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Commissioners of Johnson County v. Thayer/Opinion of the Court

The recovery by Thayer and others of the amount of the coupons sued upon is challenged upon various grounds.

1. It is contended that no authority to subscribe for the bonds was conferred by the vote of Nov. 7, 1865, for the reason that no particular railroad was referred to in the vote on that occasion. The question was submitted to the voters of Johnson County, in the form of an inquiry, whether the commissioners should be authorized to subscribe capital stock to the amount of $100,000, to aid in the construction of a railroad commencing at or near the Union Depot, on the south side of and near the mouth of the Kansas River, and near Kansas City; thence to Olathe, Johnson County; thence, in a southerly direction, through said county to the southern boundary of the State of Kansas. Assuming that the road to which the subscription was made met the terms required, it is insisted that the question of subscribing to the particular railroad company by name should have been submitted to the electors, and that there must have been an actual location of the road before the election was held.

We had occasion to consider a question similar to the latter branch of this objection in County of Callaway v. Foster, 93 U.S. 567, and held that the objection was not a valid one.

In that case the statute authorized a subscription by any county 'in which any part of the route of said railroad may be.' The road was not built, located, nor organized. The court there intimated that, where this language was used in reference to a road which was yet to be built, it could be applied to any county in which the road might by law be located.

The road to which subscription was in this case made was, in fact, located in the county of Johnson, and the work upon it commenced before any of the bonds were executed or delivered,-was actually built through the county, and is now there operated. We think a previous location of the road was not required by the terms of the statute.

Was it necessary that the particular road to which a subscription was intended to be made should be described in the proposition submitted to the popular vote, or was the general language used in this case a compliance with the law? The following is the section of the act of Feb. 10, 1865, controlling the question:--

'SECT. 1. That the board of county commissioners of any county to, into, through, from, or near which, whether in this or any other State, any railroad is or may be located, may subscribe to the capital stocks of any such railroad corporation, in the name and for the benefit of such county, not exceeding in amount the sum of $300,000 in any one corporation, and may issue the bonds of such county, in such amounts as they may deem best, in payment for said stocks: Provided, that such bonds shall be issued only in payment of assessments made upon all the stocks of such railroad company, which bonds shall bear interest a a rate not exceeding seven per cent per annum, and shall be payable within thirty years. And the said board of commissioners shall elect one of their number, who shall not be a stockholder, to cast the vote of the county at any election for directors, or at any meeting of the stockholders of such company; and said board of commissioners shall annually levy and collect, at the same time and in the same manner that general taxes are levied and collected, a tax sufficient to pay the annual interest on such bonds, and to create a sinking fund for their redemption. But no such bonds shall be issued until the question shall be first submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of the county at some general election, or at some special election to be called by the board of county commissioners, by first giving twenty days' notice in some newspaper published and having general circulation in the county; or, in case there be no paper in the county, then by written or printed notices posted up in each election precinct; and, in submitting said question, said board of commissioners shall direct in what manner the ballots shall be cast. If a majority of the votes cast at such election shall be in favor of issuing such bonds, the board of commissioners of the county shall issue the same.'

This language, in relation to the road to which the subscription may be made, is as general as words can make it. The board of commissioners may subscribe to the capital stock of 'any railroad' which is or may be located in or near the county they represent, and may issue the bonds of the county in payment for said stocks. 'But no such bonds shall be issued until the question shall be first submitted to a vote of the qualified electors of the county.' In neither of these clauses is there a qualification that the particular road shall be named in the submission, or that any detail shall be set forth. The burden of bonds shall not be imposed upon the county except by the previous assent of a majority of the electors. When the burden is assumed by the electors, it is quite reasonable that it should be left to the county board to select the particular corporation in which the stock shall be taken. That trust can be there executed as wisely and judiciously as at a mass meeting of the voters.

The electors here voted to take stock in a corporation to aid in the construction of a road 'commencing at or near the Union Depot, on the south side of and near the mouth of the Kansas River, and near Kansas City; thence to Olathe, Johnson County; thence, in a southerly direction, through said county to the south boundary of the State of Kansas.'

We think this was a sufficiently specific statement to be submitted to the voters for their approval or disapproval.

We cannot, however, think that this is a vital point, even if there was a defect in this respect. The question of subscribing for the stock and issuing the bonds for a road from the mouth of Kansas River to the south boundary of the State was submitted to the electors of Johnson County. Notice was given for the time required by the statute, and a full and fair vote was taken, so far as we are informed. The approval of the electors by their vote, at a meeting called for that purpose, is the object of the statute. Defects, irregularities, or informalities, which do not affect the result of the vote, do not affect its validity. The defect we are considering, if it is a defect, does not go to the question of jurisdiction, and does not impair the validity of the bonds.

The case of Lewis v. Commissioners of Bourbon County, 12 Kan. 186, is cited on this point. In that case, four questions were passed upon by the Supreme Court of Kansas: First, Was the presentation of a petition, signed by one-fourth of the qualified voters, a condition precedent to the valid action of the commissioners? Second, Did the failure to name the corporation in the propositions submitted to the electors avoid the whole proceedings? Third, A majority of the votes of the electors having be n cast against the proposition to issue bonds, was the county board authorized to issue them? Fourth, Did the subsequent submission, and the proceedings thereon, confer the authority to issue the bonds?

The court held that the first objection was cured by the act of 1868. The second and the third objections were held to be fatal, and that the case was not relieved by the proceedings referred to in the fourth objection.

The court did, in its language, hold that the objection raised in the present case, to wit, that the name of the corporation was not inserted in the proposition for the popular vote, was fatal. Had this been the only or an indispensable part of the decision, we should have been called upon to inquire whether the decision was one of that class of State decisions upon its own statute that was binding upon us. The other question, however, existing and decided in that case, was, in its nature, so exclusive and so controlling that any thing said or professed to be decided beyond it does not require much consideration. The court held that, in the exercise of its general jurisdiction, it had the power to inquire into the number of votes actually cast for and against the proposed issue of bonds; and, upon making such inquiry, it found and determined that, in fact, a majority of the votes cast were cast against the proposition. Upon this point all the dicisions of this court, and, so far as we know, of all other courts, concur. If a majority of the electors cast their votes against the proposition to issue bonds, the entire foundation of the proceedings is gone. There is an absolute want of jurisdiction to proceed further in the matter, and an attempt to do so is void, as are all proceedings or issues based upon it. With this elemental failure existing in that case, other and further decisions tending to the same result are not to be regarded as authority.

The Gulf Railroad v. Commissioners of Miami County, 12 id. 234, is based upon the case above referred to, and follows it, without examination or discussion. It does not refer to the Curative Act of Feb. 25, 1868, which was held, in the Bourbon County case, not to be applicable to an election where a majority of votes was cast against the proposition, but which act, it was held, did relieve against the defect of the absence of the preliminary petition required by the statute. The court said that act was intended to sustain, and not to defeat, the will of the people. This principle would have justified its application in relief of the defect before it, if there was such defect; and its consideration might well have altered the result. Both of these decisions were made after the bonds in this suit had been issued, and the interest upon them regularly paid for a considerable time. The road had been built as promised, the county of Johnson and its people enjoyed the anticipated benefits, and we are of the opinion that we are not bound to follow a decision which releases them from all the corresponding obligations. To this effect are the decisions of this court, made in the years 1865, 1871, and 1872. Gelpcke et al. v. City of Dubuque, 1 Wall. 175; Bulls v. Muscatine, 9 id. 571; Olcott v. The Supervisors, 16 id. 678.

The Curative Act of February, 1868, was intended by the legislature of Kansas to reach cases like the present, and to cover both the bonds issued before, as well as those issued after, its passage. It is as follows:--

'SECTION 1. Whenever a majority of the persons voting at any election called by the board of county commissioners of any county have heretofore voted in favor of subscribing stock and issuing bonds to any railroad company or companies, the board of county commissioners of such county may subscribe to the capital stock of such railroad company or companies to the amount and on the conditions specified in the order of such boards of county commissioners in such cases, and pay such subscription, by issuing to each company bonds of such county at par, payable at a ime therein to be fixed, not exceeding thirty years from the date thereof, bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum, with interest coupons attached, whether such orders and elections, or either of them, have been in compliance with the statutes in such cases made and provided or not, or whether the proposition submitted at the election had was for the subscription of stock and the issuance of bonds to one or more railroad companies.'

'SECT. 4. The provisions of this act shall be applicable in all cases where the election was held upon the subscription of stock and the issuance of bonds prior to the twenty-first day of January, A.D. 1868.

In the language before quoted, this act was intended to aid, and not to destroy, the proceedings in subscribing for stock and issuing bonds. In this case, the election was held prior to the twenty-first day of January, 1868; and, although a portion of the bonds had been issued prior to the passage of the act, we are of the opinion that they are within its protection. It was intended to reach cases where the majority of the electors had voted in favor of issuing the bonds, 'whether such orders and elections, or either of them, have been in compliance with the statutes in such cases made and provided or not.'

It is contended, again, that, by an agreement made on the 19th of June, 1868, the stock of the county in the company was cancelled, and that, therefore, there was no consideration for the sale of the bonds.

By the agreement referred to, the county undertook to deliver to the road the $50,000 bonds, yet unissued, to sell and deliver its interest in the capital stock of the company, and in the mean time to cause its stock to be voted upon, as the company should direct, provided that the road should be built and completed to the southern boundary of Johnson County within eight months, and to the town of Olathe within five months, from date, the bonds to be issued, and placed in the hands of a depositary, to be delivered upon the performance of the agreement.

A completion of the road at an earlier period than was required (no time being specified in the original proposition), and at a probable increase of expense, seems to afford a good consideration for any lawful agreement on the part of the county. We fail to discern the force of this objection, or of the point connected with it, that the stock became thereby cancelled. The commissioners had authority to sell the stock, Compiled Laws of Kansas, 1862, 409; and, unless prohibited by law, an incorporation may become the holder of a portion of its own shares. City Bank v. Bruce, 17 N. Y. 507.

We do not regard the circumstance that the road was located and built a fraction of a mile distant from the town of Olathe as of any importance. It was a practical compliance with the requisition in that respect, and was accepted and received by the county as a satisfactory performance of the contract. The bonds were issued after the location, and the interest was paid from time to time without objection or complaint in that respect. It is too late now to set up an objection which is an evident afterthought.

It is contended, further, that there is no bona fide holding of these bonds, and that all defences may have their full effect in this case.

'The court below finds that the plaintiff Thayer had notice of all the facts and circumstances connected with the issue of these bonds by Johnson County, and of the agreement of June 19, 1868, and of the facts with regard to the assessment of the stock by the railroad company and of its non-payment, and of the issue of stock as a bonus to the purchasers of the bonds of the railroad company, and of the facts with regard to the completion of the road to the town of Olathe; but his co-trustees had no such notice, nor did the purchasers of the first mortgage bonds have such notice, except so far as they are charged with constructive notice by reason of the knowledge of Thayer, one of the trustees.'

It is a part of the case, that on the first day of January, 1869, the railroad company executed to Nathaniel Thayer, F. W. Palfrey, and George W. Weld, the plaintiffs in this suit, a deed of trust conveying a large quantity of lands, and transferring, among other things, its subscriptions from towns and counties, including that now in suit, to secure the payment of $5,000,000 of its negotiable bonds to be issued by the said company, as therein particularly described; that, before the coupons now sued upon had become payable, the railroad company had issued those bonds, which are now outstanding and unpaid to the full amount thereof.

The question then arises, whether notice to one of the trustees in this deed of trust is notice to the holders of the mortgage bonds in such manner that, in a suit by the trustees to enforce payment of the county bonds, the character of a bona fide holder without notice is lost.

In Curtis and Others v. Leavitt, 15 N. Y. 194, the court say: -

'If Graham, one of the trustees, was chargeable, as director of the company, with knowledge that there had been no previous resolution, notice to him was not notice to his cestuis que trust. He did not stand to them in the relation of an agent. He was selected and appointed as a trustee by the company, not by the cestuis que trust. His powers and duties were prescribed by the company, not by the bondholders. There were, at the time of the execution of the trustdeeds, no bondholders, no cestuis que trust. It is a necessary attribute of an agency that it should be created by the principal. . . . In this case, as the relation of principal and agent did not exist between the bondholders and Graham, notice to him, or knowledge by him, that there was no previous resolution, was not constructive notice to the bondholders.'

And, again, on the page following, it is said:--

'The trustees are not to be regarded as the agents of the purchasers of the bonds and mortgages assigned to them. No consideration proceeds from them. They were mere assignees of those securities, coupled with no interest, in trust to hold them as security for the payment of all the mortgage bonds that should thereafter be sold or negotiated by the company. . . . Whoever purchased the mortgage bonds became purchasers of the bonds and mortgages so assigned as security for their payment, or of an equitable right to hold them as such security.'

We think this is sound doctrine, and that it establishes the proposition that notice to Thayer did not operate to destroy the bona fide holding of the bondholders under the deed of trust in which he was named as one of the trustees.

We have noticed all of the objections which we deem of importance, and are of the opinion, upon the whole case, that the judgment should be affirmed; and it is

So ordered.


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Rh James' sister, was never quite sure that there was anything between him and Maggie, though she joked about it and chaffed Maggie sometimes. She didn't chaff James, because she was his sister, and he was too sulky and short-tempered. If Maggie knew, she kept it to herself. She kept James' secret, and her own if she had one. She was very quick and witty, and could turn off anything with a laugh and a joke. Perhaps it was because Mary was James' sister that she didn't see the truth. Sisters don't know everything, any more than mothers do, or wives for that matter.

But I had my own opinions—suspicions first, and then certainties. "Take notice," my father used to say, "take notice of little things": and I inherited the faculty from him, and took notice. Maybe, as I grew up, and in after life, I took more notice of little things than was good for my comfort or peace of mind—but that's got nothing to do with it. I took notice of James. I noticed that when I happened to ride up to the homestead at an odd hour of the day, when James ought to be out on the run, and saw his horse in the yard and him pottering round—patching up hurdles or doing something that ought to be done by one of the men in the cool of the evening—it was a pretty sure sign that Maggie Charlesworth was down at the house. I noticed later on that James always had a new shed or bit of fencing on the way about the homestead; and when he stayed at home, and took a few hours' spell at the shed or fence, I felt pretty certain that Maggie would be down to see Mary


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202 the day. Mary would call him in to have a cup of tea, when she made one for herself and Maggie, and James would drink it grumpily and never say a word to Maggie, except "'Ello, Maggie!" when he saw her, unless she spoke to him. She'd chaff him a bit sometimes, and he'd take it quietly—or sulkily, rather. He'd only talk about the drought and the rain, and station and Bush things, and only when he was asked about them. I've seen him squat and loll about the verandah all Sunday afternoon and for hours in the cool of a weekday evening, and never say a word to Maggie Charlesworth, or seem to take the slightest interest in her or what she was saying. James was one of these men who listen, or seem to listen, a great deal and think, or seem to think, a mighty lot.

And if I happened to pass Wall's and see James' horse hanging up there, and him squatting on his heels or leaning on a fence, smoking and yarning to young Billy Wall or one of the men, I'd know that Maggie Charlesworth was at home. But Billy Wall told me that he never heard James say a dozen words to Maggie, nor saw the slightest sign of spooning between them. James' idea of courting seemed to be to hover round and be within coo-ee, in case the girl made up her mind suddenly that she wanted him. But I noticed at home that he stuck about the verandah pretty close when Maggie was there and there happened to be another likely man hanging round.

But, Lord! with a character like James and a character like Maggie Charlesworth, you could never tell.


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Rh They might have been courting all the time and meeting every other night or so, and kissing and hugging each other for hours, and no one any the wiser. You might as well watch, and try to fox an old hen to her nest in the bushes; though she cackles enough when the egg is laid and she's safe off the nest.

Well, it all came out by accident, as most things do. James was never much of a rider, but he managed to hold his own with the others—his obstinacy or pigheadedness helped him in that. He broke in his own horses, but he always did it when there was no one about the place, or else he took 'em away. There were other yards about the run, and James was at home at all the little out-of-the-way huts and selections about the district. Like most young fellows of his sort, he was touchy about his riding and one or two other little things. Some of the chaps used to make a joke about it, and say that James went away and got some one else to break in his horses, but I knew James, and didn't believe that for a moment. So when we saw him riding away, leading or driving a young horse, we didn't take any notice; but Mary was always relieved when he turned up without a broken neck or his shoulder put out.

Well, one day he picked up a filly cheap in the pound at Gulgong—a likely-looking young thing, with blood in her, we could all see that. She was one of those spidery horses, with a hollow back, and looked as if she'd sag down if a big man got on her, till his feet rested on the ground. She was one of those shy, jumpy young things that suddenly sheer off sideways


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204 when they shy at anything, nearly as fast as they go ahead.

James let it drop that he didn't buy the filly for himself, but for some one else, but he wouldn't say who. You see, James was one of the sort that keep things to themselves. He'd make a mystery of little, unimportant things, and he often got me wild that way. I reckoned it was a sign of ignorance and a shallow, narrow mind.

Anyway, he wouldn't tell me whom he bought the filly for. He took her away once or twice, and perhaps he broke her in a bit early in the morning before any one was up and about. Well, one quiet Sunday morning he started down the creek, riding his own horse and leading the filly. He had a little black bundle, like a coat, strapped to the pommel of his saddle, and Mary's quick eye spotted it at once.

"Why, what's that you've got there on your saddle, James?" she said.

"Can't you mind your own business?" snarled James in a brotherly way. "Can't yer see it's me coat? You're always asking nonsensical questions."

"But you haven't got a black coat, James," said Mary, trying to get a close look. "When did you buy——"

But James swung off and rode away.

It puzzled Mary. Women do bother a lot about little things—and worry their husbands, too.

"That's funny," she said. "He could not have wanted one of my old skirts for anything! Why, I do believe he's had the infernal cheek to take my riding


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Rh skirt to lend to some one. Did you ever hear of such a thing? Whoever in this world could he——"

She ran to see, but her riding skirt was safe.

"What are you raving about now?" I said. "He's bought a new coat, and he's making a bushranging mystery about it as usual that's all it is."

"It wasn't a coat," said Mary, obstinately. "It was a dress."

I didn't bother arguing with her.

Everybody turned up that Sunday to dinner, or an hour or so afterwards—except James, and I supposed he had stayed to dinner somewhere. It was Bush fashion to drop into Sunday dinner anywhere—there was always plenty, rough as it was, and the women could wash a plate for a newcomer when somebody else was done. There was Dave Regan, the drover, and my old mate, Jack Barnes, and Andy Maculloch, an old droving chum of mine; and old Jim Bullock and Old Peter, station hands from Wall's; and little Jimmy Nowlett, the bullock-driver—he's just brought up a load of fencing wire for Wall; and Ryan, the horse-breaker; and some women and girls who had driven over in spring carts.

We were all camped on the verandah after dinner, smoking and yarning, and some snoozing, others draining the big canvas water-bag dry while getting through the heat and over the dinner. Some one spoke of James and asked where he was, and that reminded Ryan of his buck-jumping experience, and he told it again. It was about a horse he broke in once for a Mrs. Murphy at Talbragar.


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206 "I was passin' down by Mrs. Murphy's place one mornin'," said Ryan, "whin she says, 'Good mornin', Mr. Ryan.' 'Good mornin', Mrs. Murphy,' says I. 'Would you ride the mare for me this mornin', Mr. Ryan,' she says. 'I'll ride the tail off her,' I says. 'All right,' she says, 'will you come in an' have a cup o' tay, an' ride the tail off her afterwards?' 'All right,' I says, 'I'll come in and have a cup o' tay, an' ride the tail off her afterwards.' So I had the cup o' tay, an' thin I started down for the yard; I had a new pair of brogues on—nicely greased. So I got on the mare, an' she made three consecutive bucks. An' I made as many revolutions in the air. An' the last time I went up, I happened to look down, an' I saw the mare a quarter of a mile away. 'Go it, you ——!' I says. 'An' now for a wallop!'" (Long pause.) "I remembered no more till I woke up three days after in the Gulgong hospital."

He'd scarcely finished when Mary jumped to her feet, and stared down the creek through the trees on the other side.

"Joe! Joe!" she screamed, "there's a horse bolting! There's a horse running away with a woman on the other side of the creek! Look! Look! There she is! Quick, Joe, quick, for God's sake! My God, she'll be thrown!"

We all jumped to our feet as if we'd been sitting on snakes, Mary singing out: "She'll be thrown! She'll be thrown!" all the-time. Sure enough there was a horse, with a woman on its back, galloping through the timber down on the other side of the


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Rh creek; and she rode as if she'd go off at any moment.

Dave Regan and Andy Maculloch were on their horses and across the creek in a jiffy, to cut the other horse off from the heavy scrub, and I started to run, but the woman's horse swerved and ran down into the creek.

"Joe, Joe!" Mary screamed after me. "Run! Run! She'll be down in the creek ! She'll be thrown in the creek! She's thr-o-wn!"

But she wasn't. The horse struggled up the steep bank on our side—the woman still clinging to the saddle—and made for the yard on the rise at the back of the house. Then she propped, and the woman went sprawling in the dust. We were all there in no time. It was James, with a riding skirt on; he had been riding the filly with a side-saddle. James was winded, but, by the holy frost, he was wild! He didn't wait to unlock the waistband of his riding skirt; he tore hooks and eyes out, and got out of the skirt.

"Why, whatever have you been doing, James?" said Mary, as soon as she saw he wasn't hurt. "Why, that's Maggie Charlesworth's side-saddle—and that's her skirt! Where is she? Where did you leave her?"

James said: "Damn Maggie Charlesworth!" and then he went inside the house.

Maggie told us all about it afterwards. You see, when we broke a horse in to side-saddle, we used to hang a riding skirt from our belt or from a ring in the saddle, so that the horse would get used to the flapping of the skirt. Maggie lent James a skirt, and


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208 he hid it about the place. She wanted to ride the filly to the races at Coborrah on New Year's Day, and she met James by appointment at the old branding yard down the creek that Sunday to see if she could manage the filly. James shifted the side-saddle from Maggie's horse to the filly, and Maggie persuaded him to put the skirt on and get on the filly. Women will get commonsensible, practical men to make fools of themselves all over the world.

They were in the old yard, but James hadn't put up the rails yet, and the filly bolted with him. Now, as I told you, James wasn't used to side-saddle, and the skirt handicapped him a lot, so all he could do was to hold on like grim death and swear.

Oh, but he was wild that Sunday. He sat inside and sulked, till he could stand the three-cornered conversation of the chaps no longer; then he jumped up and came out on the verandah.

"Look here, Dave Regan," he said, "I suppose you think it was all very funny?"

"Yes, James," drawled Dave, "I do—an' that's a fact."

"You're a ——— fool," said James, "and I wouldn't mind taking a fall out of you now!"

The other fellows shifted their grins inside of themselves quick, but Mary went for James red-hot and cooled him a bit. While he was getting it from her, some one sings out—

"Why, here comes Maggie Charlesworth!"

She was riding James' horse, on his saddle, but sideways, of course, and leading her own. As soon as


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Rh she saw James she made for him, and held out both her hands, but he just scowled at her and jumped on his horse and rode away into the Bush.

"He'll come round," says Dave Regan.

Mary took Maggie inside, and, after a bit, I went in, grinning, to share the laugh with them, but Mary grabbed me, and twisted me round, and ran me out.

"Get out, you great fool," she hissed.

Maggie was crying, fit to break her heart.

Ah, well, but it's time to turn in. Some other time I'll tell you about how Mary fixed up things between James and Maggie; how we put on Dave Regan to pretend to make love to her, and how Dave got an unexpected black eye.


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 II. CHAWLTON

AKE the steamer from Circular Quay or Woolloomooloo Bay, or Dalgety's Wharf, or from any other port you may in Australia—the White Star Line—all one class—or the Orient, or any other line that suits your condition, circumstances or convenience (or is it Fate?), and you'll cross the Pacific, Canada, or the everlasting eternal States and the Atlantic—or go round by the other side of Africa and see the peak (of Teneriffe), if it isn't too cloudy. Or by Colombo and the Red Sea and up Suez Lane, and by Italy—Genoa—(and the Street of Stars, you know)—where there'll be more to see—and you'll come eventually to Plymouth or Prince Alfred's Docks—anyway to London.

I arrived on Saturday, and started out exploring on Monday morning from No. 4 Windsor Terrace, City Road—where Micawber lived—and struck across country, and got bushed, of course. London has more sameness and monotony, for its size, than the Bush. Somewhere in the wilds between St. Pancras (a rather dirty, dusty and immoral Saint) and High Holborn, I inquired of a tall man leaning comfortably against a post outside a tavern—a beerhouse—for the way to Waterloo Station. He thought, rubbed well Rh


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III. THE LITTLE MAN WITH THE SMILE ILLY was a child of, and not with a gloomy family, with dimples as a boy, very grey eyes, and a roguish smile, which changed as he grew to a good-humoured one, and finally to the fixed smile of acquiescence. A tolerant smile he wore, even when his fiendish little elder sister tore at him and struck him. There was nothing but gloom at home, gloom and quarrels, shot occasionally with lurid rows. It must have taken a lot to drive a lad of Billy's nature from home, but driven he was—after his father had been driven to drink, and drank himself away from sordidly, hopeless earthly things. Billy took refuge with an aunt in London, and when she died his smile had found him friends with an old Crimean warman's family—a plasterer, who had a friend or patron, who had friends, who had a friend who helped Billy to a passage to Australia. He and his box got separated at Fenchurch station, and came together unexpectedly at Gibraltar, and that was as far as Billy ever went in confidence, or took his chosen friends on his voyage to Australia. Something was supposed to have happened to him out there, for he returned within six months. Many came and come here Rh


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I

From an Australian in London

LONDON

, September, 1900.

EAR JACK,—You know I always had a great idea of the value of first impressions—an exaggerated idea, you used to say. I have it stronger than ever—indeed, I sometimes fear that the eagerness to seize first impressions, and write them down before they become blurred and lost, is becoming a mania with me. If I had to write up a big city I'd rather be there a month than a year. We Australians seem to adapt ourselves so quickly to strange places and upside-down conditions. Already London walls seem less dark and dirty to me—London streets less narrow, crowded and sordid, the whole city less like a big squalid village. The houses are growing every day, and I suppose as I go on the lives of the bulk of London humanity, and of two classes of London society especially—that of fashionable West End and that of Spitalfields, for instance—will seem less and less hopelessly useless and unnecessary to the existence of the world. As I make friends, and find halfway houses, so to speak, to drop Rh


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 Letters to Jack Cornstalk

II

From an Australian in London

LONDON

, December, 1900.

EAR JACK,—In my last letter I promised to tell you something about St. Paul's, the Tower, and those places. You remember the story of a rising young Australian politician who came home (how glibly the "home" comes!)—who came home on business, stayed some months, and went back without having seen either Westminster Abbey or the Tower, and without having been once inside the British House of Commons. He saw St. Paul's—he couldn't very well have dodged it. We couldn't understand his constitution at the time, but I think I realize the thing now. You see, we have come so far to see the big, old, or otherwise wonderful (or eccentric) things that we've been hearing about since childhood, and they are so near that we experience that feeling of dullness or disinterestedness that comes after long waiting, or expectation, and just before the climax. Besides, we come from the land o' lots of time and bring the atmosphere of it with us, round ourselves; so we reckon we'll just take things easy to-day and go and do the Abbey or one of those places to-morrow—take Rh


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Letters to Jack Cornstalk

III

From an Australian in London

A MIDLAND VILLAGE

England, January, 1901. EAR JACK,—When I came to England I took a house in a fair-sized, old and new fashioned village, not fifty miles from London. I came down here to get my breath after the voyage, and have a quiet think, and talk things over with myself quietly before tackling London in earnest. The village is, as I say, a new-old-fashioned one. Along one side of the village street is a row of old elms, and behind them a row of old-fashioned cottages, and an inn called the Blue Lion, with thatch two feet thick, and a gravelled footpath. On the other side are no trees, but a row of modern shops, such as you'd see in any decent suburb in an Australian city, with a kerbed, asphalt pavement. All round on the high ground are modern villas, detached, semi-detached, and several in a row, from the £35 a-year cottage (rates and taxes included) to the £90 or £100 house. If you take a £25 to £30 cottage, you are known as those or them new people in that house; if you take a £50 to £60 house, you are the new people in Blank Villa; if you take a £90 or £100 house, you are Mr. and Mrs. Brown-Jones (or whatever your name may be). Rh


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 PREFACE

AWKER'S prose sketches appeared originally as contributions to various periodicals, and in 1870 they were published for him in book form by Mr. John Russell Smith, as " Footprints of Former Men in Far Cornwall." In 1893, eighteen years after his death, a new edition was issued by Messrs. Blackwood, entitled "The Prose Works of Rev. R. S. Hawker," containing two essays previously unpublished, "Humphrey Vivian" and "Old Trevarten." The late Mr. J. G. Godwin, who was Hawker's friend and adviser in literary matters, edited the volume, and added the bibliographical footnotes to the several papers. In the present edition it has been thought appropriate to revert to Hawker's own more picturesque title, and this is to be done also in the case of his poetical works, which will shortly be re-issued as "Cornish Ballads and other Poems." The two books will thus form companion volumes. It is interesting to read them concurrently, and to compare his treatment of the same themes in prose and verse. An


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HEY were spelling in the shade of a bush fence, or pile of cut scrub, or something, and Pat O'Brien had a place that ought've bin covered by his pants, or a patch; and it was in the sun with Pat's outlying regions. And Dave Regan had a burning glass. Whispered Dave to his mate lazily—

"I'll pop the glass onter Pat, Joe, an' when he jumps you jump too, an' yell 'Snake!'"

"Uh-um," murmured Joe, and he reached carelessly for a new axe handle, which he fingered abstractedly.

Joe rolled over very lazily on to his elbow, and applied the glass like a magnifying glass to a common print.

In a little while Pat got up like a nervous horse that had thought it was miles away from man, and alone, till suddenly yelled at. And his language was bad about bull-dog ants. But at the same time, almost, Joe jumped up, yelled "Snake!" and started to slash the bushes with the axe handle.

"Beggod, boys," said Pat, "I'm bit!"

They were all up now.

"I'm bit, boys; an' where ye can't tie it!" Rh


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VERYTHING happened to the Mathews family, but Andy Page stuck to it all through, because he had—secretly and unsuspectedly—worshipped little Nelly Mathews, who died and became "Helen"; and because he was Andy Page. Andy stuck to trouble all his life, and trouble stuck to him.

There is something infinitely sad about the death of a grown-up daughter in the Bush, so we'll pass away from Helen's death and Andy's sorrow, that he shared with the people, and Andy's secret heart-bursting grief that no earthly people could share with him, and Andy's practical sympathy that was the more tender and touching for being "uncouth."

Old Mathews drank to drown sorrow, which is the strongest swimmer in the world. They said that any one would have thought he'd have kept straight because of Helen—because of Nelly's death, I suppose they meant—which is a way people have of looking at things. Or, rather, of not looking at things.

Then Andy lent a hand. He finished ploughing the ten-acre paddock, and put in the crop, and shepherded old Mathews, and saddled up in the gloaming and followed him to Mudgee (or some wayside shanty, Rh


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EW Year's Eve! A hot night in midsummer in the drought. It was so dark—with a smothering darkness—that even the low loom of the scrub-covered ridges, close at hand across the creek, was not to be seen. The sky was not clouded for rain, but with drought haze and the smoke of distant bush fires.

Down the hard road to the crossing at Pipeclay Creek sounded the footsteps of a man. Not the crunching steps of an English labourer, clod-hopping contentedly home; these sounded more like the footsteps of one pacing steadily to and fro, and thinking steadily and hopelessly—sorting out the past. Only the steps went on. A glimmer of white moleskin trousers and a suggestion of light-coloured tweed jacket, now and again, as if in the glimmer of a faint ghost light in the darkness.

The road ran along by the foot of a line of low ridges, or spurs, and, as he passed the gullies or gaps, he felt a breath of hotter air, like blasts from a furnace in the suffocating atmosphere. He followed a two-railed fence for a short distance, and turned in at Rh


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HE cloud of thick, brownish dust, that indicated the passing of the mail coach, paused opposite the claim, and the driver left a brown paper parcel on the corner post of the new-split, two-rail fence which had recently taken the place of the old, convict-built log fence round the Log Paddock. The Quiet Man took the parcel, and put it in a box, which held nails, candle ends, etc., under the bellows of the pick-pointing forge. Then he climbed to the top of the logged-up waste-heap, sat on the edge, and dropped his feet over the shaft into the suspended green-hide bucket, and took a grip of the rope, and his mate, taking a turn of the rope round a cross-piece on the whip-pole, lowered him to the bottom for his shift below.

"Now, I wonder what Tom got up by the coach," reflected the man on top, with a lazy mental effort. "It was too light for groceries, and it can't be fancy goods."

There were three huts on the siding of a spur of the ridge that came down to the corner of Log Paddock. One, a one-roomed bark hut, with the chimney and door in an end, stood down close to the road, Rh


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TOLD you how we took up a selection at Lahey's Creek, and how little Jim had convulsions on the road out, and Brighton's sister-in-law saved him; and about the hard struggle we had for years, and poor Mrs. Spicer, who was "past carin'," and died like a broken-down horse; and how I was lucky, got to be a squatter, and bought a brand-new, first-class double buggy for Mary—and how her brother James brought it as a surprise to Lahey's Creek. And before that I told you all about how I first met Mary at Haviland Station, and how we fell in love, courted, and got married. Ah, well! How the time goes by!

I had luck, and did well for three or four seasons running. I was always going to build a new brick-and-shingle house for Mary—bricks and shingles are cooler than slabs and iron—but that was one of the houses I never built except in the air. I've lived on the bank of the creek, and the place looked about the same as ever—and about as dreary and lonely and God-forsaken. I didn't even get any more furniture, in a good many of 'em.

So we still lived in the old slab-and-bark house and Mary got tired of bothering me about it. I'd always Rh


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 his money was gone. He returned to the house; he sells it. When his younger brother saw the auctioneer selling the house he bought it for a hundred mahbubs, but the house was inscribed in his cousin’s name. When

nizil min es-segara weraḥ fattaḥ em-marhâra; raḥ kabash, mala em-muqtaf min ed-dahab: memsikshi bimsawwiya zê akhû. Ba‘d ma shal em-muqtaf uqafal el-bâb zê ma kan; ba‘d ma huwa raḥ rig‘u el-fedawîya, laqu ed-dahab rayyiḥ minhum. Qalu: “Yulad! fî nâs ya‘rifu em-matraḥ betâ‘na; lazim wâhid minna yistanna hina; yeshûf min ya‘rif em-matraḥ betâ‘na.” Es-shêkh betâ‘hum qalluhum: “ana astanna.” Qalulu: “Tayyib! enta tistanna wihna nisraḥ.” Lamma tâni sabaḥ fîs-subḥ akhad em-muqtaf bedri utanna mashi ‘al-gebel. Lamma wassal liḥad es-segara qa‘d. Lamma gûm el-fedawîya ma‘adduhumsh ze el-‘âda. Ba‘d ma tili‘u min el-marhâra huwa akhad el-muq‘taf uba‘den raḥ fîl-marhâra. Lamma dakhal el-fîdâwi raḥ misku. Qallo: “Enta tîgî tisraq el-fulûs betâ‘na?” uqata‘o ḥettet ḥetta. Lamma rig‘u el-fidâwîya, qalulu: “Malqetshi ellî ya‘rif em-matraḥ beta‘na?” Qalluhum: “Aho fîl-muqtaf ḥettet ḥetta.” Akhû fîl-marhrib raḥ sa’al ‘alêh fîl-bêt: qalulu: “magash!” Fîl-‘asha raḥ sa’al ‘aleh: qalûlu: “magash!” Akhû ‘araf el-fidawîya mawwatû. Sabaḥ fîs-subḥ bedri, tanna mashi il’ el-gebel. Lamma wassal liḥad es-segara qa‘d. Lamma shafhum min bo‘d tili‘ fôq es-segara. Lamma dakhalu em-marhâra ‘adduhum arba‘în, lamma tili‘u ‘adduhum arba‘în. Lamma raḥu ba‘îd nizil min es-segara uraḥ fattaḥ em-marhâra. Dakhal guwa, laqa akhû bil-muqtaf: shâlu uqafal em-marhâra zê ma kan, ukhad akhû utannu mashi il’ el-bêt. Lamma dakhal fîl-bêt qal limrâto ûmrat akhû: “maḥaddish yeza‘q.” Raḥ gab wâhib mezayin shater, es-shêkh betâ‘ em-mezêyenîn; iddâlu ‘ashera maḥbûb, uqallo yekhayyat kul wahida ḥetta betâ‘o. Lamma khayyeto sabaḥu fis-subḥ; qalu: “dă mât.” Ba‘d ma dafanû huwa qa‘d fîl-ôkala we‘amal et-tâgir bidal akhu, umitgawwiz ‘mrat akhû ukhallahum letnên ‘âdîn waya ba‘d.—Yirga‘ kalâmna lil-fidawîya.

Lamma gûm wedakhalu fîl-marhâyir malaqush em-muqtaf wala er-râgil: qalu: “lazim fî nâs ’llî ‘arifîn em-matraḥ betâ‘na; lazim nenzil fîl-bilâd wenisa’al ‘alashan na‘rif min misik er-râgil.” Es-shêkh betâ- ‘hum qalluhum: “ruḥu entum min hina weana anzil min hina; lamma nizil fî beled bender dâr webuss min hina umin hina, lamma laqa wâhid mezayyin nadîf.” Raḥ dakhal fîl-dokkan betâ‘ ’m-mezayyin; em-mezayyin sa’alu, qallu: “terîd tesullaḥ?” qallo: “aiwa.” Shal el-‘amma min ‘ala raso weḥalaq raso. Ba‘de ma khallas ‘auz yesullaḥ-lu daqnu: er-râgil darab em-mezayyin wâhid kaff; em-mezayyin qallo “álashanê?” qallo: “aiwa, di wâhid yôm wedi wahid yôm.” Qallo: “tayyib.” Hat îdo fi gêbu widdâo mît maḥbûb. Lamma rigu‘ kulluhum ila em-marhâra sa‘alû; qalûlu: “malqetshi ellî misik

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Rh woman in her time; and so, in two minutes, the door was shut, and the girl who had gone wrong was sobbing on the flat breast of the woman who had never got the chance.

They often sewed together, mostly in silence, and had a cup of tea together—sometimes at Mrs. Brent's hut and sometimes at Mrs. Foster's. I don't know whether Mrs. Brent told Mrs. Foster all about it, but most probably she did once, and was done with it. When they sat and worked together in silence the chances are that the younger woman brooded over the old wrong, and her relatives who were scattered, and from whom she had never heard "since it happened." It would, I think, be impossible to puzzle out what women like Mrs. Foster think about over their work. She was past hoping or fretting, and past complaining. There was nothing in the future, and there could have been very little brightness in the past. Yet she knitted her forehead, and seemed to be thinking deeply at times; but perhaps she was only considering the advisability of buying another yard or two of that stuff she got at the store in town.

The Quiet Man lived in the hut near the road, with his little boy of five or six. The Quiet Man's name was Tom Moore, and he had been a popular man on the goldfields. He married a girl at Gulgong about seven years before, and she died before they had their first serious quarrel. She died in child-birth. Mrs. Foster was a neighbour then; she nursed Mrs. Moore, took charge of the child, cooked Tom's meals, and saw that he ate them. He had been a quiet man ever since.


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Panache

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Panache


text: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Panaenus

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Panaenus


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 ANNUAL MEETING. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18th, 1920.

minutes of the last annual meeting were read and confirmed.

The Forty-Second Annual Report of the Council, with the Cash Account and Balance Sheet for the year 1920, duly audited, were presented to the meeting, and on the motion of Dr. Gaster, seconded by His Honour J. S. Udal, it was Resolved that the same be received and adopted, with the addition in the last paragraph but one of the words “or 21s. per six volumes,” after the words “4s. per volume.”

On the motion of the Chairman, seconded by Mr. Tabor, the following were duly elected to hold office for the ensuing year, the name of Mr. Geo. Whale being substituted for that of Sir Everard im Thurn, who had expressed the wish that his name should be withdrawn from the list as he was leaving London and would be unable to attend the meetings of the Council:

As President—W. H. R. Rivers, M.D., F.R.S.

As Vice-Presidents—The Rt. Hon. Lord Abercromby, Sir E. W. Brabrook, C.B., V.P.S.A., Miss Charlotte S. Burne, Edward Clodd, W. Crooke, C.I.E., D.Sc, Sir J. G. Frazer, D.C.L., LL.D., etc., M. Gaster, Ph.D., A. C. Haddon, D.Sc, F.R.S., etc., E. S. Hartland, F.S.A., LL.D., R. R. Marett, D.Sc, W. H. D. Rouse, Litt.D., The Rev. Professor A. H. Sayce, M.A., LL.D., D.D.S., A. R. Wright, F.S.A.

As Members of Council—Mrs. M. M. Banks, G. R. Carline, E. K. Chambers, M. Longworth Dames, A. Allan Gomme, Lady Gomme, P. J. Heather, W. L. Hildburgh, M.A., Ph.D., T. C. Hodson, Miss Eleanor Hull, Rev. E. O. James, B.Litt., F.R.A.I., F.G.S., E. Lovett, Miss Moutray Read,

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Author:William Henry Thornton

Works

 * Recollections and Reflections of an Old West Country Clergyman (1903)

Works about Thornton

 * Thornton, William Henry in Alumni Cantabrigiensis Part 2 Volume 6
 * M. A., The Rev. William Henry Thornton. Devon & Cornwall Notes & Queries 9:3, (1916) pp.65-68, plates: port. [First vicar of Simonsbath. Scholar. Dartmoor specialist. 1830-1916]
 * Durham, W. E. In memoriam W. H. Thornton, North Bovey Church, April 9th, 1916. [s.l.]: [s.n.] [1916] 5p. [Westcountry Studies Library - s920/THO]

title: Author:William Henry Thornton


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1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Patois

PATOIS, a French term strictly confined to the dialect of a district or locality in a country which has a common literary language, often used of the form of a common language as spoken by illiterate or uneducated persons, marked by vulgarisms in pronunciation, grammar, &c. The origin of the word is not certain. It has taken to be a corruption of patrois, from Low Lat. partriensis, of or belonging to one's patria, or native country, fatherland.

title: 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Patois


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User talk:Forty two

--Longfellow (talk) 10:54, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Falling in Love
Obviously what you were trying to do has not worked. Is there an image file of the work at Commons? If so, we can show how we work these into shape. Worth looking at Help:Proofreading and Help:DjVu files. — billinghurst  sDrewth  11:18, 24 November 2010 (UTC)

title: User talk:Forty two


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 WALKER, JOHN (1731–1803), professor of natural history at Edinburgh, was born in 1731 in the Canongate, Edinburgh, where his father was rector of the grammar school. He himself writes, ‘I have been from my cradle fond of vegetable life,’ and it is recorded of him that he enjoyed Homer when he was ten years old. At this age also he read Sutherland's ‘Hortus Edinburgensis,’ his first botanical book. From his father's grammar school he went to the university of Edinburgh in preparation for the ministry, and about 1750 his attention was attracted by the neglected remains of the museum left by Sir [q. v.] He was licensed to preach on 3 April 1754, and on 13 Sept. 1758 was ordained minister of Glencorse, among the Pentland Hills, seven miles south of Edinburgh, where he made the acquaintance of Henry Home, lord Kames, a member of the board of annexed estates, with whose wishes for the improvement of the highlands and islands he was in hearty sympathy. On 8 June 1762 Walker was transferred to Moffat, and in 1764 he was appointed, by the interest of Lord Kames, to make a survey of the Hebrides, being at the same time commissioned to make a report to the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge. On this occasion he travelled three thousand miles in seven months; and his report, which was found among his papers after his death and printed by his friend Charles Stewart under the title ‘An Economical History of the Hebrides’ (Edinburgh, 1808, 2 vols. 8vo; reissued in London in 1812), is of a most comprehensive and practical character. Robert Kaye Greville records in his ‘Algæ Britannicæ’ (p. iii) that in manuscript notes by Walker, dated 1771, it is suggested that the Linnæan genus Alga may be divided into fourteen genera, among which he included Fucus almost with the limits now adopted, and Phasgonon, precisely equalling Agardh's Laminaria—a somewhat remarkable anticipation.

Walker was appointed regius professor of natural history at Edinburgh on 15 June 1779, while retaining his clerical post at Moffat. His lectures proved attractive by their clearness, although distinctly dry and formal in character; and the only works separately printed by him during his lifetime were a series of syllabuses for the use of his students, stated in the most categorical form of Linnæan classifications and definitions. These included: ‘Schediasma Fossilium,’ 1781; ‘Delineatio Fossilium,’ 1782; ‘Classes Fossilium,’ 1787; and ‘Institutes of Natural History,’ 1792.

On 7 Jan. 1783 he was transferred from Moffat to Colinton, near Edinburgh, where he devoted much attention to his garden, cultivating willows and other trees. On the incorporation of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in this year, Walker was one of the earliest fellows, and one of his most valuable papers, ‘Experiments on the Motion of the Sap in Trees,’ was contributed to its ‘Transactions,’ but the last papers which he published during his lifetime on kelp, peat, the herring, and the salmon, appeared in those of the Highland Society (vols. i. ii.). On 20 May 1790 he was elected moderator of the general assembly of the Scottish church. During the last years of his life Walker was blind. He died on 31 Dec. 1803. On 24 Nov. 1789 he married Jane Wallace Wauchope of Niddry, who died on 4 May 1827. On 28 Feb. 1765 he received the honorary degree of M.D. from Glasgow University, and on 22 March 1765 that of D.D. from Edinburgh University.

Walker's chief works were the two issued by his friend Charles Stewart after his death. The first has been already mentioned; the other was ‘Essays on Natural History and Rural Economy’ (London and Edinburgh, 1812, 8vo).

WALKER, JOHN (1732–1807), actor, philologist, and lexicographer, was born at Colney Hatch, a hamlet in the parish of Friern Barnet, Middlesex, on 18 March 1732. Of his father, who died when he was a child, little is known. His mother came from Nottingham, and was sister to the Rev. James Morley, a dissenting minister at Painswick, Gloucestershire. He was early taken from school to be instructed in a trade, and after his mother's death he went on the stage, and obtained several engagements with provincial companies. Subsequently he performed at Drury Lane under the management of Garrick. There he usually filled the second parts in tragedy, and those of a grave, sententious cast in comedy. In May 1758 he married Miss Myners, a well-known comic actress, and immediately afterwards he joined the company which was formed by Barry and Woodward for the opening of Crow Street Theatre, Dublin. He was there advanced to a higher rank in the profession, and, upon the desertion of Mossop to Smock Alley, he succeeded to many of that actor's characters, among which his Cato and his Brutus were spoken of in terms of very high commendation.

In June 1762 Walker returned to London, and he and his wife were engaged at


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 Covent Garden Theatre. He returned to Dublin in 1767, but remained there only a short time; and, after performing at Bristol in the summer of 1768, he finally quitted the stage.

In January 1769 he joined James Usher [q. v.] in establishing a school at Kensington Gravel-pits, but the partnership lasted only about two years. Walker then began to give those lectures on elocution which henceforth formed his principal employment. During a professional tour in Scotland and Ireland he met with great success, and at Oxford the heads of houses invited him to give private lectures in the university. He enjoyed the patronage and friendship of Dr. Johnson, Edmund Burke, and other distinguished men (, Life of Johnson, ed. Hill, iv. 206, 421). Through the arguments of Usher he was induced to join the Roman catholic church, and this brought about an intimacy between him and John Milner (1752–1826) [q. v.], bishop of Castabala (, Life of Milner, p. 14). He was generally held in the highest esteem in consequence of his philological attainments and the amiability of his character, but, according to Madame d'Arblay, ‘though modest in science, he was vulgar in conversation’ (Diary, ii. 237). By his lectures and his literary productions he amassed a competent fortune. He lost his wife in April 1802; and he himself died in Tottenham Court Road, London, on 1 Aug. 1807. His remains were interred in the burial-ground of St. Pancras (, St. Pancras Epitaphs, 1869, p. 145).

His principal work is: 1. ‘A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language,’ London, 1791, 4to; 2nd edit. 1797; 3rd edit. 1802; 4th edit. 1806; 5th edit. 1810; 28th edit. 1826. Many other editions and abridgments of this work, which was long regarded as the statute-book of English orthoepy, have been published in various forms. One of these, ‘critically revised, enlarged, and amended’ [by P. A. Nuttall], appeared in London in 1855.

His other works are: 2. ‘A General Idea of a Pronouncing Dictionary of the English Language on a plan entirely new. With observations on several words that are variously pronounced as a specimen of the work,’ London, 1774, 4to. 3. ‘A Dictionary of the English Language, answering at once the purposes of Rhyming, Spelling, and Pronouncing, on a plan not hitherto attempted,’ London, 1775, 8vo. The third edition, entitled ‘A Rhyming Dictionary,’ appeared at London, 1819, 12mo; and there is in the British Museum a copy with all the words, written by Alexander Fraser, in Mason's system of shorthand. The work was reprinted in 1824, 1837, 1851, 1865, and 1888. 4. ‘Exercises for Improvement in Elocution; being select Extracts from the best Authors for the use of those who study the Art of Reading and Speaking in Public,’ London, 1777, 12mo. 5. ‘Elements of Elocution; being the Substance of a Course of Lectures on the Art of Reading, delivered at several Colleges … in Oxford,’ London, 1781, 2 vols. 8vo; 2nd edit., with alterations and additions, London, 1799, 8vo; reprinted, London, 1802, Boston (Massachusetts), 1810; 4th edit. London, 1810; 6th edit. London, 1820; other editions 1824 and 1838. 6. ‘Hints for Improvement in the Art of Reading,’ London, 1783, 8vo. 7. ‘A Rhetorical Grammar, or Course of Lessons in Elocution,’ dedicated to Dr. Johnson, London, 1785, 8vo; 7th edit. 1823. 8. ‘The Melody of Speaking delineated; or Elocution taught like Music; by Visible Signs, adapted to the Tones, Inflexions, and Variation of the Voice in Reading and Speaking,’ London, 1789, 8vo [see ]. 9. ‘A Key to the Classical Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper Names … To which is added a complete Vocabulary of Scripture Proper Names,’ London, 1798, 8vo; 7th edit. 1822, reprinted 1832; and another edition, prepared by William Trollope, 1833 [see under ]. Prefixed to the original edition is a fine portrait of Walker, engraved by Heath from a miniature by Barry. 10. ‘The Academic Speaker, or a Selection of Parliamentary Debates, Orations, Odes, Scenes, and Speeches … to which is prefixed Elements of Gesture,’ 4th edit. London, 1801, 12mo; 6th edit. 1806. 11. ‘The Teacher's Assistant in English Composition, or Easy Rules for Writing Themes and Composing Exercises,’ London, 1801 and 1802, 12mo; reprinted under the title of ‘English Themes and Essays,’ 10th edit., 1842; 11th edit., 1853. 13. ‘Outlines of English Grammar,’ London, 1805, 8vo; reprinted 1810.

[Addit. MS. 27488, ff. 241 b, 242; Athenæum, 1808, iii. 77; Edinburgh Catholic Magazine, new ser. (London, 1837) i. 617; Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 786, 1121; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. ed. Bohn; Lysons's Environs, Suppl. p. 270; Notes and Queries, 5th ser. ii. 146, 252, x. 447, xi. 36.]

WALKER, JOHN (1759–1830), man of science, born at Cockermouth in Cumberland on 31 July 1759, was the son of a smith and ironmonger in that town. He was educated at the grammar school, and afterwards engaged in his father's occupation of


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 blacksmith. In 1779 he went to Dublin with the intention of joining a privateer. The vessel had, however, been taken by the French, and Walker, who had already studied the art of engraving at Cockermouth, placed himself under an artist named Esdale. He made rapid progress, and between 1780 and 1783 contributed several plates to Walker's 'Hibernian Magazine.' Under the influence of the quakers, however, he was seized with scruples in regard to his art, and, abandoning it, set up a school, which was fairly prosperous. He laid much emphasis on a kindly method of treating his pupils, and deprecated corporal punishment as subversive of discipline. Although he afterwards assumed the garb and style of a quaker, he was never admitted into the fellowship of the Friends on account of a suspicion that his faith was unsound. In 1788 he published in London a treatise on the 'Elements of Geography and of Natural and Civil History,' which reached a third edition in 1800. With a view to improving the second edition, which appeared in 1793, and of preparing a 'Universal Gazetteer,' he undertook a journey through the greater part of England and Ireland in 1793, returning to Dublin in the following year. The protective duty imposed in Dublin was so high that he was obliged to go to London to print his books. He made over his school to his friend, John Foster (1770–1843) [q. v.], the essayist, and removed to the English capital. His 'Universal Gazetteer' (London, 8vo) appeared in 1795, reaching a sixth edition in 1815.

Soon after settling in London Walker turned his attention to medicine, entering himself as a pupil at Guy's Hospital. In 1797 he visited Paris, where he gained notoriety by refusing to take off his hat in the conseil des anciens or to wear the tricolour. He was on terms of friendship with James Napper Tandy [q. v.], Thomas Paine [q. v.], and Thomas Muir [q. v.], and esteemed Paine a great practical genius. From Paris he proceeded to Leyden, and graduated M.D. in 1799. He passed the winter in Edinburgh, and in 1800 settled at Stonehouse in Gloucestershire. Shortly after, however, at the request of Dr. Marshall, he consented to accompany him to Naples to introduce vaccination. He left England in June 1800, and, after visiting Malta and Naples, accompanied Sir Ralph Abercromby [q. v.] on his Egyptian expedition. Returning to London in 1802, Walker on 12 Aug. recommenced a course of public vaccination. The Jennerian Society was formed at the close of the year, and early in 1803 he was elected resident inoculator at the central house of the society in Salisbury Square. Dissensions, however, arose, occasioned in part by some differences in method between Walker and Jenner, and Walker in consequence resigned the post on 8 Aug. 1806. On 25 Aug. a new society, the London Vaccine Institution, was formed, in which Walker was appointed to an office similar to that which he had resigned, and continued to practise in Salisbury Court. After the establishment of the national vaccine board by the government, the Jennerian Society, which had fallen into bad circumstances, was amalgamated with the London Vaccine Institution in 1813, and Jenner was elected president of the new society, with Walker as director, an office which he held until his death. He was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians on 30 Sept. 1812. During the latter part of his life he laboured unceasingly in behalf of vaccination. He practised six days a week at the various stations of the society. Towards the end of his life he boasted that he had vaccinated more than a hundred thousand persons. He died in London on 23 June 1830. He was a man of great simplicity of character and directness of thought. He was a strong opponent of the slave trade, and made several attempts to call public attention to the abuses connected with suttee. He married at Glasgow on 23 Oct. 1799.

Besides the works mentioned, Walker was the author of: 1. 'On the Necessity for contracting Cavities between the Venous Trunks and the Ventricles of the Heart,' Edinburgh, 1799, 8vo. 2. 'Fragments of Letters and other Papers written in different parts of Europe and in the Mediterranean,' London, 1802, 8vo. He also translated from the French the 'Manual of the Theophilanthropes, or Adorers of God and Friends of Man,' London, 1797, 12mo, and compiled a small volume of 'Selections from Lucian,' 7th ed. Dublin, 1839, 12mo.

 WALKER, JOHN (1770–1831), antiquary, son of John Walker of London, was baptised at the church of St. Katherine Cree on 18 Feb. 1770, and was elected scholar at Winchester in 1783. He matriculated from Brasenose College on 14 Jan. 1788, graduating B.C.L. in 1797. In the same year he was elected fellow of New College, retaining his fellowship till 1820. He also filled the posts of librarian and of dean of canon law. In 1809 he published a 'Selection of Curious Articles from the "Gentleman's Magazine"' (London, 8vo) in three volumes. This undertaking had been


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192 and walked to the house. He knocked at the door; his wife said: ‘Who is it?’' He replied: ‘I!’ She answered: ‘All right!’ She came down hastily (and) opened (the door) for him. When she had opened it for him they went upstairs. He laid down the basket and sat down. He said to her: ‘Let us have dinner.’ She brought him meat, vegetables and pigeons. When he had dined and washed the hands he said to her: ‘There is not even a small measure here’ (the kêla holds only the twelfth part of an ardeb). She replied: ‘No!’ She said to him: ‘I will go to your brother’s house; we will get the measure from there.’ He answered: ‘Very good.’ When she went to his brother’s house she knocked at the door; she said to them: ‘I want the measure because we are measuring a little wheat.’ The man replied: ‘All right.’ He said to her: ‘Is my brother come?’ She answered: ‘Yes.’ He said to his wife: ‘Give her the measure and give her a little food for their sakes.’ She gave them a bason full of cooked food and two loaves of bread. When she had gone and given her the measure she smeared the measure with honey in order to discover what they are measuring. (The other woman) took the measure and went home. When they measured the money, the money stuck to the bottom of the measure. When she brought back the measure his brother’s wife looked at the measure; she found the money sticking to the measure. She said to her husband: ‘See, this is not corn; it’s money!’ He replied: ‘How so?’ She answered: ‘I put honey in the measure in order to see what they are measuring; I have found ten pounds sticking to the measure. You must go to your brother and see where he has got the money from; you must get some like him.’ He rose in the morning early; he went to his brother. He said to him: ‘Good morning!’ He sat down while they drank coffee together; when they had drunk the coffee he asked, saying: ‘My brother, where have you got the money from?’ He replied:

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  by Gibbon to the editor, John Nichols, some time before, but Nichols could not find leisure for the task (, Lit. Anecd. viii. 557; Lit. Illustr. vol. viii. p. xi). Walker accomplished it with great judgment, and was rewarded by the sale of a thousand copies in a few months. A second edition, with an additional volume, appeared in 1811; and a third, also in four volumes, in 1814.

Walker made valuable researches in the archives of the Bodleian Library and of other university collections. In 1809 he brought out ‘Oxoniana’ (London, 4 vols. 12mo), consisting of selections from books and manuscripts in the Bodleian relating to university matters. This was followed in 1813 by ‘Letters written by Eminent Persons, from the Originals in the Bodleian Library and Ashmolean Museum’ (London, 2 vols. 8vo). Both are works of value, and have been largely used by succeeding writers. Walker was one of the original proprietors of the ‘Oxford Herald,’ and for several years assisted in the editorial work.

In 1819 Walker was presented by the warden and fellows of New College to the vicarage of Hornchurch in Essex, and resided there during the rest of his life. He died at the vicarage on 5 April 1831.

Besides the works mentioned, he was the author of ‘Curia Oxoniensis; or Observations on the Statutes which relate to the University Court’ (3rd edit. Oxford, 1826, 8vo). He was the first editor of the ‘Oxford University Calendar,’ first published in 1810. An ‘auction catalogue of his library’ was published in 1831 (London, 8vo).

 WALKER, JOHN (1768–1833), founder of the ‘Church of God,’ born in Roscommon in January 1768, was the son of Matthew Walker, a clergyman of the established church of Ireland. He entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 18 Jan. 1785, was chosen a scholar in 1788, graduated B.A. in 1790, was elected a fellow in 1791, and proceeded M.A. in 1796, and B.D. in 1800.

Walker was ordained a priest of the established church of Ireland. About 1803 he began to study the principles of Christian fellowship prevailing among the earliest Christians. Convinced that later departures were erroneous, he joined with a few others in an attempt to return to apostolic practices. Their doctrinal beliefs were those of the more extreme Calvinists, and they entirely rejected the idea of a clerical order. On 8 Oct. 1804 Walker, convinced that he could no longer exercise the functions of a clergyman of the Irish church, informed the provost of Trinity College, and offered to resign his fellowship. He was expelled on the day following. He was connected with a congregation of fellow-believers in Stafford Street, Dublin, and supported himself by lecturing on subjects of university study. After paying several visits to Scotland, he removed to London in 1819.

Walker was no mean scholar, and published several useful educational works. In 1833 the university of Dublin granted him a pension of 600l. as some amends for their former treatment of him. He returned to Dublin, and died on 25 Oct. of the same year. His followers styled themselves ‘the Church of God,’ but were more usually known as ‘Separatists,’ and occasionally as ‘Walkerites.’

Among Walker's publications were: 1. ‘Letters to Alexander Knox,’ Dublin, 1803, 8vo. 2. ‘An Expostulatory Address to Members of the Methodist Society in Ireland,’ 3rd ed. Dublin, 1804, 12mo. 3. ‘A Full and Plain Account of the Horatian Metres,’ Glasgow, 1822, 8vo. 4. ‘Essays and Correspondence,’ ed. W. Burton, London, 1838, 8vo. 5. ‘The Sabbath a Type of the Lord Jesus Christ,’ London, 1866, 8vo. He also edited: 1. Livy's ‘Historiarum Libri qui supersunt,’ Dublin, 1797–1813, 7 vols. 8vo; Dublin, 1862, 8vo. 2. ‘The First, Second, and Sixth Books of Euclid's Elements,’ Dublin, 1808, 8vo; first six books with a treatise on trigonometry, London, 1827, 8vo. 3. ‘Selections from Lucian,’ Glasgow, 1816, 8vo; 9th ed. Dublin, 1856, 12mo. For the opening of the Bethesda Chapel, Dorset Street, Dublin, on 22 June 1794, he wrote two hymns, one of which, ‘Thou God of Power and God of Love,’ has been included in several collections.

 WALKER, JOHN (1781?–1859), inventor of friction matches, was born at Stockton-on-Tees in 1780 or 1781. He was articled to Watson Alcock, the principal surgeon of the town, and served him as assistant-surgeon. He had, however, an insurmountable aversion from surgical operations, and in consequence turned his attention to chemistry. After studying at Durham and York, he set up a small business as chemist and druggist at 59 High Street,


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 Stockton, about 1818. He was a tolerable chemist, and was especially interested in searching for a means of obtaining fire easily. Several chemical mixtures were known which would ignite by a sudden explosion, but it had not been found possible to transmit the flame to a slow-burning substance like wood. While Walker was preparing a lighting mixture on one occasion, a match which had been dipped in it took fire by an accidental friction upon the hearth. He at once appreciated the practical value of the discovery, and commenced making friction matches. They consisted of wooden splints or sticks of cardboard coated with sulphur and tipped with a mixture of sulphide of antimony, chlorate of potash, and gum, the sulphur serving to communicate the flame to the wood. The price of a box containing fifty was one shilling. With each box was supplied a piece of sandpaper, folded double, through which the match had to be drawn to ignite it. Two and a half years after Walker's invention was made public Isaac Holden arrived, independently, at the same idea of coating wooden splinters with sulphur. The exact date of his discovery, according to his own statement, was October 1829. Previously to this date Walker's sales-book contains an account of no fewer than two hundred and fifty sales of friction matches, the first entry bearing the date 7 April 1827. He refused to patent his invention, considering it too trivial. Notwithstanding, he made a sufficient fortune from it to enable him to retire from business. He died at Stockton on 1 May 1859.

[Gent. Mag. 1859, i. 655; Encyclopædia Brit. 9th ed. xv. 625; Heavisides's Annals of Stockton, 1865, p. 105; Andrews's Bygone England, 1892, pp. 212–15; Northern Echo, 6 May 1871; Daily Chronicle, 19 Aug. 1897; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 201.]

WALKER, JOSEPH COOPER (1761–1810), Irish antiquary, was born probably in Dublin in 1761, and was educated under Thomas Ball of that city. He suffered all his life from acute asthma, and in his earlier years travelled a great deal in the hope of improving his health. For many years he lived in Italy. Of a studious disposition, he utilised his leisure in making researches into Italian literature and Irish antiquities, his two favourite studies. After his return to Ireland he settled down in a beautiful house called St. Valerie, Bray, co. Wicklow, where he stored his various art treasures and his valuable library. Here the rest of his life was passed, and here he wrote the works by which he is best known. He died on 12 April 1810, and was buried on 14 April in St. Mary's Churchyard, Dublin. He was one of the original members of the Royal Irish Academy, in whose welfare he took the warmest interest, and contributed various papers to its ‘Transactions.’ Francis Hardy [q. v.], biographer of the Earl of Charlemont, undertook a biography of Walker, which, however, when finished in 1812, showed such signs of the failure of Hardy's mental power that the family prudently withheld it. On Hardy's death the materials were handed to Edward Berwick [q. v.], who does not seem to have finished his task. Many of Walker's letters are printed in Nichols's ‘Literary Illustrations’ (vii. 696–758).

The following is a list of his works: 1. ‘Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards,’ London, 1786, 4to; new edit. 1818, 8vo. 2. ‘Historical Essay on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish, to which is subjoined a Memoir on the Armour and Weapons of the Irish,’ Dublin, 1788, 4to; new edit. London, 1818, 8vo. 3. ‘Historical Memoir on Italian Tragedy,’ 1799. 5. ‘Historical and Critical Essay on the Revival of the Drama in Italy,’ Edinburgh, 1805, 8vo. Also ‘Anecdotes on Chess in Ireland,’ a paper contributed to Charles Vallancey's ‘Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis’ [see ]. His ‘Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni’ were published posthumously in 1815, with a lengthy preface by his brother, Samuel Walker. It contains also poems to Walker's memory by Eyles Irwin [q. v.], Henry Boyd [q. v.], William Hayley [q. v.], and Robert Anderson (1770–1833) [q. v.] Walker left behind him several works in manuscript, including a journal of his travels and materials for ‘Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers of Ireland.’

[Gent. Mag. 1787 i. 34, 1788 ii. 998, 1810 i. 487; Wills's Irish Nation, iv. 655; Brit. Mus. Cat.; preface to Memoirs of Alessandro Tassoni, ed. Samuel Walker.]

WALKER, OBADIAH (1616–1699), master of University College, Oxford, was the son of William Walker of Worsborodale, Yorkshire. He was born at Darfield, near Barnsley (, Collect. ed. Doble, i. 81), and was baptised on 17 Sept. 1616. He matriculated at Oxford, 5 April 1633, at the age of sixteen, and entered University College, where he passed under the care of Abraham Woodhead [q. v.] as tutor. He became fellow of his college in August following, graduated B.A. 4 July 1635, and M.A. 23 April 1638. He soon became a tutor of note in his college and a man of mark in


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102 a pomana for my father,” consoling himself with the idea that somehow the stream would bring the cap to his dead father.

(3) There is the well-known rain charm Calojan, quoted by T. Stratilesco, p. 183. When there is prolonged drought in spring time, women take yellow clay and make a model of a man that they call Calojan. They also make a coffin, put him in this, cry over him, burn incense, and in short carry out fairly accurately the “griji” for the dead. Then they bury him near the well, singing:—

After three days Calojan is dug up and thrown into the river to provoke rain. On the day on which he is dug up men do not work after midday, but spend the afternoon drinking and dancing.

(4) Another rain charm is to dig up the corpse of some one struck by lightning, and to throw it into running water (S. page 183).

.

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 the university. During the civil war he was elected one of the standing extraordinary delegates of the university for public business. He preached several times before the court, was favourably regarded by the king, and in 1646 was offered, but appears to have refused, his grace of bachelor of divinity. Through a part of this period he acted as college bursar (cf., manuscript Transcripts, x. 210). In July 1648 the master and fellows were ejected by the parliamentary commissioners. Walker appears to have gone abroad, visiting Rome, and ‘improving himself in all kinds of polite literature’ (, Annals of University College). On the recommendation of John Evelyn about 1650, he became tutor to Henry and Charles, sons of Henry Hildyard of Horsley in Surrey (, Diary, ed. Bray, iii. 22), and the early perversion of his pupil to the church of Rome may probably be regarded as one of the results of his tuition. On the Restoration he was reinstated as fellow of his college; ‘after having been,’ as he wrote to a friend in 1678 (, manuscript, Transcripts, x. 192), ‘heaved out of my place and wandred a long time up and down, I am at last, by the good providence of God, set down just as I was.’ Soon, however, he again left Oxford, and again travelled to Rome, as tutor to a young gentleman. The college gave him leave of absence for four terms, in August 1661, on 31 Jan. 1663, and 23 March 1664, and for two terms on 14 Jan. 1665 (Univ. Coll. Reg. pp. 79–82).

On the death of the master, Dr. Thomas Walker, in 1665, Obadiah declined to contest Clayton's election to the vacant office. He now, however, resided again in the college as senior fellow and tutor. He was a delegate of the university press in 1667, and through his influence an offer was made to Anthony à Wood (whose acquaintance about this time he had accidentally made in the coach on the way to Oxford) for the printing of the ‘History and Antiquities of Oxford’ (, Life and Times, ii. 173). The mastership became again vacant by the death of Dr. Clayton on 14 June 1676, and Obadiah Walker was elected on 22 June 1676 by the unanimous consent of the fellows (Univ. Coll. Reg. p. 99). Though, when writing to a friend on 20 Nov. 1675, he complained of old age (, manuscript Transcripts, x. 199), he soon proved himself an active head of the college. With energy he canvassed old members of the college for subscriptions towards the rebuilding of the big quadrangle, which was completed in April 1677. The same year the college, under the auspices of their new master, undertook an edition in Latin of Sir John Spelman's ‘Life of Alfred;’ this they did ‘that the world should know that their benefactions are not bestowed on mere drones’ (letter from O. W. 19 April 1677, ib. p. 192). This publication, though often attributed to Walker alone, was a joint production, ‘divers of the society assisting with their pains and learning’ (ib.); it was dedicated to Charles II with a fulsome comparison of that monarch to Alfred. The character of some of the notes in the volume, and Walker's connection with Abraham Woodhead's ‘popish seminary’ at Hoxton (Woodhead, who died in May 1678, left by will the priory at Hoxton to Walker), caused the master's conduct to be noted in the House of Commons towards the latter end of October 1678, when ‘several things were given in against him by the archdeacon of Middlesex’ (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. vii. 150). He was ‘much suspected at this time to be a papist’ (ib.), and, says Wood, ‘had not Mr. Walker had a friend in the house who stood up for him, he would have had a messenger sent for him’ (, Life and Times, ed. Clark, ii. 421); the same authority gives it that two of the fellows of the college made friends in the parliament-house to have the master turned out that one of them might succeed. Whatever inclination Walker entertained at this time towards the Roman church, on the heads of houses being called on 17 Feb. 1679 to make returns to the vice-chancellor of all persons in their societies suspected to be papists, he categorically denied that he knew of any such in his college. But in April of the same year his name was mentioned in Sir Harbottle Grimston's speech calling the attention of the house to the printing of popish books at the theatre at Oxford (ib. p. 449); and in June 1680 complaint was made to the vice-chancellor of the popish character of a sermon preached by one of his pupils at St. Mary's, and the booksellers in Oxford were forbidden to sell his book, ‘The Benefits of our Saviour Jesus Christ to Mankind,’ because of the passages savouring of popery (ib. p. 488). The course he was steering began to render him unpopular both in the town and university, where his main friends and supporters were Leybourne and Massey, and among the fellows Nathaniel Boys and Thomas Deane.

On the accession of James II Walker's attitude soon became clear, for on 5 Jan. 1686 he went to London, being sent for by the


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 king to be consulted as to changes in the university (Univ. Coll. Register). On this errand he remained away till nearly the end of the month, and on his recommendation his friend Massey is said to have been appointed dean of Christ Church. After Walker's return he did not go to prayers or receive the sacrament in the college chapel (, Life, iii. 177). One result of his interviews with the king soon became apparent, for by a letter from James, dated 28 Jan. 1686, it was ordered that the revenue of the fellowship set free by the death of Edward Hinchcliffe should be sequestered into the hands of the master and applied ‘to such uses as we shall appoint, any custom or constitution of our said college to the contrary’ (ib. p. 110). In April in this year mass was held in the master's lodging, and on 3 May 1686 the master and three others were granted a royal license and dispensation ‘to absent themselves from church, common prayer, and from taking the oaths of supremacy and allegiance,’ and under the same authority were empowered to travel to London and Westminster, and to come and remain in the presence of the queen consort and queen dowager. This curious dispensation was effected by immediate warrant signed by the solicitor-general, as it could not have been safely passed under the privy seal (, Diary, ed. Bray, iii. 21). In the same month Walker was also granted a license to print for twenty-one years a list of thirty-seven Roman catholic works, the only restriction being that the sale in any one year was not to exceed twenty thousand, and a private press for this purpose was erected in the college in the following year. He was also able at this time to exercise influence over the printing operations of the university; for under the will of Dr. Fell, who died on 10 July 1686, the patent of printing granted by Charles II was made over to Walker and two others (Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 692). A chapel for public use was opened in the college on 15 Aug. 1686, rooms on the ground floor of the east side of the quadrangle, ‘in the entry leading from the quad on the right hand,’ being appropriated for the purpose; and the sequestered fellowship was applied for the maintenance of a priest, a Jesuit named Wakeman (, Annals of University College). On the occasion of the king's visit to Oxford in September 1687, Walker (who had been created a J.P. for the county of Oxford, 7 July 1687) gave a public entertainment in the college, and James was present at vespers in the new chapel. Walker was consulted by the king as to the appointment of a new president of Magdalen; his sympathy was entirely with the sovereign, nothing, in his view, being plainer ‘than yt he who makes us corporations hath power also to unmake us’ (, Magdalen College and James II, pp. 94, 237). By this expression of opinion and his general conduct his unpopularity was greatly increased, ‘popery being the aversion of town and university’ (ib.) In January 1688 the traders in the town complained of ‘the scholars being frighted away because of popery,’ and, says Wood, ‘Obadiah Walker has the curses of all both great and small’ (, Life, iii. 209). The master, however, boldly pursued his course, and in February 1688 erected the king's statue over the inside of the college gate (ib. iii. 194). By means of correspondence he attempted this year to convert his old friend and pupil, Dr. John Radcliffe [q. v.] In a final letter (written 22 May 1688) to the doctor, whom he was quite unable to convince, Walker declared that he had only been confirmed in his profession of faith by reading Tillotson's book on the real presence, in deference to Radcliffe's wishes, and in the same letter he speaks of ‘that faith which, after many years of adhering to a contrary persuasion, I have through God's mercy embraced’ (, Memoirs of Dr. Radcliffe, ed. 1715, p. 18). The young wits of Christ Church were the authors of the following doggerel catch, which by their order was sung by ‘a poor natural’ at the master's door: Oh, old Obadiah, Sing Ave Maria, But so will not I a   for why a    I had rather be a fool than a knave a (Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. vii. 200). Four days after the arrival of the Prince of Orange, Walker left Oxford, and before leaving moved his books and ‘bar'd up his door next the street’ (, Life and Times, vol. iii. 9 Nov. 1688). His intention was to follow the king abroad, but on 11 Dec. he was stopped and arrested at Sittingbourne, in the company of Gifford, bishop of Madura, and Poulton, master of the school in the Savoy. The refugees were first committed to Maidstone gaol, and then conveyed to London and imprisoned in the Tower. On this event a somewhat scurrilous pamphlet was published in Oxford, entitled ‘A Dialogue between Father Gifford, the Popish President of Maudlin, and Obadiah Walker, on their new college preferment in Newgate.’ Meantime the vice-chancellor and the visitors of University College, having received a complaint from the fellows, met on 27 Jan. 1688–9, and agreed to summon the fellows


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352 great liberties with the truth, for decidedly some of the statements to be found in his book would have done credit to Baron Munchausen. According to this former British Minister, people under the influence of a narcotic, having every semblance of death, were buried; they were afterward taken out of their graves, revived, and then really killed, some portions of the mutilated corpses being carried away to be eaten.

With the customs prevalent in Haiti for the preparation of a dead body for burial it is absolutely impossible for any one to be buried alive. A person in a state of coma could not possibly remain alive after undergoing the treatment inflicted on the corpses in the preparation for burial; and the dead bodies of the rich as well as those of the poor are treated in the same way. The corpse is first thoroughly washed and afterward a large quantity of chloride of lime or of some powerful antiseptic is poured down the throat; the nostrils and the mouth are then filled up with cotton or some antiseptic stuff. The respiratory organs being thus stopped, one has very little chance to return to life should death be only apparent. The corpse is exposed to public view and is after a while enclosed in a coffin in the presence of the family and friends of the deceased. Upon arriving at the cemetery the coffin is placed in the grave, which is closely covered with earth, or else sealed in a vault. An important fact to bear in mind is that according to Haitian laws no burial can take place before the expiration of twenty-four hours from the moment of death. Who will now believe that a person who has swallowed a large quantity of a powerful antiseptic, whose nostrils and mouth have been firmly stopped, and who, in this state, lies exposed to public view for a whole day or a whole night, is afterward enclosed in a coffin and buried under six feet of earth or else sealed in a vault—who will believe that such a person can retain life for a few hours even after being buried! Such a


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 CUSTOMS CONNECTED WITH DEATH AND BURIAL AMONG THE ROUMANIANS. BY MRS. A. MURGOCI (Read before the Society, April 16th. 1919.) following account of customs connected with death and burial among the Roumanians is derived from three sources :

1. My own observations during eleven years’ residence both in town and country in Roumania—I have come in contact with at least the most ordinary customs.

2. My husband’s observations during a life-time of travel in all the countries inhabited by Roumanians, including Bessarabia, where he was doing geological work in 1917 and 1918.

3. T. Stratilesco’s book, From Carpathian to Pindus, to which I shall refer as “S.” In this is found a description of many customs as well known to us as to all Roumanians, and some which neither my husband nor myself has seen.

The subject is of special interest at present because of the great number of deaths during the war, and the inability of relations to perform the customary rites. This is to the peasant one of the greatest tragedies of the war.

The attitude of the Roumanian peasant towards death is not one of great fear; he talks quite calmly of “when I shut my eyes,” and is even inclined to welcome the rest after his long toil. Care is taken that the proper arrangements for a fitting death are made, but the state of mind at death is not supposed to have any influence on the eternal future. There is a great deal of fatalism in the attitude both towards death and any other misfortune. It

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90 comes in an evil hour, “ceasul rău,” or it happened, “S’a întâmplat.” Death, however does not always come unexpectedly. It may be foretold by the howling of dogs near the verandah, by the hooting of owls in the chimney, by a falling star, even by the falling of a lamp or the spilling of the oil (S. page 289).

The attitude of the Roumanian middle class towards death is often one of abject terror. Descended from peasants at most a generation or two back, the middle class represents the extreme reaction against the physical hardness of peasant life, and its members consider that effort, exertion and contact with the elemental facts of life are to be avoided whenever possible.

In sickness the patient, to whatever class he may belong, thinks that death may not be far off. The conception even of sickness is primitive. If a person is able to go about and do any work, he is well; if he is confined to bed, even with the most trivial complaint, he is ill and in danger of death. Accordingly, even when a patient’s life is in real danger, doctors will not in general tell him the truth for fear of further alarming him. I know of tubercular patients who were given no chance of recovery because they were not warned of the seriousness of their condition. In Bucharest, Kalinderu, a very rich man, administrator of the Royal Domains, died without a will, because his doctor would not tell him that his life was in danger. He had meant to leave a museum to the nation and legacies for public objects; but in the absence of a will, his nephew inherited everything, though it was eventually arranged that the nation should have the museum.

The peasant when ill does not send for a doctor, but for a “baba,” an old woman who tries to cure him by charms and incantations. The belief in the power of the “baba” to cause and cure all sorts of misfortunes, quarrels and curses is universal among the Roumanian peasants. Once I scolded my cook’s daughter severely for carelessness in

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Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Zouave

ZOUAVE, a soldier belonging to the light infantry corps of the French army, which were organized in Algeria soon after the conquest of that country in 1830, and were originally intended to be composed exclusively of the Kabyle tribe. This idea, however, was soon abandoned, and since 1840 the corps has been composed almost entirely of French soldiers, recruited from the veterans of ordinary line regiments, who are distinguished for their fine physique and tried courage. They still, however, retain the picturesque dress originally adopted, consisting of a loose dark-blue jacket and waistcoat, baggy Turkish trousers, yellow leather leggins, white gaiters, a sky-blue sash, and a red fez with yellow tassel. The few corps composed of Algerines still connected with the French army are now known as Turcos. The name was also given to several regiments which served on the side of the North in the American Civil War, but these were only distinguished from the other volunteer regiments by their picturesque uniform.


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Page:Haiti- Her History and Her Detractors.djvu/389

Rh would be as miraculous as that of Lazarus. Yet St. John finds such a course not only quite natural, but he affirms that the resuscitated person is so much alive that he is killed afterward; and this is the fairy tale he wished to lead his readers to believe! With regard to the flesh of corpses which, according to the detractors of Haiti, is eagerly sought after, it suffices to have an idea of the tropical climate to be at once convinced of the impossibility of this loathsome idea and of the risk which those who would indulge in such practises would run. The intense heat of the Antilles is not long in decomposing dead bodies, and ptomaine would have quickly rid Haiti of the ghouls who would feed on them. In Haiti, as in France and in the United States, there are from time to time desecrations of graves. But cannibalism is not the motive for these occasional profanations; robbery, in Haiti as elsewhere, is the leading motive of such abominable crimes. The Haitians are accustomed to bury their dead in their finest apparel, the common people especially considering it their duty to clothe the dead in entirely new garments, from the shoes to the gloves. Some beggarly scoundrel who is in tatters will not scruple to strip a corpse of its clothes; and in order to conceal one crime he commits another by mutilating the body, thus provoking all kinds of superstitious conjectures. "At Jacmel," says Spenser St. John, "they found the cover of a coffin broken to pieces, the corpse resting on its side, an eye and a part of the face and the hair, and doubtless other parts of the body, carried away. The shoes had also been removed." Were he not so bent upon making out that the Haitians are cannibals, St. John might have seen in the removal of the shoes, and doubtless of other parts of the dead man's apparel,