Hue and cry is a phrase derived from the old process of pursuit with horn and voice, used in old English law to describe the pursuit of felons. Whoever arrested the person pursued was protected; and it was the duty of all persons to join in a hue and cry. The Hue and Cry, a police gazette for advertising criminals, was established in 1710.

A corsair is a pirate or sea-robber, and especially any of those rovers who in former times cruised from the Barbary ports, as Algiers, Tunis or Tripoli, and became the terror of merchantmen in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, ravaging the coasts and seizing shipping as far north as Cornwall, Baltimore in Cork, and even Iceland.

In Italy, where the term originated, and in the continental watering places, the casino is a place where musical or dancing soirees are held, containing a conversation-room, billiard-room, and rooms for other kinds of amusement, as well as small apartments where refreshments may be had. In England a dancing saloon is sometimes termed a casino.

The invention of chess is attributed to Palamedes, about 680 B.C., though also attributed to the Hindus. It is a game of skill played with figures on a chequered board. It continues to be a favorite with all civilized nations and chess-clubs have long been established in the chief cities. An international chess congress was held at London in 1851.

Carol was originally a term for a dance, or for songs intermingled with dance, came afterwards to signify festive songs, particularly such as were sung at Christmas. In England the practice of singing Christmas carols was widely spread as early as the fifteenth century, to which date belong many of the carols printed in the collections of Ritson, Wright and Sandys.

Shillelagh is the cudgel carried by the conventional Irishman, with which he is supposed to delight to play upon the heads of his friends on occasion. The name is borrowed from the once famous oak-forest of Shillelagh in the southwest corner of County Wicklow, which in Rufus' day furnished "cobwebless beams" for the roof of Westminster Hall.

The bilge is that part of the bottom of a ship nearest to the keel, and always more nearly horizontal than vertical. A ship usually rests on the keel and one side of the bilge when aground. The name of bilge-water is given to water which finds its way into the bilge or lowest part of a ship, and which, when not drawn off by the pump, becomes dirty and offensive.

A man walks 3 miles an hour; a slow river flows 3 miles an hour; a fast river, 7 miles; a trotting horse, 7 miles; a moderate wind blows 7 miles; sailing vessels, 10 miles; steamboats, 18 miles; a running horse, 20 miles; a storm, 36 miles; a hurricane, 80 miles; sound, 7'43 miles; a rifle ball, 1,000 miles; light, 192,000 miles a second: electricity, 288,000 miles a second.

The game at cards called Besique, is played with a double pack, in which the objects are principally to promote in the hand certain combinations which, when "declared," entitle the holder to score, and to win certain cards of a particular value. There are practically no restrictions in the game; it is not necessary to follow suit; and two, three, or four players may engage in it.

Salmagundi is a word of uncertain origin, unless it be derived from the Countess Salmagondi, lady of honor to Marie de' Medici and the inventor of the dish; for salmagundi is a dish of minced meat, seasoned with pickled cabbage, eggs, anchovies, olive-oil, vinegar, pepper, and similar ingredients. In an applied sense the words means a pot-pourri, a medley, a miscellany.

The proletariate used to denote the lowest and poorest classes of the community. It is derived, through the French, from the Latin prole-tarii, the name given in the census of Servius Tullius to the lowest of the centuries, who were so called to indicate that they were valuable to the state only as rearers of offspring. The word has come much into use in the literature of socialism.

The truck system is the system of paying wages in goods instead of money. Owing to the numerous abuses arising from this system it was abolished in Great Britain by the Act of 1831, which provided wages should be paid in money. As the result of a commission which sat in 1870, the previous Act was amended by the Act of 1887. The same system has prevailed to a large extent in the mining districts of the United States, and still exists in a few places.

Seraglio is an Italian word meaning "enclosure" (from sera, "a bolt"), once used in English for any enclosure such as the Jews' Ghetto at Rome, but now restricted to mean a harem or suite of women's apartment, apparently from a confusion with the similar but totally distinct Persian (and Turkish) word serai, "a king's court," "palace," also "a caravanserai. The Seraglio (eski serai, "old palace"), the ancient residence of the sultan at Constantinople, stands in a beautiful situation, where Stam-boul juts farthest into the Bosphorus, and encloses within its walls a variety of mosques, gardens, and large edifices, the chief of which is the Harem.

A popular game of ball much played in Canada and recently introduced into this country, is Lacrosse. It had its origin in a game of the native Indians. Lacrosse is played by twenty-four persons equally divided into two sides. The object of the game is similar to that of football. The implements used are a ball and a curved stick (the crosse) with a catgut net stretched at the end.

The cornwallis is a sort of mummers' procession once held in the United States to commemorate the struggle for independence, typified by the surrender at York Town in 1781. Prior to this Cornwallis made himself formidable to the Americans in the battle of Brandywine, by the reduction of Charleston, and his victories at Camden and Guilford. The term and practice are alike now obsolete.

The term claque is the name given to an institution for securing the success of a play or performance, by bestowing upon it preconcerted applause, and thus giving the public, who are not in the secret, a false notion of the impression it has made The claque is of great antiquity, having been in use in the time of Nero, but now prevails chiefly in French theatres. The paid applauders are called " claqueurs."