This word is now much used in the South and West for a public meeting in the open air with a dinner or other refreshments.

A genuine Virginia barbecue, whether of a social or a political character, is a rural entertainment which deserves more praise than censure; and we know of none which affords the stranger a better opportunity of studying the character of the yeomanry of the Southern States. - Lanman's Adventures, Vol. II. p. 259.

TO BARBERIZE. A term among country hairdressers. "I can shoemake through the week, and barberize on public days;" that is, on days of public business, which call farmers to the country town. To barber is so

used in old writers.

BARGE. A vessel of burden, employed on the Mississippi and its tributaries before the introduction of steamboats. It is thus described by Flint: "The barge is of the size of an Atlantic schooner. It had sails, masts, and rigging, not unlike a sea vessel, and carried from fifty to an hundred tons. On the lower courses of the Mississippi, when the wind did not serve and the waters were high, it was worked up stream by the operation that is called 'warping’· a most laborious, slow, and difficult mode of ascent, in which six or eight miles a day was good progress." Hist. and Geogr. of Miss. Valley.

Thirty years ago safety barges were introduced upon the Hudson, soon after several serious disasters by the explosion of boilers - these were large and comfortable vessels, solely for the accommodation of passengers, and were towed by a steamboat. Making their trips but slowly, they soon went out of fashion-and the word barge was then applied to freight vessels towed by steamboats-of these, however, several were towed by one boat.

TO BARK A TREE. To make a circular incision through the bark so as to kill the tree. See Girdle.

TO BARK OFF SQUIRRELS.

A common way of killing squirrels among those who are expert with the rifle, in the Western States, is to strike with the ball the bark of the tree immediately beneath the squirrel; the concussion produced by which kills the animal instantly without mutilating it. Audubon, Ornithology, Vol. I. p. 294.

TO BARK UP THE WRONG TREE. A common expression at the West, denoting that a person has mistaken his object, or is pursuing the wrong course to obtain it. In hunting, a dog drives a squirrel or other game into a tree, where, by a constant barking, he attracts its attention until the hunter arrives. Sometimes the game escapes, or the dog is deceived, and barks up the wrong tree.

If you think to run a rig on me, you have made a mistake in the child, and barked up the wrong tree. -S. Slick, Human Nature, p. 124.

When people try to hunt [office] for themselves,

and seem to be barking

up the wrong sapling, I want to put them on the right trail. — Crockett's Tour, p.

205.

BARM. (Ang. Sax. beorm.) Yeast. This old English word is preserved in New England.

BARNBURNERS. A nickname given in the State of New York to the more radical and progressive section of the Democratic party, otherwise called the Young Democracy, as opposed to the conservative tendencies of old Hunkerism. See Hunker.

This school of Democrats was termed Barnburners, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman, who relieved himself of rats by burning down his barns which they infested, just like exterminating all banks and corporations, to root out the abuses connected therewith.-N. Y. Tribune.

BARRACH. A straw-thatched roof supported by four posts, capable of being raised or lowered at pleasure, under which hay is kept. Also called, in New York, hay-barrach, probably from the Dutch.

BARRACLADE. (Dutch, barre kledeeren, cloths undressed or without a nap.) A home-made woollen blanket without nap. This word is

peculiar to New York city, and those parts of the State settled by the Dutch. BARRANCA. (Span.) A deep break or ravine, caused by heavy rains or a watercourse. The banks of such are always, steep and abrupt, like a wall, owing to the tenacity of the soil, and the suddenness with which they are made. A sloping bank by a river's side, or a similarly formed ravine, is not a barranca. These perpendicular walls of earth are found in Texas and New Mexico, and are a marked feature in their topography. The Barrancas which bound on one side the battle-field of Buena Vista are very remarkable.

BARRENS. Elevated lands or plains upon which grow small trees, but never timber. They are classed as Pine-barrens, Oak-barrens, etc., according to the kind of tree which prevails upon them. In Kentucky, the term is applied to certain regions in the carboniferous limestone formation, the soil of which is really very fertile. Hence Barren county and Barren river. In these places the water flows in subterranean channels; and hence a dryness of the surface, which, according to some, has permitted annual fires to sweep off the timber, while, according to others, it has not permitted its growth.

BARREN GROUND REINDEER. (Tarandus arcticus, Rich.) A species of Caribou confined almost entirely to the " Barren Grounds," the northeastern corner of North America. It occurs also in Greenland. - S. F Baird.

BASE. A game of ball much played in America, so called from the three bases or stations used in it. That the game and its name are both English is evident from the following article in Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words: "Base-ball. A country game mentioned in Moor's Suffolk Words, p. 238."

BASKET MEETING. In the West a sort of pic-nic, generally with some religious "exercises."

BASS. A name applied to several species of excellent sea and lake fish. See Black Bass, Sea Bass, Striped Bass.

BASSWOOD. (Tilia americana.) A tree resembling the European lime or linden; from the use of its inner bark for making mats or cordage, the tree is also called bast or bass. The name, however, is now obsolete in England. In the United States it is also called White-wood.

From the idea of pliability (both in the bark and wood), the name of the tree is made a reproach in the following extract from one of Brigham Young's "sermons!"

I say, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State in the Union, or an independent nation by ourselves; and let them drive us from this place if they can, they cannot do it. I do not throw this out as a banter. You Gentiles and hickory and basswood Mormons can write it down, if you please; but write it as I speak it.

TO BAT. To bat the eyes, in Southern parlance, is to wink.

BATTERY. A sort of boat used for duck-shooting in the Chesapeake, in which the shooter lies below the surface of the water. It is also called, among other local names, a Surface-boat, Coffin-boat, Sink, or Box. Lewis, American Sportsman.

BAY. 1. An arm of a prairie extending into, and partly surrounded by, woods.

2. A piece of low, marshy ground, producing large numbers of Baytrees. North Carolina.

BAYBERRY. (Myrica cerifera.) A shrub, with fragrant leaves, having an

odor resembling that of the bay. The berries, when boiled in water, yield a fragrant green wax, known as "bayberry tallow," used for making candles, etc.

BAY RUM. A liquor obtained by distilling the leaves of the bay-tree. It is chiefly used for the purposes of the toilet.

BAY LAUREL. See Bay-tree.

BAY STATE. The State of Massachusetts.

The original name of the

colony was Massachusetts Bay. Hence among the New England people it was usually called the Bay State.

BAYOU. (Fr. boyau, a gut.) In Louisiana, the outlet of a lake; a channel for water.

BEACH-COMBERS. The long waves rolling in from the ocean.

BEAKER. A large drinking-glass, a tumbler. The word is used in the north of England and in Scotland, and by old persons in New England. In what may be called bacchanalian poetry, it is still used by us precisely as it was in England centuries ago.

Fill him his beaker, he will never flinch
To give a full quart pot the empty pinch.

Rowland's Humors Ordinarie.

Then fill up your beaker! A bumper I claim
For the toast that each heart will respond to.
Rough and Ready Songs.

Every one is familiar with the chorus in the beautiful song of C. F. Hoffman, entitled "Sparkling and Bright."

Then fill to-night with hearts as light,

To loves as gay and fleeting

As bubbles that swim on the beaker's brim,

And break on the lips while meeting.

BEAR. A word to denote a certain description of stockjobbers. John

son.

The same term is used among the brokers and stockjobbers of Wall street, New York. Their plans of operation are as accurately described in the annexed extract from Warton as they can be at the present

moment:

He who sells that of which he is not possessed is proverbially said to sell the skin before he has caught the bear. It was the practice of stockjobbers, in the year 1720, to enter into a contract for transferring South Sea stock at a future time for a certain price; but he who contracted to sell had frequently no stock to transfer, nor did he who bought intend to receive any in consequence of his bargain; the seller was therefore called a bear, in allusion to the proverb, and the buyer a bull, perhaps only as a similar distinction. The contract was merely a wager, to be determined by the rise or fall of stock; if it rose, the seller paid the difference to the buyer, proportioned to the sum determined by the same computation to the seller. - Dr. Warton on Pope.

There has been a very important revolution made in the tactics of a certain extensive operator in Wall street. The largest bull in the street has become a bear, and the rank and file have been thrown into the greatest confusion and left without a leader. New York Herald.

BEAR-BERRY. See Kinnikinick.

BEAR-GRASS. (Yucca filamentosa.) Sometimes called Silk Grass, from the fibres which appear on the edges of the leaves. It is not a grass.

TO BEAR A HAND. A seaman's phrase. To go to work; to assist; to make haste.

BEAR STATE. A name by which the State of Arkansas is known at the West. I once asked a Western man if Arkansas abounded in bears, that it should be designated as the "Bear State?" "Yes," said he, "it does; for I never knew a man from that State but he was a bar, and in fact the people are all barish to a degree."

BEAR-WALLOW. See Hog-Wallow.

BEAST.

A common name for a horse in the Southern and Western States. It is quite common to see in villages the invitation to travellers, "Entertainment for man and beast;" and in the Bible we read, "A certain Samaritan . . . set him on his own beast."

ТО ВЕАТ. 1. To excel, surpass in a contest. Thus we say, one racer or steamer beats another. So too, "It beats all creation," i. e. surpasses every thing.

The widow Bedott is the brazen-facedest critter t'ever lived, it does beat all. I never see her equal. - Bedott Papers, p. 77.

2. To overcome with astonishment, to amaze, astound. We sometimes hear, especially from the mouths of old people, such expressions as, “I felt beat," "I was quite beat," i. e. utterly astonished.

ВЕАТ, п. One who excels or surpasses another, a superior.

Sam Slick was a queer chap. I never see the beat of him. - Yankee Hill's Sto

ries.

BEAT OUT. Tired or fagged out.

BEAU. This word, nearly obsolete in England, is in common use with us to mean a lover, sweetheart.

TO BEAU. To act in the capacity of a gallant or beau.

Well, I got to beauin' Miss Patience about a spell; and kept my eye on Nance, to see how the cat was jumpin'. - Yankee Hill's Stories.

BEAUTIFUL. Excellent, applied to articles of food; as, "beautiful butter," "beautiful rolls." This absurd use of the term is by no means confined to the illiterate. The word elegant is less frequently abused in the same

manner.

BEAVER. (Castor americanus.) This well-known animal, of which naturalists enumerate several varieties, is said to extend over the North American continent from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi to