The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-02-04
BITS OF IMPORTATION.

A RECENT estimate puts the number
of Indians in the United States at 275,-
900.
THE first turnpike ever made In the
United States was that constructed be.
tween Philadelphia and Lancaster in
1898, costing $500,00
THE phrase "piping hot originated
from the custom of a baker blowing o
pipe or horn In the villages of England
to let the people know he had just
drawn his bread hot from the oven.
BLARNEY is village of Munster. Ire
land, four milesnorthwest of Cork, noted
for its castle built by Cormick MeCarty
in 1449. The castle stands ON the north
side of precipitous ridge of limestone
rock, rising from a deep valley. and
part of its base is washed by small
river called Aw-Martin. Near it are the
famous groves of Blarney. OF the orig
inal fortress there remains only large.
square, massive tower, with a parapet
breast high on the summit is the IA
nous Blarney stone, which is said to
confer on the person kissing it the pc
culiar property of saying anything by
way of coaxing, compliment or praise
most agreeable to the nearer. From the
virtue it thus communicates the we'll
known word killarney is derived. The
actual Barney stone is not the one COM
monty saluted as such, but is said to
form part of the wall several feet be-
low its representative, and can only be
kis, ed by a person held over the parapet
by the heels.
THE saying, "Turning the tables
upon him, 7" is, according to Coleman, in
his Woodlands, Heaths and Hedges"
of England, rather ancient. His explain
alton of its origin is this zone of The
hobbies In which the ancient luxurious
Romans INDUCED (as the old-ehina
mania was not then invented) was the
acquisition, at enormous prices, of tables
made from very rare anC curious speci-
mems of maple wood. Their wives also
happened to have another costly taste
for dresses, jewelry and the like vani-
ties, which their lords, oblivious of their
own rather expensive little fancies, con
sidered were needless extravagances,
and sometimes ventured to hint as much
when the ladies, reused by this injustice,
would in their turn point to the sumptu-
Gus maple table, with an allusion to its
ruinous price and this was called turn
ing the tables on their husbands hence
the phrase used to this day tor similar
kind of retcrt."
The term Porte" which is used to
denote the administrative government
of the Ottoman empire, and includes
the Sultan, the Grand Vizier and the
Council of State, had its origin this way:
In the famous institutes established by
the famous warrior, Sultan Mohammed
IL, the Turkish body polite was de-
scribed by the metaphor of a stately
tent, whose domes rested upon four pill
lars. "The Viziers formed the first
pillar, the Judges the second, the Treas
urels the third and the Secretaries the
fourth" The chief seat of government
was fgurat;vely named the" Lofty Gate
of the Royal Tent" in allusion to the
practice of earlier times, when the Otto
man rulers sat at the tent door to adj
minister justice. The italian transla-
ton of this name was Gle Porte Sub
lima" This phrase was modified in
English to the "Sublime Porte" and
finally the adjective has been dropped,
leaving it simply "The Porte.