<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE package PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Package//EN" "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"><html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /><title>The Devil’s Dictionary: S</title></head><body lang="en-US"> <h1>S</h1> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Sabbath</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aweekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in sixdays and was arrested on the seventh. Among the Jews observance of the day wasenforced by a Commandment of which this is the Christian version: “Remember theseventh day to make thy neighbor keep it wholly.” To the Creator it seemed fitand expedient that the Sabbath should be the last day of the week, but theEarly Fathers of the Church held other views. So great is the sanctity of theday that even where the Lord holds a doubtful and precarious jurisdiction overthose who go down to (and down into) the sea it is reverently recognized, as ismanifest in the following deep-water version of the Fourth Commandment:</p> <p>Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh holystone the deck andscrape the cable.</p> <p>Decks are no longer holystoned, but the cable still supplies the captain with opportunity toattest a pious respect for the divine ordinance.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacerdotalist</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Onewho holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentousdoctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the teeth of theEpiscopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacrament</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Asolemn religious ceremony to which several degrees of authority andsignificance are attached. Rome has seven sacraments, but the Protestantchurches, being less prosperous, feel that they can afford only two, and theseof inferior sanctity. Some of the smaller sects have no sacraments at all—forwhich mean economy they will indubitable be damned.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacred</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Dedicatedto some religious purpose; having a divine character; inspiring solemn thoughtsor emotions; as, the Dalai Lama of Thibet; the Moogum of M’bwango; the templeof Apes in Ceylon; the Cow in India; the Crocodile, the Cat and the Onion ofancient Egypt; the Mufti of Moosh; the hair of the dog that bit Noah, etc.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">All things are either sacred or profane.</p><p class="poetry">The former to ecclesiasts bring gain;</p><p class="poetry">The latter to the devil appertain.</p><p class="citeauth">Dumbo Omohundro</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sandlotter</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Avertebrate mammal holding the political views of Denis Kearney, a notoriousdemagogue of San Francisco, whose audiences gathered in the open spaces(sandlots) of the town. True to the traditions of his species, this leader ofthe proletariat was finally bought off by his law-and-order enemies, livingprosperously silent and dying impenitently rich. But before his treason heimposed upon California a constitution that was a confection of sin in adiction of solecisms. The similarity between the words “sandlotter” and“sansculotte” is problematically significant, but indubitably suggestive.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">safety-clutch</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Amechanical device acting automatically to prevent the fall of an elevator, orcage, in case of an accident to the hoisting apparatus.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">Once I seen a human ruin</p><p class="poetry">In an elevator-well,</p><p class="poetry">And his members was bestrewin’</p><p class="poetry">All the place where he had fell.</p><p class="poetry">And I says, apostrophisin’</p><p class="poetry">That uncommon woful wreck:</p><p class="poetry">“Your position’s so surprisin’</p><p class="poetry">That I tremble for your neck!”</p><p class="poetry">Then that ruin, smilin’ sadly</p><p class="poetry">And impressive, up and spoke:</p><p class="poetry">“Well, I wouldn’t tremble badly,</p><p class="poetry">For it’s been a fortnight broke.”</p><p class="poetry">Then, for further comprehension</p><p class="poetry">Of his attitude, he begs</p><p class="poetry">I will focus my attention</p><p class="poetry">On his various arms and legs—</p><p class="poetry">How they all are contumacious;</p><p class="poetry">Where they each, respective, lie;</p><p class="poetry">How one trotter proves ungracious,</p><p class="poetry">T’other one an <i>alibi</i>.</p><p class="poetry">These particulars is mentioned</p><p class="poetry">For to show his dismal state,</p><p class="poetry">Which I wasn’t first intentioned</p><p class="poetry">To specifical relate.</p><p class="poetry">None is worser to be dreaded</p><p class="poetry">That I ever have heard tell</p><p class="poetry">Than the gent’s who there was spreaded</p><p class="poetry">In that elevator-well.</p><p class="poetry">Now this tale is allegoric—</p><p class="poetry">It is figurative all,</p><p class="poetry">For the well is metaphoric</p><p class="poetry">And the feller didn’t fall.</p><p class="poetry">I opine it isn’t moral</p><p class="poetry">For a writer-man to cheat,</p><p class="poetry">And despise to wear a laurel</p><p class="poetry">As was gotten by deceit.</p><p class="poetry">For ‘tis Politics intended</p><p class="poetry">By the elevator, mind,</p><p class="poetry">It will boost a person splendid</p><p class="poetry">If his talent is the kind.</p><p class="poetry">Col. Bryan had the talent</p><p class="poetry">(For the busted man is him)</p><p class="poetry">And it shot him up right gallant</p><p class="poetry">Till his head begun to swim.</p><p class="poetry">Then the rope it broke above him</p><p class="poetry">And he painful come to earth</p><p class="poetry">Where there’s nobody to love him</p><p class="poetry">For his detrimented worth.</p><p class="poetry">Though he’s livin’ none would know him,</p><p class="poetry">Or at leastwise not as such.</p><p class="poetry">Moral of this woful poem:</p><p class="poetry">Frequent oil your safety-clutch.</p><p class="citeauth">Porfer Poog</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">saint</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A deadsinner revised and edited.</p> <p class="indentpara">The Duchess of Orleans relates that the irreverent old calumniator, Marshal Villeroi, who inhis youth had known St. Francis de Sales, said, on hearing him called saint: “Iam delighted to hear that Monsieur de Sales is a saint. He was fond of sayingindelicate things, and used to cheat at cards. In other respects he was aperfect gentleman, though a fool.”</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">salacity</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Acertain literary quality frequently observed in popular novels, especially inthose written by women and young girls, who give it another name and think thatin introducing it they are occupying a neglected field of letters and reapingan overlooked harvest. If they have the misfortune to live long enough they aretormented with a desire to burn their sheaves.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">salamander</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Originallya reptile inhabiting fire; later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile.Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have anaccount having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised itwith a bucket of holy water.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sarcophagus</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Amongthe Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone,had the peculiar property of devouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagusknown to modern obsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter’s art.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Satan</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One ofthe Creator’s lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Beinginstated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable andwas finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent hishead in thought a moment and at last went back. “There is one favor that Ishould like to ask,” said he.</p><p>“Name it.”</p><p>“Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws.”</p><p>“What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn </p><p>of eternity with hatred of his soul—you ask for the right to make his laws?”</p><p>“Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself.”</p><p>It was so ordered.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satiety</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Thefeeling that one has for the plate after he has eaten its contents, madam.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satire</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Anobsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of theauthor’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this countrysatire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of itis wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it,like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americansare “endowed by their Creator” with abundant vice and folly, it is notgenerally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satiristis popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim’s outcryfor codefendants evokes a national assent.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung</p>In the dead language of a mummy’s tongue,<br />For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well—<br />Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.<br />Had it been such as consecrates the Bible<br />Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.<br /><p class="citeauth">Barney Stims</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satyr</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One ofthe few characters of the Grecian mythology accorded recognition in the Hebrew.(Leviticus, xvii, 7.) The satyr was at first a member of the dissolutecommunity acknowledging a loose allegiance with Dionysius, but underwent manytransformations and improvements. Not infrequently he is confounded with thefaun, a later and decenter creation of the Romans, who was less like a man and morelike a goat.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sauce</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The oneinfallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces hasone thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred andninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced andforgiven.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">saw</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A tritepopular saying, or proverb. (Figurative and colloquial.) So called because itmakes its way into a wooden head. Following are examples of old saws fittedwith new teeth.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">A penny saved is a penny to squander.</p><p class="poetry">A man is known by the company that he organizes.</p><p class="poetry">A bad workman quarrels with the man who calls him that.</p><p class="poetry">A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.</p><p class="poetry">Better late than before anybody has invited you.</p><p class="poetry">Example is better than following it.</p><p class="poetry">Half a loaf is better than a whole one if there is much else.</p><p class="poetry">Think twice before you speak to a friend in need.</p><p class="poetry">What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do it.</p><p class="poetry">Least said is soonest disavowed.</p><p class="poetry">He laughs best who laughs least.</p><p class="poetry">Speak of the Devil and he will hear about it.</p><p class="poetry">Of two evils choose to be the least.</p><p class="poetry">Strike while your employer has a big contract.</p><p class="poetry">Where there’s a will there’s a won’t.</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Sacrabaeus</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Thesacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians, allied to our familiar “tumble-bug.” Itwas supposed to symbolize immortality, the fact that God knew why giving it itspeculiar sanctity. Its habit of incubating its eggs in a ball of ordure mayalso have commended it to the favor of the priesthood, and may some day assureit an equal reverence among ourselves. True, the American beetle is an inferiorbeetle, but the American priest is an inferior priest.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Scarabee</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Thesame as scarabaeus.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">He fell by his own hand<br />Beneath the great oak tree.<br />He’d traveled in a foreign land.<br />He tried to make her understand<br />The dance that’s called the Saraband,<br />But he called it Scarabee.<br />He had called it so through an afternoon,<br />And she, the light of his harem if so might be,<br />Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see,<br />All frosted there in the shine o’ the moon—<br />Dead for a Scarabee And a recollection that came too late.<br />O Fate!<br />They buried him where he lay,<br />He sleeps awaiting the Day,<br />In state, And two Possible Puns, moon-eyed and wan,<br />Gloom over the grave and then move on.<br />Dead for a Scarabee!</p><p class="citeauth">Fernando Tapple</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scarification</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aform of penance practised by the mediaeval pious. The rite was performed,sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a hot iron, but always, says ArseniusAsceticus, acceptably if the penitent spared himself no pain nor harmlessdisfigurement. Scarification, with other crude penances, has now beensuperseded by benefaction. The founding of a library or endowment of auniversity is said to yield to the penitent a sharper and more lasting painthan is conferred by the knife or iron, and is therefore a surer means ofgrace. There are, however, two grave objections to it as a penitential method: thegood that it does and the taint of justice.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scepter</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aking’s staff of office, the sign and symbol of his authority. It was originallya mace with which the sovereign admonished his jester and vetoed ministerialmeasures by breaking the bones of their proponents.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scimetar</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Acurved sword of exceeding keenness, in the conduct of which certain Orientalsattain a surprising proficiency, as the incident here related will serve toshow. The account is translated from the Japanese by Shusi Itama, a famouswriter of the thirteenth century.</p> <p class="indentpara">When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he condemned to decapitation Jijiji Ri, a high officerof the Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite whatwas his Majesty’s surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man whoshould have been at that time ten minutes dead!</p> <p class="indentpara">“Seventeen hundred impossible dragons!” shouted the enraged monarch. “Did I not sentence you tostand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the publicexecutioner at three o’clock? And is it not now 3:10?”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Son of a thousand illustrious deities,” answered the condemned minister, “all that you say is sotrue that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty’s sunnyand vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran andplaced my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with hisbare scimetar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightlyupon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever afavorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable andtreasonous head.”</p> <p class="indentpara">“To what regimentof executioners does the black-boweled caitiff belong?” asked the Mikado.</p> <p class="indentpara">“To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty-seventh—I know the man. His name isSakko-Samshi.”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Let him bebrought before me,” said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later theculprit stood in the Presence.</p> <p class="indentpara">“Thou bastard sonof a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!” roared the sovereign—“why didstthou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Lord of Cranes ofCherry Blooms,” replied the executioner, unmoved, “command him to blow his nosewith his fingers.”</p> <p class="indentpara">Being commanded,Jijiji Ri laid hold of his nose and trumpeted like an elephant, all expectingto see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: theperformance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident.</p> <p class="indentpara">All eyes were nowturned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit ofFujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror.</p> <p class="indentpara">“Several kinds ofspike-tailed brass lions!” he cried; “I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! Istruck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimetar I hadaccidentally passed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office.”</p> <p class="indentpara">So saying, hegasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid ithumbly at the Mikado’s feet.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scrap-book</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Abook that is commonly edited by a fool. Many persons of some small distinctioncompile scrap-books containing whatever they happen to read about themselves oremploy others to collect. One of these egotists was addressed in the linesfollowing, by Agamemnon Melancthon Peters:</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">Dear Frank, that scrap-book where you boast<br />You keep a record true<br />Of every kind of peppered roast<br />That’s made of you;<br />Wherein you paste the printed gibes<br />That revel round your name,<br />Thinking the laughter of the scribes<br />Attests your fame;<br />Where all the pictures you arrange<br />That comic pencils trace—<br />Your funny figure and your strange<br />Semitic face—<br />Pray lend it me. Wit I have not,<br />Nor art, but there I’ll list<br />The daily drubbings you’d have got<br />Had God a fist.</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scribbler</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aprofessional writer whose views are antagonistic to one’s own.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scriptures</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Thesacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profanewritings on which all other faiths are based.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">seal</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A markimpressed upon certain kinds of documents to attest their authenticity andauthority. Sometimes it is stamped upon wax, and attached to the paper,sometimes into the paper itself. Sealing, in this sense, is a survival of anancient custom of inscribing important papers with cabalistic words or signs togive them a magical efficacy independent of the authority that they represent. Inthe British museum are preserved many ancient papers, mostly of a sacerdotalcharacter, validated by necromantic pentagrams and other devices, frequentlyinitial letters of words to conjure with; and in many instances these areattached in the same way that seals are appended now. As nearly everyreasonless and apparently meaningless custom, rite or observance of moderntimes had origin in some remote utility, it is pleasing to note an example ofancient nonsense evolving in the process of ages into something really useful. Ourword “sincere” is derived from <i>sine cero</i>,without wax, but the learned are not in agreement as to whether this refers tothe absence of the cabalistic signs, or to that of the wax with which letterswere formerly closed from public scrutiny. Either view of the matter will serveone in immediate need of an hypothesis. The initials L.S., commonly appended tosignatures of legal documents, mean <i>locum sigillis</i>, the place of the seal,although the seal is no longer used—an admirable example of conservatismdistinguishing Man from the beasts that perish. The words <i>locum sigillis</i> are humbly suggested as asuitable motto for the Pribyloff Islands whenever they shall take their placeas a sovereign State of the American Union.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">seine</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A kindof net for effecting an involuntary change of environment. For fish it is madestrong and coarse, but women are more easily taken with a singularly delicatefabric weighted with small, cut stones.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">The devil casting a seine of lace,<br />(With precious stones ‘twas weighted)<br />Drew it into the landing place<br />And its contents calculated.<br />All souls of women were in that sack—<br />A draft miraculous, precious!<br />But ere he could throw it across his back<br />They’d all escaped through the meshes.</p><p class="citeauth">Baruch de Loppis</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">self-esteem</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Anerroneous appraisement.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">self-evident</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span>Evident to one’s self and to nobody else.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">selfish</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Devoidof consideration for the selfishness of others.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">senate</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A bodyof elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">serial</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Aliterary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issuesof a newspaper or magazine. Frequently appended to each installment is a“synposis of preceding chapters” for those who have not read them, but a direrneed is a synposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read <i>them</i>. A synposis of the entire work wouldbe still better.</p> <p class="indentpara">The late James F. Bowman was writing a serial tale for a weekly paper in collaboration with agenius whose name has not come down to us. They wrote, not jointly butalternately, Bowman supplying the installment for one week, his friend for thenext, and so on, world without end, they hoped. Unfortunately they quarreled,and one Monday morning when Bowman read the paper to prepare himself for histask, he found his work cut out for him in a way to surprise and pain him. Hiscollaborator had embarked every character of the narrative on a ship and sunkthem all in the deepest part of the Atlantic.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">severalty</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Separateness,as, lands in severalty, i.e., lands held individually, not in joint ownership. Certaintribes of Indians are believed now to be sufficiently civilized to have inseveralty the lands that they have hitherto held as tribal organizations, andcould not sell to the Whites for waxen beads and potato whiskey.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">Lo! the poor Indian whose unsuited mind<br />Saw death before, hell and the grave behind;<br />Whom thrifty settler ne’er besought to stay—<br />His small belongings their appointed prey;<br />Whom Dispossession, with alluring wile,<br />Persuaded elsewhere every little while!<br />His fire unquenched and his undying worm<br />By “land in severalty” (charming term!)<br />Are cooled and killed, respectively, at last,<br />And he to his new holding anchored fast!</p></div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sheriff</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> InAmerica the chief executive office of a country, whose most characteristicduties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching andhanging of rogues.</p> <div class="poem"><p class="poetry">John Elmer Pettibone Cajee<br />(I write of him with little glee)<br />Was just as bad as he could be.</p> <p class="poetry">‘Twas frequently remarked: “I swon!<br />The sun has never looked upon<br />So bad a man as Neighbor John.”</p> <p class="poetry">A sinner through and through, he had<br />This added fault: it made him mad<br />To know another man was bad.</p> <p class="poetry">In such a case he thought it right<br />To rise at any hour of night<br />And quench that wicked person’s light.</p> <p class="poetry">Despite the town’s entreaties, he<br />Would hale him to the nearest tree<br />And leave him swinging wide and free.</p> <p class="poetry">Or sometimes, if the humor came,<br />A luckless wight’s reluctant frame<br />Was given to the cheerful flame.</p> <p class="poetry">While it was turning nice and brown,<br />All unconcerned John met the frown<br />Of that austere and righteous town.</p> <p class="poetry">“How sad,” his neighbors said, “that he<br />So scornful of the law should be—<br />An anar c, h, i, s, t.”</p> <p class="poetry">(That is the way that they preferred<br />To utter the abhorrent word,<br />So strong the aversion that it stirred.)</p> <p class="poetry">“Resolved,” they said, continuing,<br />“That Badman John must cease this thing<br />Of having his unlawful fling.</p>Lines 1–500 of 844. 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<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE package PUBLIC "+//ISBN 0-9673008-1-9//DTD OEB 1.0 Package//EN" "http://openebook.org/dtds/oeb-1.0/oebdoc1.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/x-oeb1-document; charset=utf-8" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/x-oeb1-css" href="devil.css" /> <title>The Devil’s Dictionary: S</title> </head> <body lang="en-US"> <h1>S</h1> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Sabbath</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A weekly festival having its origin in the fact that God made the world in six days and was arrested on the seventh. Among the Jews observance of the day was enforced by a Commandment of which this is the Christian version: “Remember the seventh day to make thy neighbor keep it wholly.” To the Creator it seemed fit and expedient that the Sabbath should be the last day of the week, but the Early Fathers of the Church held other views. So great is the sanctity of the day that even where the Lord holds a doubtful and precarious jurisdiction over those who go down to (and down into) the sea it is reverently recognized, as is manifest in the following deep-water version of the Fourth Commandment:</p> <p>Six days shalt thou labor and do all thou art able, And on the seventh holystone the deck and scrape the cable.</p> <p>Decks are no longer holystoned, but the cable still supplies the captain with opportunity to attest a pious respect for the divine ordinance.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacerdotalist</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One who holds the belief that a clergyman is a priest. Denial of this momentous doctrine is the hardest challenge that is now flung into the teeth of the Episcopalian church by the Neo-Dictionarians.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacrament</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A solemn religious ceremony to which several degrees of authority and significance are attached. Rome has seven sacraments, but the Protestant churches, being less prosperous, feel that they can afford only two, and these of inferior sanctity. Some of the smaller sects have no sacraments at all—for which mean economy they will indubitable be damned.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sacred</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Dedicated to some religious purpose; having a divine character; inspiring solemn thoughts or emotions; as, the Dalai Lama of Thibet; the Moogum of M’bwango; the temple of Apes in Ceylon; the Cow in India; the Crocodile, the Cat and the Onion of ancient Egypt; the Mufti of Moosh; the hair of the dog that bit Noah, etc.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">All things are either sacred or profane.</p> <p class="poetry">The former to ecclesiasts bring gain;</p> <p class="poetry">The latter to the devil appertain.</p> <p class="citeauth">Dumbo Omohundro</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sandlotter</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A vertebrate mammal holding the political views of Denis Kearney, a notorious demagogue of San Francisco, whose audiences gathered in the open spaces (sandlots) of the town. True to the traditions of his species, this leader of the proletariat was finally bought off by his law-and-order enemies, living prosperously silent and dying impenitently rich. But before his treason he imposed upon California a constitution that was a confection of sin in a diction of solecisms. The similarity between the words “sandlotter” and “sansculotte” is problematically significant, but indubitably suggestive.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">safety-clutch</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A mechanical device acting automatically to prevent the fall of an elevator, or cage, in case of an accident to the hoisting apparatus.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">Once I seen a human ruin</p> <p class="poetry">In an elevator-well,</p> <p class="poetry">And his members was bestrewin’</p> <p class="poetry">All the place where he had fell.</p> <p class="poetry">And I says, apostrophisin’</p> <p class="poetry">That uncommon woful wreck:</p> <p class="poetry">“Your position’s so surprisin’</p> <p class="poetry">That I tremble for your neck!”</p> <p class="poetry">Then that ruin, smilin’ sadly</p> <p class="poetry">And impressive, up and spoke:</p> <p class="poetry">“Well, I wouldn’t tremble badly,</p> <p class="poetry">For it’s been a fortnight broke.”</p> <p class="poetry">Then, for further comprehension</p> <p class="poetry">Of his attitude, he begs</p> <p class="poetry">I will focus my attention</p> <p class="poetry">On his various arms and legs—</p> <p class="poetry">How they all are contumacious;</p> <p class="poetry">Where they each, respective, lie;</p> <p class="poetry">How one trotter proves ungracious,</p> <p class="poetry">T’other one an <i>alibi</i>.</p> <p class="poetry">These particulars is mentioned</p> <p class="poetry">For to show his dismal state,</p> <p class="poetry">Which I wasn’t first intentioned</p> <p class="poetry">To specifical relate.</p> <p class="poetry">None is worser to be dreaded</p> <p class="poetry">That I ever have heard tell</p> <p class="poetry">Than the gent’s who there was spreaded</p> <p class="poetry">In that elevator-well.</p> <p class="poetry">Now this tale is allegoric—</p> <p class="poetry">It is figurative all,</p> <p class="poetry">For the well is metaphoric</p> <p class="poetry">And the feller didn’t fall.</p> <p class="poetry">I opine it isn’t moral</p> <p class="poetry">For a writer-man to cheat,</p> <p class="poetry">And despise to wear a laurel</p> <p class="poetry">As was gotten by deceit.</p> <p class="poetry">For ‘tis Politics intended</p> <p class="poetry">By the elevator, mind,</p> <p class="poetry">It will boost a person splendid</p> <p class="poetry">If his talent is the kind.</p> <p class="poetry">Col. Bryan had the talent</p> <p class="poetry">(For the busted man is him)</p> <p class="poetry">And it shot him up right gallant</p> <p class="poetry">Till his head begun to swim.</p> <p class="poetry">Then the rope it broke above him</p> <p class="poetry">And he painful come to earth</p> <p class="poetry">Where there’s nobody to love him</p> <p class="poetry">For his detrimented worth.</p> <p class="poetry">Though he’s livin’ none would know him,</p> <p class="poetry">Or at leastwise not as such.</p> <p class="poetry">Moral of this woful poem:</p> <p class="poetry">Frequent oil your safety-clutch.</p> <p class="citeauth">Porfer Poog</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">saint</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A dead sinner revised and edited.</p> <p class="indentpara">The Duchess of Orleans relates that the irreverent old calumniator, Marshal Villeroi, who in his youth had known St. Francis de Sales, said, on hearing him called saint: “I am delighted to hear that Monsieur de Sales is a saint. He was fond of saying indelicate things, and used to cheat at cards. In other respects he was a perfect gentleman, though a fool.”</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">salacity</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A certain literary quality frequently observed in popular novels, especially in those written by women and young girls, who give it another name and think that in introducing it they are occupying a neglected field of letters and reaping an overlooked harvest. If they have the misfortune to live long enough they are tormented with a desire to burn their sheaves.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">salamander</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Originally a reptile inhabiting fire; later, an anthropomorphous immortal, but still a pyrophile. Salamanders are now believed to be extinct, the last one of which we have an account having been seen in Carcassonne by the Abbe Belloc, who exorcised it with a bucket of holy water.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sarcophagus</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Among the Greeks a coffin which being made of a certain kind of carnivorous stone, had the peculiar property of devouring the body placed in it. The sarcophagus known to modern obsequiographers is commonly a product of the carpenter’s art.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Satan</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One of the Creator’s lamentable mistakes, repented in sashcloth and axes. Being instated as an archangel, Satan made himself multifariously objectionable and was finally expelled from Heaven. Halfway in his descent he paused, bent his head in thought a moment and at last went back. “There is one favor that I should like to ask,” said he.</p> <p>“Name it.”</p> <p>“Man, I understand, is about to be created. He will need laws.”</p> <p>“What, wretch! you his appointed adversary, charged from the dawn </p> <p>of eternity with hatred of his soul—you ask for the right to make his laws?”</p> <p>“Pardon; what I have to ask is that he be permitted to make them himself.”</p> <p>It was so ordered.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satiety</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The feeling that one has for the plate after he has eaten its contents, madam.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satire</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> An obsolete kind of literary composition in which the vices and follies of the author’s enemies were expounded with imperfect tenderness. In this country satire never had more than a sickly and uncertain existence, for the soul of it is wit, wherein we are dolefully deficient, the humor that we mistake for it, like all humor, being tolerant and sympathetic. Moreover, although Americans are “endowed by their Creator” with abundant vice and folly, it is not generally known that these are reprehensible qualities, wherefore the satirist is popularly regarded as a soul-spirited knave, and his ever victim’s outcry for codefendants evokes a national assent.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">Hail Satire! be thy praises ever sung</p> In the dead language of a mummy’s tongue,<br /> For thou thyself art dead, and damned as well—<br /> Thy spirit (usefully employed) in Hell.<br /> Had it been such as consecrates the Bible<br /> Thou hadst not perished by the law of libel.<br /> <p class="citeauth">Barney Stims</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">satyr</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> One of the few characters of the Grecian mythology accorded recognition in the Hebrew. (Leviticus, xvii, 7.) The satyr was at first a member of the dissolute community acknowledging a loose allegiance with Dionysius, but underwent many transformations and improvements. Not infrequently he is confounded with the faun, a later and decenter creation of the Romans, who was less like a man and more like a goat.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sauce</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">saw</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A trite popular saying, or proverb. (Figurative and colloquial.) So called because it makes its way into a wooden head. Following are examples of old saws fitted with new teeth.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">A penny saved is a penny to squander.</p> <p class="poetry">A man is known by the company that he organizes.</p> <p class="poetry">A bad workman quarrels with the man who calls him that.</p> <p class="poetry">A bird in the hand is worth what it will bring.</p> <p class="poetry">Better late than before anybody has invited you.</p> <p class="poetry">Example is better than following it.</p> <p class="poetry">Half a loaf is better than a whole one if there is much else.</p> <p class="poetry">Think twice before you speak to a friend in need.</p> <p class="poetry">What is worth doing is worth the trouble of asking somebody to do it.</p> <p class="poetry">Least said is soonest disavowed.</p> <p class="poetry">He laughs best who laughs least.</p> <p class="poetry">Speak of the Devil and he will hear about it.</p> <p class="poetry">Of two evils choose to be the least.</p> <p class="poetry">Strike while your employer has a big contract.</p> <p class="poetry">Where there’s a will there’s a won’t.</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Sacrabaeus</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The sacred beetle of the ancient Egyptians, allied to our familiar “tumble-bug.” It was supposed to symbolize immortality, the fact that God knew why giving it its peculiar sanctity. Its habit of incubating its eggs in a ball of ordure may also have commended it to the favor of the priesthood, and may some day assure it an equal reverence among ourselves. True, the American beetle is an inferior beetle, but the American priest is an inferior priest.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">Scarabee</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The same as scarabaeus.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">He fell by his own hand<br /> Beneath the great oak tree.<br /> He’d traveled in a foreign land.<br /> He tried to make her understand<br /> The dance that’s called the Saraband,<br /> But he called it Scarabee.<br /> He had called it so through an afternoon,<br /> And she, the light of his harem if so might be,<br /> Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see,<br /> All frosted there in the shine o’ the moon—<br /> Dead for a Scarabee And a recollection that came too late.<br /> O Fate!<br /> They buried him where he lay,<br /> He sleeps awaiting the Day,<br /> In state, And two Possible Puns, moon-eyed and wan,<br /> Gloom over the grave and then move on.<br /> Dead for a Scarabee!</p> <p class="citeauth">Fernando Tapple</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scarification</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A form of penance practised by the mediaeval pious. The rite was performed, sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a hot iron, but always, says Arsenius Asceticus, acceptably if the penitent spared himself no pain nor harmless disfigurement. Scarification, with other crude penances, has now been superseded by benefaction. The founding of a library or endowment of a university is said to yield to the penitent a sharper and more lasting pain than is conferred by the knife or iron, and is therefore a surer means of grace. There are, however, two grave objections to it as a penitential method: the good that it does and the taint of justice.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scepter</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A king’s staff of office, the sign and symbol of his authority. It was originally a mace with which the sovereign admonished his jester and vetoed ministerial measures by breaking the bones of their proponents.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scimetar</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A curved sword of exceeding keenness, in the conduct of which certain Orientals attain a surprising proficiency, as the incident here related will serve to show. The account is translated from the Japanese by Shusi Itama, a famous writer of the thirteenth century.</p> <p class="indentpara">When the great Gichi-Kuktai was Mikado he condemned to decapitation Jijiji Ri, a high officer of the Court. Soon after the hour appointed for performance of the rite what was his Majesty’s surprise to see calmly approaching the throne the man who should have been at that time ten minutes dead!</p> <p class="indentpara">“Seventeen hundred impossible dragons!” shouted the enraged monarch. “Did I not sentence you to stand in the market-place and have your head struck off by the public executioner at three o’clock? And is it not now 3:10?”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Son of a thousand illustrious deities,” answered the condemned minister, “all that you say is so true that the truth is a lie in comparison. But your heavenly Majesty’s sunny and vitalizing wishes have been pestilently disregarded. With joy I ran and placed my unworthy body in the market-place. The executioner appeared with his bare scimetar, ostentatiously whirled it in air, and then, tapping me lightly upon the neck, strode away, pelted by the populace, with whom I was ever a favorite. I am come to pray for justice upon his own dishonorable and treasonous head.”</p> <p class="indentpara">“To what regiment of executioners does the black-boweled caitiff belong?” asked the Mikado.</p> <p class="indentpara">“To the gallant Ninety-eight Hundred and Thirty-seventh—I know the man. His name is Sakko-Samshi.”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Let him be brought before me,” said the Mikado to an attendant, and a half-hour later the culprit stood in the Presence.</p> <p class="indentpara">“Thou bastard son of a three-legged hunchback without thumbs!” roared the sovereign—“why didst thou but lightly tap the neck that it should have been thy pleasure to sever?”</p> <p class="indentpara">“Lord of Cranes of Cherry Blooms,” replied the executioner, unmoved, “command him to blow his nose with his fingers.”</p> <p class="indentpara">Being commanded, Jijiji Ri laid hold of his nose and trumpeted like an elephant, all expecting to see the severed head flung violently from him. Nothing occurred: the performance prospered peacefully to the close, without incident.</p> <p class="indentpara">All eyes were now turned on the executioner, who had grown as white as the snows on the summit of Fujiama. His legs trembled and his breath came in gasps of terror.</p> <p class="indentpara">“Several kinds of spike-tailed brass lions!” he cried; “I am a ruined and disgraced swordsman! I struck the villain feebly because in flourishing the scimetar I had accidentally passed it through my own neck! Father of the Moon, I resign my office.”</p> <p class="indentpara">So saying, he gasped his top-knot, lifted off his head, and advancing to the throne laid it humbly at the Mikado’s feet.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scrap-book</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A book that is commonly edited by a fool. Many persons of some small distinction compile scrap-books containing whatever they happen to read about themselves or employ others to collect. One of these egotists was addressed in the lines following, by Agamemnon Melancthon Peters:</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">Dear Frank, that scrap-book where you boast<br /> You keep a record true<br /> Of every kind of peppered roast<br /> That’s made of you;<br /> Wherein you paste the printed gibes<br /> That revel round your name,<br /> Thinking the laughter of the scribes<br /> Attests your fame;<br /> Where all the pictures you arrange<br /> That comic pencils trace—<br /> Your funny figure and your strange<br /> Semitic face—<br /> Pray lend it me. Wit I have not,<br /> Nor art, but there I’ll list<br /> The daily drubbings you’d have got<br /> Had God a fist.</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scribbler</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A professional writer whose views are antagonistic to one’s own.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">scriptures</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">seal</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A mark impressed upon certain kinds of documents to attest their authenticity and authority. Sometimes it is stamped upon wax, and attached to the paper, sometimes into the paper itself. Sealing, in this sense, is a survival of an ancient custom of inscribing important papers with cabalistic words or signs to give them a magical efficacy independent of the authority that they represent. In the British museum are preserved many ancient papers, mostly of a sacerdotal character, validated by necromantic pentagrams and other devices, frequently initial letters of words to conjure with; and in many instances these are attached in the same way that seals are appended now. As nearly every reasonless and apparently meaningless custom, rite or observance of modern times had origin in some remote utility, it is pleasing to note an example of ancient nonsense evolving in the process of ages into something really useful. Our word “sincere” is derived from <i>sine cero</i>, without wax, but the learned are not in agreement as to whether this refers to the absence of the cabalistic signs, or to that of the wax with which letters were formerly closed from public scrutiny. Either view of the matter will serve one in immediate need of an hypothesis. The initials L.S., commonly appended to signatures of legal documents, mean <i>locum sigillis</i>, the place of the seal, although the seal is no longer used—an admirable example of conservatism distinguishing Man from the beasts that perish. The words <i>locum sigillis</i> are humbly suggested as a suitable motto for the Pribyloff Islands whenever they shall take their place as a sovereign State of the American Union.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">seine</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A kind of net for effecting an involuntary change of environment. For fish it is made strong and coarse, but women are more easily taken with a singularly delicate fabric weighted with small, cut stones.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">The devil casting a seine of lace,<br /> (With precious stones ‘twas weighted)<br /> Drew it into the landing place<br /> And its contents calculated.<br /> All souls of women were in that sack—<br /> A draft miraculous, precious!<br /> But ere he could throw it across his back<br /> They’d all escaped through the meshes.</p> <p class="citeauth">Baruch de Loppis</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">self-esteem</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> An erroneous appraisement.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">self-evident</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Evident to one’s self and to nobody else.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">selfish</span>, <span class="pos">adj.</span> Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">senate</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">serial</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> A literary work, usually a story that is not true, creeping through several issues of a newspaper or magazine. Frequently appended to each installment is a “synposis of preceding chapters” for those who have not read them, but a direr need is a synposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read <i>them</i>. A synposis of the entire work would be still better.</p> <p class="indentpara">The late James F. Bowman was writing a serial tale for a weekly paper in collaboration with a genius whose name has not come down to us. They wrote, not jointly but alternately, Bowman supplying the installment for one week, his friend for the next, and so on, world without end, they hoped. Unfortunately they quarreled, and one Monday morning when Bowman read the paper to prepare himself for his task, he found his work cut out for him in a way to surprise and pain him. His collaborator had embarked every character of the narrative on a ship and sunk them all in the deepest part of the Atlantic.</p> <p class="entry"><span class="def">severalty</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> Separateness, as, lands in severalty, i.e., lands held individually, not in joint ownership. Certain tribes of Indians are believed now to be sufficiently civilized to have in severalty the lands that they have hitherto held as tribal organizations, and could not sell to the Whites for waxen beads and potato whiskey.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">Lo! the poor Indian whose unsuited mind<br /> Saw death before, hell and the grave behind;<br /> Whom thrifty settler ne’er besought to stay—<br /> His small belongings their appointed prey;<br /> Whom Dispossession, with alluring wile,<br /> Persuaded elsewhere every little while!<br /> His fire unquenched and his undying worm<br /> By “land in severalty” (charming term!)<br /> Are cooled and killed, respectively, at last,<br /> And he to his new holding anchored fast!</p> </div> <p class="entry"><span class="def">sheriff</span>, <span class="pos">n.</span> In America the chief executive office of a country, whose most characteristic duties, in some of the Western and Southern States, are the catching and hanging of rogues.</p> <div class="poem"> <p class="poetry">John Elmer Pettibone Cajee<br /> (I write of him with little glee)<br /> Was just as bad as he could be.</p> <p class="poetry">‘Twas frequently remarked: “I swon!<br /> The sun has never looked upon<br /> So bad a man as Neighbor John.”</p> <p class="poetry">A sinner through and through, he had<br /> This added fault: it made him mad<br /> To know another man was bad.</p> <p class="poetry">In such a case he thought it right<br /> To rise at any hour of night<br /> And quench that wicked person’s light.</p> <p class="poetry">Despite the town’s entreaties, he<br /> Would hale him to the nearest tree<br /> And leave him swinging wide and free.</p> <p class="poetry">Or sometimes, if the humor came,<br /> A luckless wight’s reluctant frame<br /> Was given to the cheerful flame.</p> <p class="poetry">While it was turning nice and brown,<br /> All unconcerned John met the frown<br /> Of that austere and righteous town.</p> <p class="poetry">“How sad,” his neighbors said, “that he<br /> So scornful of the law should be—<br /> An anar c, h, i, s, t.”</p> <p class="poetry">(That is the way that they preferred<br /> To utter the abhorrent word,<br /> So strong the aversion that it stirred.)</p> <p class="poetry">“Resolved,” they said, continuing,<br /> “That Badman John must cease this thing<br /> Of having his unlawful fling.</p>