race the urn,
Let triumph in their eyes appear,
Nor dare to make an angel mourn.

_Salem Register,_ 1819.

* * * * *

Varieties.

_Origin of the word_ DUN.--Dunny, in the provincial dialect
of several countries, signifies deaf: to dun, then, perhaps
may mean, to deafen with importunate demands. Some derive it
from the word _donnez_, which signifies _give_; but the true
original meaning of the word owes its birth to one Joe Dun,
a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active
and so dexterous in his business, that it became a proverb,
when a man refused to pay, "Why do you not _dun_ him?" that
is, Why do not you set _Dun_ to arrest him?--Hence it became
a cant-word, and is now as old as since the days of Henry
VII. Dun was also the general name of hangman, before that
of Jack-ketch.

And presently a halter got,
Made of the best strong hempen tear,
And e'er a cat could lick her ear,
Had tied it up with as much art,
As Dun himself could do for 's heart.

COTTON'S VIRGIL TRA. BOOK iv.

It is curious to observe that _Dun_, who, as we said before,
was _finisher of the law_ in the reign of Henry VII., had a
son, who became a bailiff--This bailiff having scraped some
money together, made his son an attorney, who changed the
name of _Dun_ to _Dunning_--the rest of the genealogy are
well known.

_Massachusetts Gazette,_ Aug. 29, 1786.

* * * * *

_Biographical Correctness_.--As a specimen of the accurate
way in which Biographical Dictionaries are made up, the
Enquirer refers to Dr. Watkins' volume, in which he writes
down that John Adams "died in 1803."--And yet for 23 years
after this date, the old patriarch was living in health and
happiness. A still more ludicrous blunder appeared a few
years since in a French Biographical Dictionary, in which it
was stated that the now venerable John Jay, who yet lives
full of years and full of honors, was a Frenchman, who,
after having framed the Constitution of the State of
New-York, and witnessed the close of the American
revolution, returned to France--became a member of the
French Convention, and was finally brought to the
guillotine