Dot = Dowry in Louisana English according to http://wikidiff.com/dowry/dot On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 2:08 PM, Dave Davis <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > What does the word 'dot' -- in quotes in the original -- refer to? > > DDD > > https://archive.org/details/jstor-25119224 ; or > http://www.online-literature.com/twain/3263/ > > "Rich American girls do buy titles, but they did not invent that idea; it > had been worn threadbare several hundred centuries before America was > discovered. European girls still exploit it as briskly as ever; and, when a > title is not to be had for the money in hand, they buy the husband without > it. They must put up the "dot," or there is no trade. The commercialization > of brides is substantially universal, except in America. It exists with us, > to some little extent, but in no degree approaching a custom." >