save Berlin, and more Irish than in Dublin. There are many
well-defined foreign communities in the city, such as “Little Italy”
about Mulberry Street, “Chinatown” on Mott, Pell and Doyers Streets,
the Hebrew quarter on the upper Bowery and east of it, a “German
Colony” east of Second Avenue below Fourteenth Street, French quarters
south of Washington Square about Bleecker Street and on the West Side
between Twentieth and Thirty-fourth Streets; a Russian quarter near
East Broadway, a “Greek Colony” about Sixth Avenue in the 40’s, and
negro quarters on Thompson Street and on the West Side in the 50’s,
and there are equally well-defined Armenian and Arab quarters.
Chicago, as the article on that city shows, is the second largest
Bohemian city in the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Norwegian, the
fifth Polish and the fifth German.
[Sidenote: Negro Problem]
The Southern states of the Union, though they have much less immigration
than the North or West, have a population problem that is even more
difficult in some respects—that of the negro. Many immigrant elements
are readily “amalgamated” or assimilated into the native local
population—by marriage, by trade, and indeed even by physical
environment. It seems certain, for instance, that the physical type of
the children of Italian or Hebrew immigrants in New York City is
different from that of their parents and more like a local type, even in
such respects as the shape and contour of the head and its ratio of
length to breadth. But the negro does not assimilate physically or, to
any considerable degree, mentally; and the communities in America in
which he is most plentiful are so far from eager to assimilate him that
they socially and politically isolate him. The reader should go to the
article NEGRO (Vol. 19, p. 344), in which there is a general study of
the race by T. Athol Joyce, assistant in the Department of Ethnography,
British Museum, and a section on _Negroes in the United States_ by Dr.
Walter Francis Willcox, late chief statistician U. S. Census Bureau and
professor of social science and statistics, Cornell University. The
magnitude of the negro problem may be deduced from Professor Willcox’s
remark that the present number of negroes in the United States “is
greater than the total population of the United States was in 1820, and
nearly as great as the population of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.” Birth
and mortality statistics in regard to negroes show that they are
increasing much less rapidly than whites; but it must be remembered that
there is an absolute increase, that there is no prospect of the negro
problem being solved by the dying out of the race, and that even the
fact that negroes constitute a smaller proportion of the population than
formerly does not greatly affect the problem. There is also much
relevant information of value in the articles on the Southern states,
particularly in the sections on population, education and government;
and as to education see the articles TUSKEGEE (Vol. 27, p. 487), BOOKER
T. WASHINGTON (Vol. 28, p. 344) and S. C. ARMSTRONG (Vol. 2, p. 591).
See also the article LYNCH LAW (Vol. 17, p. 169) by Prof. W. L. Fleming
of the Louisiana State University.
[Sidenote: Trusts]
There is a very close relation between the economic problems connected
with labour and those which have to do with capital and especially with
capital in its organized and monopolistic forms. A monopoly of the
supply, sale, or manufacture of any class of goods was, especially in
England under the Tudors and Stuarts, a crown grant; and the theory of
patent and copyright law is based on such grants, as is shown in the
articles MONOPOLY (Vol. 18, p. 733), LETTERS PATENT (Vol. 16, p. 501),
and PATENTS (Vol. 20, p. 903). On the modern monopoly which, far from
being cherished by government, is constantly being regulated, checked or
“crushed,” see the article TRUSTS (Vol. 22, p. 334) by Prof. J. W.
Jenks, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, whose
treatment is from the American point of view—the problem is peculiarly
an American one—but with sections on European experience, including
paragraphs on Great Britain, Germany, France and Austria.
Among the questions answered by this article—questions that are
continually presenting themselves to the mind of every intelligent
citizen, but that are seldom lucidly answered even by the most
intelligent—are:
What are trusts? Why are they formed?
Why were they not formed before the latter years of the 19th century?
Why can combination be successfully applied in some industries and not
in others? Why do some industries thrive better under competition than
under combination? Why are some combinations bound to fail?
In what respect has the trust advantages over the individual
competitor?
How do trusts benefit by protective tariffs and by discrimination in
rates of transportation?
What has been the history of trusts in Europe?
The question of most interest to the ordinary person is: Do trusts
raise prices? To this the Encyclopaedia Britannica answers:
“Experience seems to show, beyond question, that whenever the
combinations are powerful enough to secure a monopolistic control it
has usually been the policy to increase the prices above those which
obtained during the period of competition preceding the formation of
the combination.” Besides this increased price, the evils of
combinations are: loss to investors through promotion and speculation
by directors; loss to wage-earners, corruption of legislatures, and
the suppression of independent activity.
The most obvious remedies are “more rigid laws with reference to the
methods of incorporation and to the responsibility of directors to
stockholders and to the public,” greater publicity and closer government
inspection, and the abolition of special favours granted by government
and shipping companies.
[Sidenote: Government Control]
For American legislation in regard to trusts see the article INTERSTATE
COMMERCE (Vol. 14, p. 711), equivalent to 10 pages of this Guide, by
Prof. Frank A. Fetter, formerly of Cornell and now of Princeton
University. This article shows the constitutional basis for action by
the Federal government and the power given to Congress to regulate
commerce among the several states; and it describes the Interstate
Commerce Act of 1887, amended in 1903 by the Elkins Act, and the Sherman
Anti-Trust Act of 1890. See also in the article UNITED STATES, the
section _History_, §§ 353, 357, 396 (pp. 725, 726, 733 of Vol. 27).
But although there have been great changes in the relation of government
to the individual in his private and business life, the extent of
practical government control is still much less than many theorists
would like to see. It is true that in many countries of Europe railways
are owned and operated by the state—see p. 826 of Vol. 22, in the
article RAILWAYS. See also the article NEW ZEALAND and the summary of
conditions there (p. 307, Vol. 25), in part as follows:
The government owns not only the railways, but two-thirds of the whole
land, letting it on long leases. It sets a limit to large estates. It
levies a progressive income-tax and land tax. It has a labour
department, strict factory acts and a law of compulsory arbitration in
labour disputes (1895). There are old-age pensions (1898), government
insurance of life (1871) and against fire (1905). Women have the
suffrage, and, partly in consequence, the restriction of the liquor
traffic is severe. There is a protective tariff, and Oriental labour
is excluded. The success of the experiment is not yet beyond doubt;
compulsory arbitration, for example, did not work with perfect
smoothness, and was amended in 1908.... It is fair to add that the
experiment is probably on too small a scale to show what might happen
in larger countries. New Zealand has only 100,000 sq. m. of territory
and about one million of inhabitants, mainly rural and of picked
quality. The conditions of combined isolation and security are not
easily obtained elsewhere. The action of the state has been in the
great majority of instances rather regulative than constructive.
[Sidenote: Socialism, etc.]
But in general governments have extended their control more or less
along the conventional lines of law and legislative theory, and have not
undertaken ownership and operation—even in New Zealand, as we have just
seen, public action being “rather regulative than constructive.” See the
general article SOCIALISM (Vol. 25, p. 310) and biographies of those
connected with the Socialist movement, such as Marx, Lassalle, Robert
Owen, Rodbertus, Bebel, Liebknecht, Jaures, Ballance, William Morris,
Edward Bellamy, and Henry George. On communism, see the article on that
subject, the biographies of Owen, Saint-Simon, Fourier, Cabet, etc., and
descriptions of the more important American communistic experiments in
the articles on Brook Farm, Shakers, Amana, Nauvoo, Harmony, Oneida
Community, Hopedale, etc. For communism merely as a business scheme see
the article CO-OPERATION (Vol. 7, p. 82) and the biographies of
Raiffeisen and Schulze-Delitzsch.
[Sidenote: Finance]
We have now run through the more strikingly novel public questions of
the day, and we come next to questions which have been long discussed
and longer recognized as being within the sphere of government. The one
of these that is most intimately connected with the economic problems we
have just been discussing is the subject of public finance and revenue.
On this read the articles FINANCE (Vol. 10, p. 374), TAXATION (Vol. 26,
p. 458), and NATIONAL DEBT (Vol. 19, p. 266); and, on American public
finance, see Vol. 27, p. 654; on Congressional legislation and finance,
p. 661 of the same volume; for a general and statistical treatment of
American finance, the sections headed _Finance_ in each article dealing
with a state of the Union, the articles GOLD (Vol. 12, p. 192), SILVER
(Vol. 25, p. 112), and BIMETALLISM (Vol. 3, p. 946), and the biographies
of ROBERT MORRIS (Vol. 18, p. 871), ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Vol. 12, p.
880), and JAY COOKE (Vol. 7, p. 73).
[Sidenote: Tariff]
Of perennial interest in the field of public finance is the question of
tariff reform. This is true both in the United States and in the United
Kingdom, but strangely enough “tariff reform” is used with absolutely
opposite meanings in the two countries. Tariff reform in England is
linked with Imperialism and means the introduction of higher tariffs for
protection of colonial as well as British industries. In the United
States the typical tariff reformer is usually an opponent of Imperialism
(which, of course, does not mean the same thing in the two countries),
and tariff reform here involves lowering duties, doing away with
protection, and, in short, adopting approximately the very system now in
vogue in the United Kingdom, and the very system that the followers of
Joseph Chamberlain wish to replace with something not entirely unlike
the American protective system as it has been since the Civil War. On
this subject see the article TARIFF (Vol. 26, p. 422), by the American
economist, F. W. Taussig, professor at Harvard, the articles PROTECTION
(Vol. 22, p. 464), by E. J. James, president of the University of
Illinois, and author of the _History of American Tariff Legislation_,
and FREE TRADE (Vol. 11, p. 88), by the Venerable Dr. William
Cunningham, Archdeacon of Ely, and author of _The Growth of English
Industry and Commerce_; the biographies of ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Vol. 12,
p. 880), and HENRY CLAY (Vol. 6, p. 470), for the foundation of American
protection; and the articles on H. C. CAREY (Vol. 5, p. 329), FRIEDRICH
LIST (Vol. 16, p. 776), and WILLIAM MCKINLEY (Vol. 17, p. 256) for the
principal exponents, theoretical and practical, outside of Great
Britain, of protection; the lives of RICHARD COBDEN (Vol. 6, p. 607) and
JOHN BRIGHT (Vol. 4, p. 567) and the article CORN-LAWS (Vol. 7, p. 174)
for the genesis of free trade in Great Britain; and the article on
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN (in particular pp. 816–817 of Vol. 5) for English
tariff reform in politics.
[Sidenote: Banking Laws]
Another topic in public finance of great interest at the present moment
is the banking laws,—the interference of government with banking and
similar business. Local regulations in regard to banking will be found
in sections on legislation and finance in articles on each of the states
of the Union. The article OKLAHOMA (Vol. 20, p. 57), for example,
contains the following summary of the first radical state
enactment—constitutional in this case,—providing bank guarantees:
The unique feature of the banking system (with amendments adopted by
the second legislature becoming effective on the 11th of June, 1909)
is a fund for the guaranty of deposits. The state banking board levies
against the capital stock of each state bank and trust company,
organized or existing, under the laws of the state to create a fund
equal to 5% of average daily deposits other than the deposits of state
funds properly secured. One-fifth of this fund is payable the first
year and one-twentieth each year thereafter; 1% of the increase in
average deposits is collected each year. Emergency assessments, not to
exceed 2%, may be made whenever necessary to pay in full the
depositors in an insolvent bank; if the guaranty fund is impaired to
such a degree that it is not made up by the 2% emergency assessment,
the state banking board issues certificates of indebtedness which draw
6% interest and which are paid out of the assessment. Any national
bank may secure its depositors in this manner if it so desires. The
bank guarantee law was held to be valid by the United States Supreme
Court in 1908, after the attorney-general of the United States had
decided that it was illegal.
More general treatment is to be found in the articles BANKS AND BANKING
(Vol. 3, p. 334), SAVINGS BANKS (Vol. 24, p. 243) and TRUST COMPANY
(Vol. 27, p. 329); and see further the articles listed in the chapter in
this Guide _For Bankers and Financiers_.
[Sidenote: Insurance]
Another sphere of private finance over which government restriction and
regulation has been greatly extended during the last few years, is
insurance. The entire subject of insurance is, moreover, of interest not
merely to the citizen as a member of the body politic but to the
individual as the head of a family and as an investor for his own
protection in old age. To every one, therefore, the article INSURANCE
(Vol. 14, p. 656) will be of the utmost value, by reason of its rare
combination of interest and authority. For a full analysis of this
article and of related topics see the chapter in this Guide _For the
Insurance Man_.
[Sidenote: Legislation and Courts]
Much of the earlier part of the present chapter has been devoted to the
rapid extension of governmental control, regulation and supervision
through legislation. Interesting and novel though this is, it is far
less important for an intelligent comprehension of government than is a
careful study of the foundations and principles of legislation. Only the
specialist will wish to pursue a complete course in political science,
but every well-informed citizen of the United States should study the
general powers and functions of national and state legislatures and
courts. This material is given briefly, lucidly and critically by the
Hon. James Bryce, late British Ambassador to the United States, former
President of the British Board of Trade, and author of _The American
Commonwealth_, in the section _Constitution and Government_, article
UNITED STATES (Vol. 27, pp. 646–658). Part of this section deals with
the governments of the states, as to which there is also special
information in the section on government of the article on each state.
Regarding city governments similar sections will be found in the
articles on the larger cities. For a full analysis and a list of
articles see the chapter _For Lawyers_ in this Guide. Constitutional
restrictions of all delegated powers must be continually kept in mind in
the study of the action of legislatures and courts, and of the questions
that arise in regard to legislation or to court decisions. Although the
legislature represents the people more or less directly—the lower house
being commonly called the House of Representatives—and so has delegated
to it from the people the power of making laws, still, in the Federal
and state constitutions (except those of a very recent date) there is a
system of checks on every delegated power. The result is that an act
passed by Congress does not become law without the approval of the
president, nor, in most states, a local statute without that of the
governor, and—more important—is not a valid law if the highest Federal
Court (or, if it be a state enactment, the highest state court) holds it
contrary to the terms of the constitution. [Sidenote: The System of
Checks] For a summary of the historical arguments for this system of
checks see the section on the Constitution (Vol. 27, p. 686), in the
article UNITED STATES and such biographical articles as JAMES MADISON
(Vol. 17, p. 284); ALEXANDER HAMILTON (Vol. 12, p. 880), and GOUVERNEUR
MORRIS (Vol. 18, p. 869). The working of this system in nation and state
has been greatly affected by the distinction between the legislators’
mandate and that of the judge. Legislators have shorter terms of service
than judges, and especially judges of the higher courts, and so may be
said to be in much closer and more constant contact with the people; and
the legislator is bound by what he thinks the people need and
want,—something that is continually changing. On the other hand, the
judge is bound by the written law, unchanged and unchangeable except by
constitutional amendments or slightly varying interpretation of the
constitution. The result has been dissatisfaction with the courts and
with legislatures. The definite expression of this dissatisfaction is in
constitutional amendments or in new constitutions, adopted in order that
future action of the courts may more nearly accord with the present
sentiment of the people. The story of the constitution of each state in
the Union is told, with a summary of important constitutional changes,
in the section on government of each article on a separate state. In his
analysis of the state constitutions, Mr. Bryce says (Vol. 27, p. 647):
[Sidenote: Initiative, Referendum and Recall]
Comparing the old constitutions with the new ones, it may be said that
the note of those enacted in the first thirty or forty years of the
republic was their jealousy of executive power and their careful
safeguarding of the rights of the citizen; that of the second period,
from 1820 to the Civil War (1861–65), the democratization of the
suffrage of institutions generally; that of the third period (since
the war to the present day), a disposition to limit the powers and
check the action of the legislature, and to commit power to the hands
of the whole people voting at the polls.
And at the close of his treatment of local government in the United
States, the same authority writes (Vol. 27, p. 651):
Several state constitutions now contain provisions enabling a
prescribed number (or proportion) of the voters in a state or city to
submit a proposition to all the registered voters of the state (or
city) for their approval. If carried, it takes effect as a law. This
is the Initiative. These constitutions also allow a prescribed number
of voters to demand that a law passed by the state legislature, or an
ordinance passed by the municipal authority, be submitted to all the
voters for their approval. If rejected by them, it falls to the
ground. This is the Referendum. Some cities also provide in their
charters that an official, including the mayor or a member of the
council, may be displaced from office if, at a special election held
on the demand of a prescribed number of the city voters, he does not
receive the largest number of votes cast. This is the Recall. All
these three institutions are in operation in some Western states and
are spreading to some of the Eastern cities. Their working is observed
with lively interest, for they carry the principle of direct popular
sovereignty to lengths unprecedented except in Switzerland. But it is
not merely to the faith of the Western Americans in the people that
their introduction is due. Quite as much must be ascribed to the want
of faith in the legislature of states and cities, which are deemed too
liable to be influenced by selfish corporations.
In connection with the above reference to the referendum and initiative
in Switzerland, see the description of the Swiss system of continuous
control by the electors (Vol. 26, p. 243).
On previous experience, outside the United States, with the referendum
and the initiative, see the article REFERENDUM (Vol. 23, p. 1), by the
Rev. Dr. W. A. B. Coolidge, an American whose life has been chiefly
spent in, and devoted to the study of, Switzerland, where the system was
evolved. In the United States the system was first tried in Oregon, and
the student should read the description in the article OREGON of the
legislative department (Vol. 20, p. 246), which also deals with the
recall of officers. See also under OKLAHOMA (Vol. 20, p. 59), and the
articles on SOUTH DAKOTA and LOS ANGELES.
[Sidenote: Suffrage]
On suffrage in the United States see p. 647 of Vol. 27, describing the
requirements in different states and pointing out that “by the Federal
Constitution state suffrage is also the suffrage for Federal elections,
viz. elections of representatives in Congress and of presidential
electors.” On representation see the passage on p. 653 of Vol. 27, a
portion of which has been quoted above; and on representation in state
legislatures see p. 647 of Vol. 27 and consult the articles on the
separate states, where in the sections headed _Government_ there is also
supplementary information about election and ballot laws. It is
interesting to note, in the articles on Mississippi, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Oklahoma, that
these states have practically disfranchised the negro. For a concrete
instance of the awkward working of the electoral college, in the choice
of the president in 1876, see the article ELECTORAL COMMISSION (Vol. 9,
p. 172). On the position of aliens see the articles ALLEGIANCE (Vol. 1,
p. 689) and NATURALIZATION (Vol. 19, p. 275); and articles on various
states. In the article OREGON, for instance (Vol. 20, p. 245), the
reader will find that “the constitution provides that no Chinaman, not a
resident of the state at the time of the adoption of the constitution,
shall ever hold any real estate or mining claim, or work any mining
claim in the state.”
See also, on the whole subject, the articles BALLOT (Vol. 3, p. 279);
VOTE (Vol. 28, p. 216); VOTING MACHINES (Vol. 28, p. 217); ELECTION
(Vol. 9, p. 169); REPRESENTATION (Vol. 23, especially pp. 112–116, for
proportional voting, second choice voting, etc.), and WOMEN (Vol. 28, p.
782) for the history of the woman’s suffrage movement. In that
connection it is curious to note in this article (p. 787) that, owing to
an oversight in the wording of the first constitution of New Jersey,
women could vote in that state from 1776 to 1807. For any thorough
knowledge of practical, as contrasted with theoretical representative
government in the United States, the student should read what Mr. Bryce
has to say about _Party Government_ (Vol. 27, p. 658–660); a large part
of the article on the history of the United States after the adoption of
the Constitution (Vol. 27, pp. 688–735); articles on the great parties,
FEDERALIST (Vol. 10, p. 235), DEMOCRATIC (Vol. 8, p. 2), and REPUBLICAN
(Vol. 23, p. 177); and the lives of the great party leaders from
Hamilton and Jefferson to McKinley, Roosevelt, Bryan and Woodrow Wilson.
A fuller outline for the study of United States history will be found in
another chapter of this Guide, on _History of the United States_.
[Sidenote: Municipal Government]
But the Federal government and even the state governments do not touch
any one of us so closely as does the local government of our city and
township; and Mr. Bryce gives (Vol. 27, p. 650) a valuable criticism of
the American system of local government,—which, in some cities, indeed,
seems a lack of system in the business sense of that word, and a control
of the government by political parties prone to corruption, bribery and
the granting of special privilege. Mr. Bryce dwells on the
over-developed power of the state in legislating for the cities or other
minor governmental units, and the consequent activity of local city
interests in state and national politics, but he also points to the
growing tendency of the states to permit cities to enact their own
charters. The movement to take the city government out of politics has
reached its greatest force—and its greatest success—in government by
commission.
In 1902 the city of Galveston, in Texas, adopted a new form of
municipal government by vesting all powers in a commission of five
persons, elected by the citizens on a “general ticket,” one of whom is
mayor and head of the commission, while each of the others has charge
of a department of municipal administration. A similar plan, differing
in some details, was subsequently introduced in the city of Des
Moines, in Iowa; and the success which has attended this new departure
in both cities has led to its adoption in many others, especially, but
not exclusively, in the Western states.
For a fuller account see the articles on GALVESTON and DES MOINES,
where, as in other articles on towns and cities, there is a summary of
their government and particularly of the distinctive features of local
administration.
[Sidenote: International Relations]
What we have said, up to this point, has all dealt with our country as a
self-contained unit—except that we have touched on tariffs and on
immigration and on the treatment of aliens. In the article ALIEN (Vol.
1, p. 662) the reader will find the sentence: “In the United States the
separate state laws largely determine the status of an alien, but
subject to Federal treaties.” And Mr. Bryce (Vol. 27, p. 652)
characterizes some of the powers allotted to the national government
“which relate to its action in the international sphere.” See
particularly Mr. Bryce’s remarks (Vol. 27, p. 656) on the powers of the
president:
In time of war or of public disturbance, however, the domestic
authority of the president expands rapidly. This was markedly the case
during the Civil War. As commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and
as ‘charged with the faithful execution of all laws,’ he is likely to
assume, and would indeed be expected to assume, all the powers which
the emergency requires. In ordinary times the president may be almost
compared to the managing clerk in a large business establishment,
whose chief function is to select his subordinates, the policy of the
concern being in the hands of the board of directors. But when foreign
affairs reach a critical stage, or when disorders within the Union
require Federal intervention, immense responsibility is then thrown on
one who is both commander-in-chief of the army and the head of the
civil executive. In no European country is there any personage to whom
the president can be said to correspond. He may have to exert more
authority, even if he enjoys less dignity, than a European king. He
has powers which are in ordinary times narrower than those of a
European prime minister; but these powers are more secure, for instead
of depending on the pleasure of a parliamentary majority, they run on
to the end of his term.
In this connection you should read the articles INTERNATIONAL LAW and
INTERNATIONAL LAW (PRIVATE), TREATIES, PEACE, PEACE CONFERENCES,
PAN-AMERICAN CONFERENCES and ARBITRATION, INTERNATIONAL; the last
showing plainly how large a part the United States has played in
promoting better international feeling throughout the world.
Such articles as these tell how peace has changed from a purely
negative condition to a positive subject of international regulation
and an object of active political effort. They answer the following
concrete questions on the subject:
What was the earliest plan of peace known to history? What were the
Pax Romana, the “Truce of God,” the “Grand Design” of Henry IV, and
other schemes for the preservation of peace?
What was the greatest deliberate effort ever made to secure the peace
of the world?
What has been done by the two Hague Conferences, and when will the
next one be held?
How far can disarmament be carried out?
What standing-peace agreements have been executed?
What is the history of popular effort for international peace, and
what peace societies exist to-day?
What are the present recognized limitations of international
arbitration?
What are the first steps toward an era of universal peace?
What has been accomplished by the Pan-American Conferences?
[Sidenote: International Affairs]
On international affairs of to-day in which the United States has a
special interest there is a wealth of information in the Britannica. The
first topic that will naturally present itself to the mind of the reader
is the Panama canal. On this see the article PANAMA CANAL (Vol. 20, p.
666), with a large-scale map, a history of the project and a description
of the engineering features; and on the politics, national and
international, of the question of building the canal, the articles
COLOMBIA, PANAMA, ROOSEVELT, UNITED STATES, _History_ (Vol. 27, pp. 730
and 732), JOHN HAY, and PAUNCEFOTE.
Our relations with Colombia in connection with the canal will naturally
lead the student to a general consideration of the relation of the
United States with the Latin-American countries. Here the most
interesting factor is the Monroe Doctrine, which has been characterized
“as one of the things that every one knows about but that few can
explain.” Read the article MONROE DOCTRINE (Vol. 18, p. 738), by Dr. T.
S. Woolsey, Professor of international law, Yale University; the article
JAMES MONROE (Vol. 18, p. 736), and, in the article UNITED STATES,
_History_ § 156 (Vol. 27, p. 695).
A second topic in the story of Latin-America and the United States is
Cuba; and this part of the story has probably never been told as
accurately and interestingly as in the articles CUBA (Vol. 7, p. 594),
and HAVANA (Vol. 13, p. 76) in the Britannica, both by Dr. F. S.
Philbrick.
American relations with the Orient is a third subject of importance in
the foreign affairs of the United States; and in this subject the most
interesting topic is Chinese and Japanese exclusion. On this see the
articles CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, COOLIE, and UNITED STATES, _History_
§ 339 (Vol. 27, p. 723). At the end of the article JAPAN (Vol. 15, p.
156) there is a section on _The Claims of Japan_, by Baron Dairoku
Kikuchi, which is of great interest in this connection.
[Sidenote: Sea-Power]
The place of the United States as a world power, we are proud to say,
depends little on its army or navy—because of its enormous latent
strength, its commanding geographical position, etc. But the
comparatively greater importance of navy over army is now admitted by
nearly every serious thinker—it was the concrete lesson of the
Spanish-American War of 1898 as it was the point of the valuable
historical essays on sea-power written before and since that war by the
American naval officer, Rear-Admiral A. T. Mahan. The American navy and
the navies of the world are matters of interest to every one—and like
all matters of importance they are to be found treated in the
Britannica.
In general see the elaborate articles NAVY (Vol. 19, p. 299); SEA-POWER
(Vol. 25, p. 548); and SEA, COMMAND OF THE (Vol. 24, p. 529); and for a
detailed course of reading on naval history and theory see the chapter
in this Guide _For Naval Officers_.
[Sidenote: The Greater United States]
The topics just discussed will serve as an introduction to the study of
the Imperial United States, which may be pursued in the articles ALASKA,
HAWAII, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, PORTO RICO, GUAM and CUBA, and the articles
on the towns and cities in the outlying possessions.
The result of reading these articles will be a determination to know
_more_ about your country, to master its history, its industries and its
commerce as well as its political conditions.
PART V
READINGS FOR WOMEN
CHAPTER LXV
FOR WOMEN
It would be absurd, in the full stream of the 20th century, to imagine
that any of the articles in the new edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica can be either beyond the comprehension of women or unlikely
to interest women. And since any method of selection is also a method of
elimination, it may be illogical to suggest that any one class of
articles especially merits their attention. But the difficulty is purely
formal. For perhaps the greatest victory of the feminist movement lies
in the demonstrated proposition that women can, in one field after
another, establish their equality with men, without losing any of their
superiority in the exercise of those arts to which they were formerly
restricted. And this chapter, therefore, after describing the articles
which relate to the present political and economic position of women,
naturally turns to subjects such as domestic science and the adornment
of the home, which in all ages and all countries have been considered to
be the special province of women.
[Sidenote: Women Contributors]
If the question of women’s ability to do a full share of the world’s
work any longer admitted of argument, there would be no more vivid way
of coming to an appreciation of the versatility and range as well as the
high quality of women’s intellectual capacity than by looking at the
contributions by women to the Britannica itself. First in mass, and
first in practical value as because it vastly increases the usefulness
of the entire book, is the Index volume with its 975 pages, its 500,000
index entries, its classified list of articles covering nearly 70 pages
and its list of contributors and their principal signed articles. This
volume was the work of a large and carefully organized staff under the
supervision of Miss Janet Hogarth (now Mrs. W. L. Courtney). The
following is a partial alphabetical list of women contributors to the
Britannica with the more important articles they wrote:
_Contributors_ _Articles_
Adelaide Mary Anderson (Principal LABOUR LEGISLATION (in part).
Lady Inspector of Factories,
British Home Office).
Gertrude Atherton (Author of REZÁNOV.
_Rezánov, The Tower of_ _Ivory_,
etc.).
Mary Bateson (Late Fellow of BOROUGH ENGLISH.
Newnham College, Cambridge;
Author of _Borough_ _Customs_,
etc.).
Gertrude Bell (Author of _The DRUSES (in part).
Desert and the Sown_).
Isabella Bird Bishop (Author of KOREA (in part).
_Korea and her Neighbours_,
etc.).
Lady Broome (Author of _Station WESTERN AUSTRALIA, _History_.
Life in New Zealand_).
Margaret Bryant ALEXANDER THE GREAT, _Legends_;
CAESAR, _Medieval Legends_;
CHARLEMAGNE, _Legends_; VIRGIL,
_the Virgil Legend_; etc.
Agnes Muriel Clay (Joint Editor of AGRARIAN LAWS (in part);
_Sources of Roman History_). CENTUMVIRI; CURIA; DECURIO;
MUNICIPIUM; PATRON AND CLIENT (in
part); SENATE.
Agnes M. Clerke (Hon. Member Royal ASTRONOMY, _History_; BRAHE, TYCHO;
Astronomical Society, Author of COPERNICUS; FLAMSTEED; HALLEY;
_History of Astronomy_, etc.). HUYGENS; KEPLER; ZODIAC; etc.
Mrs. Craigie (“John Oliver Hobbes”) GEORGE ELIOT.
(Author of _The School for
Saints_, etc.).
Lady Dilke (Author of _French GREUZE; INGRES; MILLET, J. F.
Painters_, etc.).
Mme. Duclaux (Author of _Life of RENAN.
Renan_, etc.).
Lady Eastlake (Author of _Five GIBSON, JOHN.
Great Painters_, etc.).
Lady Gomme (Author of _Traditional CHILDREN’S GAMES.
Games of Great Britain_, etc.).
Dr. Harriet L. Hennessy, L.R.C.S.I. GYNAECOLOGY; INFANCY; INTESTINAL
OBSTRUCTION; MEDICAL EDUCATION,
_U. S. A._ (in part); RESPIRATORY
SYSTEM, _Pathology_ (in part);
TUBERCULOSIS, etc.
Lady Huggins (Author, with Sir ARMILLA; ASTROLABE.
William Huggins, of _Atlas of
Representative Stellar Spectra_,
etc.).
Lady Lugard (Author of _A Tropical BRITISH EMPIRE; BAUCHI; BORNU;
Dependency_, etc.). KANO; KATAGUM; NASSARAWA;
NIGERIA; RHODES, CECIL; SOKOTO;
ZARIA.
Kate A. Meakin MOROCCO (in part); TETUAN; SUS.
Alice Meynell (Author of _The BROWNING, ELIZABETH BARRETT.
Rhythm of Life_, etc.).
Hilda M. R. Murray (Lecturer on ENGLISH LANGUAGE (in part).
English, Royal Holloway College).
Mrs. H. O. O’Neill (Formerly Fellow PECKHAM, JOHN; PREBENDARY; PRELATE;
of Manchester University). PRIOR; PROCURATOR; VICAR.
Dr. Anna C. Paues (Author of _A ENGLISH BIBLE (in part).
Fourteenth Century Biblical
Version_, etc.).
Mrs. W. Alison Phillips (Associate LOUIS XVIII; MARIE ANTOINETTE, etc.
of Bedford College, London).
Bertha S. Phillpotts (Formerly GERMANY, _Archaeology_; NORWAY,
Librarian of Girton College, _Early History_; SCANDINAVIAN
Cambridge). CIVILIZATION.
Kathleen Schlesinger (Author of BAGPIPE; BUGLE; DRUM; HARP; HORN;
_The Instruments of the ORGAN, _Ancient History_;
Orchestra_, etc.). PIANOFORTE (in part); SPINET;
TIMBREL; VIOL; etc.
Mrs. Henry Sidgwick (Hon. Secretary SPIRITUALISM.
to the Society for Psychical
Research, late Principal of
Newnham College).
Mrs. Alec. Tweedie (Author of DIAZ, PORFIRIO.
_Porfirio Diaz_).
Mme. Villari (English translator of SAVONAROLA.
works of Prof. Villari).
Mrs. Humphry Ward (Author of LYLY.
_Robert Elsmere_, etc.).
Lady Welby (Author of _What is SIGNIFICS.
Meaning?_ etc.).
Jessie L. Weston (Author of KING ARTHUR; ARTHURIAN LEGEND; THE
_Arthurian Romances_, etc.). HOLY GRAIL; GUENEVERE; LANCELOT;
MALORY, SIR THOMAS; MAP, WALTER;
MERLIN; PERCEVAL; THE ROUND
TABLE; TRISTAN; ESCHENBACH,
WOLFRAM VON.
Alice Zimmern (Author of _The MARY CARPENTER.
Renaissance of Girls’ Education_,
etc.).
This remarkable list shows that women have contributed to the Britannica
on subjects so varied as astronomy, medieval literature, medicine,
sociology, linguistics, literary biography, art criticism, law and
politics, political science and sociology, musical instruments,
education, the Bible and ecclesiastical history, and philosophy.
[Sidenote: Woman’s Advance]
It may be noted as indicating the advance of women during the last
century and a half that in the first edition of the Encyclopaedia
Britannica, which was published in 1771, the article on women consisted
of the following eight words “WOMAN,—the female of man—see HOMO.” In the
present 11th edition, published nearly a century and a half later, one
single article entitled WOMEN in volume 28, beginning on page 782, is
equivalent in its contents to 22 pages of this Guide.
What woman has accomplished in scholarship, literature, art and science
has been done very largely in the last hundred years. In authorship and,
to a greater degree, on the stage her activity dates back a little
further. In Shakespeare’s time all women’s parts on the stage were taken
by boys. In fact as the Britannica tells us (Vol. 8, p. 521) in the days
of Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare “No woman might appear at a
playhouse, unless masked.”
It is only in comparatively recent times that the real “emancipation” of
woman began; and this explains why the list of women famous in history
is so much longer than any of the other lists given in this part of the
Guide. Through earlier periods women attained power only by birth, by
marriage, or by being “queens uncrowned,” but none the less powerful on
that account, like Aspasia, Nell Gwyn, Jane Shore and the Pompadour.
There can be no question that during most of the world’s history,
woman’s only place was in the home. And it is certain that no matter how
far her emancipation may be carried the home will be _a_ sphere for her.
Her relation to her husband and her children, her right to a share of
his property and of theirs—and to her own—as now more liberally granted
and interpreted by law, are outlined in the Britannica. The status of
women in early times is described in the article in the Britannica on
women. It is, with variations in different places, everywhere a story of
dependence. Even in Roman law a woman was completely dependent. If
married she and her property passed into the power of her husband; if
unmarried she was (unless a vestal virgin) under the perpetual tutelage
of her father during his life, and after his death of her agnates, that
is, of those of kinsmen by blood or adoption who would have been under
the power of the common ancestor had he lived. Under English civil law a
girl can contract a valid marriage at 12, a boy at 14. Under the common
law “the father was entitled as against the mother to the custody of a
legitimate child up to the age of sixteen, and could only forfeit such
right by misconduct.” But the Court of Chancery sometimes “took a less
rigid view of the paternal rights and looked more to the interest of the
child, and consequently in some cases to the extension of the mother’s
right at common law. Legislation has tended in the same direction.” In
England women are still under two remarkable disabilities: “the
exclusion of female heirs from intestate succession unless in the
absence of a male heir; and the fact that a husband could obtain a
divorce for the adultery of his wife, while a wife could only obtain it
for her husband’s adultery if coupled with some other cause, such as
cruelty or desertion.”
[Sidenote: The Legal Status of American Women]
In the United States the legal and political status of woman varies
largely with the laws of the different states. For example, as is well
known, in certain states women have the same right as men to the ballot.
Wyoming (1869) and Colorado (1893) were the first women’s suffrage
states. In more than half the states, roughly everywhere except in the
South and a few eastern states, she has the right to vote for the
members of school boards and has a general school suffrage. In Louisiana
since 1898 women tax-payers may vote on questions of tax levies. As
regards property rights, in the state of New York, a woman in possession
of property, who marries, has the unqualified use, irrespective of the
wishes of her husband, of her property. That is, she owns and can spend
as she pleases the whole of the income of her property, while, on the
other hand, her husband is compelled by law to give her a certain
proportion of his income. In other states, Mississippi, notably, the
laws as regard property of married women are precisely the same as that
for married men. If the husband is compelled to give a certain
proportion of his income to his wife, she is compelled to give the same
proportion of her income to him. This is true in several states,
Michigan, for example, except that married women cannot usually convey
property without the husband’s permission. In the state of New York a
married woman making her will has a right to dispose of her property as
she pleases; whereas in other states, Missouri for instance, the law
prescribes that at least one-half shall go to her husband, if there are
no children. In other words, in no two states of the Union is the legal
and political status of woman the same. It is often important, and in
these days always a matter of interest, for a woman to know just what
her legal position is in the state in which she lives. This information
the Britannica gives.
What a mother can do for her children she may learn from the Britannica
articles indicated in the chapters of this Guide _For Children_ and in
the chapter _For Teachers_. Similarly she will find assistance in
choosing, building or furnishing a house from the chapters _For Builders
and Architects_, _For Designers_, _For Manufacturers of Furniture_, etc.
Such articles as LACE, EMBROIDERY, CARPETS, TAPESTRY, FURNITURE,
PAINTING, SCULPTURE, JEWELRY, PLATE, particularly as they are all
remarkably well illustrated, will be of great value either for the
general formation of taste or for giving definite information about a
particular style. For the adornment of “the House Beautiful” the
Britannica is, however, valuable not merely because of the information
it contains. The set on India paper, compact, slender and graceful,
handsomely bound in leather, and contained in one of the “period”
bookcases designed especially for the books, is in itself an adornment
and an ornament for any library or drawing room. For the country home
with flower or vegetable gardens the article HORTICULTURE (Vol. 13, p.
741) will be found full of helpful information, both in its general
treatment, and in the gardeners’ calendar for the United States, which
tells in the most practical fashion what to do each month in the garden.
[Sidenote: Home Making]
For the transformation of a house, well-situated, well-built,
well-furnished, well-decorated into a home,—for _home-making_,—any
course of study in the Britannica should be helpful to a woman, by
broadening her sympathies and her knowledge and by making a more
interesting and better-informed companion to her husband, a more
competent hostess to his and her guests, and a wiser mother to her
children. But home-making is an art and not a science—or, if the modern
woman will forgive the use of so old-fashioned a phrase, it is a
spiritual grace rather than an intellectual achievement—and even a Guide
to readings in the Britannica cannot give an exact formula for it.
[Sidenote: Domestic Science]
But there is a science whose field is the home and whose formulas are
definite, and this “domestic science” may be learned from the
Britannica. Of primary interest is the article DIETETICS (Vol. 8, p.
214), equivalent in length to 25 pages of this Guide. It is by the late
Dr. Wilbur Olin Atwater, professor of chemistry, Wesleyan University,
Middletown, Connecticut, who was special agent of the U. S. Department
of Agriculture in charge of nutrition investigations, and R. D. Milner,
formerly of the same Department. It contains 6 valuable tables: I.
Percentage Composition of some Common Food Materials (64 in all); II.
Digestibility (or Availability) of Nutrients in Different Classes of
Food Materials (22 in all); III. Estimates of Heats of Combustion and of
Fuel Value of Nutrients in Ordinary Mixed Diet; IV. Quantities of
Available Nutrients and Energy in Daily Food Consumption of Persons in
Different Circumstances; V. Standards for Dietaries—Available Nutrients
and Energy per Man per Day; and VI. Amounts of Nutrients and Energy
Furnished for one Shilling in Food Materials at Ordinary Prices (22 food
materials, at 44 different prices). The topics of the article are:
Food and its functions—refuse, water, mineral matter, protein,
including albuminoids and gelatinoids, fats, carbohydrates.
Conversion of food into body-material and of food and body-material
into heat, muscular energy, etc., with results obtained from Dr.
Atwater’s famous experiments with men in the “respiration
calorimeter,” from measurement and analysis of food and drink, and
from measurement of energy expended as heat and as external muscular
work.
Composition of food materials.
Digestibility or availability of foods.
Full value of food.
Food consumption.
Quantities of nutrients needed—tentative estimates of the average
daily amounts required.
Hygienic economy of food: Eat what agrees with you and use foods which
give needed nutriment, but do not burden the body with superfluous
material. The importance of good cooking, neatness and cleanliness.
Pecuniary economy of food.
Read also the article NUTRITION (Vol. 19, p. 920, equivalent to 25 pages
of this Guide), by Dr. D. N. Paton, professor of physiology, University
of Glasgow, and Dr. E. P. Cathcart, lecturer in chemical physiology,
University of Glasgow. This article considers “the mode of digestion,
the utilization and the elimination of the end products of the three
great constituents, proteins, carbohydrates and fats,” discussing in
detail:
Chemistry of Digestion—digestion in the mouth, stomach and the
intestines; bile.
Mode of Formation of Digestive Secretions—the salivary and gastric
glands, secretion in the pancreas, intestinal juice.
Mechanism of the Alimentary Canal—mastication, swallowing, stomach
movements, intestinal movements, etc.
Absorption by the mouth, stomach and intestines.
Changes in the cells—proteins, carbohydrates, fats, fasting, muscular
work, internal secretions, pancreas.
Excretion—urea, ammonia, sulphur, phosphorus, etc.
[Sidenote: Cookery]
There is much very practical information for the housewife in the
article COOKERY (Vol. 7, p. 74), besides the interesting historical
sketch. Cookery, says this article, as an art “is only remotely
connected with the mere necessities of nutrition or the science of
dietetics. Mere hunger, though the best sauce, will not produce cookery,
which is the art of sauces.” Oriental, Greek and Roman cookery, at least
as we know them from literature, aimed at luxury, rich and rare foods,
cost and show. After the Renaissance, the history of modern cookery
began with Italy, and from Italy Catherine de’ Medici brought “Italian
cooks to Paris and introduced there a cultured simplicity which was
unknown in France before.” _Forks and spoons were “Italian neatnesses”
unknown in England until the early part of the 17th century_; their use
“marked an epoch in the progress of dining, and consequently of
cookery.” French cookery advanced under Louis XIV and XV; received an
apparent set back from the French Revolution—which, however, marked the
rise of Parisian restaurants; but revived with brilliancy early in the
19th century, so that now “French cooking is admittedly the ideal of
culinary art, directly we leave the plain roast and boiled. And the
spread of cosmopolitan hotels and restaurants over England, America and
the European continent, has largely accustomed the whole civilized world
to the Parisian type.”
The article closes with eminently useful “notes on broiling, roasting,
baking, boiling, stewing and frying.”
The article FOOD (Vol. 10, p. 611) describes particularly the best foods
for infants and children; foods for adults are treated in NUTRITION,
DIETETICS, already mentioned, and in the article VEGETARIANISM (Vol. 27,
p. 967). Other articles of importance to the cook are:
FOOD PRESERVATION (Vol. 10, p. 612), by Otto Hehner, English public
analyst, formerly president of the Society of Public Analysts; and the
same authority’s article on ADULTERATION (Vol. 1, p. 218), which deals
with legislation against adulteration, and discusses arsenic in foods,
preservatives such as formaldehyde and salicylic acid, boracic
preservatives,—colouring matter in food, metallic impurities; American
laws against adulteration; German laws; particular articles
adulterated—milk, condensed milk, cream, butter, margarine, cheese,
lard, oils, flour and bread, sugar, marmalade, jams, tea, coffee,
chocolate, cocoa, wine, beer, non-alcoholic drinks, vinegar, spirits,
drugs. See the chapter _For Manufacturers of Foods_.
The following is an alphabetical list of the principal articles on foods
and beverages:
Absinthe
Aerated Waters
Ale
Arrack
Aspic
Bacon
Bannock
Barm
Beef
Beer
Benedictine
Biltong
Biscuit
Bitters
Bohea
Brandy
Bread
Brewing
Butter
Calipash and Calipee
Caudle
Caviare, or Caviar
Chartreuse
Chasse
Cheese
Chocolate
Chupatty
Chutney
Cider
Claret
Confectionery
Cookery
Couscous
Curaçoa
Curry
Food Preservation
Ghee
Gin
Gravy
Haggis
Hippocras
Jams and Jellies
Junket
Kava (Cava, or Ava)
Kedgeree
Ketchup
Kirsch
Koumiss
Kvass, or Kwass
Lard
Liqueurs
Loaf
Macaroni
Malmsey
Malt
Marchpane, or Marzipan
Margarine
Marmalade
Mate
Mead
Mealie
Meat
Milk
Molasses
Mulligatawny
Negus
Omelette
Pemmican
Perry
Pilau
Porridge
Pudding
Pulque
Punch
Raisin
Ratafia
Rum
Saké
Salad
Scone
Sherbet
Sherry
Spirits
Steak
Suet
Syrup
Tapioca
Tart
Tea
Toast
Treacle
Venison
Vermicelli
Vermouth
Vinegar
Vodka
Whisky
Wine
Yeast
[Sidenote: Costume and Ornament]
Turning sharply from the useful to the ornamental—from the kitchen to
the boudoir—the woman who uses the Britannica will find in it not merely
the interesting information to which clues are given in the chapter for
the jeweller and in the section on embroidery (Ch. 66) but many other
articles about costume and dress, with illustrations which make the text
far clearer and more valuable. With the constant turns of Fashion’s
wheel, dress, and especially women’s dress, is always reverting to an
earlier style or to a more primitive and semi-barbaric style of the
present day—now Empire styles, Robespierre collars, close-fitting gowns
of the pseudo-Greek style of the Napoleonic era, and now a quasi-folk
style, Bulgarian, or Oriental, and again a hint of the ecclesiastical
surplice, dalmatic, stole, or collar. The result is that the study of
the styles of the past, especially when properly illustrated, may be not
only interesting but actually valuable to a woman planning a new gown or
a “novel” ornament for head or throat.
The article COSTUME (Vol. 7, p. 224), equivalent in length to 80 pages
of this Guide, is written by T. A. Joyce of the Department of
Ethnography, British Museum; by Stanley Arthur Cook, editor for the
Palestine Exploration Fund, on Egyptian and Semitic costume; by Henry
Stuart Jones, late director of the British School at Rome, on Aegean,
Greek and Roman costume; by Oswald Barron, late editor of the
_Ancestor_, on medieval and modern costume; and by W. Alison Phillips,
author of _Modern Europe_, etc. Its 51 illustrations are chosen with
great care from original sources, tombs, wall-paintings, seals, statues
and statuettes, brasses, and portraits of many periods, and they are
supplemented by illustrations in other articles:—AEGEAN CIVILIZATION
(Vol. 1, p. 245), see Plate III, Fig. 7 and Plate IV, Fig. 7, for
multiple or flounced skirts and basques—like those of the early
’80’s—with short overskirt scalloped high on either side; GREEK ART,
Figs. 2, 3, 21, 40, 42, 75; TERRACOTTA (Vol. 26, p. 653), see both
plates and especially Fig. 4 of Tanagra and other figurines; ROMAN ART
(Vol. 23, p. 474), see Figs. 11, 12, 16, 24, 28; BRASSES, MONUMENTAL
(Vol. 4, p. 434), see all illustrations; ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS (Vol.
14, p. 312), see Plates III and V; PAINTING (Vol. 20, p. 459), see Figs.
7, 10, 11, 14, 25, 27; LACE (Vol. 16, p. 37), see Figs. 4, 6, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 33; MINIATURES (Vol. 18, p. 523), see both plates.
One of the most interesting sources for the text of the article COSTUME
is in the writings of satirists, who from period to period have praised
the simplicity and frugality of the preceding generation and bewailed
the extravagance in style and material of dress during the satirists’
own day.
Besides this general article on costume there is special treatment of
Chinese costume in the article CHINA (Vol. 6, p. 173) and a section on
costume in the article INDIA (Vol. 14, p. 417), equivalent to 18 pages
of this Guide, written by Col. Charles Grant, formerly inspector of
military education in India, illustrated with 16 pen-and-ink drawings by
J. Lockwood Kipling, who is best-known to most people as the father of
Rudyard Kipling, and the illustrator of _Kim_, his son’s story of native
life in India. On Celtic dress see the article CLAN (Vol. 6, p. 421); on
that of the Hittites the article HITTITES (Vol. 13, p. 537); on modern
Egyptian the article EGYPT (Vol. 9, p. 31), on Persian, the article
PERSIA (Vol. 21, p. 193), etc.
And see the following articles on costume and similar topics:
Aigrette
Aiguillette
Apron
Backscratcher
Baldric
Bandana, or Bandanna
Beard
Beaver
Blouse
Bonnet
Braid
Burnous
Buskin
Caftan
Chape
Chatelaine
Costume
Cravat
Crinoline
Cuff
Cummerbund
Depilatory
Dolman
Doublet
Dress
Farthingale
Frock
Gaberdine
Girdle
Glove
Golosh, or Galosh
Gown
Haik
Hat
Hood
Hose
Jerkin
Kaross
Kilt
Kohl
Mantle
Mitten
Moccasin
Moustache
Muff
Parasol
Patten
Pelisse
Peruke
Petticoat
Plaid
Pomade
Pomander
Poncho
Puttee
Queue
Razor
Robes
Sandal
Scarf
Shampoo
Shirt
Sleeve
Snowshoes
Sombrero
Sporran
Stockings
Tabard
Tarbush
Toilet
Towel
Trousers
Tunic
Turban
Veil
Whisker
Wig
[Sidenote: Biographical Study]
A study of the lives of great women will interest any one, and if this
study is pursued by means of the Britannica the reader will have the
double advantage of getting full and authoritative material presented in
the most attractive and excellent style. From the lists that follow of
articles on women in the Britannica, interesting groups may easily be
chosen, such as:
Famous American Women:—ANNE HUTCHINSON, ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY, MARGARET
O’NEILL EATON, MARGARET FULLER, the GRIMKÉ sisters, HARRIET BEECHER
STOWE.
Women of Ancient Times:—ACCA LARENTIA, LUCRETIA, AGRIPPINA, ARTEMISIA,
ASPASIA, CLEOPATRA, CORNELIA, FAUSTINA, MESSALLINA, VIRGINIA, ERINNA,
CORINNA, SAPPHO, HYPATIA, ZENOBIA.
Heroines of Fiction in History: compare Kingsley’s _Hypatia_ with the
real woman, Ware’s _Zenobia_ with the queen as she is represented by a
historian in the Britannica; the women of Dumas and of Scott in their
historical novels and their originals as seen in the Britannica, for
instance Mary Queen of Scots as portrayed by Sir Walter in _The Abbot_
and by Swinburne in the Britannica, Elizabeth and Amy Robsart in
_Kenilworth_ and in the Britannica, Catherine de’ Medici in _Chicot the
Jester_ and in fact; or the women of Shakespeare’s historical plays as
compared with their true place in history.
Women in American political reform:—AMELIA B. BLOOMER, SUSAN B. ANTHONY,
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, LUCRETIA MOTT and LUCY BLACKWELL STONE.
* * * * *
The following is a partial list of articles in the Britannica dealing
with Women, who may, for convenience, be booked under the broad head of
_History_ as distinct from Literature, the Arts and Science:—
Acca Larentia
Accoramboni, Vittoria
Acland, Lady Harriett
Adelaide
Agnes of Meran
Agreda, Abbess of
Agrippina
d’Aiguillon, Duchesse
Albany, Louise, countess of
Alice, Princess
Amalasuntha
Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar
Anna Leopoldovna
Anne of Brittany
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Denmark
Anne of England
Anne of France
Anne (of Russia)
Arria
Arsinoë
Artemisia
Aspasia
Barton, Elizabeth
Berenice
Blanche of Castile
Boadicea
Boleyn, Anne
Borgia, Lucrezia
Brunhilda
Cappello, Bianca
Caroline, Amelia Augusta
Caroline of England
Castro, Inez de
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Braganza
Catherine de’ Medici
Catherine I and II (Russia)
Catherine of Valois
Châteauneuf, La Belle
Christina, Maria
Christina of Sweden
Clarke, Mary Anne
Cleveland, Duchess of
Cleopatra
Clotilda, St.
Colonna, Vittoria
Corday, Charlotte
Cornelia
Cornaro, Caterina
Diane de France
Diane de Poitiers
Du Barry
Eaton, Margaret O’Neill
Eleanor of Aquitaine
Elizabeth of Austria
Elizabeth (Carmen Sylva)
Elizabeth, Electress Palatine
Elizabeth of England
Elizabeth (princess)
Elizabeth of France
Elizabeth Petrovna
Este, Beatrice d’
Estrées, Gabrielle d’
Etampes, Duchesse d’
Eudocia
Eudoxia
Eugénie
Euphrosyne
Elizabeth Farnese
Faustina
Feuchères, Baronne de
Fredegond
Gilbert, M. D. E. R. (“Lola Montez”)
Godiva
Gontaut, Duchesse de
Grey, Lady Jane
Hachette, Jeanne
Henrietta Maria of England
Howard, Catherine
Ida of Bernicia
Irene
Isabella of Bavaria
Isabella of Castile
Isabella of Hainaut
Isabella II of Spain
Jacoba
Joan of Arc
Joan (Pope)
Joanna the Mad
Joanna of Naples
Josephine
Junot, Laure
Kingston, Elizabeth, Duchess of
La Fayette, Louise de
Lamballe, Princesse de
La Sablière, Marguerite de
La Vallière, Louise de
Lenclos, Ninon de
Lennox, Countess of
Lisle, Alice
Livia Drusilla
Longueville, Duchesse de
Louise of Prussia
Louise of Savoy
Lucretia
Macdonald, Flora
Maintenon, Mme. de
Maine, Duchesse du
Mailly, Comtesse de
Margaret of Austria
Margaret of Denmark
Margaret Maultasch
Margaret (Maid of Norway)
Margaret of Scotland, St.
Margaret of Scotland
Maria Stella
Marie Antoinette
Marie Leszczynska
Marie Louise
Marie de’ Medici
Marie Amelie Thérèse
Marie Thérèse
Matilda of Tuscany
Mary of Burgundy
Mary I and II of England
Mary of Lorraine
Mary of Modena
Mary of Orange
Mary, Queen of Scots
Masham, Lady
Matilda
Messallina
Mignot, Claudine
Marquise de Montespan
Marquise de Montesson
Montpensier, Duchesse de
Octavia
Olga
Orkney, Countess of
Orleans, Henrietta of
Parr, Catherine
Perrers, Alice
Philippa of Hainaut
Phryne
Pompadour, Marquise de
Portsmouth, Duchess of
Prie, Marquise de
Radegunda, St.
Rich, Penelope
Robsart, Amy
Rosamond (“The Fair”)
Rothelin, Marquise de
Roxana
Semiramis
Serres, Olivia
Sforza, Caterina
Shore, Jane
Snell, Hannah
Sophia Aleksyeevna
Sophia of Hanover
Sophia Dorothea of Hanover
Sorel, Agnes
Stanhope, Lady Hester
Stuart, Arabella
Swynford, Catherine
Talbot, Mary Anne
Tanaquil
Tarpeia
Theodora
Theophano
Ursins, Princess des
Victoria
Virginia
Walter, Lucy
Wilhelmina
Zenobia
Quite as long and much more impressive is the list of women who have
produced _literature_—excluding the heroines of mythology and
literature—on whom there are separate articles in the Encyclopaedia
Britannica.
Ackermann, Louise
Adam, Juliette
Agoult, Comtesse d’
Aguilar, Grace
Aisse, Mlle.
Alcott, Louisa May
Anna Commena
Arnim, Elisabeth von
Aulnoy, Baronne d’
Austen, Jane
Austin, Sarah
Baillie, Lady Grizel
Baillie, Joanna
Bartauld, Lady Anne
Barnard, Anna Letitia
Bashkirtseff, Maria
Behn, Aphra
Bekker, Elizabeth
Bernauer, Agnes
Berners, Juliana
Blamire, Susanna
Blessington, Marguerite, Countess of
Blind, Mathilde
Bosboom-Toussaint, Anna
Braddon, Mary Elizabeth
Bremer, Frederika
Brontë, Charlotte and Emily
Brooke, Frances
Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
Brunton, Mary
Burnett, Frances E. Hodgson
Carter, Elizabeth
Cary, Alice and Phoebe
Cenci, Beatrice
Centlivre, Susanna
Charrière, Agnes de
Child, Lydia Maria
Cockburn, Alicia
Coleridge, Sara
Colet, Louise
Cook, Eliza
Cooke, Rose Terry
Corelli, Marie
Corinna
Cork, Mary, countess of
Cottin, Marie
Cowley, Hannah
Craddock, Charles Egbert
Craigie, Pearl (“John Oliver Hobbes”)
Craik, Dinah Maria
Craven, Pauline
D’Arblay, Frances
Dashkov, Catherina
Deffand, Marquise du
Delany, Mary Granville
Dickinson, Anna Elizabeth
Droste-Hülshoff, Freiin von
Duff-Gordon, Lucie
Edgeworth, Maria
Edgren-Leffler, Anne Charlotte
Edwards, Amelia Ann Blandford
Eliot, George
Engelbrechtsdatter, Dorthe
Épinay, Louise d’
Erinna
Ewing, Juliana
Ferrier, Susan E.
Flygare-Carlén, Emilie
Foote, Mary Hallock
Fuller, Margaret
Fullerton, Lady
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Gay, Marie F. S.
Genlis, Comtesse de
Girardin, Delphine de
Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft
Gore, Catherine G. F.
Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, Baroness
Gyp
Hahn-Hahn, Ida von
Havergal, Frances Ridley
Hamilton, Elizabeth
Haywood, Eliza
Hemans, Felicia Dorothea
Houdetot, Comtesse de
Howe, Julia Ward
Hrosvitha
Hypatia
Inchbald, Elizabeth
Ingelow, Jean
Jackson, Helen Maria (“H. H.”)
Jameson, Anna Brownell
Jewett, Sarah Orne
Kavanagh, Julia
Krüdener, Baroness von
Lamb, Mary
Lazarus, Emma
Lee, Sophia
Levy, Amy
Lewald, Fanny
Lyall, Edna
Malet, Lucas
Marguerite de Valois
Marie de France
Markham, Mrs.
Martineau, Harriet
Meynell, Alice C.
Mitford, Mary Russell
Molesworth, Mary Louise
Monk, Maria
Montagu, Elizabeth R.
Montagu, Mary Wortley
More, Hannah
Morgan, Lady Sydney
Moulton, Louise Chandler
Mundt, Klara (Luise Mühlbach)
Naden, Constance
Nairne, Baroness
Negri, Ada
Norton, Caroline E. O.
Oliphant, Margaret
Opie, Amelia
Orzeszko, Eliza
Ouida
Pardoe, Julia
Pardo-Bazan, Emilia
Philips, Katharine
Piozzi, Hester Lynch
Pisan, Christine de
Ploennies, Luise von
Porter, Jane
Praxilla
Radcliffe, Ann
Reeve, Clara
Rossetti, Christine
Sablé, Marquise de
Sand, George
Sappho
Schelling, Karoline
Schreiber, Charlotte Elizabeth
Scudéry, Madeleine de
Serao, Matilda
Sévigné, Marquise de
Seward, Anna
Sherwood, Mary Martha
Sigourney, Lydia H.
Smith, Charlotte
Southworth, Emma
Staal, Baronne de
Stael, Mme. de
Steele, Flora Annie
Stein, Charlotte von
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Strickland, Agnes
Tautphoeus, Baroness von
Taylor, Ann and Jane
Thaxter, Celia
Tighe, Mary
Tucker, Charlotte Maria
Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Ward, Mrs. Humphry
Wardlaw, Lady
Wiggin, Kate Douglas
Wilkins, Mary E.
Winchelsea, Countess of
Wood, Mrs. Henry
Wordsworth, Dorothy
Yonge, Charlotte Mary
Although women have appeared on the stage only in the last two centuries
the list of actresses and singers on whom there are articles in the
Britannica is a long one. A partial list in alphabetical order follows:
Abbott, Emma
Abington, Frances
Albani, Mme.
Albert, Mme.
Alboni, Marietta
Anderson, Mary
Ashwell, Lena
Bartet, Jeanne Julia
Bernhardt, Sarah
Birch-Pfeiffer, Charlotte
Bracegirdle, Anne
Campbell, Beatrice Stella
Calvé, Emma
Cary, Anna Louise
Celeste, Mme.
Chaminade, Cécile
Clairon, La
Clive, Catherine
Coghlan, Rose
Cushman, Charlotte
Després, Suzanne
Drew, Louisa Lane
Dumesnil, Marie
Duse, Eleanora
Elssler, Fanny
Farren, Elizabeth
Faucit, Helena
Félix, Lia
Fenton, Lavinia
Fiske, Minnie Maddern
Gilbert, Ann
Grisi, Giulia
Guilbert, Yvette
Guimard, Marie Madeleine
Gwyn, Nell
Hading, Jane
Horton, Christiana
Jordan, Dorothea
Keeley, Mary Anne
Kellogg, Clara Louise
Keene, Laura
Klafsky, Katharina
Lacy, Harriette Deborah
Langtry, Lillie
Lecouvreur, Adrienne
Lind, Jenny
Mara, Gertrude E.
Marlowe, Julia
Mars, Mlle.
Melba
Menken, Adah Isaacs
Modjeska, Helena
Morris, Clara
Neilson, Adelaide
Nethersole, Olga
Nisbett, Louisa C.
Nordica, Lilian
Oldfield, Anne
O’Neill, Eliza
Patey, Janet Monach
Philips, Adelaide
Pope, Jane
Porter, Mary
Raabe, Hedwig
Rachel
Raucourt, Mlle.
Rehan, Ada
Réjane, Gabrielle
Ristori, Adelaide
Robinson, Mary
Sacher, Rosa
Sainton-Dobly, C. H.
Schröder, Sophie
Schröder-Devrient, Wilhelmine
Seebach, Marie
Siddons, Sarah
Smithson, Henrietta C.
Sterling, Antoinette
Sterling, Fanny
Taglioni
Tempest, Marie
Terry, Ellen
Tietjens, Thérèse
Verbruggen, Susanna
Vestris, Lucia Elizabeth
Vincent, Mary Ann
Vokes, Rosina
Woffington, Peg
Yates, Mary Ann
Both in Great Britain and in the United States the great social reform
movements of the last century numbered among their most able advocates
brilliant and devoted women. This is true of temperance, abolition of
slavery, prison reform, the treatment of the insane and defectives, and
nearly every branch which this Guide has enumerated, especially in Part
4, where there is a general outline of these reforms. For the part
played by women see the biographies of the women just mentioned and,
among many others, JANE ADDAMS, CLARA BARTON, BARONESS BURDETT-COUTTS,
DOROTHEA LYNDE DIX, EMILY FAITHFUL, ELIZABETH FRY, OCTAVIA and MIRANDA
HILL, MARY A. LIVERMORE and LUCRETIA MOTT. More particularly the
following list of names of women connected with educational progress
will supplement what has been said in the chapter of this Guide _For
Teachers_ and in the part of the Guide dealing with advances in
education and educational problems in the chapter _Questions of the
Day_:
Astell, Mary
Beale, Dorothea
Bodichon, Barbara L. S.
Brace, Julia
Bridgman, Laura
Bass, Frances Mary
Carpenter, Mary
Clough, Anne Jemima
Crandall, Prudence
Keller, Helen
Lyon, Mary
Shirreff, Emily
Swanwick, Anna
And see also the articles CO-EDUCATION and articles on different
colleges for women, e.g., MOUNT HOLYOKE, VASSAR, BRYN MAWR, SMITH, etc.
One who wishes to realize the extent of feminine talent or genius should
read the lives in the Britannica of the sculptor HARRIET HOSMER and of
women painters including CECILIA BEAUX, ROSA BONHEUR, ARTEMISIA
GENTILESCHI, KATE GREENWAY, ANGELICA KAUFFMANN, TERESA SCHWARTZE and
MME. VIGÉE-LEBRUN. But the reader who is eager rather to know whether
woman’s intellectual powers—not her talent and her genius—compare
favourably with those of the male, will find material in the
biographical sketches of the physicist MME. CURIE; the geologist MARY
ANNING; the travelers ISABELLA BIRD BISHOP and ALEXANDRINA TINNÉ; the
biologists MARIANNE NORTH and ELEANOR ORMEROD; the American ethnologist
ALICE C. FLETCHER; and above all—since mathematics has always been
considered above the capacity of women—the mathematicians MARIA GAETANA
AGNESI and SOPHIE KOVALEVSKY and the astronomers AGNES MARY CLERKE,
MARIA CUNITZ, CAROLINE HERSCHEL, MARIA MITCHELL and MARY SOMERVILLE.
It is pertinent to add that the present 11th edition of the Britannica
indicates the advance of women not only by embodying their collaboration
to an unprecedented extent and devoting an unprecedented amount of its
space to biographies of women, but by the circumstance that it has, to a
far larger extent than any previous edition, been purchased by women.
PART VI
READINGS IN CONNECTION WITH RECREATION AND VACATIONS
CHAPTER LXVI
RECREATION AND VACATION
“Laying out your work” is a familiar phrase, and describes a common
practice. But hardly one man in a hundred deliberately “lays out” his
play, planning his recreation so as to get the best value out of every
hour of his leisure time. Yet when he consults a doctor because his work
is not running smoothly, one of the first questions he has to answer is
about the amount and form of recreation he takes.
[Sidenote: Recreative Reading about Recreation]
An important branch of the art of playing is to learn the value of
reading about play. The more a man knows about any form of amusement,
the more he will enjoy the hours he devotes to it, and the better he
will succeed in keeping his mind off his business during these hours.
But there is another and an even greater advantage in this kind of
reading: _it will take your mind out-of-doors during hours of leisure
that you are compelled to spend in-doors_. Everyone recognizes that
out-door recreations, involving some degree of bodily activity, are the
most wholesome for men whose work is sedentary, as is the case with
nearly every reader of this Guide, and the best forms of out-door
recreation are those in which the contrast with your work is accentuated
by the complete change of scene and of habits which most men can only
hope to get once a year, at vacation time.
Turn to the next best form of relaxation, the out-door amusements that
lie close at hand. Here, again, your opportunities are limited, for all
these pleasures require daylight, which, during a great part of the
year, ends before your work is done; and most of them require weather
conditions that you can only get at certain seasons. An hour spent in
reading and thinking about out-door amusements and travel, and in making
plans for such delights, even if the planning must be for a future that
seems far away, is therefore always refreshing.
It is not the purpose of the present chapter to suggest a course of
reading, in the strict sense of the phrase, for it cannot be assumed
that everyone who would like to read about lawn-tennis would also like
to read about tarpon-fishing. But a general account of the Britannica
articles that afford information about recreation and vacations will
give the reader a choice among subjects in which he is already
interested and among others which may offer him new possibilities.
MOTORING
In connection with motoring, the possessor of the Britannica will not be
surprised to find in it, as might be expected from its universal
comprehensiveness, much fuller technical information in regard to the
structure and operation of his engine, the fuel he employs, and the
friction and other resistances he must overcome, than in any of the
ordinary manuals on the subject. But it may not occur to him that in
planning either a long or a short tour, he can find in the volumes
information of other kinds that will give added interest and
significance to everything he sees. It is not only when he crosses the
Atlantic for his motoring trip that cities and villages and mountains
and rivers have stories to tell. In our own country, place-names which
may at first suggest nothing, are found, on reference to the Britannica,
to be associated with episodes of early exploration, of Indian
hostilities, of local agitation, of one or another war, with the lives
of famous men, the growth of industries and of commerce, the first
success in a new branch of farming, the early days of railroad and canal
construction, or the development of transportation by river, lake or
sea. And what is being done to-day, in these places, is often quite as
interesting, and quite as difficult to ascertain from any source other
than the Britannica. This use of the work as a guide-book, or rather as
doing a great deal that guide-books lamentably fail to do, is discussed
later in this chapter in connection with travel in general as a form of
recreation; but motoring gives especial opportunities for observation
enriched by knowledge.
The value of the Britannica in connection with the planning of a
motoring trip may be illustrated by brief notes on some of the articles
you might read if you were about to make, for example, the run from New
York through the Berkshire Hills and on to the White Mountains. _The
following information is all from the Britannica, and from articles to
which you would naturally turn in this connection._
_A Specimen Tour from New York to the White Mountains_
[Sidenote: Along the Hudson]
Leaving New York by Broadway, your first point is YONKERS (Vol. 28, p.
922), where, as the Britannica tells you, stands “one of the best
examples of colonial architecture in America,” Philipse Manor Hall,
now a museum of Revolutionary relics. Frederick Philipse, owner in
1779 of the Hall and of an estate extending for some distance along
the bank of the Hudson, was suspected of Toryism, and all his property
was confiscated by act of legislature. A mile and a half beyond
Yonkers you get a magnificent view of the Hudson, disclosing the
Palisades, of lava rock (Vol. 13, p. 852) which, in cooling, formed
joints like those of the Giant’s Causeway in Ireland. The impressive
breadth of the Hudson and its navigability throughout the 151 miles to
Troy, notwithstanding that in all that distance it falls only five
feet (a good many New Yorkers would be amazed to be told that fact),
is due to the low grade of the river bed, permitting the tide to enter
and to back up the water, so that this long stretch of the river is
really a fjord, not a stream. The article Fjord (Vol. 10, p. 452)
tells you how such a rock basin or trough is formed by geological
action. The article HENRY HUDSON (Vol. 13, p. 849) tells you how the
great navigator, himself an Englishman, although employed by the Dutch
East India Company in 1608 to find a westward route to China, sailed
the little “Half Moon” as far up the river as Albany before he was
convinced that the Pacific did not lie ahead of him.
The next point after Yonkers, DOBBS FERRY (Vol. 8, p. 349), was a
strategic centre of great importance during the Revolutionary War.
“The American Army under Washington encamped near Dobbs Ferry on the
4th of July, 1781, and started thence for Yorktown in the following
month,” and it was there that Washington and Governor Clinton, in
1783, “met General Sir Guy Carleton to negotiate for the evacuation by
the British troops of the posts they still held in the United States.”
[Sidenote: Sleepy Hollow]
In TARRYTOWN, as the article under that title (Vol. 26, p. 433)
recounts, Washington Irving, who made the legends of the Hudson
immortal, built his home at “Sunnyside,” and was buried in the old
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. The article IRVING (Vol. 14, p. 856), by the
late Dr. Richard Garnett, the famous literary critic, tells you all
about Irving’s life; and Professor Woodberry of Columbia, in his
article on AMERICAN LITERATURE (Vol. 1, p. 831), reminds you that,
although Irving spent 21 of his adult years in Europe, he is the one
American writer who has “linked his memory locally with his country so
that it hangs over the landscape and blends with it forever.”
“Kaakoot,” one of the large estates at Tarrytown, recalls the
extraordinary career of its owner, described in the article JOHN D.
ROCKEFELLER (Vol. 23, p. 433); and “Lyndhurst,” that of Jay Gould, of
whom and of whose daughter, the well-known philanthropist, the
Britannica tells in the article GOULD (Vol. 12, p. 284). On the post
road near Tarrytown is the bronze statue of a Continental soldier,
erected to commemorate the capture of Major André, whose life is told
in the article ANDRÉ (Vol. 1, p. 968).
As you mount the hill and leave the Hudson, you enter the beautiful
region of hills, lake and streams, upon which the city of New York
long depended for its water; and you will be interested in comparing
what New York has accomplished in this connection with what has been
done by other great cities, as described in the article WATER SUPPLY
(Vol. 28, p. 387), by G. F. Deacon. Many of the large country places
you pass are the property of prominent New York men, of whom there are
biographies in the Britannica.
Your brief run through the hilly northwestern corner of Connecticut,
of which the physical features are described and the history narrated
in the article CONNECTICUT (Vol. 6, p. 951), takes you through
SALISBURY (Vol. 24, p. 78), near Bear Mountain (2355 feet), “the
highest point in the State.” A few miles more and you cross the line
into Massachusetts and enter the enchanting region of the Berkshire
Hills. The article MASSACHUSETTS (Vol. 17, p. 851) says that “the
Berkshire country—Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire and Franklin
counties—is among the most beautiful regions of the United States. It
is a rolling highland, dominated by long, wooded hill-ridges,
remarkably even-topped in general elevation, intersected and broken by
deep valleys. Scores of charming lakes lie in the hollows.”
[Sidenote: Great Barrington]
GREAT BARRINGTON (Vol. 12, p. 397) “was a centre of disaffection
during Shays’s Rebellion,” an episode for which you may consult the
article DANIEL SHAYS (Vol. 24, p. 815), and the account in the
historical section of the article MASSACHUSETTS (Vol. 17, p. 860). In
1786 Shays was known as having been “a brave Revolutionary captain of
no special personal importance.” The State finances were in a bad
condition and taxes were heavy. Mobs of discontented citizens, under
Shays’s leadership, assembled to prevent the courts from sitting, so
that the collection of taxes and other debts might be obstructed. “The
insurrection is regarded as having been very potent in preparing
public opinion throughout the country for the adoption of a stronger
national government.” WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT (Vol. 4, p. 698),
“earliest of the master-poets of America,” practiced law at Great
Barrington for nine years.
[Sidenote: Stockbridge]
Leaving Great Barrington, you cross Monument Mountain (1710 feet) on
your way to STOCKBRIDGE (Vol. 25, p. 929) with its famous avenue of
elms—perhaps the most characteristic New England scene in all the
Berkshire country. The conspicuous bell-tower was erected by DAVID
DUDLEY FIELD (Vol. 10, p. 321), the law reformer, whose proposed code
of laws for the State of New York was the model on which most of the
existing state codes have been based. The park was the gift of his
brother, CYRUS W. FIELD (Vol. 10, p. 320), born at Stockbridge, to
whom we owe the first Atlantic cable. In 1834, at the age of 15, he
became a clerk in the great New York store described in the article A.
T. STEWART (Vol. 25, p. 912); later embarked in the wholesale paper
business in New York, failed, formed the firm of Cyrus W. Field & Co.,
and in 1853, at the age of 34, had made a quarter of a million, a
large fortune in those days, paid off the debts of the paper business,
and nominally retired. From that time he was chiefly occupied with the
cable scheme, of which the early difficulties are described in the
cable section of the article TELEGRAPH (Vol. 26, p. 527), although he
operated actively in stocks, was associated with JAY GOULD (Vol. 12,
p. 284) in completing the Wabash Railroad, and had a controlling
interest in the New York Elevated Railroad, besides being chief
proprietor of the New York _Mail and Express_.
When, in 1750, JONATHAN EDWARDS (Vol. 9, p. 3), the famous New England
theologian, had to leave his church at Northampton, he became pastor
at Stockbridge and missionary to the Housatonic Indians, remaining
there until 1759. It was there that he wrote his famous treatise on
the _Freedom of the Will_. In a cleft on Bear Mountain, just outside
the village, is the curious Ice Glen, with caverns ice-lined even in
midsummer.
[Sidenote: Lenox]
On the road from Stockbridge to Lenox you pass the beautiful lake
called the Stockbridge Bowl, on the shore of which NATHANIEL
HAWTHORNE, in 1851, wrote _The House of the Seven Gables_. His reason
for adopting literature as a vocation is quaintly stated in a letter
to his mother quoted in this Britannica biography. “I do not want to
be a doctor and live by men’s diseases, nor a minister to live by
their sins, nor a lawyer and live by their quarrels. So I don’t see
that there is anything left for me but to be an author.” LENOX (Vol.
16, p. 421) is surrounded by high hills, famous for their vivid
coloring when the leaves change their hues in the fall, Yokun Seat
(2080 feet), South Mountain (1200 feet), Bald Head (1583 feet) and
Rattlesnake Hill (1540 feet). “The surrounding region contains some of
the most beautiful country of the Berkshires—hills, lakes, charming
intervales and woods. As early as 1835 Lenox began to attract summer
residents. In the next decade began the creation of large estates,
although the great holdings of the present day, and the villas
scattered over the hills, are comparatively recent features.” The
township was named after the third Duke of RICHMOND AND LENNOX (Vol.
23, p. 307), “a firm supporter of the colonies in the debates on the
policy that led to the War of American Independence; and he initiated
the debate of 1778 calling for the removal of the troops from
America.”
Among other names associated with Lenox and with its famous schools
are those of the actress FRANCES KEMBLE—“Fanny” Kemble (Vol. 15, p.
724); HENRY WARD BEECHER (Vol. 3, p. 639); HARRIET HOSMER (Vol. 13, p.
791), the sculptor; MARK HOPKINS (Vol. 13, p. 684), the famous
president of Williams College; ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS (Vol. 25, p.
887), vice-president of the Confederate States, who, the article
CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (Vol. 6, p. 899), says, was “during the
war a strong antagonist of President Davis’s policy;” and WILLIAM H.
YANCEY (Vol. 28, p. 902), whose fortunes were influenced by a singular
event. A lawyer, and editor of a little anti-nullification weekly in
South Carolina, he married a wealthy woman; but a few years later, in
1839, the accidental poisoning of all the slaves on the estate forced
him to return to the law; and he subsequently became one of the
political leaders of the Confederacy.
[Sidenote: Pittsfield]
PITTSFIELD (Vol. 21, p. 682) is both a popular resort and a prosperous
manufacturing town, with ample water power supplied by the east and
west branches of the Housatonic on either side of it. It was here that
HENRY W. LONGFELLOW (Vol. 16, p. 977) wrote _The Old Clock on the
Stairs_ at “Elm Knoll,” the house of his father-in-law, NATHAN
APPLETON (Vol. 2, p. 224), a reference to whose biography in the
Britannica discloses the interesting fact that his son, Thomas Gold
Appleton, a famous wit in his day, originated the saying, “Good
Americans when they die, go to Paris,” which is generally attributed
to Oliver Wendell Holmes. Just outside Pittsfield lies the village of
the SHAKERS (Vol. 24, p. 771), the curious sect founded by Ann Lee,
daughter of a blacksmith in Manchester, England, who came to America
with a small party of her adherents in 1714. The road through ADAMS
(Vol. 1, p. 181), affords a view of Greylock Mountain (3535 feet), the
highest point in Massachusetts; and at NORTH ADAMS (Vol. 19, p. 760),
there is a natural bridge 50–60 feet high across Hudson Brook; and you
can see the ruins of Fort Massachusetts, captured in 1746 by the
French with the aid of the Indians. Here is also the western end of
the Hoosac Tunnel, 5¾ miles long. The article TUNNELS (Vol. 27, p.
405) says that the piercing of this tunnel, begun in 1835 and not
finished until 1876, was marked by the first American use of air
drills and nitroglycerin; and the article POWER TRANSMISSION (Vol. 22,
p. 232) describes the influence which this successful employment of
compressed air had in furthering its use for the noisy “gun” tools now
so familiar.
[Sidenote: Williamstown]
WILLIAMSTOWN (Vol. 28, p. 685), the last town in Massachusetts on your
route, is the seat of Williams College; and the “Haystack Monument” in
Mission Park, stands where the prayer meeting was held which was the
forerunner of the American foreign missionary movement described in
the article MISSIONS (Vol. 18, p. 583), which contains the interesting
statement that in the 3rd century the proportion of Christians to the
whole human race was one to 150, while it is now one to three. The
article VERMONT (Vol. 27, p. 1025) contains an interesting summary of
the early disputes over state boundaries in this part of New England.
[Sidenote: Bennington]
BENNINGTON (Vol. 3, p. 743) lies at the foot of the Green Mountains,
near Mt. Anthony (2345 feet). “The Bennington Battle Monument, a shaft
301 feet high, is said to be the highest battle monument in the world.
It commemorates the success gained on the 16th of August, 1777, by a
force of nearly 2000 ‘Green Mountain Boys’ and New Hampshire and
Massachusetts militia ... over two detachments of General Burgoyne’s
army,” of whom 700 were taken prisoners. The article AMERICAN WAR OF
INDEPENDENCE (Vol. 1, p. 842) shows how important an effect this
victory had on Burgoyne’s campaign. In 1825 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON
(Vol. 11, p. 477), the anti-slavery leader, edited a paper at
Bennington, leaving it when BENJAMIN LUNDY (Vol. 17, p. 124), the
Quaker abolitionist, determined to secure Garrison’s co-operation on a
Baltimore abolitionist magazine, “walked through the ice and snow of a
New England winter from Boston to Bennington, 125 miles,” and
persuaded Garrison to join him. Bennington was the home of ETHAN ALLEN
(Vol. 1, p. 691), the frontier hero who led the “Green Mountain Boys”
and of SETH WARNER (Vol. 28, p. 327), who subsequently became their
colonel.
[Sidenote: Hanover]
On leaving Bennington you can choose any one of several routes to
bring you over to the Connecticut River, but, whichever you take, you
will be fairly on the main route to the White Mountains (by which you
would have gone from New York through Waterbury, Springfield and
Greenfield if you had not included the Berkshires in your itinerary)
when you reach HANOVER, N. H. (Vol. 12, p. 927). Here, “ranges of
rugged hills, broken by deep, narrow gorges and by the wider valley of
Mink Brook, rise near the river and culminate in Moose Mountain, 2326
feet above the sea.” Near the foot of that peak is the birthplace of
LAURA D. BRIDGMAN (Vol. 4, p. 559), the first blind deaf-mute to be
successfully educated. Dr. S. G. HOWE (Vol. 13, p. 837), who was head
of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Boston, heard of her case in
1837, took charge of her in October of that year, and by June, 1840,
at eleven years of age, her mind had become as well developed as that
of a normal child of her age. Charles Dickens saw her when he was in
America in 1842, and his account of her case led to the introduction
in England, and afterwards in all parts of Europe, of the Howe system
of training.
[Sidenote: Dartmouth College]
The attractions which Hanover owes to its picturesque site are
enhanced by the fine buildings and the notably beautiful campus of
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (Vol. 7, p. 838). The purpose for which this college
was originally founded is quaintly expressed in its charter, granted
by George III in 1769. See the article on INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN
(Vol. 14, p. 452). This document ordains “that there be a college
erected in our Province of New Hampshire by the name of Dartmouth
College, for the education and instruction of youth of the Indian
Tribes in this Land in reading, writing and all parts of Learning
which shall appear necessary and expedient for civilizing and
christianizing children of pagans ... and also of English youth and
any other.”
With the name of Dartmouth College will always be associated that of
DANIEL WEBSTER (Vol. 28, p. 460), not only because he was graduated
there in 1801, but because the famous “Dartmouth College case,” in
which Webster appeared for the college before the United States
Supreme Court, was the first in which that august tribunal fully
asserted its power to support the Federal constitution by nullifying
any usurpatory statutes passed by state legislatures.
When you turn away from the Connecticut River to go up the valley of
the Ammonoosuc, you are fairly in the White Mountain region, which the
Britannica (Vol. 19, p. 490) describes in part as follows:
[Sidenote: The White Mountains]
“The White Mountains, a continuation of the Appalachian system, rise
very abruptly in several short ranges and in outlying mountain
masses from a base level of 700–1500 ft. to generally rounded
summits, the heights of several of which are nowhere exceeded in the
eastern part of the United States except in the Black and the Unaka
mountains of North Carolina; seventy-four rise more than 3000 ft.
above the sea, twelve more than 5000 ft., and the highest, Mount
Washington, attains an elevation of 6293 ft.
The principal ranges, the Presidential, the Franconia and the
Carter-Moriah, have a north-eastern and south-western trend. The
Presidential, in the north-eastern part of the region, is separated
from the Franconia on the south-west by the Crawford, or White
Mountain Notch, about 2000 ft. in depth, in which the Ammonoosuc and
Saco rivers find a passage, and from the Carter-Moriah, parallel to
it on the east, by the Glen-Ellis and Peabody rivers, the former
noted for its beautiful falls. On the Presidential range, which is
about 20 m. in length, are Mount Washington and nine other peaks
exceeding 5000 ft. in height: Mount Adams, 5805 ft.; Mount
Jefferson, 5725 ft.; Mount Sam Adams, 5585 ft.; Mount Clay, 5554
ft.; Boot Spur, 5520 ft.; Mount Monroe, 5390 ft.; J. Q. Adams Peak,
5384 ft.; Mount Madison, 5380 ft.; and Mount Franklin, 5028 ft. On
the Franconia, a much shorter range, are Mount Lafayette, 5269 ft.;
Mount Lincoln, 5098 ft.; and four others exceeding 4000 ft. The
highest peak on the Carter-Moriah range is Carter Dome, 4860 ft.,
but seven others exceed 4000 ft. Loftiest of the isolated mountains
is Moosilauke noted for its magnificent view-point, 4810 ft. above
the sea. Separating Franconia and Pemigewasset ranges is the
romantic Franconia Notch, overlooking which from the upper cliffs of
Profile Mountain is a remarkable human profile, _The Great Stone
Face_, immortalized by Nathaniel Hawthorne; here, too, is the
Franconia Flume, a narrow upright fissure, 60 ft. in height, with
beautiful waterfalls.
The whole White Mountain region abounds in deep narrow valleys,
romantic glens, ravines, flumes, waterfalls, brooks and lakes....
The headwaters of the rivers are for the most part mountain streams
or elevated lakes; farther on their swift and winding
currents—flowing sometimes between wide intervales, sometimes
between rocky banks—are marked by numerous falls and fed by lakes.
The lakes and ponds, numbering several hundred, were formed by
glacial action and the scenery of many of them is scarcely less
attractive than that of the mountains. The largest and most widely
known is Lake Winnepesaukee on the S. border of the White Mountain
region; this is about 20 m. long and from 1 to 8 m. wide, is dotted
by 274 islands, mostly verdant, and has clear water and a rather
level shore, back of which hills or mountains rise on all sides.
Among the more prominent of many others that are admired for their
beauty are Squam, New Found, Sunapee and Ossipee, all within a
radius of a few miles from Winnepesaukee; Massabesic farther S.; and
Diamond Ponds, Umbagog and Connecticut lakes, N. of the White
Mountains. The rivers with their numerous falls and the lakes with
their high altitudes furnish a vast amount of water power for
manufacturing, the Merrimac, in particular, into which many of the
larger lakes, including Winnepesaukee, find an outlet, is one of the
greatest power-yielding streams of the world.”
After exploring the country thus described in the Britannica, you can
take for your return trip to New York, the route by Portland, Me., that
by Lake Winnepesaukee and Portsmouth, or, that by Plymouth and
Manchester, N. H. By any of these ways, you will visit Boston, and its
famous suburbs, Concord, Lexington, Brookline, Salem and Marblehead,
whose historical and literary associations are fully described in the
Britannica.
[Sidenote: Automobiles]
The article MOTOR VEHICLES (Vol. 18, p. 914), with 37 illustrations, is
by the late C. S. Rolls, the famous builder and driver of motor cars,
with a special section on commercial vehicles, by Edward Shrapnell
Smith, editor of _The Commercial Motor_. The story of the development of
the car, told at the beginning of the article, is full of human
interest, for it shows how national characteristics affect industries.
From 1802, when Richard Trevithick built, in England, the first
practical road carriage, until 1885, all the most promising efforts to
further mechanical road traffic were made by English inventors. As early
as 1824 there was a regular motor-omnibus service between Cheltenham and
Gloucester, at a speed that sometimes (perhaps down a hill) reached 14
miles an hour; and if inventors had been encouraged, the effort to
lighten road engines would have produced the tubular boiler long before
it actually appeared. But the influence of the landowning,
horse-breeding, horse-loving English aristocracy was too strong, and one
act of Parliament after another imposed destructive restrictions,
culminating in the law passed in 1865, making 4 miles an hour the
maximum speed, and requiring that a man showing a red flag should march
ahead of the engine! Of course this drove every engine off the road
except a steam roller or the heaviest type of traction engine. In 1885
Daimler invented the internal combustion engine, and for a moment
Germany seemed likely to lead the world. But Daimler failed to hit upon
a satisfactory system of transmission, and although his engine worked
well in motor boats, the risk of starting a car on the road was too
great. His boat, shown at the Paris Exposition of 1887, attracted the
attention of the French firm of Panhard & Levassor, makers of
wood-working machinery. They bought the French rights, and Levassor
devised the clutch, the gear-box and the whole system of connecting the
engine with its work, which, save for improvements in detail, are all in
use to-day. In 1895 the French car which won the race from Paris to
Bordeaux covered the 744 miles at a mean speed of 15 miles an hour, and
the world realized that the motor car was a practical means of
transportation. But it was not until 1896 that the English parliament
gave cars the freedom of the roads, and that English manufacturers could
see a future for themselves.
In the United States, the industry began under great difficulties. The
roads, except in the immediate outskirts of the larger cities, were
abominable, and no system of suspension that could make them tolerable
had yet been discovered. But though starting late, by 1906 the United
States overtook and passed France, becoming the foremost car building
and car using nation of the world. Nowhere else are factories worked
upon so large a scale, and nowhere else are really serviceable cars so
light and so cheap. And the greatest recent improvement in the gasolene
engine, the Knight sleeve-valve, is an American invention. It is,
altogether, a curious story, this struggle in which England, Germany and
France, one after another, seemed destined to attain the leadership
which in the end fell to the United States.
Turning to the subsidiary articles which relate to motoring, the
gasolene engine is elaborately discussed in OIL ENGINE (Vol. 20, p. 35),
by Dugald Clerk, an expert engineer and himself the inventor of the
Clerk cycle engine. This article shows how complete a change in
engineering practice was effected in 1883, when it was demonstrated that
small engines could be run at a thousand revolutions a minute, a speed
four times as great as any previously contemplated. All the types of
carburetter are described, with mechanical diagrams. Other diagrams show
the action of the inner and outer sleeves of the Knight valves.
Gasolene, and the experiments made in search of a less costly fuel, are
dealt with in the article FUEL (Vol. 11, p. 274), by Prof. Georg Lunge,
of the Zurich Polytechnic, the greatest of all authorities on the
subject. Tires, the bugbear of every car-owner, form the subject of a
separate article Tire (Vol. 26, p. 1006), by Archibald Sharp, which
contains a number of curious and instructive diagrams showing the
direction of the stress on a tire at the point where the road slightly
flattens it. RUBBER (Vol. 23, p. 795), by W. R. Dunstan, president of
the International Association of Tropical Agriculture, is well worth
reading for its information as to the effect upon tires of exposure to
air and light, apart from wear. The materials used, and the mechanical
principles involved, in the construction of cars are discussed in a
number of separate articles under obvious titles.
PHOTOGRAPHY
A large place, in any review of recreations, must be given to
photography, which, even in its most elementary form, provides a record
and an echo of an infinite variety of amusements, and, after a little
study, not only does this all the better, but becomes a delightful art
in itself, to be enjoyed in-doors as well as out-doors, at all hours and
at all seasons. The amateur can find no more authoritative, full and yet
concise manual of the subject than the Britannica article PHOTOGRAPHY
(Vol. 21, p. 485), equivalent to about 125 pages of this Guide. The
first section on History and Technique is by Sir William de Wiveleslie
Abney, author of _Instruction in Photography_, _Colour Vision_, etc.
Next is a section on photographic apparatus by Major-Gen. James
Waterhouse, whose photographic work in India is known throughout the
world. And then comes a discussion of pictorial photography by A.
Horsley Hinton, author of _Practical Pictorial Photography_. The
following is an outline of the article:
History.—Eighteenth century experiments of Scheele, Senebier and Count
Rumford. Early 19th century discoveries. The Daguerreotype and its
improvements by Goddard, Claudet and Fizeau. The Fox-Talbot process.
Albumen process on glass. Collodion process. Positive pictures by the
collodion process. Moist collodion process. Dry-plates; alkaline
developers with formulae for some of the most effective; developers of
organic salts of iron; developer restrainers. Dry-plate bath process
of R. Manners Gordon, with formula for preservative. Collodion
emulsion processes—work of Bolton and Sayce and of M. C. Lea and W.
Cooper; Bolton’s modification; Col. Wortley introduces strongly
alkaline developer. Formula for alkaline developer for collodion
plates. Gelatin emulsion process—Maddox (1871), King (1873), Burgess
(1873), Stas (1874), Bennett (1878), Abney (1879), van Monckhoven
(1879) and his use of hydrobromic acid on silver carbonate with
ammonia. Heating the emulsion—Wortley (1879), Mansfield (1879).
Relative rapidities of the processes described.
Daguerreotype, originally, Half an hour’s exposure.
Calotype 2 or 3 minutes’ „
Collodion 10 seconds’ „
Collodion emulsion 15 seconds’ „
Rapid gelatin emulsion ¹⁄₁₅ second „
The second part of the article deals with the technique of photography.
The major topics in it are:
Gelatin emulsions: formulae and directions for emulsion with and
without ammonia. Coating the plates. Exposure. Development, with
formula for alkaline developer. Intensifying and varnishing the
negative.
Printing processes. Albumen method of Fox-Talbot. Sensitizing bath.
Toning and fixing the print—formulae for toning-bath.
Collodio-chloride silver printing process: Simpson’s formula.
Gelatino-citrochloride emulsion: Abney’s formula. Printing with
uranium salts: an early formula. Self-toning papers. Printing with
chromates: carbon prints—work of Ponton, Becquerel, Dixon, Fox-Talbot,
Poitevin, Pouncey, Fargier, Swan, Johnson and Sawyer. Printing with
salts of iron. Photo-mechanical printing processes: discoveries of
Oreloth, de Motay, Marechal and Albert; “Lichtdruck” and heliotype.
Woodbury type. Photolithography: the work of E. J. Asser, J. W.
Osborne and Sir H. James.
Photographs in natural colours are next described, and their history is
traced from 1810 when Seebeck of Jena made experiments described in
Goethe’s famous work on _Colours_. _The first successful colour
photography was by Becquerel in 1848_ on a daguerreotype plate,
chlorinized. The later methods of Lippmann and Lumière, respectively,
with collodion dry plates prepared with albumen and with dyed gelatin
plates (orthochromatic), produce pictures in which the colours show only
from an angle.
The section on the _Action of Light on Chemical Compounds_, with a plate
showing spectra and graduation scales, contains valuable diagrams and a
chronological table of observers of the action of light on different
substances. The paragraphs of particular interest to the practical
photographer are those on:
Measurement of the Rapidity of a Plate.
Effect of Temperature on Sensitiveness.
Effect of Small Intensities of Light on a Sensitive Salt.
Effect of Very Intense Light on a Sensitive Salt.
Intermittent Exposure of a Sensitive Salt.
Effect of Monochromatic Light of Varying Wave-Lengths on a Sensitive
Salt.
Reproduction of Coloured Objects by 3 Photographic Positives: Ives’
process; Joly’s process; Autochrome of Lumière; Positives in 3
Colours.
Another division (equivalent to 60 pages at least in this Guide) of the
article is on Apparatus. It deals especially with the hand camera as
developed from 1855 to 1888 when the Eastman Kodak came out. And it has
separate paragraphs on Focusing; Plate-holders or Dark-slides (1
illustration); Studio cameras; Portable and Field cameras; Hand cameras
(7 illustrations); Twin-lens and Reflex cameras (2 illustrations);
Panoramic cameras (2 illustrations); 3 Colour cameras (1 illustration);
Enlarging cameras and cinematographs.
A separate section deals with objectives, and contains 45 illustrations,
giving special attention to: single achromatic (landscape) lens,
including aplanatic; unsymmetrical doublets; symmetrical doublets;
triple combinations; anastigmatic combinations; telephotographic
objectives; anachromatic lenses; diaphragm apertures.
Then follows a discussion of instantaneous shutters (with 9
illustrations) and a discussion under “lateral” and “central” of flap,
drop, drop and flap, rotary, roller blind, focal plane, moving blade,
central and iris shutters.
Exposure meters (4 illustrations) with a discussion of the actinic power
of light; sensitive plates, films and papers: sensitive dry plates,
plates for colour photography, celluloid films, photographic printing
papers, apparatus for development (with 4 illustrations); photographic
printing apparatus; bibliography.
The last division of this great article is on _Pictorial Photography_,
and this is illustrated by three full-page plates. It deals not merely
with portrait photography but with “artistic” landscape work, and
combination printing, which “is really what many of us practiced in the
nursery, that is, cutting out figures and pasting them into white spaces
left for that purpose in the picture book.”
In addition to this comprehensive treatise, in itself a complete manual
of photography, there are other articles which will be useful to the
advanced amateur who desires either to study the scientific aspects of
the subject or to undertake the reproduction of his work by processes
other than the ordinary printing. The production of chemical changes by
the action of light are discussed in PHOTOCHEMISTRY (Vol. 21, p. 484).
LENS (Vol. 16, p. 421) is by Dr. Otto Henker, of the staff of the Zeiss
factory at Jena, Germany. ABERRATION (Vol. 1, p. 54) is by Dr.
Eppenstein, another expert of the same establishment. The making of
blocks from your own negatives is covered by the article PROCESS (Vol.
22, p. 408), by Edwin Bale, art director of Cassell & Co., and contains
coloured plates showing the stages of superimposed printing. SUN COPYING
(Vol. 26, p. 93), by F. Vincent Brooks, a practical printer, describes
direct-contact printing without the use of a camera.
OUT-DOOR GAMES
The authority which is back of the articles in the Britannica and the
fact that its articles are on a larger scale than those of other works
of reference make its articles on sports and games singularly valuable.
The reader who is interested in FOOTBALL, for instance, will find an
article (Vol. 10, p. 617), of more than 12,000 words, part of it written
by Walter Camp, the famous American expert. It includes a historical
sketch; a description of the Rugby Union game by Charles James Nicol
Fleming, inspector in the Scotch Education Department, and Charles John
Bruce Marriott, secretary of the Rugby Football Union; of the
Association game, by Charles William Alcock, late secretary of the
Football Association, London, and Frederick Joseph Wall, secretary of
the Football Association; and of the game in the United States, by
Walter Camp and Edward Breck. The article GOLF is by H. G. Hutchinson,
amateur golf champion in 1886–87, and author of _Golf_, _Book of Golf
and Golfers_, etc. In the same way there are authoritative and full
articles on the following subjects:
Athletic Sports
Acrobat
All-Round Athletics
Amateur
Archery
Ball
Base-ball
Battledore and Shuttlecock
Botori
Bowls
Boxing
Bull-fighting
Caber-Tossing
Caestus
Camping-Out
Children’s Games
Circus
Cricket
Croquet
Cycling
Discus
Football
Game
Games, Classical
Golf
Gymkhana
Hammer Throwing
Hurdle-Racing
Jumping
Kite-Flying
Lacrosse
Lawn-Tennis
Long Fives
Marbles
Matador
Palaestra
Pall-Mall
Pallone
Pelota
Pigeon Flying
Pole Vaulting
Potato Race
Pugilism
Pushball
Putting the Shot
Quarter Staff
Quintain
Quoits
Rackets
Ringgoal
Rounders
Rowing
Running
Scull
Skittles
Sport
Stadium
Stool-Ball
Swimming
Toreador
Tournament
Tug-of-War
Walking-Races
Water Polo
Weight-Throwing
And among active indoor games on which the Britannica contains articles,
are FENCING, CANE FENCING, EPÉE-DE-COMBAT, FOIL-FENCING, SABRE-FENCING,
SINGLE-STICK, BASKET BALL, BADMINTON, BOWLING, TENNIS, STICKÉ, FIVES,
LONG FIVES, ROLLER-SKATING, SQUAILS, SHUFFLE-BOARD, TRAPEZE, WRESTLING.
[Sidenote: Athletics]
The distinction between games and athletic sports is an arbitrary one,
and the articles on athletics have been included in the list of those on
out-door games; but a few of them seem to call for special mention. The
article ATHLETIC SPORTS (Vol. 2, p. 846) gives a general account of
amateur associations and of national and international meetings; and
contains a special section on the revived Olympic Games. ATHLETE (Vol.
2, p. 846) and GAMES, CLASSICAL (Vol. 11, p. 443) deal with the ancient
Greek and Roman contests. ALL-ROUND ATHLETICS (Vol. 1, p. 709) describes
the championship, instituted in this country, for the highest awards
attained by one athlete in eleven different branches of sport. AMATEUR
(Vol. 1, p. 782) is a very full and impartial discussion of the
interminable controversies regarding the distinction between
professionals and amateurs. Among the articles on special sports are
RUNNING (Vol. 23, p. 853), dealing with every form of race from the
100–yard dash to the Marathon run; HURDLE-RACING (Vol. 13, p. 958);
JUMPING (Vol. 15, p. 533); POLE VAULTING (Vol. 21, p. 977);
WEIGHT-THROWING (Vol. 28, p. 494); PUTTING THE SHOT (Vol. 22, p. 672);
HAMMER THROWING (Vol. 12, p. 899); CABER-TOSSING (Vol. 4, p. 917);
DISCUS (Vol. 8, p. 312); and TUG-OF-WAR (Vol. 27, p. 365).
[Sidenote: Hunting]
The reader interested in hunting will turn first to the articles on
sporting weapons. GUN (Vol. 12, p. 717), by Sir Henry Seton Karr, one of
the world’s most famous big game shots, describes the modern shot gun in
great detail, with full particulars as to barrels, locks and ejectors.
RIFLE (Vol. 23, p. 325) of course includes full descriptions of the
military rifles of all armies, and the sections on sporting rifles and
target rifles (p. 334) are by the contributor of the article on shot
guns just mentioned. PISTOL (Vol. 21, p. 654) gives a full account of
the modern automatic pistol, with diagrams showing the mechanism of the
Mauser and Colt types. A useful table shows the length-over-all,
barrel-length, weight and composition of cartridges, of the eleven
standard types of Colt and Smith & Wesson revolvers. AMMUNITION (Vol. 1,
p. 864) deals with the cartridges used for guns, rifles and pistols. The
“propellants” employed are discussed in GUNPOWDER (Vol. 12, p. 723), by
Prof. Hodgkinson; EXPLOSIVES (Vol. 10, p. 81); and CORDITE (Vol. 7, p.
139). SHOOTING (Vol. 24, p. 995), by Percy Stephens, deals with the
pursuit of birds, ground game and big game in all parts of the world.
Among the varieties of American big game mentioned are the huge
grizzlies of Alaska, the wapiti, moose, caribou, antelope, big horn and
puma or mountain lion. The section on the hunter’s personal equipment
contains excellent practical hints as to outfit. Among other articles of
interest in this connection are BIRD (Vol. 3, p. 959), by Prof. Hans
Gadow; RABBIT (Vol. 22, p. 767), by Sir William Flower and Richard
Lyddeker; DEER (Vol. 7, p. 923); ANTELOPE (Vol. 2, p. 89); ELK (Vol. 9,
p. 290); BEAR (Vol. 3, p. 573); PUMA (Vol. 22, p. 644); and CARNIVORA
(Vol. 5, p. 366). There is a separate article on PIGEON SHOOTING (Vol.
21, p. 597). On each species of African and Asiatic big game there is an
elaborate article. The dogs used in sports of all kinds are described in
the article DOG (Vol. 8, p. 374), by Walter Baxendale, kennel editor of
the London _Field_, and Prof. Chalmers Mitchell, with five full-page
plates.
Riding to hounds, including fox-hunting, stag-hunting, hare-hunting and
the drag hunt, is covered by the article HUNTING (Vol. 13, p. 946), by
A. E. T. Watson, editor of the _Badminton Library_. Other forms of the
chase are dealt with in COURSING (Vol. 7, p. 321) and FALCONRY (Vol. 19,
p. 141), by Lieut.-Col. Delmé Radcliffe.
[Sidenote: Fishing]
The key article on line fishing is ANGLING (Vol. 2, p. 21), in length
equivalent to 35 pages of this Guide. It begins with a most interesting
historical section, showing that, before the days of the earliest hooks,
the cave-men used on their lines a little flake of flint or strip of
stone, fixed in the bait, with a groove in the middle of it, around
which the line was so fastened that when the pull came the instrument
turned crossways in the fish’s stomach and could not be disgorged. A
delightful section on angling literature follows this historical matter;
and then comes treatment of fresh water fishing, with fly-casting and
the use of surface baits; live-baiting and spinning; and bottom-fishing;
each of the three fully treated. A detailed study is then made of the
habits of the salmon and of the tackle and methods devised for his
beguiling. Trout, muskelunge, bass, perch and roach are successively
discussed; and then comes the section on sea-angling, the tarpon, tuna,
jewfish and the giant black bass. The article ends with a complete
bibliography of the subject. There are 96 articles on individual fish,
all listed on p. 891 of Vol. 29, if the reader desires to refresh his
memory as to the varieties. FISHERIES (Vol. 10, p. 429), by Prof.
Garstang and Prof. Chalmers Mitchell is concerned with the industry
rather than with sport, but it contains much information about sea fish
which will be of use to the sea-angler.
[Sidenote: Taxidermy]
A thoroughly practical article is TAXIDERMY (Vol. 26, p. 464), by
Montague Browne, author of a manual of the art. His book and Dr. W. T.
Hornaday’s _Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting_ are the most important
special books on the subject, and Mr. Browne in this article constantly
refers to the improved methods introduced by Hornaday and other
Americans. He points out the dangers of using arsenical soap and gives
the formula for the substitute, quite safe except when hot, which he
himself invented. Minute directions are given for skinning, mounting,
etc. And the article also treats of the advantages of modelling as
compared with the old method of “stuffing”; and the placing of specimens
in natural surroundings, with panoramic back-grounds, top- and
side-lighting, etc.
[Sidenote: Sailing and Boating]
On sailing, boating and kindred subjects the reader should first consult
the article YACHTING (Vol. 28, p. 890), equivalent to 26 pages of this
Guide, by B. Heckstall-Smith, yachting editor the _Field_, and secretary
of the Yacht Racing Association and of the International Yacht Racing
Union. The historical part of this article traces yachting in England
back to the state-barges of the Anglo-Saxon kings and through the
pleasure ship of Elizabeth (1588), which was built at Cowes in the Isle
of Wight, so that this place has been associated with the sport for more
than three centuries. Charles II in 1660 received the present of a yacht
from the Dutch, and at this time the Dutch word “yacht” first found its
way into the English language. Yachting clubs date from the
establishment in 1720 of the Cork Harbour Water Club, now the Royal Cork
Yacht Club. At Cowes races were sailed as early as 1780 and a yacht club
was organized there in 1812. The first yacht club in the United States
was formed in 1844 and the first race in the United States was at New
York in 1846 to Sandy Hook light-ship and back. The first important
alteration in type was in 1848 when the “Mosquito” was built—a 50–ton
vessel, 59 ft. 2 in. at water line, 15 ft. 3 in. beam, with a long
hollow bow and a short and rather full after-body. The first races in
the United States resulted in the building of the “America,” which in
1851 crossed the ocean and won a race round the Isle of Wight, bringing
back to the New York Yacht Club the “America’s” cup. The later races for
this cup are described in detail at the close of the article, with
elaborate tables showing the exact tonnage or sailing length of
competing yachts, dates of races, time allowance, elapsed time,
corrected time, and margin by which each race was won. The article
describes 1870–1880 as the first great era of yachting. Changes in the
method of reckoning length, introduced in 1879, resulted in the “lead
mine” or plank-on-edge type. In 1887 the system of tonnage measurement
was introduced and a method of rating by water-line length and sail
area—and this “crushed the plank-on-edge type completely. There was not
another boat of the kind built.” The era of big cutters followed—in
America notably the Herreshoff boats. The success of the bulb keels in
the small classes threatened the use of “skimming dishes” in the larger
classes—and a consequent lack of head room and cabin accommodation. New
linear rating rules were therefore adopted—one in 1896 and another in
1901, followed in 1904 by international rating rules. The English types
of Fife and Nicholson were succeeded by such boats from the Krupp yard
at Kiel as the “Meteor” and “Germania.” See also the article MODEL
YACHTING (Vol. 18, p. 640).
Other articles on the subject of boating are CANOE (Vol. 5, p. 189);
MACGREGOR, JOHN (Vol. 17, p. 232) (for the famous “Rob Roy”); CATAMARAN
(Vol. 5, p. 502); and ROWING (Vol. 23, p. 783), by Charles Murray
Pitman, formerly stroke of the Oxford University eight, with a special
treatment of rowing in the United States and a comparison of English and
American “styles.” The articles SWIMMING (Vol. 26, p. 231) by William
Henry, author of _Swimming_ in the Badminton Library, and DROWNING AND
LIFE SAVING (Vol. 8, p. 592) are of practical value.
[Sidenote: Mountaineering]
The article MOUNTAINEERING (Vol. 18, p. 937) is by Sir W. Martin Conway,
famous for his ascent to a height of 23,000 feet in the Kara Koram
Himalayas, for the High Level route through the Alps which he
originated, and for his climbs in Spitsbergen. It contains paragraphs on
the dangers from falling rocks, falling ice, snow avalanches, falls from
rocks, ice slopes, crevasses, and weather; and an outline of history of
the sport, which has been systematically pursued only since 1854.
GLACIER (Vol. 12, p. 60), by E. C. Spicer is another article of great
interest to those who love climbing. Among the articles on individual
mountains and on the great ranges, the first place must be given to the
scene of the classic exploits of the early mountaineers. The relevant
part of the article ALPS (Vol. 1, p. 737) is by W. A. B. Coolidge who,
although an American by birth, is more at home in the Alps than any
other living writer. This magnificent article, which would fill nearly
40 pages of this Guide, contains a table giving the heights of no less
than 1,317 separate peaks and passes, and also a consecutive narrative
of Alpine exploration. HIMALAYA (Vol. 13, p. 470) is by Sir Thomas H.
Holdich, superintendent of Frontier Surveys in India. The best
mountaineering section of the Rockies is described in a section of the
article CANADA (Vol. 4, p. 145). ANDES (Vol. 1, p. 960) describes the
peaks of the Southern Cordillera. Full articles on the mountaineering
sections of our own country, such as the Appalachians, the Adirondacks,
the Catskills and White Mountains will be found under the obvious
titles.
[Sidenote: Winter Sports]
SKATING (Vol. 25, p. 166) deals with both speed skating and figure
skating, and tells of the exploits at Newburgh, N. Y., of Charles June
and of the famous Donoghue family. A table of amateur records is also
given. Ice hockey is treated in a section of the article HOCKEY (Vol.
13, p. 554). CURLING (Vol. 7, p. 645) describes the “rink” and stones,
as well as the game, and contains a glossary of technical terms. ICE
YACHTING (Vol. 14, p. 241) explains the mechanical paradox which makes
it possible for a boat propelled by the wind to move faster than the
wind is blowing. Ski-running and jumping, with the new development of
military skiing in France and Italy, are described in SKI (Vol. 25, p.
186); and it will surprise many readers to learn that a clear jump of
more than 130 feet has been made. Other articles dealing with winter
sports are SNOWSHOES (Vol. 22, p. 296), COASTING (Vol. 6, p. 603) and
TOBOGGANING (Vol. 26, p. 1042).
[Sidenote: Driving, Riding and Polo]
For information in regard to sports connected with the horse the reader
should first study the article HORSE and particularly that part which
concerns the history of horse breeding (pp 717–723 of Vol. 13), written
by E. D. Brickwood, an English authority on sport, and the sections on
“breeds of horses” by the late William Fream, agricultural correspondent
of the London _Times_, and Prof. Robert Wallace, of Edinburgh
University, who also wrote the section on management.
HORSE-RACING (Vol. 13, p. 726) contains a section on racing in the
United States, including the development of trotting races and the
stress put upon time records, pacing races, racing centres, the
predominance of dirt-tracks as contrasted with the turf courses of
England; a section on the history of English racing, including the
institution of the St. Leger, the Derby, the Oaks, the Ascot races, the
Goodwood, Two Thousand Guineas, etc., present conditions, including
classic races, handicaps, with scale of weight for age, the £10,000
races, the two-year-old races, Newmarket, Ascot and other meetings,
value of horses, trainers and jockeys, foreign horses, time, the Jockey
Club and steeple-chasing, the Grand National; a section on racing in
Australia; a section on racing in France, where, as in England, American
owners and jockeys have for some years past been much to the front; and
also a mention of the chief meetings in other European countries and in
Australia. HORSEMANSHIP (Vol. 13, p. 726) is chiefly concerned with
exhibition riding. DRIVING (Vol. 8, p. 585), by R. J. McNeill, discusses
the intricacies of tandem and four-in-hand coachmanship, and contains a
section on the use of the whip. The importance of acquiring a light
hand, and the extent to which this depends on the proper use of the
three joints in the arm, are clearly explained. COACH (Vol. 6, p. 574)
tells about the amateur road coach and the four-in-hand clubs in America
and elsewhere. The coaching horn or “post-horn,” as it used to be
called, is treated under HORN (Vol. 13, p. 697) by Kathleen Schlesinger,
the great authority on musical instruments. CARRIAGE (Vol. 5, p. 401),
by J. A. McNaught, notes that, although the buggy and rockaway are the
characteristic pleasure vehicles of this country, the heavier dog-cart
and ralli-cart are much used with horses of a certain type.
The article POLO (Vol. 22, p. 11), by Thomas F. Dale, steward of the
Polo and Riding Pony Society, describes the twelve varieties of the game
played during its existence of at least 2,000 years. The three modern
forms are the Indian, the English and the American, the game in England
dating from 1869 when it was introduced from India by the 10th
Hussars—and more definitely from 1873 when it was adopted by the
Hurlingham Club. The rules of the game are given, and its development is
traced, and there is a section on the polo pony and the much discussed
systems of measurement.
[Sidenote: Gardening]
Out-door recreation in the garden may be fully studied in the article
HORTICULTURE (Vol. 13, p. 741), which is a book in itself, for its
contents are the equivalent of about 140 pages of this Guide. It is
written by Liberty Hyde Bailey, director of the College of Agriculture,
Cornell University, who contributes a valuable gardeners’ calendar for
the United States, M. T. Masters, editor of _Gardeners’ Chronicle_, and
W. R. Williams, superintendent of the London County Council Botany
Centre, who write on “principles”; and John Weathers, author of
_Practical Guide to Garden Plants_, who writes on the “practice” of
gardening. The following is a partial list of the topics treated in this
article:
Roots, Root-Pruning and Lifting, Watering, Bottom-Heat; Stem; Leaves;
Buds; Propagation by Buds; Layering; Grafting or “Working”; Planting;
Pruning; Training; Sports or Bud Variations; Formation of Flowers;
Forcing; Retardation; Double Flowers; Formation of Seed,
Fertilization, Hybridization, Reversion, Germination, Selection—all to
be supplemented by the article BOTANY (Vol. 4, p. 299) for more
scientific and less practical discussion of these topics.
The Practice of Horticulture.
Formation and Preparation of the Garden—Site, Soil, Subsoil, Shelter,
Water Supply, Fence, Walks, Edgings.
Garden Structures—Walls, Espalier Rails and other means of training;
Plant Houses (with 12 illustrations), including Conservatory,
Greenhouse, Fruit House, Vinery, Peach House, Forcing House, Pits and
Frames, Mushroom House, Fruit Room, Heating Apparatus, Pipes, Boilers,
Water Supply, Solar Heat, Ventilation, etc.
Garden Materials and Appliances—Soil, Loam, Sand, Peat, Leaf Mould,
Composts. Manures, with descriptions and appraisals of different
varieties, organic and inorganic. Tools, Tallies and Labels.
Garden Operations—Propagation—by seeds, offsets, tubers, division,
suckers, runners, proliferous buds, grafts, with description and
diagrams of different methods—buds, branch cutting, leaf cutting, root
cutting, single-eye cutting, with 12 illustrations.
Planting and Transplanting; Watering; Pruning (with 9 illustrations);
Ringing; Training—horizontal, fan, trellis, etc.
Flowers—Flower Gardens, Pleasure Grounds, Lawns; Hardy Annuals, with
long list and description of plants recommended; Hardy Biennials, with
list; Herbaceous Perennials, with classified list (containing more
than the equivalent of 18 pages of this Guide); Hardy Trees; Bedding
Plants, etc.
Vegetables.
Calendar for the United States.
A list of other articles on special aspects of gardening will be found
in the chapter _For Farmers_.
INDOOR GAMES
For learning indoor games—excluding indoor athletic games which have
been listed above—the Britannica is particularly valuable, because of
its elaborate treatment by noted authorities and because the handy and
convenient form of the India paper volume makes an article on any indoor
game as easy to consult as a hand-book dealing with only one game.
For example, the article on BRIDGE (Vol. 4, p. 528) is by William Henry
Whitfeld, card-editor of _The Field_. The article is the equivalent of
15 pages in this Guide; and it describes both auction and ordinary
bridge, with paragraphs on advice to players, declarations, doubling,
redoubling, play of the hand, playing to the score; and other forms of
bridge,—three-handed bridge, dummy bridge, misery bridge, and draw or
two-handed bridge; and contains a list of authorities.
Even more elaborate, as befits the subject, is the article CHESS (Vol.
6, p. 93), equivalent to 45 pages of this Guide. It contains diagrams
showing the arrangement of pieces and the English and German methods of
notation and a vocabulary of terms of the game; it treats the
comparative value of the pieces—“pawn 1, bishop 3.25, knight 3.25, rook
5, queen 9.5. Three minor pieces may more often than not be
advantageously exchanged for the queen. The knight is generally stronger
than the bishop in the end of the game, but two bishops are usually
stronger than two knights, more especially in open positions.” English,
French and German modes of notation and names of pieces are given. The
treatment of chess problems is accompanied by eight typical problems
with diagrams and analyses. The section on the history of chess gives
not merely very interesting early material but a study critical and
biographical, of the great chess masters—for example: Ruy Lopez, the
first chess analyst Greco; Philidor, a great blindfold and simultaneous
player of the 18th century; Allgaier; Mahé de la Bourdonnais; the
English school of the 19th century, Sarratt, Lewis, Mac Donnell, Evans
(of the gambit), Staunton (on whom there is a separate article) and
Buckle, the historian of civilization; the Berlin “Pleiades” and the
Hungarians, Grimm, Szen and Löwenthal; Morphy, the American; and among
the great players of the last half century, Steinitz, Paulsen,
Blackburne, Zukertort, Horwitz, Mason, Teichman, Pillsbury, Lasker,
Mieses, Marshall, Tarrasch, Tchigorin, etc. The results of international
tournaments are given from 1851 on; and modern tournament play is
criticised. The article closes with an elaborate bibliography.
The article on DRAUGHTS or Checkers (Vol. 8, p. 547) is by J. M. M.
Dallas, late secretary of the Edinburgh Draughts Club, and Richard
Jordan, former draughts champion of the world, and gives the history of
the game, with a study of the different openings.
The usefulness of the Britannica for card games in general may be easily
tested. Let us turn for instance to the article POKER (Vol. 21, p. 899).
It is equivalent in its contents to seven or eight pages of this Guide,
and among other interesting features it contains a vocabulary of
technical terms, including “big dog”, “little dog”, “cold feet”,
“splitting”, and the following mathematical table of approximate
chances.
To improve any hand in the draw, the Britannica tells us, the chances
are:
┌──────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┬──────────────┐
│Having in Hand│To make the Hand below │The Chance is │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│1 pair │To get two pairs (3-card draw) │1 in 4 ½ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│1 pair │To get three of a kind (3-card draw) │1 in 9 │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│1 pair │To improve either way average value │1 in 3 │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│1 pair and 1 │To improve either way by drawing two │1 in 7 │
│ odd card │ cards │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│2 pairs │To get a full hand drawing one card │1 in 12 │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3’s │To get a full hand drawing two cards │1 in 15 ½ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3’s │To get four of kind drawing two cards │1 in 23 ½ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3’s │To improve either way drawing two cards│1 in 9 ⅖ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3’s and 1 odd │To get a full hand by drawing one card │1 in 15 ⅓ │
│ card │ │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3’s and 1 odd │To improve either way by drawing one │1 in 11 ¾ │
│ card │ card │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│4 straight │To fill when open at one end only or in│1 in 11 ¾ │
│ │ the middle as 3 4 6 7, or A 2 3 4 │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│4 straight │To fill when open at both ends as 3 4 5│1 in 6 │
│ │ 6 │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│4 flush │To fill the flush drawing one card │1 in 5 │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│4-straight │To fill the straight flush drawing one │1 in 23 ½ │
│ flush │ card │ │
├──────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┼──────────────┤
│3-card flush │To make a flush drawing two cards │1 in 24 │
└──────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┴──────────────┘
Among indoor games and kindred topics, each in a separate article, in
the Britannica, are:
Ace
Acrostic
All-Fours
Ambigu
Boston
Bouillotte
Brag
Bridge
Calabresella
Cards, Playing
Casino
Catch the Ten
Charades
Checkers
Chess
Children’s Games
Commerce
Conjuring
Consolation
Conundrum
Crambo
Cribbage
Deuce
Dice
Doll
Dominoes
Draughts
Ecarté
Euchre
Fantan
Faro
Fast and Loose
Gaming and Wagering
Go, or Go-bang
Goose
Halma
Hazard
Hearts
Hoyle
Jones, Henry (“Cavendish”)
Juggler
Knucklebones
La Grâce
Legerdemain
Loo
Lotto
Matrimony
Mora
Napoleon
Nine Men’s Morris
Old Maid
Ombre
Pachisi
Patience
Petits-Chevaux
Ping-Pong
Pinochle
Piquet
Poker
Pope Joan
Prestidigitation
Primero
Puzzle
Raffle
Rebus
Riddles
Roulette
Salta
Shio-ghi
Skat
Snip Snap Snorem
Solitaire
Solo Whist
Speculation
Spelling Bee
Spillikins
Spoil-Five
Top
Toy
Trent et Quarante
Ventriloquism
Vingt-et-Un
Vint
Whist
[Sidenote: Needlework, etc.]
Needlework as treated in the Britannica has one element of peculiar
value and novelty. In this department, as throughout the book, the
illustrations have been chosen upon a principle unusual in works of
reference: they really illustrate; they throw light on the text; they
are not mere pretty pictures intended to catch the eye and inserted in
the book haphazard. Turn for instance to the article LACE (Vol. 16, p.
37). Among its 61 illustrations are not only small diagrams explaining
different stitches and meshes and patterns and larger halftone
illustrations of “Bone Lace” “Reticella Needlepoint”, “Gros Point de
Venise”, “Point de Flandres à Brides” “Point de Venise à Brides
Picotées,” “Réseau Rosacé,” etc., but there are reproductions of
portraits of the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, showing not merely
patterns of lace but the method in which it was used and how it
“combined” and harmonized with styles of costume, and of hair dressing.
These “lace portraits” are: one from the Louvre, about 1540 of Catherine
de’ Medici, wearing a linen upturned collar of cut work and needlepoint
lace; one by Morcelse, about 1600, of Amelie Elisabeth, comtesse de
Hainault, wearing a ruff of needlepoint reticella lace; one, 1614, of
Mary, countess of Pembroke, wearing a coif and cuffs of reticella lace;
one by Le Nain, about 1628, of Henri II, duc de Montmorency, wearing a
falling lace collar; one by Riley, about 1685, of James II, wearing a
jabot and cuffs of raised needlepoint lace; one, about 1664, of Mme.
Verbiest, wearing pillow-made lace _à reseau_; one, about 1695, of
Princess Maria Teresa Stuart, wearing a flounce or tablier of delicate
needlepoint lace with small relief clusters; and one of de Vintimille,
about 1730, wearing needlepoint of the _Point de Venise à brides
picotées_. This article on Lace, equivalent in length to 60 pages of
this Guide, is by A. Summerly Cole, author of _Ancient Needle Point and
Pillow Lace_. EMBROIDERY (Vol. 9, p. 309) is by Mr. Cole and A. F.
Kendrick, keeper of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington;
and is illustrated with 18 figures showing many styles of early
embroidery. There are also articles on Tapestry, Needlework, Knitting,
Yarn, etc.
[Sidenote: Dancing, the Stage, etc.]
On dancing and the stage there is much of interest in the Britannica.
The article on the DANCE (Vol. 7, p. 794) distinguishes dancing as an
expression of emotion, whether social joy or religious exultation;
dancing for pleasure to the dancer or the spectator; and mimetic
dancing, “to represent the actions or passions of other people.” A
section on primitive and ancient dancing describes various early dances,
many of them not unlike the “trots” and “hugs” so notorious during the
last few years. At an Aztec feast, “called Huitzilopochtli, the noblemen
and women danced tied together at the hands, and embracing one another,
the arms being thrown over the neck.” Primitive imitative dances, the
attitude of the ancient Romans towards the dance, religious dances and
the attacks on the dance of such Puritan sects as the Albigenses and
Waldenses close the section on ancient dancing.
“Modern dancing” describes the branle (or brawl), the pavane, saraband,
minuet, gavotte, écossaise, cotillon, galop, lancers, schottische,
bourrée, waltz, fandango, bolero, jota, Morris dances, hornpipe, and
other English dances of the 17th and 18th centuries. In treating of
present-day dancing the article deals especially with the waltz,
quadrille, country-dance, lancers, polka, galop, Washington Post and
other American barn-dances, polka-mazurka, Polonaise, Schottische and
Sir Roger de Coverley. And it discusses ballet dancing (on which there
is also a separate article) and musical gymnastics. There are separate
articles on the following dances: ALLEMANDE, BERGAMASK, CHACONNE,
CHASSE, COURANTE, GAVOTTE, JIG, MAZURKA, MORRIS DANCE, PASSACAGLIA,
PAVANE, POLKA, POLONAISE, QUADRILLE, SARABAND, SCHOTTISCHE.
For a sufficient knowledge of the theatre and the drama to heighten his
enjoyment of a play, the theatre-goer should read up the subject, the
period and the author in the Britannica. For a more serious and thorough
study of opera, music in general and the drama as a literary form, he
may turn to special chapters of this Guide.
TRAVEL AT HOME AND ABROAD
If the traveler would make the most of his vacation journeys—as has
already been suggested—he should “read up” in the Britannica, even if he
does not wish to make a systematic study of the literature, art,
architecture, music, etc., of the country he is to visit. If he does
wish to pursue systematic study he can use the Britannica to better
advantage than a whole library of books of travel or special treatises.
The Britannica has often and successfully been used in this way. A
single instance: The Rev. Dr. George R. Van DeWater of St. Andrews
Church, New York City, in a letter addressed to the publishers of the
new Britannica, wrote:
“I have recently had occasion to look up South America with a view to
obtaining needed information for a proposed tour there, and I found all
that I wanted to know and found it readily.”
Among the general classes of valuable information for the traveler are:
The excellent maps, newly made with the greatest care from the best
sources;
Articles on the great countries of the world. Particularly valuable
sections are those at the beginning of each of these articles on
physiography, climate, etc., and those on transportation by rail and
water;
Articles on the states of the Union, similarly arranged, and like them
accompanied by maps and with full descriptions of the surface of the
country and the means of communication, climate, etc.;
Articles on regions, rivers, mountains, etc.,—for instance on the
RIVIERA, ALPS, NILE, RHINE, HUDSON, YOSEMITE, YELLOWSTONE.
Articles on cities and towns, with descriptions of the principal places
of interest, historical sketches, diagrams of battle-fields, etc.;
General articles such as ARCHITECTURE, PAINTING, MUSEUMS, which give
critical and related accounts of great art treasures of different
periods and schools. To this information, as bearing on the particular
place the traveler intends to visit, he will be guided by the Index;
Biographical articles related to the special vicinity to be visited—as
for instance, WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE and DEQUINCEY for the Lake District.
This survey, already too long for the limited space of this Guide, yet
far too brief to represent properly the aspect of the Britannica with
which it deals, will have accomplished its purpose if it induces the
possessor of the volumes to go to them when he needs relaxation.
Articles of the kind described in this chapter, showing you how to make
the most of leisure hours, are doubly serviceable, giving pleasure while
they are being read, and again when their suggestions are carried into
effect.
But it is not only in the articles dealing with recreation that
Britannica reading insures future as well as present enjoyment. Lafcadio
Hearn said it was worth while to visit Japan if only because what one
sees there makes one’s dreams more beautiful all through later life. And
so the fascination of history, of science, of biography, does not end,
but only begins, with the reading which opens for you a gate leading
into fresh fields. What you read this coming year, in any department of
the Britannica, will be still, ten years from now, a source of pleasure,
for knowledge, once acquired, brings continually renewed delight.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.
● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
● Enclosed bold font in =equals=.