The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 46, October 30, 2005, Article 7

WHAT "MITE" IT SIGNIFY?

Last week I quoted a passage from a book on the Library
Company of Philadelphia. "... I cannot withhold from
contributing my Mite." The "Mite" was a bill of exchange for
sixty pounds, worth in those days $1,000 - the first monetary
gift to the Library. The donor of the "Mite" was Dr. Walter
Sydserfe, an aged physician ..."

Arthur Shippee writes: "I hesitate to state this unequivocally
without looking at the context, but at first glance this strikes me
as rhetorical move, metaphoric and perhaps euphemistic. To
be claiming to contribute a "mite" does several things: it sounds
modest; it sounds pious and well meaning; &c. I don't think
that this is a substitute meaning here, but an extension of the
familiar "widow's mite," i.e., a small coin, all that she had.
Whether such a transferring is in the best of taste, or is
wholly applicable to a significant gift to a library company I will
leave others to judge for themselves."

[Now that I reread the passage, I think Arthur is right - the author
puts quotes around the word "mite". I misunderstood the context,
thinking that "mite" was actually a term used for a sixty pound note.
No wonder I'd never heard that use of the term before. -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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