text:
Bat Masterson

Bartholemew William Barclay "Bat" Masterson (November 26, 1853 – October 25, 1921) was a U.S. Army scout, lawman, professional gambler, and journalist known for his exploits in the late 19th and early 20th-century American Old West. He was born to a working-class Irish family in Quebec, but he moved to the Western frontier as a young man and quickly distinguished himself as a buffalo hunter, civilian scout, and Indian fighter on the Great Plains. He later earned fame as a gunfighter and sheriff in Dodge City, Kansas, during which time he was involved in several notable shootouts.

By the mid-1880s, Masterson had moved to Denver, Colorado and established himself as a "sporting man" or gambler. He took an interest in prizefighting and became a leading authority on the sport, attending almost every important match and title fight in the United States from the 1880s until his death in 1921. He moved to New York City in 1902 and spent the rest of his life there as a reporter and columnist for The Morning Telegraph. His column covered boxing and other sports, and it frequently gave his opinions on crime, war, politics, and other topics, as well. He became a close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt and was one of the "White House Gunfighters" who received federal appointments from Roosevelt, along with Pat Garrett and Ben Daniels.

By the time of his death in 1921, Masterson was known throughout the country as a leading sports writer and celebrity. He is remembered today for his connection to many of the Wild West's most iconic people, places, and events, and his life and likeness are frequently depicted in American popular culture.

Early life
Masterson was born on November 26, 1853, at Henryville, Quebec, in the Eastern Townships of what was then known as Canada East. He was baptized under the name Bartholomew Masterson. Masterson was the second child of Thomas Masterson (or Mastersan), who was born in Canada to an Irish family, and Catherine McGurk (or McGureth), who was born in Ireland. The other six Masterson children were Edward John (1852–1878), James Patrick (1855–1895), Nellie E. (1857–1925), Thomas (1858–1941), George Henry (1860–1889), and Emma Anna "Minnie" (1862–1884). The children were raised on farms in Quebec, New York, Illinois, and Missouri until the family finally settled near Wichita, Kansas.

Move to the frontier
In his late teens, Masterson and his brothers Ed and Jim left their family's farm to hunt buffalo on the Great Plains. In July 1872, Ed and Bat Masterson were hired by a subcontractor named Raymond Ritter to grade a five-mile section of track for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. Ritter skipped out without paying the Masterson brothers all of the wages to which they were entitled.

It took Masterson nearly a year, but he finally collected his overdue wages from Ritter, at gunpoint. On April 15, 1873, Masterson learned that Ritter was due to arrive in Dodge City, Kansas, aboard a Santa Fe train and that Ritter was carrying a large roll of cash. When Ritter's train pulled in, Masterson entered the car alone and confronted him and marched him out onto the rear platform of the train, where he forced him to hand over the $300 owed to him, his brother Ed, and a friend named Theodore Raymond. A loud cheer then went up from a large crowd which had witnessed the event.

Battle of Adobe Walls
Masterson was once again engaged in buffalo hunting on June 27, 1874, when he became an involuntary participant in one of the Wild West's most celebrated Indian fights: a five-day siege by several hundred Comanche, Kiowa and Cheyenne warriors led by Quanah Parker at a collection of ramshackle buildings in the Texas panhandle known as Adobe Walls. Masterson was one of only 28 hunters who defended the outpost during the attack. The Comanche suffered the most losses during the battle, though the actual number killed is not known, with reports ranging from a low of 30 to a high of 70. The defenders of Adobe Walls lost only four men, one of whom shot himself by accident. After being fought to a standstill, Quanah Parker and his followers rode off.

In August 1874, Masterson signed on as a U.S. Army scout with Colonel Nelson Miles, who was leading a force from Fort Dodge to pursue Comanche and Apache war parties across the Cherokee Strip and into Texas. The force was eventually engaged to recover four sisters—ranging in age from 9 to 15—who had been captured by a group of Cheyenne Dog Soldiers. The sisters were part of a family that had been attacked outside of Ellis, Kansas, on September 11, 1874, while migrating to Colorado Territory. Their parents, brother, and two older sisters had been killed and scalped. All four sisters were recovered alive by Miles' force over a period of about six months.

Gunfighter and lawman
Masterson's first gunfight took place on January 24, 1876, in Sweetwater, Texas (later Mobeetie in Wheeler County). He was attacked by a soldier, Corporal Melvin A. King (real name Anthony Cook) allegedly because he was with a woman named Mollie Brennan. Brennan was hit by one of King's bullets, possibly by accident, and was killed. King died of his wounds. Masterson was shot in the pelvis but recovered. This is the reason why he used a cane. The cane would become one of his famous trademarks.

Dodge City
Masterson soon settled in Dodge City. On June 6, 1877, Masterson tried to prevent the arrest of Robert Gilmore, who was known to the locals as "Bobby Gill." Masterson managed to wrap his arms about the girth of the 315 pound city marshal, Lawrence Edward "Larry" Deger, thereby permitting Gill to escape. Masterson was grabbed by friends of Deger and pistol-whipped by the lawman. The following day, Masterson was fined $25 for disturbing the peace. Bobby Gill, the cause of Masterson's fine, was assessed only $5.

During July 1877, Masterson was hired to serve as under-sheriff to Sheriff Charles E. Bassett. Bassett was prohibited by the Kansas State Constitution from seeking a third consecutive term. With the job up for grabs, Masterson decided to run for the office. Masterson's opponent turned out to be Larry Deger. On November 6, 1877, Masterson was elected county sheriff of Ford County, Kansas, by the narrow margin of three votes. Within a month of Masterson's election, on December 6, 1877, Ed Masterson replaced Larry Deger as city marshal of Dodge, so together the Masterson brothers controlled the city and county police forces.

On February 1, 1878, Sheriff Masterson captured the notorious outlaws Dave Rudabaugh and Ed West, who were wanted for an attempted train robbery. Two more of the train robbers were caught by Bat and brother Ed on March 15. The tandem law enforcement effort came to an abrupt end, however, when 25-year-old City Marshal Ed Masterson was shot and killed in the line of duty on April 9, 1878. Ed Masterson was mortally wounded by a cowboy named Jack Wagner, who was unaware that Bat Masterson was in the vicinity. As Ed stumbled away from the scene, Bat Masterson responded from across the street, firing on both Wagner and Wagner's boss, Alf Walker—who was holding a gun. Wagner died the next day, but Walker was taken back to Texas and recovered. The local newspapers were ambiguous about who shot Wagner and Walker, and this led some later historians to question whether Bat Masterson was involved. However, the rediscovery of two court cases in which Bat Masterson testified under oath that he had shot both men adds credence to the idea that Bat had avenged his brother.

More violence followed on October 4, 1878, when a variety actress named Dora Hand, known professionally as "Fannie Keenan," was shot and killed by James Kenedy, son of the wealthy Texas cattleman, Miflin Kenedy. Masterson's posse, which included Wyatt Earp and Bill Tilghman, captured Kenedy the following day after Masterson shot him in the left arm, and other posse members killed his horse.

Royal Gorge Railroad War
Santa Fe Railroad officials had wired Sheriff Bat Masterson asking him to recruit men to battle the forces of the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad, which were contesting the right-of-way through the Royal Gorge near Pueblo, Colorado. As a sheriff in Kansas, Masterson had no authority in Colorado, but this did not prevent him from enlisting a large company of men. Among Masterson's recruits were such noted gunmen as Ben Thompson, "Mysterious Dave" Mather, John Joshua Webb, and possibly Doc Holliday. The end of Masterson's involvement came on June 12, 1879, when he surrendered a roundhouse his men were holding at Cañon City, Colorado. The "war" between the railroads was finally settled out of court. Masterson's Colorado activities did not go over well with the voters of Ford County, Kansas. On November 4, 1879, a bartender named George T. Hinkel defeated Masterson in his re-election bid for sheriff by a vote of 404 to 268.

Billy Thompson and Buffalo Bill Cody
The 1880 Dodge City census shows that, at that time, Masterson was living with Annie Ladue, age 19 (described as his "concubine"). City Marshal James Masterson, Bat's younger brother, was listed on the same census as living with Minnie Roberts, age 16. Not long after this census was taken, Bat Masterson received a telegram from Ben Thompson asking Bat to save Ben's troublesome brother, Billy Thompson, from almost certain lynching in Ogallala, Nebraska. Billy Thompson had shot the thumb off a man named Tucker, who, despite missing a digit, managed to fire back and seriously wound Billy. Masterson took Billy Thompson out of Ogallala by a midnight train bound for North Platte, Nebraska. In North Platte, Masterson was provided with assistance by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who promptly offered to help. According to Masterson, he and Billy Thompson "were given a royal welcome and were immediately taken in charge by Colonel Cody, who found a safe place for us to remain until he could outfit us for the trip across the country to Dodge City." This episode was reported in the Dodge City Times, which noted that "W.B. Masterson arrived from a visit to Ogallala, this week. He says Nebraska is dry and many people are leaving the state. He came by wagon, and was accompanied by 'Texas Billy' Thompson. The latter has recovered from his wounds."

Battle of the plaza
Masterson spent the remainder of 1880 in Kansas City and Dodge. On February 8, 1881, he left Dodge City and joined Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona Territory, where he met Luke Short for the first time. Earp, Short, and Masterson worked as faro dealers, or "look outs", at Tombstone's Oriental Saloon. Masterson had only been in Tombstone for two months when he received an urgent telegram that compelled him to return to Dodge City. His brother Jim had a partnership with Alfred James "A.J." Peacock in Dodge City's Lady Gay Saloon and Dance Hall. Albert "Al" Updegraff was Peacock's brother-in-law and bartender. Updegraff was a drunk, and Jim thought him dishonest. Jim had demanded that Peacock fire Updegraff, but Peacock refused. Their disagreement grew until threats were made, prompting the telegram.

Masterson arrived in Dodge City on April 16, 1881, where he accosted Updegraff and Peacock. Recognizing Masterson, Updegraff and Peacock retreated behind the jail and exchanged gunfire with him. Who had fired first is not clear. Citizens ran for cover as bullets ripped through the Long Branch Saloon. Other individuals began firing in support of both sides until Updegraff was wounded. Mayor A.B. Webster arrested Masterson. Afterward, Masterson learned that his brother Jim was not in danger. Updegraff recovered from his wounds, but the shooter who hit him could not be identified, so Masterson was fined $8.00 and released. Citizens were outraged and warrants were issued, but Bat and Jim Masterson were permitted to leave Dodge City.

Bat Masterson became more widely known as a gunfighter as a result of a practical joke played on a gullible newspaper reporter in August 1881. Seeking copy in Gunnison, Colorado, the reporter asked Dr. W.S. Cockrell about man-killers. Dr. Cockrell pointed to a young man nearby and said it was Masterson and that he had killed 26 men. Cockrell then regaled the reporter with the story of Ed Masterson's death and how Bat responded fearlessly and heroically against his brother's killers. The story was published in The New York Sun newspaper in New York (November 7, 1881) and was also widely reprinted in papers all over the country. Cockrell subsequently apologized to Masterson, who insisted he was not in Gunnison at the time. Allegedly, long after he retired from being a law officer Masterson would buy old .45 six-guns and "sell" them to gullible persons as "relics" of his Gunfighting days. Ironically, Masterson did own several .45 guns during his lifetime. although (excepting fighting Indians as a Buffalo Hunter and Army scout) Masterson was only involved in four incidents in which 2 men were killed and 2 wounded.

City marshal of Trinidad, Colorado
Masterson was appointed city marshal of Trinidad, Colorado, on April 17, 1882. He had hardly settled into his $75-a-month marshal's job when Wyatt Earp requested his help to prevent the extradition of Doc Holliday from Colorado to Arizona. Masterson took his case directly to Colorado Governor Frederick W. Pitkin, who listened to Masterson's appeal and finally refused to grant Holliday's extradition. However, Masterson's rescue of Doc Holliday, as well as his nightly "moonlighting" as a faro dealer, spelled doom for his career as city marshal of Trinidad. On March 28, 1883, a local paper noted: "There are now two 'bankers' running for city offices—Mr. Taylor of the Las Animas County Bank, and Mr. Masterson of the bank of 'Fair O.' Both have a large number of depositors—one of time depositors and the other receives his deposits for keeps." On April 3, 1883, Masterson was defeated by a lopsided vote of 637 to 248.

Dodge City War
Masterson's term as city marshal of Trinidad ended just in time for him to come to the aid of his friend, Luke Short, who had been run out of Dodge City by the mayor and Masterson's long-time enemy, Larry Deger. Within weeks, a group of gunfighters recruited by Masterson and Earp descended upon Dodge City to resolve what became known as the "Dodge City War." The result of this gathering reinstated Luke Short in Dodge. Before disbanding on June 10, 1883, Short, Masterson, Earp, and five other notable men from frontier history posed for a group portrait that was soon labeled "The Dodge City Peace Commission." The photo became an iconic image of the Old West.

First attempt at journalism
Masterson was back in Dodge City on November 1, 1884, where he issued a small newspaper called Vox Populi which was devoted to local political issues. Three days after its appearance, he received a flattering—and prophetic—review of his journalistic effort from another Dodge City paper which observed: "We are in receipt of the first number of Vox Populi, W.B. Masterson, editor, which in appearance is very neat and tidy. The news and statements it contains seem to be of a somewhat personal nature. The editor is very promising; if he survives the first week of his literary venture, there is no telling what he may accomplish in the journalistic field." Editor Masterson did not survive his first week. Vox Populi folded after printing just one issue and almost another 20 years would pass before he made journalism a full-time profession in New York City.

Denver
Masterson finally left Dodge City and made Denver, Colorado, his center of interest, where he soon became involved in a divorce scandal. The trouble began in a Denver theater on September 18, 1886, when a comedian named Lou Spencer, who was performing on stage, spotted his wife, Nellie, seated in the audience on Masterson's knee. Spencer cut short his routine and confronted Masterson, who hit Spencer across the face with his pistol. Nellie Spencer watched from the wings while the two men slugged it out. Finally, they were arrested, fined, and released a short time later. In its account of the incident, the Rocky Mountain News described Masterson as one "who pleases the ladies", and Nellie McMahon Spencer as "a beautiful woman, with a fine wardrobe and a sweet voice." Three days later, Nellie filed for divorce and the Denver papers were quick to report that Nellie had "eloped" with Masterson. No record has been found of the two ever getting married, and she soon disappeared from Masterson's life.

Masterson dealt faro for "Big Ed" Chase at the Arcade gambling house. In 1888, he managed and then purchased the Palace Variety Theater. There, Masterson probably first met an Indian club swinger and singer, Emma Moulton. The pair subsequently lived together and they were widely reported to have married in Denver on November 21, 1891. The only known source for that date was given by Masterson's brother, Thomas Masterson, years after Bat had died. Emma was not divorced from her first husband, Edwin Winford Moulton, until November 9, 1893. When they were later enumerated in the 1910 U.S. Census, Bat and Emma claimed that they had been married for 17 years, suggesting a marriage date of 1893. Masterson's biographer has raised the possibility that they were married on November 21, 1893, two weeks after Emma's divorce from Edwin Moulton. The two were traveling through the eastern states at that time, but an actual marriage record has not been found.

It was in Denver that Masterson met and began a long-term friendship with the infamous confidence man and crime boss Soapy Smith. In 1889, the two were involved in election scandal involving fraudulent registration ballot casting.

Prizefighting
Masterson maintained an interest in prizefighting and other sports, and was known as a frequent attendee at boxing matches across the country. He frequently placed bets on the fights and occasionally served in an official capacity as a second or a timekeeper. He knew—and was known by—the heavyweight champions of the era, from John L. Sullivan and James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett to Jack Johnson and Jack Dempsey. The sports-minded Masterson was ringside during the John L. Sullivan—Jake Kilrain heavyweight championship fight at Richburg, Mississippi, on July 8, 1889. He was the designated timekeeper for Kilrain and came under fire from some sources for how he handled his role. Reportedly, Masterson saw to it that Luke Short, Johnny Murphy, and "twelve other good men were scattered around the ring where they would do the most good in case of an emergency."

In early 1892 Masterson moved to the silver boom-town of Creede, Colorado where he managed the Denver Exchange gambling club until the town was destroyed by fire on June 5, 1892. On September 7, 1892, Masterson, Short, and Charlie Bassett attended the Sullivan–Corbett championship fight in New Orleans. According to a Dodge City paper, Masterson bet on the winner, Corbett, while noting, "Charlie Bassett and Luke Short were among the notables in attendance. Bassett bet his money on Sullivan." Masterson was in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 25, 1894, acting as a second for Charlie Mitchell during Mitchell's heavyweight title shot at the champion, James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett. Mitchell was knocked cold in three rounds.

Last years in Denver
Masterson moved to New York City in 1895 to briefly serve as a bodyguard for millionaire George Gould. He wrote to his Denver friends glowing accounts of fishing trips "...with the Goulds on their yacht..." and announced his intention to remain in New York City indefinitely. On June 6, 1895, a Denver paper quoted a friend of Masterson's, who observed that "Bat has at last fallen into a dead easy game."

Masterson returned to Denver for several more years. On April 6, 1897, serving as a deputy sheriff of Arapahoe County, he got into a dispute on election day with a Tim Connors. Masterson drew his pistol and Connors attempted to seize it. During the scuffle, the gun discharged and C.C. Louderbaugh was shot in the left wrist.

On April 9, 1899, Masterson became a partner in a boxing club called the Colorado Athletic Association. Within a few days, Masterson was excluded from the organization by his partners. Masterson retaliated on April 18 by founding a rival club, the Olympic, with himself as president. Masterson received favorable media coverage from a Denver newspaper called George's Weekly, where he was employed as sports editor.

In September 1900, Masterson sold his interest in the Olympic Athletic Club and made another visit to New York City. Masterson had decided to settle in New York City, but had a sudden change of heart and returned to Denver, with humiliating results. Two conflicting versions are given for what caused his final departure from Denver. Masterson's story was that an irate woman belted him with an umbrella on May 2, 1902, when she took exception to an "undesirable" such as Masterson trying to cast his ballot at a local election. An alternative version states that Masterson had become a dangerous drunk who was run out of Denver for being a public nuisance. Whatever actually happened, Masterson left Denver and never returned.

Journalism career
Masterson and Emma moved to New York City on June 5, 1902. The next day, Masterson was having his shoes shined at a public stand when police swooped in and arrested a West Coast gambler named James A. Sullivan, who was standing nearby. They took Masterson, too, alleging he was part of a bunco scheme to fleece a Mormon elder named George H. Snow out of $16,000. Masterson also had a concealed revolver. The bunco charge was dismissed. Masterson paid a $10 fine for the concealed weapon. About his arrest, Masterson complained to a reporter, "This fellow Gargan who arrested me is a warm baby—in his mind. He thinks all people are suckers. That's the trouble with these mush-headed coppers. Give them a political job to keep from starving and they think they own the earth."

A friend, journalist, Alfred Henry Lewis, persuaded his brother, William Lewis, to provide Masterson with employment as a columnist for William's newspaper, the New York Morning Telegraph. His column, "Masterson's Views on Timely Topics," concerned sports in general and boxing in particular. The column appeared thrice weekly from 1903 until his death in 1921. In 1905, Alfred Henry Lewis published The Sunset Trail, a fictionalized biography of Masterson.

Lewis encouraged Masterson to write a series of sketches about his adventures, which were published by Lewis in Human Life magazine. In 1907, Masterson provided five biographical studies of Ben Thompson, Wyatt Earp, Luke Short, Doc Holliday and Bill Tilghman.

Masterson explained to his audience what he felt were the best properties of a gunfighter. Other articles were supposed to be in Masterson's Human Life series, which had appeared under the title of "Famous Gun Fighters of the Western Frontier", but the next three issues of Human Life came and went without a Masterson article. In the November 1907 issue, editor Alfred Henry Lewis assured the readers that Masterson would resume the series by explaining that Masterson's reasons for "breaking off the output" were "wholly of an idle, indolent, midsummer sort, which the managers of this magazine hope to overthrow so soon as a cooler temperature comes to the assistance of their arguments." Lewis offered this apology as part of his own article called "The King of the Gun-Players: William Barclay Masterson." Lewis met with only limited success. Masterson provided only one more article, on Buffalo Bill Cody, which was his final Human Life contribution.

Concurrent to his career as a newspaper writer, Masterson served as the timekeeper for many prize fights, most notably for the Jack Johnson—Jess Willard title fight in Havana, Cuba, on April 5, 1915. A newsreel featuring the then 61-year-old Masterson's introduction in that role was included in a documentary called Legendary Champions 1882–1929.

Presidential appointment
Alfred Henry Lewis introduced Masterson to President Theodore Roosevelt, and the two formed a friendship that resulted in Masterson being a frequent White House guest and also included regular correspondence. President Roosevelt arranged for Masterson's appointment as deputy U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York. On February 2, 1905, Roosevelt wrote Masterson a letter which concluded with the lines: "You must be careful not to gamble or do anything while you are a public officer which might afford opportunity to your enemies and my critics to say that your appointment was improper. I wish you to show this letter to Alfred Henry Lewis and go over the matter with him." Masterson served in the position, earning $2,000 per year (equal to $ today), until 1909. Theodore Roosevelt did not seek a third term in 1908, and his successor, William Howard Taft, did not share Roosevelt's enthusiasm for Masterson. President Taft had his attorney general conduct an investigation of Masterson's employment as a deputy U.S. Marshal, which resulted in Masterson being terminated on August 1, 1909. For the remaining 12 years of his life, Masterson covered the major boxing events of that era for the New York Morning Telegraph.

On April 5, 1915, the 61-year-old Masterson was in Havana, Cuba, attending the heavyweight championship fight between Jack Johnson and Jess Willard. As he arrived, he posed for a newsreel cameraman. In the brief film clip, he doffs his hat, smiles for the camera, and dons his hat. Later that day, in the official film of the fight, Masterson can be seen as one of the seconds for Jess Willard, climbing through the ropes just prior to the fight.

Final days
On July 2, 1921, Masterson attended his last heavyweight championship fight, the so-called "Million Dollar Gate", promoted by George "Tex" Rickard, in which Jack Dempsey defended (and retained) his title of heavyweight champion of the world. Three months later, on October 7, silent-screen cowboy star William S. Hart visited Masterson. They were photographed standing together on the roof of the New York Morning Telegraph building and went back to Masterson's office where he asked Hart to sit in his chair and pose for a second photo with him. According to Hart: "I did so, and he stood beside me. Mr. Masterson was sitting in that same chair eighteen days later when he heard the last call." Hart subsequently cast a lookalike as Masterson in his biographical film Wild Bill Hickok, which was released in 1923.

Death and burial
On October 25, 1921, at age 67, Masterson died at his desk from a massive heart attack after writing what became his final column for the Morning Telegraph.

His last column included this statement "I suppose these ginks who argue that ... because the rich man gets ice in the summer and the poor man gets it in the winter, things are breaking even for both. Maybe so, but I'll swear I can't see it that way."

About 500 people attended Masterson's service at Frank E. Campbell's Funeral Church at Broadway and 66th Street. Masterson's honorary pallbearers included Damon Runyon, Tex Rickard, and William Lewis. Runyon was a close friend of Masterson's and offered this memorable eulogy: "He was a 100 percent, 22-karat real man. Bat was a good hater and a wonderful friend. He was always stretching out his hand to some down-and-outer. He had a great sense of humor and a marvelous fund of reminiscence, and was one of the most entertaining companions we have ever known. There are only too few men in the world like Bat Masterson and his death is a genuine loss."

Masterson was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. His first name, Bartholemew, does not appear on his gravestone, which is inscribed "William Barclay Masterson" (see photo), appears above his epitaph on the large granite grave marker. Masterson's epitaph states that he was "Loved by Everyone".

In popular culture
Masterson's life has been portrayed in countless works of fiction and non-fiction in film, television, literature, and other popular media.

Novels and comic books

 * Eleven years after Masterson's death, a collection of Damon Runyon's short stories was published under the title Guys and Dolls. These stories later formed the basis for the classic 1950 musical comedy of the same name. The central character in Runyon's Guys and Dolls was a high-rolling gambler from Colorado whom Runyon barely disguised under the name of Sky Masterson.
 * Bat Masterson, along with many other historical figures of the time, is a character in the novel The Buntline Special (2010) by Mike Resnick.
 * Dell Comics published a short-lived comic book based on the television series. The first issue was published as Four Color Comics #1013, followed by Bat Masterson #2–9 (1960–1962). All the issues had photographic covers. The stories were scripted by Gaylord DuBois.
 * The 1986 novel The Ham Reporter by Robert J. Randisi features Bat Masterson as an investigating newspaperman.
 * The comic series The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck by Don Rosa portrayed Masterson alongside Wyatt Earp, Soapy Smith, and hanging Judge Roy Bean.
 * The 2011 novel The Gunsmith #351 (The Trial of Bat Masterson) by Robert J. Randisi describes a time in which fictional character Clint Adams comes to the aid of his friend Bat Masterson, who has been wrongly accused of murder and is being pursued by the "victim's" brother. Many references are made to Masterson as one of Adams' closest friends throughout the series.
 * The 2015 novel And the Wind Whispered by Dan Jorgensen features Bat Masterson as one of the key characters in a book set in 1894 Hot Springs, South Dakota. In it, he joins forces with famed reporter Nellie Bly and Sheriff Seth Bullock to help thwart an outlaw gang's incursion on the city and attempts to rob visiting (and vacationing) dignitaries in the southern Black Hills community.

Film

 * Albert Dekker portrayed Bat Masterson in the 1943 film The Woman of the Town.
 * Randolph Scott portrayed Masterson in the 1947 film Trail Street.
 * Steve Darrell portrayed Masterson (uncredited) in the 1950 film Winchester 73.
 * Frank Ferguson portrayed Masterson in the 1951 film Santa Fe.
 * George Montgomery portrayed Masterson in the 1954 film Masterson of Kansas.
 * Keith Larsen portrayed Masterson in the 1955 film Wichita.
 * Kenneth Tobey portrayed Masterson in the 1957 film Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
 * Joel McCrea portrayed Masterson in the 1959 film The Gunfight at Dodge City.
 * Tom Sizemore portrayed Masterson in the 1994 movie Wyatt Earp.
 * Matt Dallas portrayed Masterson in the 2012 film Wyatt Earp's Revenge.

Television

 * Mason Alan Dinehart III played Masterson from 1955 to 1959 in 34 episodes of the ABC Western series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, starring Hugh O'Brian in the title role.
 * Bat Masterson was a U.S. television series loosely based on the historical character. Masterson was portrayed by Gene Barry. Bat Masterson aired on NBC in 108 episodes from October 8, 1958, to June 1, 1961, and featured Masterson as a superbly dressed gambler, generally outfitted in a black suit and derby hat, who was more inclined to "bat" crooks over the head with his gold-knobbed cane than shoot them. Hundreds of thousands of plastic derby hats and canes were sold as children's toys during the show's run.
 * Animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera satirized Masterson in a 1964 Punkin' Puss and Mushmouse cartoon, "Bat Mouseterson", in which Mushmouse's city-dwelling, cane-wielding cousin comes to hill country for a visit and teaches Mushmouse the gentleman's way of warding off Punkin' Puss.
 * Richard Beale portrayed Bat Masterson in the 1966 Doctor Who serial The Gunfighters, which depicts the events leading to and including the famous O.K. Corral gunfight.
 * A character called "Bat Masterson" appears in the 1980s Western series Bordertown in the episode "Nebraska Lightning", where he helps the fictional characters U.S. Marshal Jack Craddock and Canadian Northwest Mountie Corporal Clive Bennett take on the Nebraska Lightning Gang.
 * In one episode of Beakman's World, Beakman portrayed himself in a short film as Masterson when teaching about how actors do not injure themselves when doing things that are meant to cause injury.
 * Gene Barry reprised his role as Masterson in the episode "A Gathering of Guns" (1987) on the television series Guns of Paradise (Hugh O'Brian also reprised his role as Wyatt Earp).
 * A man claiming to be Bat Masterson, portrayed by Philip Bosco and credited as Mike Killabrew, appears in the series Early Edition in a 1997 episode titled "Bat Masterson".
 * A character called Bat Masterson, portrayed by Steven Ogg, appears in the 2014 Murdoch Mysteries episode "Glory Days", going to Toronto in pursuit of famous outlaws and clashing with the local constabulary's style of investigation.
 * A character called Bat Masterson is played by Matthew Le Nevez in the 2015 Lifetime TV series, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles, a counter-history to the legend of Lizzie Borden.
 * Bat Masterson is played by Jack Elliott in the 2021 INSP TV series Wild West Chronicles, a retelling of true stories behind the West's incredible events.

Gaming

 * In the 2004 video game Red Dead Revolver, the character of Jack Swift is based on Bat Masterson.
 * In Sidewinder: Wild West Adventures, both original quotations and fictional quotations attributed to Bat Masterson are used throughout the rulebook.
 * Bat Masterson is used as a non-player character in Pirate101.
 * Bat Masterson makes an appearance as a railroad manager in Railroad Tycoon 2 and Railroad Tycoon 3. As the railroad's chairman, a player can choose to employ him and enjoy a lower incidence rate of costly train robberies while Masterson is employed.

Theater

 * Masterson plays an important role in the play Bat Masterson's Creede, a play written by Tony Clark about Masterson and the important role he played in the silver boomtown of Creede, Colorado.

title: Bat Masterson


text:
User talk:LJP~enwiki

Luke, this is your talk page. Here other people (or you) can talk about you. Article pages have talk pages too. If there are things that people have written that you want to ask them about instead of just changing it you can do that in the talk page. Other times, the talk pages are used as forums for discussing what a particular article should be like, especially for controversially articles about which people argue. Remember in writing articles to try to take the stance of NPOV (neutral point of view). --Esrogs 00:20, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

By the welcome message above you'll need tips. And they are above. General Eisenhower 01:57, 29 April 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called LJP. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name LJP~enwiki that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name. If you think you might own all of the accounts with this name and this message is in error, please visit Special:MergeAccount to check and attach all of your accounts to prevent them from being renamed.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 01:15, 20 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 15:13, 22 April 2015 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: User talk:LJP~enwiki


text:
Agnes Nixon

Agnes Nixon ( Eckhardt; December 10, 1922 – September 28, 2016) was an American television writer and producer, and the creator of the ABC soap operas One Life to Live, All My Children, as well as Loving and its spin-off ''The City.

Nixon's work as producer and writer expanded storylines for American daytime television – the first health-related storyline, the first storyline related to the Vietnam War, as well as both the first televised lesbian kiss and abortion. She won five Writers' Guild of America Awards, five Daytime Emmy Awards, and in 2010, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Nixon was often referred to as the "Queen of The Modern American Soap Opera".

Early years
Nixon was born Agnes Eckhardt on December 10, 1922, in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Agnes Patricia (née Dalton) and Harry Joseph Eckhardt. She attended Northwestern University, where she was a member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. She began her career in soaps working for Irna Phillips. Under her tutelage, Nixon was a writer on Woman in White and As the World Turns, and was head writer for Search for Tomorrow, Guiding Light, and Another World.

During her time on Guiding Light, Nixon is believed to have written the first health-related storyline on a daytime soap opera. A friend of Nixon's had died from cervical cancer, and Nixon wanted to do something to educate women about getting a pap smear. She wrote it into Guiding Light by having the lead character, Bert Bauer, experience a cancer scare. The storyline aired in 1962. In 2002, she was the inaugural recipient of the Pioneer for Health Award from Sentinel for Health for her work on the episode.

One Life to Live
By the mid-1960s, Nixon had created a blueprint for what would become All My Children. CBS executives passed on the program, due to contractual issues with sponsor Lever Brothers, who sponsored a program that All My Children would replace in its time slot. Later ABC asked her to create a show that would reflect a more "contemporary" tone; that creation was One Life to Live. Nixon, "tired of the restraints imposed by the WASPy, non-controversial nature of daytime drama", presented the network with a startlingly original premise and cast of characters. Although the show was built along the classic soap formula of a rich family (the Lords) and a poor family (the Woleks), One Life to Live emphasized the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of the people of Llanview, Pennsylvania, a fictional Main Line suburb of Philadelphia."

Premiering in 1968, One Life to Live reflected changing social structures and attitudes. The first few years of the show were rich in issue stories and characters including a Jewish character (Dave Siegel), an Irish American family (the Rileys), and some of the first African American leading roles in soap operas with Sadie Gray (Lillian Hayman), Carla Gray (Ellen Holly) and Ed Hall (Al Freeman Jr.). Carla's story, for example, had her develop from a character who was passing as white to one who embodied black pride, with white and black lovers along the way, to antagonize racists. One Life to Live has been called "the most peculiarly American of soap operas: the first serial to present a vast array of ethnic types, broad comic situations, a constant emphasis on social issues, and strong male characters."

All My Children
With the success of One Life to Live, Nixon was given the greenlight for All My Children, which began as a half-hour soap opera in 1970. The show was successful from its beginning, combining its study of social clashes with acting talent including Ruth Warrick (Phoebe Tyler) and Rosemary Prinz (Amy Tyler). Nixon helmed the writing team for over a decade, until 1983, and again introduced many social issues into storylines, including the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, homosexuality, the AIDS epidemic, and American television's first onscreen abortion.

All My Children was a half-hour show for the first seven years of its run, and virtually no recordings of those episodes survive; ABC erased the videotapes of those early episodes for their reuse. When ABC went to Nixon and said that they wanted her to expand the show to an hour in 1975, she resisted due to her own creative/quality concerns but later agreed under the condition that the tapes of the show would be archived and preserved by the network. Episodes began to be saved in 1976, and All My Children expanded to an hour on April 25, 1977.

In 1992, ABC executives decided that All My Children needed new blood and promoted a Nixon protégé, Megan McTavish, to the position of head writer. Nixon continued to be involved with the show, but wanted to take a step back from the grueling day-to-day task of being a head writer. McTavish made some important changes by re-writing major storylines and was dismissed in early 1995. Lorraine Broderick returned as head writer, working alongside Nixon to return the show to its socially relevant, character-driven roots. Broderick and Nixon went on to accept three consecutive Daytime Emmy awards for Outstanding Writing Team. Still, in late 1997, ABC abruptly decided to bring back McTavish. This move led to Nixon's electing to step back from her story consulting role.

In early 1999, McTavish was dismissed for the second time and Nixon was again asked to take over the headwriting reins at All My Children. Nixon again wove social issues into the show, by having a major character "come out". In 2000, Erica's daughter, Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), returned to Pine Valley and came out as a lesbian to her mother and to all of Pine Valley. This storyline led to All My Children's winning a casting Artios award, a GLAAD Media Award, and a nomination for a Daytime Emmy for Best Drama Series.

Loving/The City
In 1983, Nixon began another series called Loving, which she co-created with Douglas Marland. The half-hour program debuted on ABC in June of that year and was set in the fictional town of Corinth, Pennsylvania. Loving struggled to gain a foothold in a crowded daytime schedule and ended its run in 1995. Nixon was given co-creator credit for Loving's continuation series, The City. The show was cancelled in 1997 due to low ratings.

On-screen appearances
Nixon appeared in her shows on a number of occasions. In both All My Children and One Life to Live she played the character Agnes Eckhardt. She also played the characters Aggie on All My Children and Agnes Dixon on One Life to Live.

Personal life and death
She was married to Robert Henry Adolphus Nixon from April 6, 1951, until his death in 1996, and had four children. Nixon died in Haverford, Pennsylvania, on September 28, 2016, at age 93. The New York Times reported the cause of death to be "pneumonia resulting from Parkinson's disease".

Nixon's memoirs, published in 2017, was titled My Life to Live: How I Became the Queen of Soaps When Men ruled the Airwaves (ISBN 978-0-451-49823-6).

Awards and recognition

 * In 1973, she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Program Achievement in Daytime Drama for One Life to Live
 * In 1977, Nixon won Outstanding Achievement in the World of Daytime Drama at the Soapy Awards.
 * In 1981, she received the Trustees Award for Continued Excellence from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
 * In 1985, Nixon won a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series for All My Children.
 * In 1988, 1996, 1997 and 1998, Nixon's All My Children writing team won Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team at the Daytime Emmys. The team was nominated for the award on a further 12 occasions (1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012).
 * In 1992, she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
 * In 1993, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
 * In 1994, she was inducted into the Soap Opera Hall of Fame; she was the first female writer to be inducted into this hall.
 * In 1996, Nixon won the Editor's Choice Award at the Soap Opera Digest Awards.
 * Nixon won Writers Guild of America Awards for Best Written Daytime Serial in 1997,1999, 2001, 2002 and 2004. She was also nominated for the award on a further seven occasions.
 * Nixon received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences during the ceremonies of the 37th annual Daytime Emmy Awards in June 2010.

title: Agnes Nixon


text:
Quiver diagram

In theoretical physics, a quiver diagram is a graph representing the matter content of a gauge theory that describes D-branes on orbifolds. Quiver diagrams may also be used to described $\mathcal{N} = 2 $ supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions.

Each node of the graph corresponds to a factor U(N) of the gauge group, and each link represents a field in the bifundamental representation

 * $$(M,\bar{N})$$.

The relevance of quiver diagrams for string theory was pointed out and studied by Michael Douglas and Greg Moore.

While string theorists use the words quiver diagram, many of their colleagues in particle physics call these diagrams mooses.

Definition
For convenience, consider the supersymmetric $$\mathcal {N} =1$$ gauge theory in four-dimensional spacetime.

The quiver gauge theory is given by the following data:
 * Finite quiver $$Q$$
 * Each vertex $$v\in \operatorname {V} (Q) $$ corresponds to a compact Lie group $$G_{v}$$. This can be the unitary group $$U(N)$$, the special unitary group $$SU(N)$$, special orthogonal group $$SO(N)$$ or symplectic group $$USp(N)$$.
 * The gauge group is the product $$\textstyle \prod _{v\in \operatorname {V} (Q)}G_{v}$$.
 * Each edge of Q $$e\colon u\to v$$ corresponds to the defining representation $${\bar {N}}_{u}\otimes N_{v}$$. There is a corresponding superfield $$\Phi _{e}$$.

This representation is called a bifundamental representation. For example, if $$u$$ and $$v$$ corresponds to $$S U ( 2 )$$ and $$S U ( 3 )$$ then the edge corresponds to a six-dimensional representation $${\bar {\mathbf {2} }}_{\operatorname {SU} (2)}\otimes {\mathbf {3} }_{\operatorname {SU} (3)} $$

In this case, the quiver gauge theory is a four-dimensional $$\mathcal {N} =1$$ supersymmetric gauge theory. The quiver gauge theory in higher dimensions can be defined similarly.

The quiver is particularly convenient for representing conformal gauge theory. The structure of the quiver makes it easy to check whether the theory preserves conformal symmetry.

title: Quiver diagram


text:
Erhai Lake

Erhai or Er Lake, is an alpine fault lake in Dali City, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan province, China. Erhai was also known as Yeyuze or Kunming Lake  in ancient times.

Etymology
The character "洱" (er) does not have the same meaning as ear (耳). During the Han to Tang dynasty, there was an ancient ethnic named Kunming Yi or Kunming Barbarian lived in the neighbouring region of Erhai lake. Therefore, the lake was also called "Kunming Lake". The Kunming Yi has another name Kun-mi. In the following time, Chinese literature recorded the name "昆弥" as "昆弭" (Kun-mi) that "弭" is a rebus of "弥". And the name of the lake was also changed to the character "渳" (mi) which has a water-meaning radical attached to it. Fang Guoyu believe the name "洱" (er) was simplified from "渳", after that the name "Erhai" continues to this day.

According to Bai scholar's research, the "Yeyu" in the Chinese name "Yeyuze" (ze [泽] means lake) is evolved from Bai language which means "lower water", the pronunciation written in IPA as. In the Bai language Dali dialect, the "lower" is also pronounced. Xu Lin believe the Chinese name "洱" is evolved from.

Geography
Erhai is situated at 1972 m above sea level. In size, the North-South length of the lake is 40 km and the East-West width is roughly 7 - 8 km. Its area is 250 km2, making it the second largest highland lake in China, after Dianchi Lake. Its circumference reaches 116 km, its average depth is of 11 m and the total storage capacity of 2.5 e9m3.

The lake serves as a backdrop to all of Dali City and sandwiches Dali Town in the west against the Cang Mountain. The lake's head is at Shangguan Town, its northern extremity, and its southernmost point is at Xiaguan Town. The lake receives water from the Miju and Mici Rivers in the north, the Bolou River in the east, and smaller streams from the Cang Mountains in the west. Yangbi River, to the south, is the lake's outlet and eventually flows into the Lancang River (Mekong River).

Attractions
The lakeshore can be explored by hiking. Highlights include Erhai Park and the Butterfly Springs on the Western bank. Islands on the lake – including Guanyin Ge, Jinsuo Island, Nanzhao Folklore Island and Xiaoputuo Island  – are also available for visits.

The lake is an important food source for the local people (Bais), who are famous for their fishing method: their trained cormorants catch fish and return them to fishmongers. The birds are prevented from swallowing their fish by rings fixed around their neck.

Biodiversity
There is, or was, a rich biodiversity in Erhai. It is one of three major Yunnan lakes with a high number of endemics, the two other being Fuxian and Dian (Dianchi). Of the 23 fish species and subspecies known from Erhai, 8 are endemic: Cyprinus barbatus, C. daliensis, C. longipectoralis, C. megalophthalmus, Paracobitis erhaiensis, Poropuntius daliensis (syn. Barbodes daliensis), P. exiguus (syn. B. exigua) and Zacco taliensis (syn. Schizothorax taliensis). Among these, only C. barbatus and C. longipectoralis have been recorded since the year 2000; the remaining have not been recorded in decades and are likely extinct. A few of the non-endemic natives have also been extirpated from the lake. In contrast, the lake is now home to more than 10 introduced fish species.

A few native hydrophytes have also disappeared from the lake.

The lake used to be a royal deer ranch for the Nanzhao Kingdom.

title: Erhai Lake


text:
Penny Crayon

Penny Crayon is a 1989 British children's television series that tells the adventures of a very intellectual and well-meaning (but occasionally mischievous) schoolgirl from London who loves to draw, and her escapades accompanied by her best friend, Dennis. Using the magic crayons that she always carries with her, she brings everything that she ever draws to life, to either help them on their adventures or to get them out of tricky situations, and usually creating a world of chaos until it is either erased or washed away.

The origins of Penny's crayons was never explained or hinted at in the series; however series creator Peter Maddocks released a prequel story, along with an adaptation of the episode 'Dickens of a Mess', in digital format in 2012, which told the story of how Penny came to have her magic crayons.

Characters

 * Penny Crayon is a highly intelligent and resourceful schoolgirl, with a Northern accent and who loves drawing. She has magic crayons and pencils that can draw on any surface including brick walls, cave interiors and even the inside of a whale's mouth. She is voiced by comedy actress Su Pollard, whose face Penny visually resembles.
 * Dennis Pillbeam (his surname is never given on-screen but is mentioned in literature accompanying the series) is Penny's best friend, an excitable, good-natured yet simple boy who can often be heard praising Penny's cleverness or bravery. He was the only other regular character in the series, voiced by Peter Hawkins, who had also done voice-work for Maddocks Animation's previous television series.

Origin and production
Penny Crayon was produced for the BBC in the United Kingdom. first broadcast weekly as part of Children's BBC on BBC1 from 14 September 1989. It was made by Maddocks Animation, which had previously produced Jimbo and the Jet-Set and The Family-Ness, and utilized much of the same production staff, as well as featuring the vocal talents of Peter Hawkins in all three series.

Twelve episodes were produced in a single production run, although spread across two separate broadcast runs in 1989 and 1990 respectively. The series was subsequently repeated a number of times, airing into the early 2000s and was also later repeated on GMTV2 with Bertha.

Penny Crayon had first appeared read as a story in an early episode of Playdays (broadcast at that time under its original title of Playbus, and before the show's rotation of stories featuring recurring characters had fully set in place). In that story, not animated but read out over static images drawn by Peter Maddocks, when a school trip to the zoo is rained off, Penny tries to entertain her disappointed classmates stuck inside school by drawing zoo animals on the walls of the school hall (including a Tyrannosaurus rex), which come to life and cause havoc around the school. When she and Dennis can't catch them to erase them, she eventually draws a huge cage to put them all in, thus allowing her to rub them out. This early version of Penny had darker hair – she was given blonde hair in the following series to match that of Su Pollard, and both her and Dennis' appearance was modified for the subsequent series. One of Dennis' lines ("Mum will be furious when we get home and she hears about this!") suggests that Penny and Dennis might be siblings, though this was never mentioned in the series. The story was one of several submitted by independent writers for the new daily series, and although a selection of rotating story characters was soon picked for Playbus, it was well-enough received that then-Head of Children's Programmes Anna Home recommended that Hawkins might develop it as a series.

Due to the original Penny Crayon story appearing on Playbus, some episode guides to the series erroneously list thirteen episodes.

Home releases
In 1989 and 1990, Parkfield Publishing released two video cassettes with four episodes on each one.

In 1992, TeleVideo (A division of Direct Entertainment Group) released three videos with four episodes on each tape.

In 1994, Carlton Home Entertainment released a single video with only four episodes.

Several book adaptations and a 1990 annual were also released.

title: Penny Crayon


text:
Equant

Equant (or punctum aequans) is a mathematical concept developed by Claudius Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD to account for the observed motion of the planets. The equant is used to explain the observed speed change in different stages of the planetary orbit. This planetary concept allowed Ptolemy to keep the theory of uniform circular motion alive by stating that the path of heavenly bodies was uniform around one point and circular around another point.

Ptolemy does not have a word for the equant – he used expressions such as "the eccentre producing the mean motion".

Placement
The equant point (shown in the diagram by the large • ), is placed so that it is directly opposite to Earth from the deferent's center, known as the eccentric (represented by the × ). A planet or the center of an epicycle (a smaller circle carrying the planet) was conceived to move at a constant angular speed with respect to the equant. To a hypothetical observer placed at the equant point, the epicycle's center (indicated by the small · ) would appear to move at a steady angular speed. However, the epicycle's center will not move at a constant speed along its deferent.

Motivation
The reason for the implementation of the equant was to maintain a semblance of constant circular motion of celestial bodies, a long-standing article of faith originated by Aristotle for philosophical reasons, while also allowing for the best match of the computations of the observed movements of the bodies, particularly in the size of the apparent retrograde motion of all Solar System bodies except the Sun and the Moon.

The equant model has a body in motion on a circular path not centered on the Earth. The moving object's speed will vary during its orbit around the outer circle (dashed line), faster in the bottom half and slower in the top half, but the motion is considered uniform because the planet goes through equal angles in equal times from the perspective of the equant point. The angular speed of the object is non-uniform when viewed from any other point within the orbit.

Applied without an epicycle (as for the Sun), using an equant allows for the angular speed to be correct at perigee and apogee, with a ratio of $$(1+e)^2/(1-e)^2$$ (where $$e$$ is the orbital eccentricity). But compared with the Keplerian orbit, the equant method causes the body to spend too little time far from the Earth and too much close to the Earth. For example, when the eccentric anomaly is π/2, the Keplerian model says that an amount of time of $$\pi/2-e$$ will have elapsed since perigee (where the period is $$2\pi$$, see Kepler equation), whereas the equant model gives $$\pi/2-\arctan(e),$$ which is a little more. Furthermore, the true anomaly at this point, according to the equant model, will be only $$\pi/2+\arctan(e),$$ whereas in the Keplerian model it is $$\pi/2+\arcsin(e),$$ which is more. However, for small eccentricity the error is very small, being asymptotic to the eccentricity to the third power.

Equation
The angle $α$ whose vertex is at the center of the deferent, and whose sides intersect the planet and the equant, respectively, is a function of time $t$ as follows:

 * $$ \alpha = \Omega t - \arcsin\left(\frac{E}{\ R\ }\ \sin(\Omega t) \right) $$

where $Ω$ is the constant angular speed seen from the equant which is situated at a distance $E$ when the radius of the deferent is $R$.

Discovery and use
Ptolemy introduced the equant in "Almagest". The evidence that the equant was a required adjustment to Aristotelian physics relied on observations made by himself and a certain "Theon" (perhaps, Theon of Smyrna).

Hipparchus
In models of planetary motion that precede Ptolemy, generally attributed to Hipparchus, the eccentric and epicycles were already a feature. The Roman writer Pliny in the 1st century CE, who apparently had access to writings of late Greek astronomers, and not being an astronomer himself, still correctly identified the lines of apsides for the five known planets and where they pointed in the zodiac. Such data requires the concept of eccentric centers of motion.

Before around the year 430 BCE, Meton and Euktemon of Athens observed differences in the lengths of the seasons. This can be observed in the lengths of seasons, given by equinoxes and solstices that indicate when the Sun traveled 90 degrees along its path. Though others tried, Hipparchos calculated and presented the most exact lengths of seasons around 130 BCE.

According to these calculations, Spring lasted about $94 1⁄2$ days, Summer about $92 1⁄2$, Fall about $88 1⁄8$, and Winter about $90 1⁄8$, showing that seasons did indeed have differences in lengths. This was later used as evidence for the zodiacal inequality, or the appearance of the Sun to move at a rate that is not constant, with some parts of its orbit including it moving faster or slower. The Sun's annual motion as understood by Greek astronomy up to this point did not account for this, as it assumed the Sun had a perfectly circular orbit that was centered around the Earth that it traveled around at a constant speed. According to the astronomer Hipparchos, moving the center of the Sun's path slightly away from Earth would satisfy the observed motion of the Sun rather painlessly, thus making the Sun's orbit eccentric.

Most of what we know about Hipparchus comes to us through citations of his works by Ptolemy. Hipparchus' models' features explained differences in the length of the seasons on Earth (known as the "first anomaly"), and the appearance of retrograde motion in the planets (known as the "second anomaly"). But Hipparchus was unable to make the predictions about the location and duration of retrograde motions of the planets match observations; he could match location, or he could match duration, but not both simultaneously.

Ptolemy
Between Hipparchus's model and Ptolemy's there was an intermediate model that was proposed to account for the motion of planets in general based on the observed motion of Mars. In this model, the deferent had a center that was also the equant, that could be moved along the deferent's line of symmetry in order to match to a planet's retrograde motion. This model, however, still did not align with the actual motion of planets, as noted by Hipparchos. This was true specifically regarding the actual spacing and widths of retrograde arcs, which could be seen later according to Ptolemy's model and compared.

Ptolemy himself rectified this contradiction by introducing the equant in his writing when he separated it from the center of the deferent, making both it and the deferent's center their own distinct parts of the model and making the deferent's center stationary throughout the motion of a planet. The location was determined by the deferent and epicycle, while the duration was determined by uniform motion around the equant. He did this without much explanation or justification for how he arrived at the point of its creation, deciding only to present it formally and concisely with proofs as with any scientific publication. Even in his later works where he recognized the lack of explanation, he made no effort to explain further.

Ptolemy's model of astronomy was used as a technical method that could answer questions regarding astrology and predicting planets positions for almost 1,500 years, even though the equant and eccentric were regarded by many later astronomers as violations of pure Aristotelian physics which presumed all motion to be centered on the Earth. It has been reported that Ptolemy's model of the cosmos was so popular and revolutionary, in fact, that it is usually very difficult to find any details of previously used models, except from writings by Ptolemy himself.

From Copernicus to Kepler
For many centuries rectifying these violations was a preoccupation among scholars, culminating in the solutions of Ibn al-Shatir and Copernicus. Ptolemy's predictions, which required constant review and corrections by concerned scholars over those centuries, culminated in the observations of Tycho Brahe at Uraniborg.

It was not until Johannes Kepler published his Astronomia Nova, based on the data he and Tycho collected at Uraniborg, that Ptolemy's model of the heavens was entirely supplanted by a new geometrical model.

Critics
The equant solved the last major problem of accounting for the anomalistic motion of the planets but was believed by some to compromise the principles of the ancient Greek philosophers, namely uniform circular motion about the Earth. The uniformity was generally assumed to be observed from the center of the deferent, and since that happens at only one point, only non-uniform motion is observed from any other point. Ptolemy displaced the observation point from the center of the deferent to the equant point. This can be seen as violating the axiom of uniform circular motion.

Noted critics of the equant include the Persian astronomer Nasir al-Din Tusi who developed the Tusi couple as an alternative explanation, and Nicolaus Copernicus, whose alternative was a new pair of small epicycles for each deferent. Dislike of the equant was a major motivation for Copernicus to construct his heliocentric system.

The violation of uniform circular motion around the center of the deferent bothered many thinkers, especially Copernicus, who mentions the equant as a "monstrous construction" in De Revolutionibus. Copernicus' displacement of the Earth from the center of the cosmos obviated the primary need for Ptolemy's epicycles: It explained retrograde movement as an effect of perspective, due to the relative motion of the earth and the planets. However, it did not explain non-uniform motion of the Sun and Moon, whose relative motions Copernicus did not change (even though he did recast the Sun orbiting the Earth as the Earth orbiting the Sun, the two are geometrically equivalent). Moving the center of planetary motion from the Earth to the Sun did not remove the need for something to explain the non-uniform motion of the Sun, for which Copernicus substituted two (or several) smaller epicycles instead of an equant.

title: Equant


text:
Cheviot

Cheviot may refer to:

Places

 * The Cheviot, the highest summit in the Cheviot Hills, United Kingdom
 * Cheviot, Victoria, Australia
 * Cheviot, New Zealand in North Canterbury
 * Cheviot (New Zealand electorate), a parliamentary electorate in the Canterbury region of New Zealand
 * Cheviot, Ohio, United States

Other

 * Cheviot goat, a landrace population of goats in Northern England
 * Cheviot sheep, a breed of sheep originally from the borders of England and Scotland
 * Cheviot (cloth), a type of tweed, made originally from the wool of the Cheviot sheep
 * HMS Cheviot (R90), a C-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy launched in 1944
 * SS Cheviot, an English steamer ship of the late 19th century

title: Cheviot


text:
White Army (disambiguation)

The White Army or White armies are common collective names for the armed formations of the White movement and anti-Soviet governments during the Civil War in Russia (1917–1923)

The term may also refer to:
 * Saudi Arabian National Guard
 * Nuer White Army, a semi-organised militancy of Nuer youths in South Sudan in east-central Africa after its secession and independence in 2011 from Sudan in the north
 * White Guard (Finland), which constituted the bulk of the White Army, Finnish government forces in the Finnish Civil War (January–May 1918)

title: White Army (disambiguation)


text:
Talk:Erhai Lake

Stub
I made this into a stub, so do not delete. Danny 00:27, 10 May 2004 (UTC)

Requested move 1

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Moved by someone else to a different name. Vegaswikian (talk) 19:40, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Lake Er → Er Lake — per adjusted WP:NC-ZH, Category:Lakes of China. --TrueColour (talk) 17:22, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Update: per comments in discussion I moved "Lake Er" -> "Erhai Lake". This also is the pre January 2009 name. No admin needed for this move since it is simply a revert and the old page was not edited. "Lake Er", "Er Lake" was unwanted in discussion. So return to term "Erhai". Put lake at end, per WP:NC-ZH, see Category:Lakes of China TrueColour (talk) 20:17, 29 November 2009 (UTC)

 * Oppose: Erhai is much more commonly used than any of these supposedly "more English" or more systematic titles made up by wp users. Yaan (talk) 18:53, 26 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Oppose this move, and support move to Erhai per Yaan. Wikipedia does not invent usage or promote less common usage - it is not a vehicle for linguistic prescriptivism.  We copy what the use of the majority of reliable sources. Knepflerle (talk) 00:24, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Comment "erhai" - 52700 - "erhai lake" - 111000 - "lake erhai" - 24400 - "lake er" - 55500 - "er lake" - 40100 — 76.66.197.2 (talk) 04:29, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Oppose Erhai Lake is the WP:COMMONNAME 76.66.197.2 (talk) 04:29, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the proposal. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

note on name of article
Note: If the name of the article keeps like this then the sentence A commonly-seen mistranslation is Erhai Lake is really contradictory. --katpatuka 13:55, 22 December 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Katpatuka (talk • contribs)

Requested move #2

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Page not moved: no consensus Ground Zero | t 15:23, 9 September 2014 (UTC)

Erhai Lake → Erhai – WP:NCPLACE: "Rivers, lakes and mountains often include the word River, Lake or Mount in the name; national conventions and idiom should be followed in this matter... For many countries the additional word is used when needed for disambiguation purposes, but is otherwise omitted: compare Jade (river) or Achelous River (which require disambiguation) with Rhine (which does not)." The national convention in China is to call it "Erhai", that's it. The "hai" part means "Sea", and if you scroll above and read the previous move proposal you'd see that some people believe that "Erhai Lake" is a tautology. WP:ZH-NC specifies "Avoid tautologies." The problem is avoided by removing the word "Lake". Relisted. Jenks24 (talk) 13:30, 25 August 2014 (UTC) Timmyshin (talk) 19:02, 15 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Comment it's not actually duplication, "hai" has no meaning in English, so cannot be excessive duplication, as it would require "hai" to be an English word. There is no actual problem since "hai" isn't an English word, and as it isn't a sea, that's not a problem either. -- 65.94.169.222 (talk) 05:45, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Of course "Hai" is not an English word, but it means "Sea" in English. Why else do you think there is a guideline of "avoid tautologies" in WP:ZH-NC? Having an English word repeated twice is not the only form of duplication. Regarding the argument that it isn't a sea, well, what is Dead Sea? Would you think it's OK to call it "Dead Sea Lake"? Timmyshin (talk) 05:00, 3 September 2014 (UTC)

 * Commetn Ghits: erhai lake 95.7k; lake erhai 13.8k; lake er 79.1k; er lake 58k; erhai 107k; In the 5 years since the last move request, usage seems to have shifted a bit. -- 65.94.169.222 (talk) 05:45, 16 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Undecided. WP:CONCISE seems to suggest "move". But WP:CONSISTENCY says not to. I'm fascinated and will post this to WT:AT. Red Slash 03:26, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose. I've said it before, and will say it again: concise is not the same as short. The title needs to convey at least something about the subject of the article. "Erhai" conveys nothing by itself. Omnedon (talk) 03:45, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
 * And why doesn't Erhai convey anything by itself? WP:NC on recognizability: "The title is a name or description of the subject that someone familiar with, although not necessarily an expert in, the subject area will recognize." By your logic, Category:Heat shock proteins need the word "protein" appended to all their titles and that's clearly ridiculous. Timmyshin (talk) 04:46, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * It doesn't convey anything to most readers of the English Wikipedia. Even if a reader is familiar with lakes, or lakes in China, that doesn't mean s/he will know the language. And no, that's not clearly ridiculous. Please be civil. Omnedon (talk) 12:53, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Please read the quoted guideline again, it says nothing about "most readers of the English Wikipedia". Also, what does knowing the language have to do with this title? The WP:NCPLACE guideline that I quoted also says nothing about having to be understood by English speakers. I'm assuming Müggelsee, Hüttwilersee, Chiemsee, Pfäffikersee, Chüebodensee, Garichtisee, Klöntalersee, Limmernsee, Hasensee, Sämtisersee, Grimselsee, Wörthersee, Ägerisee, Hüttnersee, Muttsee, Märjelensee, Oberblegisee, Wägitalersee, Fälensee, Räterichsbodensee, Trübsee, Rotsee, Königssee, Göscheneralpsee, Sägistalsee, Trützisee, Spaneggsee, Talalpsee, Walensee etc. don't convey anything to you or "most readers of the English Wikipedia" either, right? Yet you don't see the word "Lake" in their titles, so why the double standard? Dutch lakes: Donkmeer, Markermeer, Veluwemeer, etc. Danish lakes: Tissø, Arresø, Mossø, etc. so why does "Erhai" have to cater to "most readers of the English Wikipedia", because it's not a European language? BTW the German "See", Danish "Sø" and English "Sea" have the same etymology. Timmyshin (talk) 17:44, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * So you don't wish to cater to most readers of the English Wikipedia, on the English Wikipedia? Titles need to convey something to the reader about the subject of the article. "Erhai Lake" does so. Omnedon (talk) 00:52, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
 * That's correct, because "most readers of the English Wikipedia" are not going to surf to the page, only a tiny fraction will, like the majority of the articles. Those who surf to the page will recognize it, as the title follows both the WP:NC "recognizability" and WP:NCPLACE guidelines. Again, if the English word "Lake" doesn't appear in the titles of Continental European lakes there's no reason to force it in "Erhai" either. Timmyshin (talk) 20:56, 5 September 2014 (UTC)
 * You do not know who will view this article. The title needs to convey, by itself, at least something about what the article is about. "Erhai" does not.  "Erhai Lake" does. Omnedon (talk) 16:15, 6 September 2014 (UTC)
 * "Does not to you" doesn't mean "does not". "The title is a name or description of the subject that someone familiar with, although not necessarily an expert in, the subject area will recognize." Just admit that you don't know anything about what Müggelsee, Hüttwilersee, Chiemsee, Pfäffikersee, Chüebodensee, Garichtisee, Klöntalersee, Limmernsee, Hasensee, Sämtisersee, Grimselsee, Wörthersee, Ägerisee, Hüttnersee, Muttsee, Märjelensee, Oberblegisee, Wägitalersee, Fälensee, Räterichsbodensee, Trübsee, Rotsee, Königssee, Göscheneralpsee, Sägistalsee, Trützisee, Spaneggsee, Talalpsee, Walensee are about either. Timmyshin (talk) 08:04, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

 * Oppose . The proposed title would be less recognizable to readers.  Lakes, rivers, mountains, etc, are best named as comma lake, river, mountain, etc.  Even without noting ambiguity with Erhai Park.  Regarding "WP:CONCISE", that would be an over-reading of the term.  If "hai" were to be considered a problem tautological repetition with "lake" (but argued against by  65.94.169.222), then rename to "Er Lake", but "Erhai Lake" is an excellent title.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 03:49, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
 * This is about WP:NCPLACE not WP:Concise. FYI the Danish page uses "Erhai", while the German, Dutch and Polish pages all use "Er Hai". Either way is better than "Erhai Lake", which could easily be "Lake Erhai" or "Lake Er" or "Er Lake". As far as "Erhai Park" goes, it is part of "Erhai", the argument that it makes "Erhai" ambiguous is almost like arguing that the word "City" to be added to "Houston" just because there is a "Houston Zoo". Timmyshin (talk) 04:46, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * If "Erhai Park" is part of "Erhai", then "hai" is not meaning "lake. It's like naming something "New York City" just because there is a "New York State".   "Lake" should stay in the title.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 07:40, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I fail to follow the logic here. "Hai" means "Sea", a similar term to "Lake". What does "Erhai Park" being part of "Erhai" have to do with that? Also the meaning of your second sentence is unclear to me. Timmyshin (talk) 08:28, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Erhai means Er Lake, or Er Sea, there must be some subtlety here. I think I prefer to see Erhai over Er Lake.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 08:25, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

 * Move to Erhai or Er Lake: While it's entirely normal for a placename to arise with cross-linguistically redundant elements, there seems to be evidence that this place name stands by itself as Erhai and is also referred to as Er Lake, so there is no reason to use the long-winded Erhai Lake form. Even Er Hai is attested, though less recognizable in English. The argument that we "can't" use Erhai because there's also Erhai Park is nonsense (cf. Dry Tortugas and Dry Tortugas National Park, and many other cases where the base name is not disambiguated just because there are derived, subordinate placenames that refer to the base name).  — SMcCandlish ☺ ☏ ¢ ≽ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ≼  22:19, 6 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Oppose – it looks to me like "Erhai Lake" is at least as common in English-language books are bare "Erhai" is, and it's a lot more recognizable. Shortening it would just make it more cryptic, not more concise.  Dicklyon (talk) 00:37, 9 September 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move #3

 * The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: Close as disruptive; moratorium on move discussions for three months. A move proposed by the same user was closed less than twelve hours earlier. Although consensus can change, constantly re-opening discussion at such a rate is disruptive. If people disagree with the outcome of an RM they can seek review at Move review. Timrollpickering (talk) 16:14, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

Erhai Lake → Erhai – I'm sorry but I have to relist since none of the opposers of the previous discussion based their opinion on any of the established guidelines and policies, #1 WP:NCPLACE: "Rivers, lakes and mountains often include the word River, Lake or Mount in the name; national conventions and idiom should be followed in this matter... For many countries the additional word is used when needed for disambiguation purposes, but is otherwise omitted: compare Jade (river) or Achelous River (which require disambiguation) with Rhine (which does not)." #2 WP:NC-ZH: "Avoid tautology", and #3 WP:NC: "The title is a name or description of the subject that someone familiar with, although not necessarily an expert in, the subject area will recognize." This is not about WP:CONCISE but rather on the policies I quoted. Google Maps use "Erhai":. Brittanica uses "Lake Er", also mentioning "Er Hai" or "Erh Hai". "Erhai Lake" is clearly a tautology (as "hai" means "sea") and should not be used, just like European lakes Spaneggsee, Talalpsee, Walensee or Tissø, Arresø, Mossø omit the word "Lake" in their titles when "see" or "sø" have the same etymology as "sea". We can't have double standards on WP. Timmyshin (talk) 01:26, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

 * This has already been discussed, and the discussion was closed less than 24 hours ago. Please let it go. Omnedon (talk) 01:46, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Why? The current title is following neither WP:NCPLACE nor WP:NC-ZH and it's only reasonable to try one's best to correct it. You can continue to oppose it, since that's allowed by WP, and you may again prevail maybe even a few times, but one day it will be moved, as you will see. Timmyshin (talk) 02:14, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Why? Because it's already been discussed extremely recently. Give it time before opening this again. Omnedon (talk) 02:15, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm unaware of any requirement to wait. If there is and it's clearly stated, I will gladly follow it and withdraw. But if there isn't, then I have to question why you are so afraid of me opening another discussion. Nobody has asked you to join it either. Timmyshin (talk) 02:26, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Afraid? Why are you so personally aggressive in these discussions? Constantly re-opening RMs in the hopes that you'll get the result you want is not how this works. There is no consensus to move this page. Omnedon (talk) 02:33, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

 * Please respect the traditional 2 month wait for renominating after a "no consensus" discussion. You may be right, but don't bludgeon.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 02:03, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm unaware of this policy. Please direct me to the page stating that requirement. Timmyshin (talk) 02:14, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * It isn't on a single page anywhere because there are varying contexts for wait 2 months 6 months etc. But now you do know. In ictu oculi (talk) 02:28, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I started (July 2012) a very closely related essay: Renominating for deletion.  The six month timeframe has been around undocumented, inconsistently enforced, for years.  Two months has been mentioned with respect to AfD for "no consensus" closes, and seems an appropriate conservative minimum for RM "no consensus" results.  Maybe this discussion will provide impetus to get minimums waits properly documented, depending on how this discussion goes.  --SmokeyJoe (talk) 03:59, 10 September 2014 (UTC)

 * Close In ictu oculi (talk) 02:28, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * speedy procedural close excessive renomination speed. Nominator could dispute the last closure at WP:MRV -- 70.51.201.202 (talk) 05:06, 10 September 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

"Lake Erhai in China collapsed [ecologically] sooner than most observers expected"
The Guardian has an article (22-June_2023) which mentions an ecological collapse of the Lake as an established fact (and important sudden event). The Wikipedia article mentions some changes in the range of fish species present, but nothing tht sounds like what the Guardian is referring to.

It's possible, perhaps, tht what our article records is the same event? - but if so, and the Guardian article is from any sort of true-&-fair stance, our article is severely deemphasising it and needs a very different POV.

Anyone know anything about this? feel able to update our article? 84.9.119.66 (talk) 23:30, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

 * I should also have said this: the same Guardian article also says, further on, "Lake Erhai .. has shown signs of recovery". So maybe there's a whole story to tell.  It needs telling. 84.9.119.66 (talk) 23:35, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Erhai Lake


text:
Reverdy Johnson

Reverdy Johnson (May 21, 1796 – February 10, 1876) was an American politician, statesman, and jurist from Annapolis, Maryland. He gained fame as a defense attorney, defending notables such as Sandford of the Dred Scott case, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter at his courts-martial, and Mary Surratt, alleged conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. A former Whig, he was a strong supporter of the Union war effort. At first he opposed wartime efforts to abolish slavery until 1864, and in 1865 supported the 13th Amendment banning slavery.

Johnson served as United States Minister to the United Kingdom from 1868 to 1869.

Early life
Johnson was born on May 21, 1796, in Annapolis, Maryland. He was the son of a distinguished Maryland lawyer and politician, John Johnson (1770–1824), who served as Attorney General of Maryland from 1806 to 1811 and later Chancellor of Maryland, and Deborah (née Ghieselen) Johnson (1773–1847). His younger brothers were John Johnson Jr. (1798–1856), the last Chancellor of Maryland, and George Johnson (1817–1892).

He graduated from St. John's College in 1812 and then studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1815.

Career
In 1817, Johnson moved to Baltimore, where he became a legal colleague of Luther Martin, William Pinkney and Roger B. Taney, the Attorney General and later Chief Justice of the United States from 1835 until 1864. He was appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors of Maryland in 1817. From 1821 until 1825 he served in the Maryland State Senate and then returned to practice law for two decades.

In 1842, while helping North Carolina Congressman Edward Stanly to ready himself for a duel with Virginia Congressman Henry Wise, Johnson fired a pistol at a tree, from which the ball rebounded and hit Johnson's left eye, blinding that eye and triggering the gradual onset of a sympathetic deterioration of the other eye that worsened over the rest of his life, eventually leaving him almost completely blind.

Federal politics
From 1845 to 1849, Johnson represented Maryland in the United States Senate as a Whig.

From his confirmation by the Senate in March 1849 until July 1850, Johnson was Attorney General of the United States under President Zachary Taylor. He resigned that position soon after Millard Fillmore took office. While U.S. Attorney General, he was allowed to help Virginians Charles W. Russell and Alexander H.H. Stuart defend the Wheeling Suspension Bridge in his private capacity, that bridge also connecting two sections of the National Road as the first bridge crossing a major river west of the Appalachian Mountains. Although the plaintiffs technically won twice based on their argument that the bridge obstructed a navigable river, the bridge was never demolished (only repaired after wind damage) and further bridges were then constructed, including one over the Mississippi River at Rock Island in 1856.(which also led to litigation).

In November 1856, a large crowd, armed with guns and clubs, burned an effigy of Johnson on the railing of the Battle Monument in front of his house to protest a speech he made in New York against President Fillmore.

A conservative Democrat, Johnson supported Stephen A. Douglas in the presidential election of 1860. He represented the slave-owning defendant in the controversial 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford. However, Johnson was personally opposed to slavery and became a key figure in the effort to keep Maryland from seceding from the Union during the American Civil War.

He served as a Maryland delegate to the Peace Convention of 1861 and from 1861 to 1862 served in the Maryland House of Delegates. During this time he represented Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter at his court-martial, arguing that Porter's distinguished record of service ought to put him beyond question. The officers on the court-martial, all handpicked by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, voted to convict Porter of cowardice and disobedience.

After the capture of New Orleans, President Abraham Lincoln commissioned Johnson to revise the decisions of the military commandant, General Benjamin F. Butler, in regard to foreign governments, and reversed all those decisions to the entire satisfaction of the administration. After the war, reflecting the diverse points of view held by his fellow statesmen, Johnson argued for a gentler Reconstruction effort than that advocated by the Radical Republicans.

Return to the U.S. Senate
In 1863, he again took a seat in the United States Senate, serving through 1868. "The antislavery amendment caught Johnson's eye, however, because it offered an indisputable constitutional solution to the problem of slavery." In 1864, in a speech on the Senate floor, Johnson "cut loose from all Pro-Slavery associations by a bold declaration of strongest Anti Slavery sentiments," speaking in favor of the immediate and universal emancipation, and advocated the proposed amendment to the Constitution forever prohibiting slavery in the United States.

In 1865, he defended Mary Surratt before a military tribunal. Surratt was convicted and executed for plotting and aiding Lincoln's assassination. In 1866, he was a delegate to the National Union Convention which attempted to build support for President Johnson. Senator Johnson's report on the proceedings of the convention was entered into the record of President Johnson's impeachment trial. In the Senate, he also served on the Joint Committee on Reconstruction which drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, but he voted against passage of the amendment.

In 1866, he addressed the Senate regarding the appointment of provisional governors in the Southern States. In 1867, Johnson voted for the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the only Democrat to vote for a Reconstruction measure in 1866 or 1867.

Ambassador to the United Kingdom
On June 12, 1868, he was appointed minister to the United Kingdom, beginning his term on September 14, 1868. While in England, he was criticized for fraternizing with the Lairds, Wharncliffes, Roebucks, and Gregorios, of England, which was considered a blunder in diplomacy.

Soon after his arrival in England negotiated the Johnson-Clarendon Treaty for the settlement of disputes arising out of the Civil War, including the Alabama Claims. The Senate, however, refused to advise and consent to ratification, and he returned home on the accession of General Ulysses S. Grant to the presidency.

Later career
Again resuming his legal practice, he defended Ku Klux Klan members against indictments brought under the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871.

Even though out of office, Johnson continued to offer his opinion on public matters. In December 1874, he wrote to The New York Times, stating that he hoped that after the next Presidential Election, "the General Government will thereafter be brought back into the part of the Constitution, that the limits of its powers will be maintained, that the reserved authority of the States will be recognized, and that the rights of its citizens will be faithfully preserved." In December 1875, he wrote a letter to the Baltimore Sun discussing the potential impact of England's purchase of a controlling interest in the Suez Canal.

In early 1876, Johnson was in Annapolis arguing the case of Baker v. Frick in the Court of Appeals and was a guest at the Maryland Governor's Mansion. On February 10, during a dinner party at the mansion, he fell near a basement door, possibly after tripping, and was killed instantly after hitting his head on a sharp corner of the mansion's granite base course and then again on the cobblestone pavement. He was the last surviving member of Taylor's cabinet. Upon Johnson's death, the Supreme Court Bar unanimously issued a statement that praised Johnson for his contributions to the Court, and expressed their condolences for his sudden passing.

Personal life
On November 16, 1819, Johnson married Mary Mackall Bowie (1801–1873), the sister of Rep. Thomas Fielder Bowie and the daughter of Thomas Contee Bowie (1771–1813) and Mary Mackall (née Bowie) Wootton (1776–1825), who were third cousins. Her mother was the widow of Turnor Wootton (d. 1797), whom she married in 1794 and had one child with, William Turner Wootton, and was the daughter of Maryland Gov. Robert Bowie (1750–1818). Together, Reverdy and Mary had 15 children, of which five daughters and three sons survived, including:

 * Mary Johnson (1822–1915), who married Thomas Hollingsworth Morris (1817–1872), the son of John Boucher Morris (1785-1874)
 * Mary Johnson Morris and Thomas Hollingsworth Morris had the daughter Lydia Hollingsworth Morris (1857-1936) who married Hollins McKim (1825-1911). Their daughter Mary Camilla McKim married Huntington Williams MD.
 * Eliza Ridgely Johnson (1823–1897), who married Henry Daingerfield (d. 1866), the son of William H. Daingerfield (1808–1878)
 * Reverdy Johnson, Jr. (1826–1907), who married Caroline Patterson (1828–1863)
 * Maria Louisa Johnson (1827–1893), who married William Riggin Travers (1819–1887)
 * Matilda Elizabeth Bowie Johnson (1829–1911), who married Charles John Morris Gwinn (1822–1894), the Attorney General of Maryland
 * Emily Contee Johnson (1832–1909), who married George Washington Lewis (1829–1885), brother of Edward Lewis (1837–1892) and grandson of Lawrence Lewis (1767–1839)
 * Louis E Johnson (1837–1905), who married Marie May Bostick (1856–1942). He was the United States Marshal of South Carolina.
 * Edward Contee Johnson (1843–1905), who married Kate Moore (1871–1922)

After his death on February 10, 1876, Johnson was buried at the Greenmount Cemetery in East Baltimore. Johnson had been the last surviving member of the Taylor Cabinet.

In popular culture
In the 2011 film The Conspirator, Johnson is portrayed by actor Tom Wilkinson.

Writings

 * Johnson, Reverdy, The Dangerous Conditions of the Country, the Causes Which Have Led to It, and the Duty of the People (Baltimore; The Sun Printing Establishment, 1867)
 * Johnson, Reverdy, A Further Consideration of the Dangerous Conditions of the Country, the Causes Which Have Led to It, and the Duty of the People (Baltimore; The Sun Printing Establishment, 1867)

title: Reverdy Johnson


text:
Escambray Mountains

The Escambray Mountains (Sierra del Escambray) are a mountain range in the central region of Cuba, in the provinces of Sancti Spíritus, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.

Overview
The Escambray Mountains are located in the south-central region of the island, extending about 80 km from east to west, and 80 km from north to south. Their highest peak, Pico San Juan, rises to 960 m above sea level. The Escambray range is divided into two sections by the Agabama River. The western part is called the Guamuhaya Mountains, and the eastern part, raising between Trinidad and Sancti Spiritus, is best known as Sierra de Sancti Spíritus. After Pico San Juan, the highest points are Caballete de Casas, Gavilanes, Loma de Banao, Caja de Agua, and Pico Tuerto.

Topes de Collantes is a nature reserve park established in the south-eastern ranges of Escambray Mountains, protecting and showcasing caves, rivers, waterfalls, and canyons. The Valley de los Ingenios is developed at the south-eastern foot of the mountains, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The mountains were the theater of the Escambray Rebellion in 1959–1965. It was also a planned refuge during the Bay of Pigs Invasion; however, it was never used as such.

title: Escambray Mountains


text:
Baker Street

Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The area was originally high class residential, but now is mainly occupied by commercial premises.

The street is referenced in several popular works. Fictional detective Sherlock Holmes lived at 221B Baker Street, a fictional address on the north of the street. A 1978 hit song by Gerry Rafferty was titled "Baker Street".

Location
Baker Street is a busy thoroughfare, lying in postcode areas NW1/W1 and forming part of the A41. It used to run south from Regent's Park, the junction with Park Road, parallel to Gloucester Place, meeting Marylebone Road, Portman Square and Wigmore Street. In 2019, the until-then one-way street was changed to accommodate lanes running in both directions.

At the junction with Wigmore Street, Baker Street turns into Orchard Street, which ends when it meets with Oxford Street. After Portman Square the road continues as Orchard Street.

The crossroads of Baker Street and Marylebone Road was historically known as Marylebone Circus, which is still its unofficial name.

History
Baker Street was laid out in the 18th century by the builder William Baker, after whom it is named.

19th century
In 1835, the first wax museum of Madame Tussauds was opened on Baker Street. The museum moved, just around the corner, to Marylebone Road in 1884. Also in 1835 the sculptor James Fillans came to live and work from 82 Baker Street.

Thomas Charles Druce ran the Baker Street Bazaar (which would become Druce & Co. furniture manufacturers) until his death in 1864, and was later subject of the Druce Portland Case.

20th century
Residents of the prestigious mansion block, Chiltern Court on the Regent's Park end of Baker Street include the novelists Arnold Bennett and H. G. Wells who are commemorated with a blue plaque.

In 1940 the headquarters of the Special Operations Executive moved to 64 Baker Street, they were often called the "Baker Street Irregulars" after Sherlock Holmes' gang of street urchins of the same name.

The Beatles' Apple Boutique was based at 94 Baker Street from 1967 to 1968.

A significant robbery of a branch of Lloyds Bank took place on Baker Street in 1971.

For many years the head office of Marks & Spencer, formerly the United Kingdom's largest retailer, was at "Michael House" (named in parallel with the group's "St Michael" brand), 55 Baker Street, until the company relocated to the Paddington Basin in 2004. This was one of the best known corporate buildings in the United Kingdom, and has since been redeveloped as a modern office complex by London & Regional Properties to a design by Make Architects and Expedition Engineering.

A London County Council blue plaque commemorates Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger who lived at 120 Baker Street from 1803 to 1804. British singer Dusty Springfield lived on Baker Street in the 1960s.

21st century
In February 2019, Baker Street was converted from a one-way southbound street to a two-way street.

Buildings
The Seychelles maintains a Consulate at 111 Baker Street.

Transport
The street is served by the London Underground by Baker Street tube station, one of the world's oldest surviving underground stations. Next door is Transport for London's lost property office.

In popular culture

 * In fiction, Sherlock Holmes, Basil of Baker Street (The Great Mouse Detective), Sherlock Hound, Danger Mouse, Sexton Blake, Carland Cross and James Black of Case Closed have all resided along the road.
 * "Baker Street" is a song by Gerry Rafferty, released in 1978. The song was a major worldwide hit, reaching Number 3 in the UK singles chart and Number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rafferty wrote the song during a time he stayed at the home of friend who lived off Baker Street when in London.
 * "Baker St. Muse" is a song from Jethro Tull's album Minstrel in the Gallery, which was released in 1975.
 * The 2008 film The Bank Job was loosely based on the 1971 Baker Street robbery of Lloyds Bank.

title: Baker Street