[1] This article was thoroughly revised by Dr D. B. Monro before his
death in 1905; a few points have since been added by Mr. T. W. Allen.
[2] See a paper in the _Diss. Philol. Halenses_, ii. 97-219.
[3] Compare the _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, published by Robert
Chambers.
[4] Compare the branch of myrtle at an Athenian feast (Aristoph.,
_Nub._, 1364).
[5] The _Iliad_ was also recited at the festival of the Brauronia, at
Brauron in Attica (Hesych. _s.v._ [Greek: branroniois]).
[6] _Contemporary Review_, vol. xxiii. p. 218 ff.
[7] The fact that the Phoenician Vau ([digamma]) was retained in the
Greek alphabets, and the vowel [upsilon] added, shows that when the
alphabet was introduced the sound denoted by [digamma] was still in
full vigour. Otherwise [digamma] would have been used for the vowel
[upsilon], just as the Phoenician consonant Yod became the vowel
[iota]. But in the Ionic dialect the sound of [digamma] died out soon
after Homer's time, if indeed it was still pronounced then. It seems
probable therefore that the introduction of the alphabet is not later
than the composition of the Homeric poems.
[8] See D. B. Monro's _Homer's Odyssey_, books xiii.-xxiv. (Oxford,
1901, p. 455 sqq.), and the abstract of his paper on the Homeric
Dialect read to the Congress of Historical Sciences at Rome, 1903:
_Atti del Congresso internazionale di scienze storiche_, ii. 152,
153, 1905, "Il Dialetto omerico."
[9] See the chapter in Cobet's _Miscellanea critica_, pp. 225-239.
[10] The existence of two groups of the Venetian Scholia was first
noticed by Jacob La Roche, and they were first distinguished in the
edition of W. Dindorf (Oxford, 1875). There is also a group of
Scholia, chiefly exegetical, a collection of which was published by
Villoison from a MS. Ven. 453 (s. xi.) in his edition of 1788, and
has been again edited by W. Dindorf (Oxford, 1877). The most
important collection of this group is contained in the _Codex
Townleianus_ (Burney 86 s. xi.) of the British Museum, edited by E.
Maass, (Oxford, 1887-1888). The vast commentary of Eustathius (of the
12th century) marks a third stage in the progress of ancient Homeric
learning.
[11] _Prolegomena ad Homerum, sive de operum Homericorum prisca et
genuina forma variisque mutationibus et probabili ratione emendandi._
scripsit Frid. Aug. Wolfius, volumen i. (1795).
[12] On this point see a paper by Professor Packard in the _Trans. of
the American Philological Association_ (1876).
[13] _Die Composition der Odyssee_ (Berlin, 1869). A full discussion
of this book is given by Dr E. Kammer, _Die Einheit der Odyssee_
(Leipzig, 1873).
[14] "As a poet Homer must be acknowledged to excel Shakespeare in
the truth, the harmony, the sustained grandeur, the satisfying
completeness of his images" (Shelley, _Essays_, &c., i. 51, ed.
1852).
[15] "The old English balladist may stir Sir Philip Sidney's heart
like a trumpet, and this is much; but Homer, but the few artists in
the grand style, can do more--they can refine the raw natural man,
they can transmute him" (_On Translating Homer_, p. 61).
[16] _Die exegetischen Scholien der Ilias_, p. vii.
[17] "On comprend que des chants populaires nes d'un evenement
eclatant, victoire ou defaite, puissent contribuer a former la
tradition, a en arreter les traits; ils peuvent aussi devenir le
centre de legendes qui se forment pour les expliquer; et de la sorte
leur substance au moins arrive au poete epique qui l'introduit dans
sa composition. Voila ce qui a pu se produire pour de chants
tres-courts, dont il est d'ailleurs aussi difficile d'affirmer que de
nier l'existence. Mais on peut expliquer la formation des chansons de
geste par une autre hypothese" (Meyer, _Recherches sur l'epopee
francaise_, p. 65). "Ce qui a fait naitre la theorie des chants
'lyrico-epiques' ou des cantilenes, c'est le systeme de Wolf sur les
poemes homeriques, et de Lachmann sur les _Nibelungen_. Mais, au
moins en ce qui concerne ce dernier poeme, le systeme est detruit....
On tire encore argument des romances espagnoles, qui, dit-on, sont
des 'cantilenes' non encore arrivees a l'epopee.... Et c'est le
malheur de cette theorie: faute de preuves directes, elle cherche des
analogies au dehors: en Espagne, elle trouve des 'cantilenes,' mais
pas d'epopee; en Allemagne, une epopee, mais pas de cantilenes!"
(_Ibid._ p. 66).
[18] A. Lang, _Contemporary Review_, vol. xvii., N.S., p. 588.
HOMER, WINSLOW (1836-1910), American painter, was born in Boston,
U.S.A., on the 24th of February 1836. At the age of nineteen he was
apprenticed to a lithographer. Two years later he opened a studio in
Boston, and devoted much of his time to making drawings for
wood-engravers. In 1859 he removed to New York, where he studied in the
night-school of the National Academy of Design. During the American
Civil War he was with the troops at the front, and contributed sketches
to _Harper's Weekly_. The war also furnished him with the subjects for
the first two pictures which he exhibited (1863), one of which was
"Home, Sweet Home." His "Prisoners from the Front"--perhaps his most
generally popular picture--was exhibited in New York in 1865, and also
in Paris in 1867, where he was spending the year in study. Among his
other paintings in oil are "Snap the Whip" (which was exhibited at the
Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, and, in company with "The
Country Schoolroom," at the Paris Salon the following year), "Eating
Water-melon," "The Cotton Pickers," "Visit from the Old Mistress, Sunday
Morning," "The Life-Line" and "The Coming of the Gale." His genius,
however, has perhaps shown better in his works in water-colour, among
which are his marine studies painted at Gloucester, Mass., and his
"Inside the Bar," "The Voice from the Cliffs" (pictures of English
fisherwomen), "Tynemouth," "Wrecking of a Vessel" and "Lost on the
Grand Banks." His work, which principally consists of _genre_ pictures,
is characterized by strength, rugged directness and unmistakable
freshness and originality, rather than by technical excellence, grace of
line or beauty of colour. He was little affected by European influences.
His types and scenes, apart from his few English pictures, are
distinctly American--soldiers in blue, New England children, negroes in
the land of cotton, Gloucester fishermen and stormy Atlantic seas.
Besides being a member of the Society of Painters in Water-color, New
York, he was elected in 1864 an associate and the following year a
member of the National Academy of Design.
HOMESTEAD, a borough of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., on the
Monongahela river, 8 m. S.E. of Pittsburg. Pop. (1890) 7911; (1900)
12,554, of whom 3604 were foreign-born and 640 were negroes; (U.S.
census, 1910) 18,713. It is served by the Pennsylvania and the Pittsburg
& Lake Erie railways, and by the short Union Railroad, which connects
with the Bessemer & Lake Erie and the Wabash railways. The borough has a
Carnegie library and the C.M. Schwab Manual Training School. Partly in
Homestead but chiefly in the adjoining borough of Munhall (and therefore
not reported as in Homestead by the U.S. Census) is one of the largest
plants in the United States for the manufacture of steel used in the
construction of bridges and steel-frame buildings and of steel
armour-plate, and this is its chief industry; among Homestead's other
manufactures are glass and fire-bricks. The water-works are owned and
operated by the municipality. Homestead was first settled in 1871, and
it was incorporated in 1880. In 1892 a labour strike lasting 143 days
and one of the most serious in the history of the United States was
carried on here by the National Amalgamated Association of Iron and
Steel Workers of the United States against the Carnegie Steel Company.
The arrival (on the 6th of July) of a force of about 200 Pinkerton
detectives from New York and Chicago resulted in a fight in which about
10 men were killed, and to restore order two brigades of the state
militia were called out. See STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS.
HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTION LAWS, laws (principally in the United States)
designed primarily either to aid the head of a family to acquire title
to a place of residence or to protect the owner against loss of that
title through seizure for debt. These laws have all been enacted in
America since about the middle of the 19th century, and owe their origin
to the demand for a population of the right sort in a new country, to
the conviction that the freeholder rather than the tenant is the natural
supporter of popular government, to the effort to prevent insolvent
debtors from becoming useless members of society, and to the belief that
such laws encourage the stability of the family.
By the cessions of several of the older states, and by various treaties
with foreign countries, public lands have been acquired for the United
States in every state and territory of the Union except the original
thirteen, and Maine, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas. For a time
they were regarded chiefly as a source of revenue, but about 1820, as
the need of revenue for the payment of the national debt decreased and
the inhabitants of an increasing number of new states became eager to
have the vacant lands within their bounds occupied, the demand that the
public lands should be disposed of more in the interest of the settler
became increasingly strong, and the homestead idea originated. Until the
advent of railways, however, the older states of the North were opposed
to promoting the development of the West in this manner, and soon
afterwards the Southern representatives in Congress opposed the general
homestead bills in the interests of slavery, so that except in isolated
cases where settlers were desired to protect some frontier, as in
Florida and Oregon, and to a limited extent in the case of the
Pre-emption Act of 1841 (see below), the homestead principle was not
applied by the national government until the Civil War had begun. A
general homestead bill was passed by Congress in 1860, but this was
vetoed by President James Buchanan; two years later, however, a similar
bill became a law. The act of 1862 originally provided that any citizen
of the United States, or applicant for citizenship, who was the head of
a family, or twenty-one years of age, or, if younger, had served not
less than fourteen days in the army or navy of the United States during
an actual war, might apply for 160 acres or less of unappropriated
public lands, and might acquire title to this amount of land by residing
upon and cultivating it for five years immediately following, and paying
such fees as were necessary to cover the cost of administration; a
homestead acquired in this manner was exempted from seizure for any debt
contracted prior to the date of issuing the patent. A commutation clause
of this act permitted title to be acquired after only six months of
residence by paying $1.25 per acre, as provided in the Pre-emption Act
of 1841. Act of 1872, amended in 1901, allows any soldier or seaman, who
has served at least ninety days in the army or navy of the United States
during the Civil War, the Spanish-American War or in the suppression of
the insurrection in the Philippines, and was honourably discharged, to
apply for a homestead, and permits the deduction of the time of such
service, or, if discharged on account of wounds or other disability
incurred in the line of duty, the full term of his enlistment, from the
five years otherwise required for perfecting title, except that in any
case he shall have resided upon and cultivated the land at least one
year before the passing of title. Since 1866 mineral lands have been for
the most part excluded from entry as homesteads.
In accordance with the provisions of the homestead law, 718,930
homesteads, containing 96,495,414 acres, were established in forty-two
years, and besides this principal act, Congress has passed several minor
ones of a like nature, that is, acts designed to benefit the actual
settler who improves the land. Thus the Pre-emption Act of 1841 gave to
any head of a family or any single person over twenty-one years of age,
who was a citizen of the United States or had declared his intention to
become one, permission to purchase not to exceed 160 acres of public
lands after he had resided upon and improved the same for six months;
the Timber-Culture Act of 1873 allowed title to 160 acres of public
prairie-land to be given to any one who should plant upon it 40 acres of
timber, and keep the same in good growing condition for ten years; and
the Desert-Land Act of 1877 gave to any citizen of the United States, or
to any person who had declared his intention to become one, the
privilege of acquiring title to 640 acres of such public land as was not
included in mineral or timber lands, and would not without irrigation
produce an agricultural crop, by paying twenty-five cents an acre and
creating for the tract an artificial water-supply. These several land
acts, however, invited fraud to such an extent that in time they
promoted the establishment of large land holdings by ranchmen and others
quite as much as they encouraged settlement and cultivation, and so
great was this evil that in 1891 the Timber-Culture and Pre-emption Acts
were repealed, the total amount of land that could be acquired by any
one person under the several land laws was limited to 320 acres, the
Desert-Land Act was so amended as to require an expenditure of at least
three dollars an acre for irrigation, and the original Homestead Act was
so amended as to disqualify any person who was already proprietor of
more than 160 acres in any state or Territory of the Union for acquiring
any more land under its provisions; and in 1896 a residence of fourteen
months was required before permitting commutation or the purchase of
title. But even these measures were inadequate to prevent fraud. In 1894
Congress, in what is known as the Carey Act, donated to California,
Oregon, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, New
Mexico and the Dakotas so much of 1,000,000 acres each of desert-lands
as each should cause to be irrigated, reclaimed and occupied within ten
years,[1] not less than 20 acres of each 160 acres to be cultivated by
actual settlers; and in several of these states and territories
irrigating companies have been formed and land offered to settlers in
amounts not exceeding 160 acres to each, on terms requiring the settler
to purchase ample and perpetual water-rights. In 1902, Congress
appropriated the proceeds of the sales of public lands in these states
and territories to form a reclamation fund to be used for the
construction and maintenance of irrigation works, and lands reclaimed by
this means are open to homestead entries, the entry-man being required
to pay for the cost of reclamation in ten equal annual instalments
without interest. When Texas was admitted to the Union the disposal of
its public lands was reserved to the state, and under its laws every
person who is the head of a family and without a homestead may acquire
title to 160 acres of land by residing upon and improving it for three
years; every unmarried man eighteen years of age or over may acquire
title to 80 acres in the same way.
A short time before the National Homestead Act for aiding citizens to
acquire homesteads went into operation, some of the state legislatures
had passed homestead and exemption laws designed to protect homesteads
or a certain amount of property against loss to the owners in case they
should become insolvent debtors, and by the close of the century the
legislature of nearly every state in the Union had passed a law of this
nature. These laws vary greatly. In most states the exemption of a
homestead or other property from liability for debts can be claimed only
by the head of a family, but in Georgia it may be claimed by any aged or
infirm person, by any trustee of a family of minor children, or by any
person on whom any woman or girls are dependent for support; and in
California, although the head of a family may claim exemption for a
homestead valued at $5000, any other person may claim exemption for a
homestead valued at $1000. In some states exemptions may be claimed
either for a farm limited to 40, 80, 160 or 200 acres, or for a house
and one or more lots, usually limited in size, in a town, village or
city; in other states the homestead for which exemption may be claimed
is limited in value, and this value varies from $500 to $5000. With the
homestead are usually included the appurtenances thereto, and the courts
invariably interpret the law liberally; but many states also exempt a
specified amount of personal property, including wearing apparel,
furniture, provisions, tools, libraries and in some cases domestic
animals and stock in trade. A few states exempt no homestead and only a
small amount of personal property; Maryland, for example, exempts only
$100 worth of property besides money payable in the nature of insurance,
or for relief, in the event of sickness, injury or death. To some debts
the exemption does not usually apply; the most common of these are
taxes, purchase money, a debt secured by mortgage on the homestead and
debts contracted in making improvements upon it; in Maryland the only
exception is a judgment for breach of promise to marry or in case of
seduction. If the homestead belongs to a married person, the consent of
both husband and wife is usually required to mortgage it. Finally, some
states require that the homestead for which exemption is to be claimed
shall be previously entered upon record, others require only occupancy,
and still others permit the homestead to be designated whenever a claim
is presented.
Following the example of either the United States Congress or the state
legislatures, the governments of several British colonial states and
provinces have passed homestead laws. In Quebec every settler on public
lands is allowed, after receiving a patent, an exemption of not to
exceed 200 acres from that of his widow, of his, her or their children
and descendants in the direct line. In Ontario an applicant for a
homestead may have not to exceed 200 acres of unappropriated public land
for farming purposes by building a house thereon, occupying it for five
years, and bringing at least fifteen acres under cultivation; the
exemption of such a homestead from liability to seizure for debts is,
however, limited to twenty years from the date of application for the
land, and does not extend even during that period to rates or taxes.
Manitoba, British Columbia, Queensland, New South Wales, South
Australia, West Australia and New Zealand also have liberal homestead
and exemption laws.
See J. B. Sanborn, "Some Political Aspects of Homestead Legislation,"
in _The American Historical Review_ (1900); Edward Manson, "The
Homestead Acts," in the _Journal of the Society of Comparative
Legislation_ (London, 1899); S. D. Thompson, _A Treatise on_
_Homesteads and Exemptions_ (San Francisco, 1886); P. Bureau, _Le
Homestead ou l'Insaisissabilite de la petite propriete fonciere_
(Paris, 1894), and L. Vacher, _Le Homestead aux Etats-Unis_ (Paris,
1899). (N. D. M.)