diligence—a public stagecoach, especially as formerly used in France.
mattock—a tool for loosening the soil, digging up and cutting roots, and so on; it is like a pickaxe but has a flat, adz-shaped blade on one or both sides.
…—shitty (rhymes with pity)
“The Bells are Ringing for Me and my Gal”—a popular-song title.
Riff—a mountain range along the northeastern coast of Morocco, extending from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Algerian border.
Caffeine, we are here.—pun on Charles E. Stanton’s “Lafayette, we are here” (Paris, July 4, 1917).
General Grant—Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822–1885); eighteenth President of the U.S. (1869–1877); commander in chief of the Union forces in the Civil War.
Jefferson Davis—(1808–1889); U.S. statesman; president of the Confederacy (1861–1865).
Dred Scott case—a controversial U.S. Supreme court decision (1857) that denied the claim of a U.S. black slave to be free as a result of living in free territory.
Anti-Saloon League—American temperance organization.
landing-nets—a small bag-like net attached to a long handle, for taking a hooked fish from the water.
ford—a shallow place in a stream or river where one can cross by wading or riding on horseback, in an automobile, and so on.
fly-book—a book-like case to hold artificial fishing flies.
sinker—a lead weight used in fishing.
strike—the pull on the line by a fish seizing or snatching at bait.
moraine—a mound, ridge, or mass of rocks, gravel, sand, clay, and so on carried and deposited directly by a glacier along its side (lateral moraine), at its lower end (terminal moraine), or beneath the ice (ground moraine).
Bryan—William Jennings (1860–1925); U.S. politician and orator.
Great Commoner—nickname for William Jennings Bryan.
simian—of or like an ape or monkey.
Holy Cross—a college located in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Frankie Fritsch—a college football star of the 1920s known as “the Fordham Flash.”
Fordham—a Jesuit university located in the Bronx, New York.
Loyola—any of a number of colleges and universities named for Saint Ignatius de Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits.
cock-eyed—(Slang) drunk.
Notre Dame—a Catholic university located in South Bend, Indiana.
Ford—Henry (1863–1947); U.S. automobile manufacturer.
President Coolidge—(John) Calvin (1872–1933); thirtieth President of the U.S. (1923–1929).
Rockefeller—John D(avison) (1839–1937); U.S. industrialist and philanthropist.
Jo Davidson—(1883–1952); U.S. sculptor.
three-handed bridge—a version of the card game featuring three rather than the standard four players.
