THE NAMES OF THE STATES. M *89** AINE was so called as early as 1638, from Maine in France, of which Henrietta Maria, queen of England, was at that time proprietor. 2. New Hampshire was the name given to the territory conveyed by the Plymouth company to Captain John Mason, by patent, Nov. 7, 1639, with reference to the patentee, who was all the time governor of Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England. 3. Vermont was so called by the inhabitants in their declaration of independence, Jan. 16, 1777, from the French verd, green, and mont, mountain. 4. Massachusetts derived its name from a tribe of Indians in the neighborhood of Boston. The tribe is thought to have derived its name from the Blue Hills of Milton. "I have learned," says Roger Williams, "that the Massachusetts was so called from the Blue Hills." 5. Rhode Island was so called in 1644, in reference to the Island of Rhodes, in the Mediterranean. 6. Connecticut was so called from the Indian name of its principal river. 7. New York (originally called New Netherlands) was so called ́in reference to the Duke of York and Albany, to whom this territory was granted. 8. New Jersey (originally called New Sweden) was so named in 1664, in compliment to Sir George Carteret, one of its original proprietors, who had defended the island of Jersey against the Long Parliament, during the civil war of England. 9. Pennsylvania was so called in 1681, after William Penn, the founder of Philadelphia. 10. Delaware was so called in 1703, from Delaware Bay on which it lies, and which received its name from Lord De la War, who died in this bay. 11. Maryland was so called in honor of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I. in his patent to Lord Baltimore, June 30, 1632. 12. Virginia was so called in 1584, after Elizabeth, the virgin queen of England. 13 and 14. Carolina (North and South) was so called by the French in 1564, in honor of Charles IX. of France. 15. Georgia was so called in 1772, in honor of George II. 16. Alabama was so called in 1817, from its principal river. 17. Mississippi was so called in 1800, from its western boundary. Mississippi is said to denote the whole river; that is, the river formed by the union of many. 18. Louisiana was so called in honor of Louis XVI. of France. 19. Tennessee was so called in 1796, from its principal river. The word Tennessee is said to signify a curved spoon. 20. Kentucky was so called in 1782, from its principal river. 21. Illinois was so called in 1809, from its principal river. The word is said to signify the river of men. 22. Indiana was so called in 1802, from the American Indians. 23. Ohio was so called in 1802, from its southern boundary. 24. Missouri was so called in 1821 from its principal river. 25. Michigan was so called in 1805, from the lake on its borders. 26. Arkansas was so called in 1819, from its principal river. 27. Florida was so called by Juan Ponce de Leon, in 1572, because it was discovered on Easter Sunday; in Spanish, Pascus Flo rica. 28. Texas was so called by the Spaniards in 1690, who that year drove out a colony of French, who had established themselves at Matagorda, and made their first permanent settlement. 29. Wisconsin was so named in 1836, from the river of the same name, when a territorial government was formed. 30. Iowa was so called in 1838, after a tribe of Indians of the same name, and a separate territorial government formed. 31. California derived its name from the gulf of that name. COUNTING A MILLION IN A MONTH. ID any of you ever see "Arvine's Cyclopedia of The Anecdotes of Literature and Fine Arts?" It has in it more than three thousand anecdotes. following is one of them: "The London Post says a wager came off, the terms of which were as follows. I will bet any man one hundred pounds, that he cannot make a million strokes, with pen and ink, within a month. They were not to be mere dots or scratches, but fair down strokes, such as form the child's first lesson in writing. A gentleman accepted the challenge. The month allowed was the lunar month of only twenty-eight days; so that for the completion of the undertaking, an average of thirty-six thousand strokes a day was required. This, at sixty a minute, or three thousand six hundred an hour-and neither the human intellect nor the human hand can be expected to do more-would call for ten hours' labor in every four and twenty. With a proper feeling of the respect due to the Sabbath, he determined to abstain from his work on the Sundays. By this determination he diminished by four days the period allowed him, and at the same time, by so doing, he increased the daily average of his strokes to upwards of forty-one thousand. On the first day he executed about fifty thousand strokes; on the second, nearly as many. But at length, after many days, the hand became stiff and weary, the wrist swollen, and it required the almost constant attendance of some assiduous relation or friend, to besprinkle it, without interrupting its progress over the paper, with a lotion calculated to relieve and invigorate it. On the twenty-third day, the million strokes, and some thousands over, were accomplished; and the piles of paper that exhibited them testified, that to the courageous heart, the willing hand and the energetic mind, hardly anything is impossible." VOL. III. FY THE WANDERING JEW. HE story of the Wandering Jew, who was condemned by our Lord to remain on the earth till the second coming of Christ, is of great antiquity. I have been unable to ascertain when it was first set afloat, but it is certain that it was current as early as the twelfth century. In the year 1228, as we learn from Dr. Percy's Reliques, there came an Armenian bishop into England to visit the old shrines preserved in the churches. While this prelate was entertained at the monastery of St. Alban's, he was asked a great many questions respecting his country. Among these questions, was one by a monk respecting the Wandering Jew. The archbishop answered that he had not only heard of him in his country, but had actually seen him and conversed with him. One of the attendants of the archbishop, interpreting his master's words, told the English people, in French, that this singular person had recently dined at their house. He said, farther, that the man was formerly Pontius Pilate's porter, and that his name was Castaphilus; that when they were dragging Jesus out of the judgment-hall, this porter struck him on the back, saying, "Go faster, Jesus, go faster; why dost thou linger ?" upon which, Jesus looked at him reprovingly, and said, "I indeed am going, but thou shalt tarry till I come." Soon after this he was converted, and baptized by the name of Joseph. He lives forever; but at the end of every hundred years, an incurable illness seizes him, and at length he falls into a fit of ecstacy, out of which, when he recovers, he returns to the same state of youth in which he was when he struck our Lord, he having been, at that period, about thirty years of age. He remembersso the archbishop, through his interpreter, proceeded to state-all the circumstances connected with the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ; the saints that rose with him; the composing of the apostle's creed, and the preaching and dispersion of the early disciples. He is himself a very grave and apparently holy man. This |