(Image by Lenore Edman.)

Liberal: A political term meaning, where used, those who take advanced views, and welcome changes that promise betterment in public affairs, in contradistinction to the Conservative who usually favors letting well enough alone.

Lincoln, Abraham: The great president of the United States during the Civil War. He was the son of Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, born in Hardin County, Kentucky, of English-Quaker stock, and passed his youth amid the then rough frontier environment of the middle west, where anti-slavery sentiment prevailed. His early education was self-acquired, mostly by voracious reading; and his first business training was secured while serving as a clerk in a general store, where, by fair dealing, he earned the nickname of “Honest Abe.” In 1846 he was elected to Congress and in 1860 was nominated for the Presidency. In 1861 Lincoln was elected after a spirited campaign. He came to office at a time when the country was torn with the anti-slavery agitation, when the Civil War, long impending, was breaking out, and throughout the four year struggle he stood, often alone, firmly contending for the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union, strong in the faith that ultimately the nation would emerge from the period of stress and strain, greater and more prosperous than ever. He brought the country successfully out if its travail, and by the weight of the burden, “Honest Abe,” became the “Man of Sorrows.” For the service to the nation he paid with his life; he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, while witnessing a play in the box at Ford’s Theatre, Washington D.C., on the night of April 14, 1865, one month after his second inauguration. In personal appearance, Lincoln was very tall with legs out of all proportion to his body. He stood 6 feet, 4 inches in height and weighed about 180 lbs. When he sat, he usually crossed his legs or rested them on the arm of his chair; standing, he stooped slightly, and had the general appearance of a consumptive. His facial expression stamped him a man of long cherished sorrow, yet his sense of humor was exceptionally keen and he possessed a never-failing fund of witty stories. As an orator he is conceded one of the greatest America ever produced.

Literature, American: It may be well to admit at the outset that America has never produced a world writer. The nearest approach to it, in poetry in Longfellow and, in prose, Emerson.

Lottery: A game of hazard in which prizes are drawn by lot. Lotteries are said to have been first employed by the Genoese government for the purpose of increasing its revenue. The first lottery in England seems to have been in the year of 1569 and the profits went to the repair of rivers and harbors. They were long tolerated both in England and the United States, though from 1830 onward until they were abolished there was an ever-growing sentiment against them. The most notorious ever was the Louisiana lottery at New Orleans. It went out of existence in 1890.

Love-apple: An old name for the tomato.

•Taken from the 1912 Standard Illustrated Book of Facts.

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Kidnapping: The stealing or abduction or carrying off forcibly of any human being whether man, or woman or child, but in common use the term applies to the stealing of a child, as abduction specifically refers to the carrying off of a maid. It was the practice formerly for gypsies and traveling mountebanks to steal young children and initiate them in their arts, and the tradition that they do so still persists.

Kissing Bug: An insect that stings people upon the lips causing swelling and great suffering. The kissing bugs are about an inch in length, dark brown, with wings of a light red color. They fly with great rapidity and are all seldom seen in places where there is a bright light. In stinging they give warning by making a sharp shrill sound. By dodging one may escape the bug.

Know Nothing: The colloquial name of the political party, the so called American Party, in the United States before the Civil War, organized for the purpose of withholding naturalization and the privilege of the franchise from foreigners. It lasted only a short time but was the cause of considerable disorder.

Knuckle-Duster: A formidable apparatus contrived for the purpose of protecting the knuckles and to add force to their use. It is frequently employed by garrotters and other lawless ruffians.

Kuatau: A Japanese method of restoring the apparently lifeless, by concussive or mechanical means. Kuatasu is homeopathic in principle–the concussion of one vital spot renders one unconscious, that of another spot quickly restores the sufferer. It is affected by a stimulation of the accelerator nerves that quickens the heart action and which is best attained by concussing over the region of the seventh cervical vertebra.

•Taken from the 1912 Standard Illustrated Book of Facts.

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I represent the letter "J," Mavis.

Japanese Question: An important issue in the Pacific States and Western Canada, caused by the anti-Oriental feeling of the population of these regions, especially expressed (1906), when the Board of Education of San Francisco barred Japanese pupils from the public schools for whites; and having received its culmination in the disturbances  of 1907, during which a number of Japanese eating-houses and shops were wrecked and pillaged. The question became so acute that President Roosevelt sent Secretary of the Navy Metcalf to investigate the situation, the result being a presidential message to Congress, and long negotiations with Japan concerning the exclusion of Japanese laborers. This culminated in the treaty of 1911 with Japan, according to which no Japanese subjects may be excluded from the United States for other than reasons applying to every nation, while the Government of the Mikado promises not to give passports to Japanese of the laboring class.

Joe-Miller: An old jest, a stale joke; derived from Joe or Joseph Miller, a comic actor of the early part of the eighteenth century. His name was attached to a jest-book which was published in 1739, the year after his death, and which became very popular.

John Bull: A humorous impersonation of the English people, conceived of as well fed, good natured, honest hearted, justice loving, and plain spoken.

Jugglers: A term now almost synonymous with conjurer was formerly applied to the professional musicians who accompanied the wandering poets, the Troubadours and the Trouveres of France. These musicians soon came to be employed by kings and princes as minstrels. The professions gradually lost respectability. The Romans had their wonder-workers but the greatest of all jugglers are the Hindu, the famous “basket” trick and the trick of causing almost instant vegetation, the seed being planted, and the tree growing to maturity, budding, blossoming and coming to fruit under the eye of the spectator, are peculiar to the Hindus. Reginald Scot, a juggler and conjurer of 1854 enumerates the trick of his day. They are much the same as now, except for the additions and improvements modern mechanism and science have made. Conus and Boseo were clever conjurers of the eighteenth century. To Robert Houdin (1805-1871) belongs the credit for devising and introducing some very ingenious apparatus including the drum that beat itself, and the chest that was light or heavy at command. He understood, it would seem, the application of electro-magnetism. The modern conjurers, like Hartz and Hermann, aim generally at producing their effects with the minimum of accessories and apparatus.

Jumpers: Religious sects or bodies who make jumping or dancing a part of their ceremony of worship. Certain Methodists of Wales, some Irvingites, the Shakers of America, and a Russian sect have adopted the practice of some extent.

•Taken from the 1912 Standard Illustrated Book of Facts.

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