch in thickness, in the form of a truncated pyramid, eight feet high, eight inches square at the bottom, and four at the top, as before stated. They have at the top a solid pyramidal cap, and at the bottom an octagonal flange one inch in thickness. Upon the opposite faces are cast, in letters two inches high, the inscriptions, “Convention of London,” and “October 20th, 1818.” The inscriptions begin about four feet six inches above the base and read upwards. The interiors of the hollow posts are filled with well-seasoned cedar posts, sawed to fit, and securely spiked through spike holes cast in the pillars for that purpose. The average weight of each pillar when completed is eighty-five pounds. The pillars are all set four feet in the ground, with their inscription faces to the north and south, and the earth is well settled and stamped about them. For the wooden posts well-seasoned logs are selected, and the portion above the ground painted red, to prevent swelling and shrinking. These posts do very well, but the Indians cut them down for fuel, and nothing but iron will last very long. Where the line crosses lakes, mountains of stone have been built, the bases being in some places eighteen feet under water, and the tops projecting eight feet above the lake’s surface at high-water mark. In forests the line is marked by felling the timber a rod wide, and clearing away the underbrush. The work of cutting through the timbered swamps was very great, but it has been well done, and the boundary distinctly marked by the commissioners the whole distance from Michigan to Alaska.
28. What is the origin of the minute and second?
We have sixty divisions on the dials of our clocks and watches, because the old Greek astronomer, Hipparchus, who lived in the second century before Christ, accepted the Babylonian system of reckoning time, that system being sexagesimal. The Babylonians were acquainted with the decimal system, but for common or practical purposes they counted by sossi and sari, the sossos representing sixty, and the saros sixty times six,—thirty-six hundred. From Hipparchus that mode of reckoning found its way into the works of Ptolemy about 150 A. D., and hence was carried down the stream of science and civilization, and found its way to the dial plates of our clocks and watches.
29. Which is the “Pine Tree State”?
Maine. The majestic mast pines which have given this State its sobriquet are fast receding before the demands of commerce. This tree is the heraldic emblem of the State.
30. What city is called “Little Paris”?
Milan, Italy, from its resemblance in point of gayety to the French capital.
31. What was the origin of the term “Uncle Sam”?