OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Randall, Samuel Jackson

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​RANDALL, SAMUEL JACKSON (1828-1890), American politician, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October 1828. He was educated in the public schools and in the University Academy, Philadelphia. In 1858-1859 he was a Democratic member of the state Senate. During the Civil War he served as a private in the Union army for ninety days in 1861, and two years later took part in the Gettysburg campaign as a volunteer. From 1863 until his death he was a Democratic representative in Congress. During the session of 1874-1875 he first gained a national reputation by the masterful manner in which he revented the Republican majority from passing the Force Bill or Federal Election law. Under his leadership discipline and party harmony were established among the Democrats for the first time after the Civil War. He was speaker of the House from December 1876 to March 1881, during a period marked by rancorous debates concerning the disputed Hayes-Tilden presidential election. With the disappearance of the Reconstruction questions and the emergence of the tariff issue, however, his influence began to wane. As the leader of the Protectionist wing of the party he was superseded by the tariff reform advocates, such as John G. Carlisle, William R. Morrison, and Roger Q. Mills, Carlisle defeating him for the speakership in 1883. He died in Washington, D.C., on the 13th of April 1890.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Randers

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​RANDERS, a town of Denmark, capital of the amt (county) of its name in Jutland, on the Gudenaa at the point where it begins to widen into Randers Fjord, an inlet of the Cattegat. Pop. (1901) 20,057. The town is 15 m. from the open Cattegat and the harbour has 15 ft. depth on the bar. The chief exports are butter and eggs; the chief imports sugar, petroleum, coal and iron. Two railways run north to Aalborg, continuing the main East Jutland line from the south, and an eastward branch serves Grenaa and Aebeltoft on the coast. Though a place of considerable antiquity ― being mentioned in 1086 as the meeting ― place of insurgents against Knud, the saint ― Randers has few remains of old buildings and bears the stamp of a compact, modern manufacturing town that owes its importance to its distilleries, manufactories of gloves, railway carriages, &c. St Marten's church dates from the 14th century, but was frequently altered and enlarged down to 1870. It has good woodwork of the 17th century. The high school is housed ​in a medieval monastery, which was restored in 1894-97. There is a statue to Steen S. Blicher (1782-1848), the national poet and novelist of Jutland.
Randers is best known in history as the scene of the assassination of Count Gerhard by Niels Ebbesön in 1340. In the middle ages it had six churches and four monastic establishments, the oldest a Benedictine nunnery (1170). The Grey Friars' building was turned into a castle (Dronningborg) after the Reformation; its church was burned down in 1698.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ranavalo III.

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​RANAVALO (Ranavalona) III. (1864–), the last queen of Madagascar, born in 1864, was a great-niece of Radama I. Her name originally was Razafindrahety, but on succeeding to the throne of Madagascar after the death of Queen Ranavalo II., on the 14th of July 1883, she assumed the style of Ranavalo III. Although nominally queen, 'she took no share in the government, which her prime minister, Rainilaiarivony, had controlled since 1864. After placing her on the throne, he married her before the close of the year. Ranavalo became queen just after the French had revived their claim to a protectorate over the island. The Hova government refusing to admit the claim, war broke out, and several sharp engagements took place. The French bombarded the coast towns, but were unable to reach the interior of the island, where the strength of the Hova lay. In December 1885 a treaty was concluded by which it was agreed that the government of the French Republic should represent Madagascar in all foreign relations, but that in internal matters the Hova government should be independent, as formerly. During the next ten years French influence was quietly extended over the island, in spite of the efforts of Rainilaiarivony, who pursued an anti-French policy, encouraging English and American planters and traders. In 1894 differences on commercial and territorial questions arose between the Hova government and the French, which terminated in war. In 1895 a well organized expedition was dispatched from France to subjugate the island. Many of the inhabitants sympathized with the invaders, and even the Hova themselves were divided. Although Ranavalo endeavoured to arouse a martial spirit in her subjects, the French advanced on the capital without encountering any effective opposition. On the goth of September they captured Antananarivo. Rainilaiarivony was sent into exile, where he died in the following year; but Ranavalo was suffered to remain as nominal head of the government, under a strict French protectorate. In August 1896, to avoid commercial difficulties with foreign powers, the island was declared a French colony; but no change was made in the internal administration. Later in the year, however, the civil governor was replaced by a military resident, General Gallieni. A formidable insurrection broke out, which Gallieni suppressed, executing or exiling several prominent members of the Hova administration. Finding that the court had been a centre of intrigue, he abolished the sovereignty by proclamation in February 1897, and exiled Ranavalo to Réunion. In March 1899 she was removed to Algiers. Her exile there was relieved by occasional visits to Paris.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ranc, Arthur

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​RANC, ARTHUR (1831–1908), French politician and writer, was born at Poitiers on the 20th of December 1831, and was educated for the law. Implicated in a plot against Napoleon III. in 1853, he was acquitted, but shortly afterwards was imprisoned for belonging to a secret society; for his share in anti imperialist Conspiracies in 1855 he was arrested and deported to Algeria without a trial. The amnesty of 1859 permitted him to return to Paris, where he soon drew the attention of the police to his presence by his violent articles. During the siege of Paris he left the city in a balloon and joined Gambetta, for whom he organized a system of spies through which General Trochu was kept informed of the strength and disposition of the Prussians around Paris. He was elected to the National Assembly in February 1871, but resigned rather than subscribe to the peace. He had been elected mayor of the ninth arrondissement of Paris in the autumn of 1870, and in March was sent by the same district to the Commune, from which he resigned when he found no reconciliation was possible between the mayors and the Commune. In July he became a member of the municipal council of Paris, and in 1873 was returned to the National Assembly for the department of the Rhone, and took his place on the extreme Left. A month after his election the governor of Paris demanded his prosecution for his share in the Commune. The claim being granted by a large majority, he ​escaped to Belgium, where he issued a pamphlet defending his action during the Commune. On his failure to appear before the court he was condemned to death, and remained in Belgium until 1879, when he was included in the amnesty proclaimed by Grévy. During his exile he continued his active collaboration on La République française. In 1873 he fought a duel with Paul de Cassagnac, and he acted as second to Clémenceau more than once. He energetically defended the republic against the Boulangist agitation, and took an equally courageous part in the Dreyfus affair. In the Picquart-Henry duel he was second to Colonel Picquart. He succeeded Clémenceau as editor of the Aurore, in which Zola's letter “J'accuse” had appeared, and was president of the Association of Republican Journalists. In 1903 he became senator for Corsica, and died on the 10th of August 1908.
In addition to his purely political writings, Arthur Ranc published political novels of the Second Empire, Sous l'empire (1872) and Le roman d'une conspiration (1868).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Randan

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​RANDAN, a name for a boat rowed by three persons, stroke and bow using a single oar each and the central person a pair of sculls. The word is of unknown origin, and can hardly be connected with a slang term for a row or spree, which is found as early as the beginning of the 18th century and is generally taken as a variation of “random,” haphazard.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ranchi

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​RANCHI, a town and district of British India, in the Chota Nagpur division of Bengal. The town, which is situated on the Chota Nagpur plateau, about 2100 ft. above sea-level, is the headquarters of both the division and the district. Pop. (1901) 25,970. It is an important centre of local trade and the headquarters of the German Lutheran mission. There are a high school and an industrial school, and it is proposed to found here a residential college for all Bengal. The Cantonments, formerly, called Doranda, accommodate a detachment of native infantry.
The District of Ranchi, formerly called Lohardaga after the town which was its headquarters, has an area of 7128 sq. m. It consists of two tablelands, of which the higher rises to about 2000 ft. The whole area is broken by hills and undulations, which are terraced for rice. The steep slopes are covered with a dense forest, where wild animals still abound, but no profit is derived from the timber. The principal rivers are the Subanarekhà and the North and South Koel. In 1901 the population was 1,187,925, showing an increase of 5.2% in the decade. Christians form 10% of the total. The district was affected by the famine of 1896-1897, and still more severely by that of 1900. Rice is everywhere the staple crop, with some millets and pulses. Tea cultivation has been introduced, but does not flourish. The only industry on a large scale is the manufacture of shellac. Myrobalans are also exported. Iron and soapstone are worked in small quantities. Hopes of profitable gold-mining in the quartz veins of the schist formation have proved abortive. There is no railway in the district, though surveys have been made to connect with the Bengal-Nagpur line.
See F. B. Bradley-Birt, Chota Nagpur (1903).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Rancé, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de

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​RANCÉ, ARMAND JEAN LE BOUTHILLIER DE (1626-1700), founder of the Trappist Cistercians. He was born in Paris of a noble and influential family of Normandy; hence, being destined to the ecclesiastical state, he was when ten years old commendatory abbot of La Trappe and two other abbeys, prior of two priories, and canon of Nôtre Dame, Paris. At twelve he published a translation of Anacreon. He went through his course of theological studies with great distinction, defeating Bossuet at the Baccalaureat in theology. He was ordained in 1651, and embarked on the ambitious and worldly career of a court abbé in the days of Louis XIV. But after a few years he underwent a complete change of life, and in 1662 he retired to his abbey of La Trappe, of which he became regular abbot in 1664 and introduced an austere reform (see Trappists). The best known episode of his subsequent life was the “Contestation” with Mabillon on the lawfulness of monks devoting themselves to study, which De Rancé denied. He resigned his abbacy in 1695, owing to declining health, and died in 1700.
(E. C. B.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Ranch

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​RANCH, a term in current usage among the English-speaking peoples for a large farm, particularly one for cattle or horse breeding. The word came into use in this application in the western states of North America, and was an adaptation of the Spanish-American rancho, herdsmen's huts; in Spanish a gathering of people having their meals in common, a mess.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Randazzo

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​RANDAZZO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, at the N. foot of Mount Etna, 43 m. N. by W. of Catania by rail, and 26 m. direct. Pop. (1901) 11,798. It has considerable remains of architecture of the 13th and 14th centuries, including three Norman churches and some interesting palaces. The former contain some fine sculptures and goldsmith's work (Mauceri in L'Arte, 1906, 185). It is the nearest town to the summit of Etna (9 m.), and is one of the points from which the ascent may be made.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symphonia

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​SYMPHONIA (Gr. συμφωνία) , a much discussed word, applied at different times (1) to the bagpipe, (2) to the drum, (3) to the hurdy-gurdy, and finally (4) to a kind of clavichord. The sixth of the musical instruments enumerated in Dan. iii. s, 10, 15, erroneously translated “dulcimer,” in all probability refers to the bagpipe (q.v.). Symphonia, signifying drum, occurs in the writings of Isidor of Seville. “Tympanum est pellis vel corium ligno ex una parte extentum. Est enim pars media symphoniae in similitudinem cribri. Tympanum autem dictum quod medium est. Unde, et margaritum medium tympanum dicitur, et ipsum ut symphonia ad virgulam percutitur.” The reference comparing the tympanum (kettledrum) to half a pearl is borrowed from Pliny (Nat. hist. IX. 35, 23). Symphonia or Chifonie was applied during the 13th and 14th centuries, in the Latin countries more especially, to the hurdy-gurdy. Symphonia is applied by Praetorius to an instrument which he classed with the clavichord, spinet, regals and virginal, but without giving any clue to its distinctive characteristics.
(K. S.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symond's Yat

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​SYMOND’S YAT, one of the most famous view points on the river Wye, England. At a point 9 m. above Monmouth and 12 m. below Ross by water, the Wye makes a sweep of nearly 5 m. round a peninsula whose neck is only some 600 yds. across. The peninsula is occupied by the limestone acclivity of Huntsham Hill. Caverns are seen in the limestone on both precipitous banks of the river. The Yat or Gate is situated on the west side of the neck, which reaches an elevation over 500 ft., and a road from the east drops to a ferry, which was of early importance as a highway between England and Wales. The boundary between Herefordshire and Gloucestershire crosses the neck; the Yat is in the county first named, but the railway station, on the east side (left bank) is in Gloucestershire. It is on the Ross-Monmouth line of the Great Western railway. There are here groups of cottages and several inns on both banks, while opposite the Yat itself is the hamlet of New Weir, and a little above it the village of Whitchurch. The river banks are densely wooded, except where they become sheer cliffs, as at the Coldwell rocks above the station. The surrounding country is hilly and rich, and the views from the Yat are superb, embracing the Forest of Dean to the south and east, and backed by the mountains of the Welsh border in the west.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symonds, William Samuel

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​SYMONDS, WILLIAM SAMUEL (1818–1887), was born in Hereford in 1818. He was educated at Cheltenham and Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1842. Having taken holy orders he was appointed curate of Offenham, near Evesham in 1843, and two years later he was presented to the living of Pendock in Worcestershire, where he remained until 1877. While at Offenham he became acquainted with H. E. Strickland and imbibed from him such an interest in natural history and geology, that his leisure was henceforth devoted to these subjects. He was one of the founders of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club (1851) and of the Malvern Naturalists' Field Club (1853), and was an active member of the Cotteswold Field Club and other local societies. In 1858 he edited an edition of Hugh Miller’s Cruise of the “Betsey.” He was the author of numerous essays on the geology of the Malvern country, notably of a paper “On the passage-beds from the Upper Silurian rocks into the Lower Old Red Sandstone at Ledbury” (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1860). His principal work was Records of the Rocks (1872). He was author of Stones of the Valley (1857), Old Bones, or Notes for Young Naturalists (1859, 2nd ed. 1864), and other popular works. He died at Cheltenham on the 15th of September 1887.
See A Sketch of the Life of the Rev. W. S. Symonds, by the Rev. J. D. La Touche.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symons, Arthur

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​SYMONS, ARTHUR (1865–), English poet and critic, was born in Wales on the 28th of February 1865, of Cornish parents. He was educated privately, spending much of his time in France and Italy. In 1884–1886 he edited four of Quaritch’s Shakespeare Quarto Facsimiles, and in 1888–1889 seven plays of the “Henry Irving” Shakespeare. He became a member of the staff of the Athenaeum in 1891, and of the Saturday Review in 1894. His first volume of verse, Days and Nights (1889), consisted of dramatic monologues. His later verse is influenced by a close study of modern French writers, of Baudelaire and especially of Verlaine. He reflects French tendencies both in the subject-matter and style of his poems, in their eroticism and their vividness of description. His volumes of verse are: Silhouettes (1892), London Nights (1895), Amoris victima (1897), Images of Good and Evil (1899), A Book of Twenty Songs (1905). In 1902 he made a selection from his earlier verse, published as Poems (2 vols.). He translated from the Italian of Gabriele d'Annunzio The Dead City (1900) and The Child of Pleasure (1898), and from the French of Emile Verhaeren The Dawn (1898). To The Poems of Ernest Dowson (1905) he prefixed an essay on the deceased poet, who was a kind of English Verlaine and had many attractions for Mr Symons. Among his volumes of collected essays are: Studies in Two Literatures (1897), The Symbolist School in Literature (1899), Cities (1903), word-pictures of Rome, Venice, Naples, Seville, &c., Plays, Acting and Music (1903), Studies in Prose and Verse (1904), Spiritual Adventures (1905), Studies in Seven Arts (1906).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symmachus (Pope)

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​SYMMACHUS, pope from 498 to 514, had Anastasius II. for his_ predecessor and was himself followed by Hormisdas. He was a native of Sardinia, apparently a convert from paganism, and was in deacon's orders at the time of his election. The choice was not unanimous, another candidate, Laurentius, having the support of a strong Byzantine party; and both competitors were consecrated by their friends, the- one in the Lateran Church and the other in that of St Mary, on the 22nd of November 498. A decision was not long afterwards obtained in favour of Symmachus from Theodoric, to whom the dispute had been referred; but peace was not established until 505 or 506, when the Gothic king ordered the Laurentian party to surrender the churches of which they had taken possession. An important incident in the protracted controversy was the ​decision of the “palmary synod.” The remainder of the pontificate of Symmachus was uneventful; history speaks of various churches in Rome as having been built or beautified by him.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Symons, George James

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​SYMONS, GEORGE JAMES (1838–1900), English meteorologist, was born in Pimlico, London, on the 6th of August 1838. In 1860 he obtained a post in the meteorological department of the Board of Trade under Admiral Robert Fitzroy, who was then deeply interested in the subject of storm-warnings, and in the same year he published the first annual volume of British Rainfall, which contained records from 168 stations in England and Wales, but none from Scotland or Ireland. Three years later he resigned his appointment at the Board of Trade, where his rainfall inquiries were not appreciated—at least not as a prior study of storm-warnings—and devoted his whole energies to the organization of a band of volunteer observers for the collection of particulars of rainfall throughout the British Isles. So successful was he in this object that by 1866 he was able to show results which gave a fair representation of the distribution of rainfall, and the number of recorders gradually increased until the last volume of British Rainfall which he lived to edit (that for 1899) contained figures from 3528 stations—2894 in England and Wales, 446 in Scotland, and 188 in Ireland. Apart from their scientific interest, these annual reports are of great practical importance, since they afford engineers and others engaged in water supply much-needed data for their calculations, the former absence of which had on some occasions given rise to grave mistakes. Symons himself devoted special study not only to rainfall, but also to the evaporation and percolation of water as affecting underground streams, and his extensive knowledge rendered him a valuable witness before parliamentary committees. In other branches of meteorology also he took a keen interest, and he was particularly indefatigable, though consistently unsuccessful, in the quest of a genuine thunderbolt. The history of the science too attracted his attention, and he possessed a fine library of meteorological works, which passed to the Meteorological Society at his death. Of that society he became a member when only eighteen, and he retained his connexion with it in various official capacities up to the end of his life. He served as its president in 1880, and in view of the celebration of its jubilee was re-elected to that office in 1900, but the illness that caused his death prevented him from acting. He died in London on the 10th of March 1900.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wiles, Irving Ramsay

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​WILES, IRVNG RAMSAY (1861–), American artist, was born at Utica, New York, on the 8th of April 1861. He studied under his father, the landscape painter, Lemuel Maynard Wiles (1826–1905), in the Art Students’ League, New York, and under Carolus Duran, at Paris. His earlier work was as an illustrator for American magazines, and later he devoted himself with great success to portraiture. He became a full member of the National Academy of Design (1897) and a member of the American Water Color Society.