صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed]
[ocr errors]

Bear-baiting

and extremely long, protrusile tongue. It is shaggy and black, with a yellowish chevronlike mark on the breast, and although it feeds almost wholly on insects (mainly ants and the nests and honey stores of bees) is one of the most savage and formidable of its

race.

In general habits bears (excepting the white polar species) are much alike. Most of them are adepts at climbing, and owing to the mobile plantigrade hind limbs, which are fonger than the fore limbs, are capable of standing upright and using the fore limbs as hands in obtaining and holding food, as weapons in fighting, etc., with great cleverness and strength. Yet the popular notion that they try to overcome antagonists by hugging them to death is erroneous; seizing and biting with the teeth is the natural and most effective method of fighting.

Though all bears live to some extent, on vegetable food, all are predatory, digging out the small burrowing mammals, striking down wild game, and the smaller kinds of farm stock, as calves, pigs and colts, and catching fish in the spring.

Bears of northern regions pass the winter in a hibernating sleep, the profundity and continuance of which varies with the species and the weather. The females are more regular and retiring in this respect than the males, for it is during this winter retreat that the cubs, usually two, are born.

This formidable animal, a nocturnal prowler in dark forests and calling for the greatest prowess in its conqueror, naturally appealed to the imaginations of primitive peoples, and has figured largely since prehistoric times in Old World fables and folk-lore, where it has been given the character of a sort of good-natured demon of fearful strength and uncertain temper, but easily cajoled. It also takes a prominent place in the myths and theology of our Indians, becoming a clan totem in almost every tribe.

For the American bears see Hornaday's American Natural History (1904), Ingersoll's Life of Animals: the Mammals (1906), and such general works as those of Audubon, Merriam, the Standard Natural History, etc.; for those of the Old World see the Royal Natural History (1893), Baker's Wild Beasts and their Ways (1898), and the writings of other sportsmen and naturalists.

Bear (CONSTELLATION). URSA.

See

Bear-baiting. The baiting of bears with dogs was a favorite sport of the Romans, who im

631

ported bears from Britain, Syria, and elsewhere for the purpose; and until recent times it was common all over Europe. It existed in England as early as the 12th century, and was, in the reign of Elizabeth, a popular and fashionable amusement. A noted centre in London was Paris Gardens, on the Bankside in Southwark. In the 17th century it was repressed by the Puritans, and was finally prohibited by law in 1835.

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos), a genus of the heath order (Ericaceae), found chiefly in America. A. uva-ursi is common in sandy

Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uvaursi).

Stamen, section of ovary, and cluster of fruit.

soils: its small, leathery, dark green, obovate leaves are evergreen; the plant has a low, dense, trailing habit; the flowers are pink, or white, and appear in May; the fruit is red, about the size of a huckleberry. In some regions it is eaten by bears and game birds. Its foliage is a favorite material for smoking tobacco among the American Indians, being widely known as kinnikinnik. Even after the introduction of Nicotiana, the bearberry leaves were often mixed with the new kind of tobacco.

Beard. See HAIR.

Beard, GEORGE MILLER (183983), American physician, born in Montville, Conn., and graduated (1862) at Yale. He was assistant surgeon (1863-4) in the navy during the Civil War; on its conclusion he began (1866) practice in New York, and devoted himself especially to nervous diseases, on which (1868) he was appointed lecturer at the University of New York. He was one of the first to make use of electricity as a tonic in nervous diseases and in the treatment of diseases of the skin. He also gave much attention to animal magnetism and kindred manifestations. His works treat of American Nervousness (1881), The Study of Trance (1882), and Nervous Exhaustion (1890).

Beard, JAMES HENRY (181493), American painter, was born in Buffalo, N. Y., and was taken as a

Beardslee

child to Ohio, where, at Cincinnati, he was engaged in portrait painting for many years. He exhibited his California Emigrants at the National Academy in 1846, and was given honorary membership (1848). He removed to New York, 1870, and became full member of Academy, 1872. His later work was principally animal painting. Some pieces are Peep at Growing Danger (1871), Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (1878), and Detected Poachers (1884).

Beard, RICHARD (1799-1880), American educator, was born in Sumner co., Tenn., and graduated (1832) at Cumberland University, Tenn., at which he was professor of languages, 1832-8, and president,, 1843-54. He resigned in the latter year to take the professorship of systematic theology in the newly-founded theological school at Lebanon, Tenn., of which he was practically the head for twenty-five years. Author of Systematic Theology (1870) and Why Am I a Cumberland Presbyterian? (1874).

Beard, THOMAS FRANCIS ('Frank') (1842-1905), Amer. artist, son of James Henry Beard, born in Cincinnati, O., and was a special artist for Harper & Brothers during the Civil War. He afterward devoted himself to illustrating and lecturing, being the originator of the well-known 'Chalk Talks.' He was for a time professor of æsthetics at Syracuse University, and lectured for many years at Chautauqua. Author of The Blackboard in the Sunday School (1880).

Beard, WILLIAM HOLBROOK (1825-1900), American painter, brother of James Henry Beard, was born in Painesville, O., and studied portrait painting. After continuing his studies in Europe, he established himself in New York (1860) and became a member of the National Academy, 1862. His humorous and human-like animal pictures were familiar to New Yorkers for many years. His Humor in Animals, sketches, was published in 1885. Movement; or, Action in Art appeared in 1900.

Beard Moss, a lichen (Usnea barbata) which hangs like tangled tresses of hair from the branches of trees in various countries of the temperate regions.

Beardslee, LESTER ANTHONY (1836-1903), American naval officer, born at Little Falls, N. Y. He became a midshipman in the U. S. navy in 1850; accompanied Com. M. C. Perry on his famous Japan expedition of 1853; graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy (1856), and during the Civil War, as lieutenant-commander (1862), took part in the attacks on the forts in Charleston harbor (S. C.), and served on the steam-sloop Wachu

[graphic]

Beardsley

sett when that vessel captured the Confederate steam-sloop Florida (Oct. 7, 1864), in the harbor of Bahia, Brazil. In 1879-80 he commanded the Jamestown in Alaskan waters, discovering and naming Glacier Bay; in 1895 he became a rear-admiral; in 1894-7 commanded the U. S. Pacific Squadron, and in 1898 retired from active service.

Beardsley, AUBREY VINCENT, (1872-98), English artist, was born in 1872 at Brighton. His drawings in black and white for the Pall Mall Magazine and the Pall Mall Budget first attracted public attention. His illustrations in Messrs. Dent's edition of La Morte d'Arthur, published 1893, may be said to have given him a definite reputation. When the Yellow Book was started in 1894, he was appointed art editor, and was next associated with Arthur Symons in the production of the short-lived Savoy. Illustrations, or decorative designs, for Oscar Wilde's Salome, for The Rape of the Lock, for Mademoiselle de Maupin, and for Pierrot of the Minute, followed; and when Beardsley died from consumption, at Mentone, he had just completed a series of initials for an edition of Volpone. His work had much influence on contemporary art in general.

Beardsley, EBEN EDWARDS (1808-91), American clergyman, was born at Stepney, Conn., and graduated at Trinity. He was ordained, 1835, and was rector of St. Peter's Church and rector and principal of Cheshire Episcopal Academy at Cheshire, Conn., until he became rector of St. Thomas's Church, New Haven, in 1848. He wrote History of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut (1865).

Beardstown, city, Cass co., Ill., on the Illinois R., and on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy and the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern R. Rs., 46 m. from Springfield. It was settled in 1832. There are car-shops, cooperage works, ice-packing, and a large output of beer, lumber, and flour. Pop. (1910) 6,107. Bear Flag War. See FREMONT, JOHN CHARLES.

Bearing. To builders the bearing of a piece of timber means the unsupported part between two fixed extremities or supports, which are likewise called bearings. The term is also applied to the distance or length of the beam beyond the line or face of support, or extent of the beam surface which actually lies on, or is supported by, the wall, which latter becomes then the 'bearing wall' or 'partition.' The sup ported wall, if built in the same direction, is said to have a 'solid bearing'; if built in a transverse

632

direction, as in the case of sills, a 'false bearing,' or as many false bearings as there are intervals below the wall or partition. In applied mechanics a bearing is the support of a moving part of a machine. Bearings have a double part to play: they not only furnish a support, but permit the part of the machine supported to perform the motion or motions required of it. Such motions are either turning or sliding. To reduce frictional losses, and to prevent the destruction of the moving surfaces, special forms of bearings have been designed. (See FRICTION; BALL BEARINGS.) In nautical language, bearing connotes the position of any object with regard to the observer's ship as determined by compass, while in surveying the direction of a given line with respect to the meridian or other determined line is also known by this term.

Bear Lake, GREAT, lake. GREAT BEAR LAKE.

See

Bear Lake, lake in Rich co., Utah, extending into Idaho, 20 m. long, by 7 m. in width, noted for its beauty.

Bear River of the western U. S., trib. of Great Salt Lake; rises on the northern slope of the Uinta Mts. in Utah, flows through parts of Wyoming and Idaho, discharging into Great Salt Lake, Utah. Its course of c. 450 m. is extremely circuitous, and it is not navigable. It runs through a region of mineral springs.

Bear's Breech. See ACANTHUS. Bear's Foot. See HELLEbore. Beas (the Hyphasis of the Greeks; Sans. Vipasa), one of the five rivers of the Punjab, rises in the Himalaya Mts., and after a course of 290 m. joins the Sutlej, 35 m. s.E. of Amritsar.

Beat, in music. (1.) A name formerly given to certain graces or ornaments. (2.) The wavy effect produced when two notes, which are nearly but not quite in unison, are sounded simultaneously. Beatenberg, St. See ST. BEATENBERG.

Beath (Gael. 'birch tree'), part of S.W. Fifeshire, Scotland; contains the mining villages of Hill of Beath, Cowdenbeath, Kelty (part of), Oakfield, and Lassodie. Area of par. 6,343 ac. Coal is extensively worked. Pop. (1901) 15,812.

Beaton, DAVID, CARDINAL(14941546), primate of Scotland. At the University of Paris he became intimate with the Scottish regent, the Duke of Albany, who in 1519 appointed him resident for Scotland at the French court. In 1525 Beaton became abbot of Arbroath; in 1528, lord privy seal; in 1538 he was created a cardinal; and in 1539 he succeeded his uncle, James Beaton, as arch

Beattle

On the

bishop of St. Andrews. death of James v., in 1542, he sought to seize the infant queen of Scots, and to obtain the regency by means of a forged will; but the scheme failed, and he was arrested and imprisoned. After his release, he became, in 1543, chancellor of Scotland. He now persecuted the Protestants with great cruelty and rigor. Among his victims was the famous preacher George Wishart. His rule became intolerable, a conspiracy was formed against him, and he was assassinated at St. Andrews on May 29, 1546. See Burton's Hist. of Scot.; Knox's Hist.; the Icono graphia Scotica; G. Cook's Hist. of the Reformation in Scot. (2nd ed. 1819); Tytler's Original Letters (1839); and Cardinal Beaton, Priest and Politician, by John Herkless (1891).

Beatrice, city, co. seat of Gage co., Neb., on the Big Blue R., and on the Burlington and Missouri River, the Union Pacific, and the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific R. Rs. It was settled in 1859 and has large manufactures of flour, bricks, and jack-screws. The State Institute for Feeble-Minded Youth is located here, and there is a public library. Pop.(1910)9,356.

It

Beatrice, the angelic woman who was the heroine of Dante's Vita Nuova, of his Divina Commedia, and of his whole life. has been supposed by some that she was a purely symbolic figure; but it is now certain that the ob ject of his adoration was an actual Beatrice, a Florentine lady, daughter of one Folco Portinari, who became the wife of a certain Simone de' Bardi. After her untimely death in 1290, Dante married (1291) Gemma de' Donati.

Beatrice, PRINCESS. See BATTENBERG, PRINCESS HENRY OF.

Beattie, JAMES (1735-1803), Scottish poet and miscellaneous writer, born at Laurencekirk, Kincardine; died at Aberdeen, where he was (1760) professor of moral philosophy in Marischal College. He published a volume of miscel laneous poems in 1761, and in 1765 a poem, The Judgment of Paris. His once celebrated Essay on Truth (1770), for which he received a pension of £200 a year from George III., was a refutation of Hume's scepticism; but its main contents had been anticipated by Reid's Inquiry (1764). In 1771 he published the first book of The Minstrel, or the Progress of Genius, the work on which his fame rests; the second book ap peared in 1774. Written in the Spenserian stanza, it abounds in beautiful descriptive passages, and is notable for the harmony of its versification. Among his other works were a Dissertation on Poetry and Music (1776), Evi

Beauchamp

dences of the Christian Religion (1786), and Elements of Moral Science (1790-93). See his Life by Sir W. Forbes (1806), and the ed. of his poems by Alex. Dyce for the Aldine Ser. (1866).

DE

Beauchamp, ALPHONSE (1767-1832), French historian, was born at Monaco, and died in Paris. At seventeen years of age he took service with the king of Sardinia; but in 1792 he refused to fight against France, and after a short imprisonment proceeded to Paris, where he obtained employment in the office of the Committee of Public Safety, and a little later in that of the minister of police. The publication of his Histoire de la Vendée et des Chouans in 1806 cost him his office and banishment to Rheims, from which he was recalled five years later. He also compiled numerous biographical sketches (e.g. Moreau in 1814, and Louis XVIII. in 1824).

In

Beauchamp, WILLIAM MARTIN (1830), American clergyman and ethnologist, has held charges at Northville, N. Y. (1863-5), Baldwinsville, N. Y. (1865-1900), and in 1886 became examining chaplain for Central New York. 1889 he surveyed the Iroquois territory in N. Y. and Canada, and has made an extensive study of the Iroquois tribes. Among his works are The Iroquois Trail (1892), Indian Names in New York (1893), Aboriginal Chipped Stone Implements of New York (1897), Aboriginal Occupation of New York (1900), and Bone and Horn Articles Used by the New York Indians (1902).

Beauclerk, TOPHAM (1739-80), great-grandson of Charles II. and Nell Gwynne. Bennet Langton introduced him to Johnson, and so began the friendship by which Beauclerk is chiefly remembered. See Boswell's Life of Johnson, and Birkbeck Hill's Dr. Johnson: his Friends and his Critics (1878).

Beaufort. (1.) Town and summer resort, N. Carolina, co. seat of Carteret co., situated on the S.E. coast, at the mouth of Newport R. and on the Atlantic and North Carolina R. R. It has a fine harbor, on the shore of which is Fort Macon, and is of considerable commercial importance, with a large output of fish-oil. Pop. (1910) 2,483. (2.) Town, S. Carolina, the co. seat of Beaufort co., situated in the s.E. part of the state, on the coast, near the mouth of the Beaufort R., and

on

the Charleston and West Carolina Ry. Its principal industry is exporting Sea Island' cotton, phosphate of lime, lumber, and rice. Pop. (1910) 2,486.

Beaufort, HENRY, CARDINAL (1377-1447), was the natural son (afterward legitimized) of John of Gaunt and Catherine Swynford. Educated at Oxford and

633

Aix-la-Chapelle, he was in 1398 appointed bishop of Lincoln, and translated to Winchester in 1405. Three times (1403-4, 1413,1424-6) he held the Great Seal of England. In 1426 he was created a cardinal

by Pope Martin v. He opposed the war tax on the clergy proposed by Henry v., but lent the king large sums out of his private purse. The failure of his crusade against the Hussites in Germany, and the diversion to other objects of moneys granted by Rome for specific purposes, brought him under papal displeasure. In 1444 he succeeded in making a truce between England and France. Beaufort died at Winchester in 1447, shortly after his great rival, the Duke of Gloucester, in whose death it was falsely said he had been implicated. Though ambitious and haughty, and not without avarice, he was a far-sighted and patriotic statesman. See Creighton's Hist. of the Papacy (new ed. 1897), Stubbs's Const. Hist. (1866), and the Chronicles of Monstrelet (1810).

Beauharnais, ALEXANDRE VICOMTE DE (1760-94), French general, father of the Marquis Beauharnais; born at Martinique; married, in 1779, Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie, afterward wife of Napoleon 1. After serving under Rochambeau in the Revolutionary War, he went to France, embraced republican principles, and was one of the first nobles to join the Third Estate. Beauharnais became secretary to the Assembly, and afterward to the military committee; and was president of the Assembly when Louis XVI. fled from the capital (June 21, 1791). In May, 1793, he succeeded Custine as general-inchief of the army of the Rhine. The decree for the exclusion of the nobility from military employment led to his retirement; and shortly afterward he was accused before the revolutionary tribunal of having contributed to the loss of Mayence, and was condemned and executed on the same day.

Beauharnais, EUGÈNE, MARQUIS DE (1781-1824), better known as Prince Eugène, the son of Alexandre Beauharnais and Josephine, afterward consort of Napoleon, was born at Paris. Entering the army, he accompanied Napoleon to Egypt, and became general of brigade in 1804, and in the following year received the title of prince, and was appointed viceroy of Italy. On Jan. 16, 1806, he married the Princess Royal of Bavaria, and immediately after was formally adopted by Bonaparte as his son. During the war with Austria, in 1809, he was commander-in-chief of the army of Italy, and shared in the honors of Wagram. In the later wars of

Beaumont

Napoleon he took a very active share, especially in the campaigns of 1812-13. Disappointed of the crown of Italy, he retired, after the downfall of Napoleon, to Bavaria, and died at Munich. See Baron Darnay, Notices Historiques sur......le Prince Eugène (1830); Du Casse, Mémoires et Correspondance du Prince Eugène (10 vols. 1858-60); Weil, Prince Eugène et Murat (1902).

PIERRE

Beaumarchais, AUGUSTIN CARON DE (1732-99), French dramatist and politician, was born in Paris. An acquaintance with the financier Duverney was the foundation of a large fortune, which his talent for business enabled him to amass. He was employed by the king on behalf of Madame du Barry, against whom a party was actively carrying on a pamphleteering warfare from England. Shortly after this he wrote the two comedies, Le Barbier de Seville and Le Mariage de Figaro, on which his fame mainly rests. The former was produced in 1775, the latter in 1784. He sent to America, during the Revolutionary War, a fleet bearing arms and ammunition to the colonists, and made himself poor during his later years in his efforts to get payment for these supplies from the U. S. Beaumarchais had, earlier in his career, written two sentimental plays, Eugénie (1768) and Les Deux Amis (1770), and subsequently wrote two other comedies, Tarare (1787) and La Mère Coupable (1792). During the French revolution, which his satirical writings had helped to bring about, his wealth and position made him the mark of much attack; and an accusation of treason to the republic caused him for some time to seek an asylum abroad. He wrote his experiences of this period under the title of Mes Six Epoques (1793). See his Collected Works (7 vols. 1809), and Beaumarchais et son Temps by Loménie (Eng. tr. by H. Edwards, 1856).

Beaumont, city, Texas, the co. seat of Jefferson co., on Neches R., near its mouth, and on the Texas and New Orleans, the Sabine and East Houston and the Gulf, Beaumont and Kansas City R. Rs. The lumber industry is of considerable importance here, and there is a great output of lumber and shingles, but the recent development of an enormously rich oil field in the neighborhood has driven all other industries into the background. Pop.(1910) 20,640.

a

Beaumont, FRANCIS (15841616), English dramatist, was son of Francis Beaumont, judge, and younger brother of Sir John Beaumont. From Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College), Oxford, he went (1600) to the

« السابقةمتابعة »