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# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Niagara Falls, New York

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​NIAGARA FALLS, a city of Niagara county, New York, U.S.A., on the E. side of the Niagara river, at the Falls, 22 m. N.N.W. of Buffalo. Pop. (1900) 19,457, of whom 7326 were foreign-born, (1910 census) 30,445. The city is served by the New York Central & Hudson River, the Wabash, the Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the West Shore and the Michigan Central railways, and by the International Electric railway and the Niagara, St Catharines & Toronto (electric) railway. The city extends along the level summit of the cliffs from above the Falls to some 3 m. below. The river is here crossed by three bridges; the (upper) steel arch bridge, built (1895) on the site of the former suspension bridge (built in 1869; blown down in 1889; rebuilt as a suspension bridge) near the Falls, is crossed by double carriageways and footpaths and by an electric railway, and is probably the longest bridge of the kind in the world, being 1240 ft. long with an arch span of 840 ft.; and 11/2 m. farther down the river are two railway bridges, the Michigan Central’s cantilever bridge, completed in 1883, and the (lower) single steel arch bridge (completed in 1897, on the site of John A. Roebling’s suspension bridge built in 1851–1856) of the Grand Trunk railway, which has a terminus at Niagara Falls (Clifton), Ontario, and connects here with the New York Central & Hudson River and the Lehigh Valley railways.
The principal buildings of the city are the Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital, the Federal Building and the Niagara Falls Power Co. Building. The city has a Carnegie library, De Veaux College (Protestant Episcopal, chartered in 1853), and Niagara University, a Roman Catholic institution, founded in 1856 by the priests of the Congregation of the Mission and incorporated in 1863 as the Seminary of Our Lady of Angels, a name still used for the theological department, but displaced, since the charter of the university in 1883, by the present name. In the extreme S.W. part of the city is Prospect Park, which with Goat Island immediately S., and several smaller islands, has been, since 1885, the “New York State Reservation at Niagara Falls.” From the Falls, which gave the city its first importance as a stopping place for tourists, valuable electric and hydraulic power is derived (by a tunnel 29 ft. deep and 18 ft. wide, passing about 200 ft. under the surface of the city, from the upper steel arch bridge to a point 11/4 m. above the Falls, and by the canal of the Niagara Falls Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company). Niagara Falls is an important manufacturing city; the value of the factory products increased from $8,540,184 in 1900 to $16,915,786 in 1905, or 98·1%. The city is the shipping centre for the W. part of Niagara county. The village of Niagara Falls was for a time called Manchester. In 1892 the village of Suspension Bridge (formerly Niagara City) was joined with it under a city charter, which has been frequently amended.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Messene

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​MESSENE, an ancient Greek city, the capital of Messenia, founded by Epaminondas in 369 B.C., after the battle of Leuctra and the first Theban invasion of the Peloponnese. The town was built by the combined Theban and Argive armies and the exiled Messenians who had been invited to return and found a state which should be independent of Spartan rule. The site was chosen by Epaminondas and lay on the western slope of the mountain which dominates the Messenian plain and culminates in the two peaks of Ithome and Eua. The former of these (2630 ft.) served as the acropolis, and was included within the same system of fortifications as the lower city. Messene remained a place of some importance under the Romans, but we hear nothing of it in medieval times and now the hamlet of Mavromati occupies a small part of the site.
Pausanias has left us a description of the city (iv. 31–33), its chief temples and statues, its springs, its market-place and gymnasium, its place of sacrifice (ἱεροθύσιον), the tomb of the hero Aristomenes (q.v.) and the temple of Zeus Ithomatas on the summit of the acropolis with a statue by the famous Argive sculptor Ageladas, originally made for the Messenian helots who had settled at Naupactus at the close of the third Messenian War. But what chiefly excited his wonder was the strength of its fortifications, which excelled all those of the Greek world. Of the wall, some 51/2 m. in extent, considerable portions yet remain, especially on the north and north-west, and almost the entire circuit can still be traced, affording the finest extant example of Greek fortification. The wall is flanked by towers about 31 ft. high set at irregular intervals: these have two storeys with loopholes in the lower and windows in the upper, and are entered by doors on a level with the top of the wall which is reached by flights of steps. Of the gates only two can be located, the eastern or Laconian, situated on the eastern side of the saddle uniting Ithome and Eua, and the northern or Arcadian gate. Of the former but little remains: the latter, however, is excellently preserved and consists of a circular court about 20 yds. in diameter with inner and outer gates, the latter flanked by square towers some 11 yds. apart. The lintel of the inner gate was formed by a single stone 18 ft. 8 in. in length, and the masonry of the circular court is of astonishing beauty and accuracy. The other buildings which can be identified are the theatre, the stadium, the council chamber or Bouleuterion, and the propylaeum of the market, while on the shoulder of the mountain are the foundations of a small temple, probably that of Artemis Laphria.
See E. Curtius, Peloponnesos, ii. 138 sqq.; W. M. Leake, Travels in the Morea, i. 366 sqq.; J. G. Frazer, Pausanias’s Description of Greece, iii. 429 sqq.; W. G. Clark, Peloponnese, 232 sqq.; A. Blouet, Expéd. scient. de Morée: Architecture, i. 37–42, Plates 38–47; E. P. Boblaye, Recherches géogr. sur les ruines de la Morée, 107 sqq.; C. Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland, ii. 165 sqq. (M. N. T.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mesquite

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​MESQUITE, or Honey Locust, in botany, a tree, native of the southern United States and extending southwards through Mexico and the Andean region to Chile and the Argentine Republic. It is known botanically as Prosopis juliflora, and belongs to the natural order Leguminosae (suborder Mimoseae). It reaches 40 or 50 ft. in height with a trunk usually not more than 6 to 12 in. in diameter, and divided a short distance above the ground into numerous irregular crooked branches forming a loose straggling head. The remarkable development of its main root in relation to water-supply renders it most valuable as a dry-country plant; the root descends to a great depth in search of water, and does not branch or decrease much in diameter till this is reached. It can thus flourish where no other woody plant can exist, and its presence and condition afford almost certain indications of the depth of the water-level. When the plant attains the size of a tree, water will be found within 40 or 50 ft. of the surface; when it grows as a bush, between 50 or 60 ft.; while, when the roots have to descend below 60 ft., the stems are only 2 or 3 ft. high. These woody roots supply valuable fuel in regions where no wood of fuel value is produced above ground. The leaves are compound, the main axis bearing two or sometimes four secondary axes on which are borne a number of pairs of narrow bluntish leaflets. The minute greenish-white fragrant flowers are densely crowded on slender cylindrical spikes from 11/2 to 4 in. long; the long narrow pods are constricted between the seeds, of which they contain from ten to thirty surrounded by a thick spongy layer of sweet pulp. The wood is heavy, hard and close-grained but not very strong; it is almost indestructible in contact with soil, and is largely used for fence-posts and railway ties. The ripe pods supply the Mexicans and Indians with a nutritious food; and a gum resembling gum arabic exudes from the stem.
An allied species Prosopis pubescens, a small tree or tall shrub, native of the arid regions of the south-western United States, is known as the screw-bean or screw-pod mesquite from the fact that the pods are twisted into a dense screw-like spiral; they are used for fodder and are sweet and nutritious, but smaller and less valuable than those of the mesquite.
For a fuller account of these trees see Charles Sprague Sargent, Silva of North America, iii. p. 99 (1892).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mess

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​MESS (an adaptation of O. Fr. mes, mod. mets; Ital. messo; derived from the Late Lat. missum, past participle of mittere “to send or place in position”), a service of meat, a dish sent to table. The term is also used of the persons who are in the habit of eating their meals together, and thus particularly of the parties into which a ship’s company or a regiment is divided, either according to their rank, or for convenience in catering. Originally, a mess in this sense was a group of four persons sitting at one table and helped from the same dishes. In the Inns of Court, London, the original number is preserved, four benchers or four students dining together.
In early times the word mess was applied to food of a more or less liquid character, as soup, porridge, broth, &c. It is probably in allusion to the sloppy nature of semi-liquid messes of food that a mess has come also to mean a state of disorder, confusion and discomfort. Skeat takes the word in this sense to be a variant of “mash,” originally to mix up.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Message

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​MESSAGE (a word occurring in slightly different forms in several languages, e.g. Fr. message, Span. mensaje, Ital. messagio; adapted from the Low Lat. missaticum, from mittere), a communication either verbal, written or printed, sent from one person to another. Message is the term generally applied to the official communications addressed by the heads of states to their legislatures at the opening of the session or at other times. These also, though written, are borne and delivered by special messengers and have the force of a face to face speech. The sessional and other messages to Congress of the president of the United States of America are printed state documents. Washington and John Adams delivered them in person but the practice was discontinued by Jefferson.
“Messenger” is of the same derivation; the earlier form of the word was messager (cf. passenger, scavenger). In ordinary language the word means one who is charged with the delivery of a message. In Scottish law a messenger-at-arms is an official appointed by Lyon-King-at-Arms to execute summonses and letters of diligence connected with the Court of Sessions and Court of Justiciary (see Writ: § Scotland). Technically the term “messenger” is given to an endless rope or chain, passing from the capstan to the cable so that the latter may be hauled in when the messenger is wound round the capstan; also to a similar contrivance for hauling in a dredge.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Messallina, Valeria

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​MESSALLINA, VALERIA, the third wife of the, Roman emperor Claudius (q.v.). She was notorious for her profligacy, avarice and ambition, and exercised a complete ascendancy over her weak-minded husband, with the help of his all-powerful freedmen. During the absence of Claudius from the city, Messallina forced a handsome youth named Gaius Silius to divorce his wife and go through a regular form of marriage with her. The freedman Narcissus, warned by the fate of another freedman Polybius, who had been put to death by Messallina, informed Claudius of what had taken place, and persuaded him to consent to the removal of his wife. She was executed in the gardens of Lucullus, which she had obtained on the death of Valerius Asiaticus, who through her machinations, had been condemned on a charge of treason. She was only twenty-six years of age. By Claudius she was the mother of the unfortunate Britannicus, and of Octavia, wife of Nero.
See Tacitus, Annals, xi. 1–38; Dio. Cassius lx. 14–31; Juvenal vi. 115–135, x. 333, xiv. 331; Suetonius, Claudius; Merivale, Hist. of the Romans under the Empire ch. 50; A. Stahr, “Agrippina” in Bilder aus dem Alterthume, iv. (1865).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Messager, Andre Charles Prosper

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​MESSAGER, ANDRE CHARLES PROSPER (1853–), French musician, was born at Montluçon on the 30th of December 1853; he studied at Paris, and in 1874 became organist at St Sulpice. He was for some time a pupil of Saint-Saëns. In 1876 he won the gold medal of the Société des Compositeurs with a symphony. In 1880 he was appointed music director at Ste Marie-des-Batignolles. In 1883 he completed Firmin Bernicat’s comic opera François des bas bleus; and in 1885 produced his own operettas, La Fauvette du temple and La Béarnaise, the latter being performed in London in 1886. His ballet Les Deux pigeons was produced at the Paris Opéra in 1886. But it was the production of his comic opera La Basoche in 1890 at the Opéra Comique (English version in London the following year) that established his reputation; and subsequently this was increased by such tuneful and tasteful light ​operas as Madame Chrysanthème (1893), Mirette (1894), Les Petites Michus (1897), and Véronique (1898), the latter of which had a great success in London. Besides conducting for some years at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Messager’s services were also secured in London in 1901 and later years as one of the directors of the Covent Garden opera.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Straubing

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​STRAUBING, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Bavaria, pleasantly situated in a fertile plain, on the right bank of the Danube, here crossed by two bridges, 25 m. S.E. of Regensburg, on the railway to Passau. Pop. (1905), 20,856, nearly all of whom are Roman Catholics. Its oldest and most characteristic building is the tall square tower with its five pointed turrets, dating from 1208. It has eight Roman Catholic churches, among them being the church of St James, a handsome Late Gothic edifice, with some paintings ascribed to Wohlgemuth; the old Carmelite church containing a monument to Duke Albert II. of Bavaria; and that of St Peter with the tomb of Agnes Bernauer. It has also a Gothic town-hall, a castle, now used as barracks, and two fine squares. The numerous educational establishments include a gymnasium, an episcopal seminary for boys and a normal school. The industries of Straubing are tanning and brewing, the manufacture of bricks and cement, and trade in grain and cattle. Straubing is a town of remote origin, believed to be identical with the Roman station of Sorbiodurum. In definite history, however, it is known only as a Bavarian town, and from 1353 to 1425 it was the seat of the ducal line of Bavaria-Straubing. Its chief historical interest attaches to its connexion with the unfortunate Agnes Bernauer (q.v.), who lived at the chateau here with her husband Duke Albert III.
See Wimmer, Sammelblatter zur Geschichte der Stadt Straubing (Straubing, 1882-1884), and Ortner, Straubing in seiner Vergangenheit und Gegenwart (Straubing, 1902).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Straus, Ludwig

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​STRAUS, LUDWIG (1835–1899), Austrian violinist, was born at Pressburg on the 28th of March 1835. He studied at the Vienna Conservatorium from 1843 to 1848, as a pupil of Böhm; made his first appearance in 1850, and five years afterwards made a tour in Italy; in 1857 he became acquainted with his lifelong friend, the 'cellist Piatti, and toured with him in Germany and Sweden. From 1860 to 1864 he was concert-meister at Frankfort, and during these years he visited England frequently, in the year 1864 taking up his residence there. He was for many years leader of Hallé's orchestra in Manchester, and a familiar figure at the Popular Concerts in London. He was first violin in the Queen's Band. He retired, owing to ill health, in 1893, and from that time till his death, on the 23rd of October 1899, lived at Cambridge. His playing, whether of violin or viola, had very great qualities; he was perfect in ensemble, and his power of self-effacement was of a piece with his gentle disposition and with the pure love of art which distinguished him through life. A more lovable nature never existed, and his quiet influence on the art of his time was very great.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Strauss, Johann

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​STRAUSS, JOHANN (1804-1849), Austrian orchestral conductor and composer of dance-music, was born at Vienna on the 14th of March 1804. In 1819 he obtained his first engagement as a violinist in a small band then playing at the Sperl, in the Leopoldstadt, and after acting as deputy-conductor in another orchestra, he organized in 1825 a little band of fourteen performers on his own account. It was during the carnival of 1826 that Strauss inaugurated a long line of triumphs by introducing his band to the public of Vienna at the Schwan, in the Rossau suburb, where his famous Täuberl-Walzer (op. 1) at once established his reputation as the best composer of dance-music then living. Upon the strength of this success he was invited back to the Sperl, where he accepted an engagement, with an increased orchestra, for six years. Soon after this he was appointed kapellmeister to the 1st Burger regiment, and entrusted with the duty of providing the music for the court balls; while the number of his private engagements was so great that he found it necessary to enlarge his band from time to time until it consisted of more than two hundred performers. In 1833 he began a long and extended series of tours throughout northern Europe, eventually visiting England in 1838. In Paris he associated himself with Musard, whose quadrilles became not much less popular than his own waltzes; but his greatest successes were achieved in London, where he arrived in time for the coronation of Queen Victoria, and played at seventy-two public concerts, besides innumerable balls and other private entertainments. The fatigue of these long journeys seriously injured Strauss's health; but he soon resumed his duties at the Sperl; and on the 5th of May 1840 he removed with his band to the Imperial “Volksgarten,” which thenceforth became the scene of his most memorable successes, his conducting being marked by a quiet power which ensured the perfection of every minutest nuance. In 1844 Strauss began another extensive series of tours. In 1849 he revisited London, and, after his farewell concert, was escorted down the Thames by a squadron of boats, in one of which a band played tunes in his honour. This was his last public triumph. On his return to Vienna he was attacked with scarlet fever, of which he died on the 25th of September 1849.
Strauss was survived by three sons — Johann (1825-1899), Joseph (1827-1870) and Eduard (b. 1835), all of whom distinguished themselves as composers of dance-music, and assisted in recruiting the ranks and perpetuating the traditions of the still famous band.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Strathpeffer

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​STRATHPEFFER, a village and spa of the county of Ross and Cromarty, Scotland, 5 m. W. of Dingwall by a branch of the Highland railway. Pop. (1901), 354. It lies in a valley of varying elevation (200 to 400 ft. above the sea), but is sheltered on the west and north and has a comparatively dry and warm climate. There are several sulfurous springs—one saline, another strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen—in great repute for gout, rheumatism, skin diseases and affections of the liver and kidneys. The well of effervescent chalybeate water is largely resorted to for anaemia and as a tonic. A peat bath, similar to those at Franzensbad in Bohemia, has also been established. The season runs from May to October, and during the past few years Strathpeffer has become a very popular resort. The pump-room (1829) and pavilion (1881) are situated in the middle of the village. Castle Leod (pron. Loud), a seat of the countess of Cromartie, upon whose property Strathpeffer is built, lies a mile to the north and is an example of the Scots Baronial style dating from 1660. The village was the scene of the fight between the Mackenzies and Macdonalds in 1478, and later between the Mackenzies and the Munros. The Mackenzies prevailed in both encounters. The ascent of Ben Wyvis (3429 ft.) is commonly made from Strathpeffer.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Olympia (Washington)

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​OLYMPIA, the capital of the state of Washington, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Thurston county, on the Des Chutes river and Budd’s Inlet, at the head of Puget Sound, about 50 m. S.S.W. of Seattle. Pop. (1890) 4698; (1900) 3863, of whom 591 were foreign-born; (state estimate, 1905) 8000. It is served by the Northern Pacific and the Port Townsend Southern railways, and by steamboat lines to other ports on the Sound and along the Pacific coast. Budd’s Inlet is spanned here by a wagon bridge and a railway bridge. Among the prominent buildings are the Capitol, which is constructed of native sandstone and stands in a park of considerable beauty, the county court-house, St Peter’s hospital, the governor’s mansion and the city hall. The state library is housed in the Capitol. At Tumwater, the oldest settlement (1845) on Puget Sound, about 2 m. S. of Olympia, are the Tumwater Falls of the Des Chutes, which provide good water power. The city’s chief industry is the cutting, sawing and dressing of lumber obtained from the neighbouring forests. Olympia oysters are widely known in the Pacific coast region; they are obtained chiefly from Oyster Bay, Skookum Bay, North Bay and South Bay, all near Olympia. Olympia was laid out in 1851, became the capital of Washington in 1853, and was chartered as a city in 1859.