[Transcriber's Notes: This book is best read in a monospaced font such as Courier. This version uses underscores '_' to show _italics_ and '^' to indicate superscripts. The long lines in the three crosses poem and Richelieu's letter were unavoidable so have been reproduced at the end of the book in alternate forms to make them more readable on handheld devices.] THE QUEER, THE QUAINT AND THE QUIZZICAL A CABINET FOR THE CURIOUS "The company is mixed."—_Byron_ BY FRANK H. STAUFFER PHILADELPHIA: DAVID McKAY, PUBLISHER, 610 SOUTH WASHINGTON SQUARE. Copyright, 1882, by F. H. STAUFFER Oddities and wonders. Intiquities and blunders. Omens dire, mystic fire, Strange customs, cranks and freaks, With philosophy in streaks. INTRODUCTION. Custom doth often reason overrule, And only serves for reason to the fool.—_Rochester._ A moon dial, with Napier's bones, And sev'ral constellation stones.—_Butler._ He shows, on holidays, a sacred pin, That touch'd the ruff that touch'd Queen Bess's chin. —_Wolcot's Peter Pindar._ Stretching away on the one hand into the deep gloom of barbaric ignorance, and on the other hand into the full radiance of Christian intelligence, and, grounding itself strongly in the instinctive recognition by all men of the intimate relations between the seen and the unseen, the empire of SUPERSTITION possesses all ages of human history and all stages of human progress.—_Nimno._ Matrons who toss the cup, and see The grounds of _fate_ in _grounds_ of _tea_.—_Churchill._ I have known the shooting of a star to spoil a night's rest; I have seen a man in love grow pale upon the plucking of a merry-thought. There is nothing so inconsiderable which may not appear dreadful to an imagination that is filled with omens and prognostics.—_Addison._ _Books with Unpronounceable Names._ In the seventeenth century there was a book published entitled: "Crononhotonthologos, the most tragical tragedy that ever was tragedized by any company of tragedians." The first two lines of this effusion read— "Aldeborontiphoscophosnio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?" We might name another singular title of a work published in 1661 by Robert Lovell, entitled: "Panzoologicomineralogia; a complete history of animals and minerals, contain'g the summs of all authors, Galenical and Chymicall, with the anatomie of man, &c."—_Salad for the Solitary._ _Most Curious Book in the World._