GALLOWS, n.
A stage for the performance of miracle plays, in which the
leading actor is translated to heaven. In this country the
gallows is chiefly remarkable for the number of persons who
escape it.
GARGOYLE, n.
A rain- spout projecting from the eaves of mediaeval buildings,
commonly fashioned into a grotesque caricature of some personal
enemy of the architect or owner of the building. This was
especially the case in churches and ecclesiastical structures
generally, in which the gargoyles presented a perfect rogues'
gallery of local heretics and controversialists. Sometimes when a
new dean and chapter were installed the old gargoyles were
removed and others substituted having a closer relation to the
private animosities of the new incumbents.
GARTER, n.
An elastic band intended to keep a woman from coming out of her
stockings and desolating the country.
GENEROUS, adj.
Originally this word meant noble by birth and was rightly applied
to a great multitude of persons. It now means noble by nature and
is taking a bit of a rest.
GENEALOGY, n.
An account of one's descent from an ancestor who did not
particularly care to trace his own.
GENTEEL, adj.
Refined, after the fashion of a gent.
GEOGRAPHER, n.
A chap who can tell you offhand the difference between the
outside of the world and the inside.
GEOLOGY, n.
The science of the earth's crust-- to which, doubtless, will be
added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous
out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already
noted are catalogued thus: The Primary, or lower one, consists of
rocks, bones or mired mules, gas- pipes, miners' tools, antique
statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. The
Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiary
comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy
boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage,
anarchists, snap- dogs and fools.
GHOST, n.
The outward and visible sign of an inward fear. Accounting for
the uncommon behavior of ghosts, Heine mentions somebody's
ingenious theory to the effect that they are as much afraid of us
as we of them. Not quite, if I may judge from such tables of
comparative speed as I am able to compile from memories of my own
experience.
GHOUL, n.
A demon addicted to the reprehensible habit of devouring the
dead. The existence of ghouls has been disputed by that class of
controversialists who are more concerned to deprive the world of
comforting beliefs than to give it anything good in their place.
In 1640 Father Secchi saw one in a cemetery near Florence and
frightened it away with the sign of the cross. He describes it as
gifted with many heads an an uncommon allowance of limbs, and he
saw it in more than one place at a time. The good man was coming
away from dinner at the time and explains that if he had not been
"heavy with eating" he would have seized the demon at all
hazards.
GLUTTON, n.
A person who escapes the evils of moderation by committing
dyspepsia.
GNOME, n.
In North- European mythology, a dwarfish imp inhabiting the
interior parts of the earth and having special custody of mineral
treasures. Bjorsen, who died in 1765, says gnomes were common
enough in the southern parts of Sweden in his boyhood, and he
frequently saw them scampering on the hills in the evening
twilight. Ludwig Binkerhoof saw three as recently as 1792, in the
Black Forest, and Sneddeker avers that in 1803 they drove a party
of miners out of a Silesian mine. Basing our computations upon
data supplied by these statements, we find that the gnomes were
probably extinct as early as 1764.
GNOSTICS, n.
A sect of philosophers who tried to engineer a fusion between
the early Christians and the Platonists. The former would not go
into the caucus and the combination failed, greatly to the
chagrin of the fusion managers.
GNU, n.
An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated state
resembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it
is something like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone.
GOOD, adj.
Sensible, madam, to the worth of this present writer. Alive, sir,
to the advantages of letting him alone.
GOOSE, n.
A bird that supplies quills for writing. These, by some occult
process of nature, are penetrated and suffused with various
degrees of the bird's intellectual energies and emotional
character, so that when inked and drawn mechanically across paper
by a person called an "author," there results a very fair and
accurate transcript of the fowl's thought and feeling. The
difference in geese, as discovered by this ingenious method, is
considerable: many are found to have only trivial and
insignificant powers, but some are seen to be very great geese
indeed.
GOUT, n.
A physician's name for the rheumatism of a rich patient.
GRACES, n.
Three beautiful goddesses, Aglaia, Thalia and Euphrosyne, who
attended upon Venus, serving without salary. They were at no
expense for board and clothing, for they ate nothing to speak of
and dressed according to the weather, wearing whatever breeze
happened to be blowing.
GRAMMAR, n.
A system of pitfalls thoughtfully prepared for the feet for the
self- made man, along the path by which he advances to
distinction.
GRAPESHOT, n.
An argument which the future is preparing in answer to the
demands of American Socialism.
GRAVE, n.
A place in which the dead are laid to await the coming of the
medical student.
GRAVITATION, n.
The tendency of all bodies to approach one another with a
strength proportion to the quantity of matter they contain-- the
quantity of matter they contain being ascertained by the strength
of their tendency to approach one another. This is a lovely and
edifying illustration of how science, having made A the proof of
B, makes B the proof of A.
GREAT, adj.
"I'm great," the Lion said-- "I reign
The monarch of the wood and plain!"
The Elephant replied: "I'm great-- No quadruped can match my weight!"
"I'm great-- no animal has half
So long a neck!" said the Giraffe.
"I'm great," the Kangaroo said-- "see
My femoral muscularity!"
The 'Possum said: "I'm great-- behold,
My tail is lithe and bald and cold!"
An Oyster fried was understood
To say: "I'm great because I'm good!"
Each reckons greatness to consist
In that in which he heads the list,
And Vierick thinks he tops his class
Because he is the greatest ass.
Arion Spurl Doke
GUILLOTINE, n.
A machine which makes a Frenchman shrug his shoulders with good
reason.In his great work on Divergent Lines of Racial
Evolution, the learned Professor Brayfugle argues from the
prevalence of this gesture-- the shrug-- among Frenchmen, that
they are descended from turtles and it is simply a survival of
the habit of retracing the head inside the shell. It is with
reluctance that I differ with so eminent an authority, but in my
judgment (as more elaborately set forth and enforced in my work
entitled Hereditary Emotions-- lib. II, c. XI)
the shrug is a poor foundation upon which to build so important a
theory, for previously to the Revolution the gesture was unknown.
I have not a doubt that it is directly referable to the terror
inspired by the guillotine during the period of that instrument's
activity.
GUNPOWDER, n.
An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of
disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By
most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the
Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it
was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion
seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels.