{I'fegs! = an obsolete, essentially meaningless exclamation, like "I
swear!", deriving from "In faith!"}

"This is very extraordinary! So you do not wait, but take them as they
come. And what state is your militia actually in?"

"Awful! It is what my boss, the judge, sometimes calls a 'statu quo.'"

{'statu quo' = in the same state as always (Latin)}

"And the newspapers--and the news--and the politics?"

"Why, they are NOT in 'statu quo'--but in a 'semper eadem'--I beg
pardon, do you understand Latin?"

"No, sir--ladies do not often study the dead languages."

"If they did they would soon bring 'em to life! 'Semper eadem' is Latin
for 'worse and worse.' The militia is drilling into a 'statu quo,' and the
press is enlightening mankind with a 'semper eadem.' "

{'Semper eadem' = the usual meaning is "ever the same" (Latin)--
presumably Cooper's talking shirt is being ironical, suggesting that that
"worse and worse" is the constant condition of the press}

After properly thanking my neighbor for these useful explanations, we
naturally fell into discourse about matters and things in general, the
weather in America being uniformly too fine to admit of discussion.