OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lansbury, George

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LANSBURY, GEORGE (1859-), English Socialist, was born Feb. 21 1859, at Halesworth, Suffolk, where his father was engaged as a sub-contractor on the railway line between Ipswich and Yarmouth. When he was seven years old the family moved to London, and his childhood was chiefly spent in Whitechapel. In 1880 he was married to Elizabeth Brine, daughter of Isaac Brine, timber merchant. In 1884 they went with their three older children to Australia, returning in 1885, and soon afterwards settling in Bow, where their home has been ever since. Lansbury worked in the business of his father-in-law and was one of the first members of the Gas Workers' and General Labourers' Union—now the National Union of General Workers. In 1921 he had been a member of this union for 30 years, and for the greater part of this time one of its trustees. He began his political life at the age of 15 as a keen Radical, but subsequently became a convinced Socialist, a member of the I.L.P. and a member of the National Executive of the Labour party. He was a member of the Church Socialist League from its inception. He was first elected a guardian in Bow in 1892, was elected to the Borough Council in 1901 and was mayor of Poplar in 1919-20. As a member of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law he signed the Minority Report. He sat for three years on the L.C.C. In 1910 he was elected Labour M.P. for Bow and Bromley. He resigned his seat in 1912, in order to recontest it as a supporter of women's suffrage, and was defeated. He was defeated again in the general election in 1918. In 1913 he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment for a speech made at the Albert Hall, but was released after some days of hunger strike. He had helped to found the first Daily Herald in 1912 as a Labour organ, and he became its editor in 1913. The Herald became a weekly in September 1914, and reappeared as a daily in March 1919, its policy being extremist and even Bolshevist. In this connexion Mr. Lansbury visited Russia in 1920 and was accorded an interview with Lenin.
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lane, Franklin Knight

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LANE, FRANKLIN KNIGHT (1864-1921), American public official, was born near Charlottetown, P.E.I., Canada, July 15 1864. He was taken to California in childhood and graduated from the university of California in 1886. He began his career as a newspaper reporter, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1889. He practised in San Francisco, drafted a charter for that city, and soon afterwards, in 1897, was elected city attorney, to which office he was twice reëlected. In 1902 he was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor of California and the following year received the Democratic vote of the state legislature for the U.S. Senate, but failed of election. In 1905 he was appointed by President Roosevelt a member of the Interstate Commerce Commission and was retained by President Taft, serving for eight years, part of the time as chairman. The decisions which he wrote, many of which were regarded as radical at the time, were all upheld by the courts. In 1913 he entered the Cabinet of President Wilson as Secretary of the Interior. During his term of office the wealth of Alaska was made more accessible by the construction of a Government railway. Dams were built in several western states for conserving the water-supply in dry regions. To the Indians he gave special attention, maintaining that perpetual tutelage was wrong. Long before, authority had been granted the Secretary of the Interior to deal with individual cases, and by a generous interpretation of his powers many Indians were made free citizens. In connexion with national resources he advocated development without waste as being reasonable conservation. He
was an earnest advocate of reclamation of land, and suggested that farms for soldiers returned from the World War could be provided by extensive drainage and irrigation. He favoured a policy of Americanization for the foreign population and the education of illiterates. In 1916 he was a member of the American-Mexican Joint High Commission, and the following, year became a member of the Council of National Defense. In 1920 he resigned his post as Secretary of the Interior. He was treasurer of the European Relief Council. He died at Rochester, Minn., May 18 1921. He was the author of The American Spirit (1918, addresses delivered in war time).
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lagerlöf, Selma

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LAGERLÖF, SELMA (1858-), Swedish writer, was born Nov. 20 1858 at Mårbacke in Värmland (Vermland). She grew up among country surroundings in a province in which tradition and folk-lore survived to an extent unknown elsewhere in the land. After going through the course in the Royal Women's Superior Training College of Stockholm, she became a teacher in the girls' high school at Landskrona. A weekly journal offered a prize for competition. She sent in some chapters of her first work, Gösta Berlings Saga, and won the prize. Thus began her public career as author. The book was a collection of tales, each to some extent independent of the others, gathered together in one framework: wild and moving scenes from Värmland life, depicted with lively imagination in a style of diction in keeping with her subject. The book is peculiarly Swedish in its character but it has been translated into English, Danish, German, Finnish, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Portuguese, Czech and Russian. In 1894 she published Osynliga Länkar (Invisible Links).
In 1895 she was able to give up her work as teacher. Two journeys abroad which she now made, one of them to Italy, the other to Palestine and other parts of the East, were largely instrumental in providing material for her next book. In Antikrists Mirakler (1897) she gives a picture, in legendary shape, of the mystical and socialistic aspects of Sicilian life. In Jerusalem (1901-2) she tells of a strange flitting from the Swedish province of Dalarne to the Holy Land. Among her other works may be mentioned Drottningar i Kungahälla, stories from Swedish history (1899); En Herrgårdssägen (1899); Kristuslegender (1904); Herr Arnes Penningar (1904); Nils Holgerssons Underbara Resa (1906-7), a book for children, recounting a small boy's remarkable adventures on a journey through Sweden on the back of a wild-goose, embodying at the same time a series of stories touching on Swedish nature and history; En Saga om en Saga (1908); Liljecronas Hem (1911); Körkarlen (1912); Dunungen, a comedy (1914); Kejsarn av Portugallien (1914); Troll och Människor (1915); Bannlyst (1918) and Kavaljersnoveller (1918); as well as a volume of essays entitled Hem och Stat, published in 1911. Most of her books have been translated into English and other languages.
Honours and marks of esteem began gradually to come to her. In 1907 she was given a doctor's degree by Upsala University; in 1909 the Swedish Academy awarded her the Nobel prize for literature, and subsequently she was elected one of its 18 members — the first woman to be elected since its foundation in the
18th century. She purchased and restored the old farm in Värmland which was the home of her fathers.
See M. Kristenson, Selma Lagerlöf (1917); O. I. Levertin, Selma Lagerlöf (1904).
# 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lammasch, Heinrich

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LAMMASCH, HEINRICH (1853-1920); Austrian jurist and statesman, was born on May 18 1853. He was professor of criminal and international law, a member of the Hague Arbitration Tribunal, and in 1918 the last prime minister of Austria. He qualified for the teaching faculty at Vienna in 1878. His pioneer pamphlet on the objective danger in the conception of attempted crime won for him in 1882 an extraordinary professorship, and in 1885 a full professorship at Innsbruck. In 1889 he returned to Vienna and there became an advocate of the idea of a league of nations in the spirit of Christian philosophy. He became an international arbitrator, and arranged the Newfoundland dispute between Great Britain and the United States,
and the Orinoco dispute between the latter and Venezuela. He was sent to represent Austria at St. Germain, returned broken in body and spirit, and died shortly afterwards, on Jan. 6 1920.
    (C. B.)
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberammergau

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​OBERAMMERGAU, a village of Bavaria, Germany, district of Upper Bavaria, situated amongst the foot-hills of the Alps in the valley of the Ammer, 64 m. S.S.W. of Munich. Pop. about 1400. The village folk are mainly engaged in making toys, and carving crucifixes, rosaries and images of saints.
The place is famous for their performance of a Passion Play every tenth year (e.g. in 1910), to which thousands of visitors flock. This dramatic representation of the sufferings of Christ is not a survival of a medieval mystery or miracle-play, but took its rise from a vow made by the inhabitants in 1633, with the hope of staying a plague then raging. The original text and arrangements were probably made by the monks of Ettal, a monastery a little higher up the valley; but they were carefully remodelled by the parish priest at the beginning of the present century, when the Oberammergau play obtained exemption from the general suppression of such performances by the Bavarian government. The music was composed by Rochus Dedler, schoolmaster of the parish in 1814. The performances take place on the Sundays of summer, in a large open-air theatre holding 6000 persons, and each lasts about nine hours, with a short intermission at noon. Each scene from the history of Christ is prefaced by a tableau of typical import from the Old Testament. About 700 actors are required, all belonging to the village. The proceeds of the performances are devoted to the good of the community, after defrayal of the costs and payment of a small remuneration to the actors. The villagers regard the Passion Play as a solemn act of religious worship, and the performances are characterized by the greatest reverence. The principal parts are usually hereditary in certain families, and are assigned with regard to moral character as well as dramatic ability. It is considered a disgrace not to be allowed to take part in the play, and the part of Christ is looked upon as one of the greatest of earthly honours.
Edward Devrient (in 1850) was among the first to direct general attention to Oberammergau; and numerous accounts have since appeared. An English version of the text of the Passion Play has been published by E. Childe (1880).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberhausen

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​OBERHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian Rhine province. It is situated 5 m. from the east bank of the Rhine, 20 m. N.E. of Düsseldorf, on the main line of railway to Hanover and Berlin, and at the centre of an important network of lines radiating hence into the extensive Westphalian coal and iron fields. Pop. (1905) 52,096. The town possesses large iron-works, coal-mines, rolling-mills, zinc, smelting-works, railway workshops and manufactures of wire-rope, glass, chemicals, porcelain and soap. The first houses of Oberhausen were built in 1845, and it received its municipal character in 1874.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberlin, Jean Frédéric

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​OBERLIN, JEAN FRÉDÉRIC (1740–1826), German Protestant pastor and philanthropist, the son of a teacher, was born on the 31st of August 1740 at Strassburg, where he studied theology. In 1766 he became Protestant pastor of Waldbach, a remote and barren region in the Steinthal (Ban-de-la-Roche), a valley in the Vosges on the borders of Alsace and Lorraine. He set himself to better the material equally with the spiritual condition of the inhabitants. He began by constructing roads through the valley and erecting bridges, inciting the peasantry to the enterprise by his personal example. He introduced an improved system of agriculture. Substantial cottages were erected, and various industrial arts were introduced. He founded an itinerant library, originated infant schools, and established an ordinary school at each of the five villages in the parish. In the work of education he received great assistance from his housekeeper, Louisa Scheppler (1763–1837). He died on the 1st of June 1826, and was interred with great manifestations of honour and affection at the village of Urbach.
Among the many accounts of the labours of Oberlin, mention may be made of Thomas Sims, Brief Memorials of Oberlin (London, 1830); Memoirs of Oberlin, with a short notice of Louisa Scheppler (London, 1838, 2nd ed. 1852); H. Ware, Biography of Oberlin (Boston, 1845); L. Spach, Oberlin le pasteur (Strassburg, 1865, 2nd ed. 1868); F. W. Bodemann, J. F. Oberlin (3rd ed., 1879); K. F. Riff, Drei Bilder aus dem Leben von Papa Oberlin (Strassburg, 1880); Josephine Butler, Life of J. F. Oberlin (1882); G. H. von Schubert, Züge aus dem Leben Oberlins (11th ed., 1890); Armin Stein, Johann Friedrich Oberlin, ein Lebensbild (1899). See also the article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie. The collected writings of Oberlin were published by Burkhardt at Stuttgart in 1843 in 4 vols.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberländer, Adam Adolf

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​OBERLÄNDER, ADAM ADOLF (1845–), German caricaturist, was born at Ratisbon, but after 1847 lived in Munich. He studied painting at the Munich Academy under Piloty, and soon discovered that the true expression of his genius was in the field of caricature and comic drawings. He joined the staff of the Fliegende Blätter, to which he became a constant contributor. Unlike Busch, whose aim was the utmost simplicity of line and whose drawings form a running commentary to the legend, Oberländer’s work is essentially pictorial, and expressive in itself, without the extraneous aid of the written line. Among his best drawings are his parodies on the style of well-known painters, such as the “Variations on the Kissing Theme.” His works have been collected in the Oberländer-Album, published by Braun and Schneider in Munich.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberon

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​OBERON (Fr. Alberon, Auberon, Ger. Alberich, i.e. rich, Goth. reiks, “ruler”—cf. Lat. rex—and O.H. and M.H. Ger. pl. elbi, elbe, “elves,” pl. alp), king of the elves. In the legendary history of the Merovingian dynasty he figures as a magician, and is the brother of Merowech (Mérovée). He wins for his eldest son Walbert the hand of a princess of Constantinople. In the Nibelungenlied he guarded the treasure of the Nibelungen, but was overcome by Sigfrid. In the German medieval poem of Ortnit, the hero is aided in his wooing by his father Alberich, the king of the dwarfs. As Oberon, king of the fairies, he fills a similar rôle in Huon of Bordeaux (q.v.). The fairy element in the romance provided Shakespeare with the fairy scenes of the Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Wieland with the subject of his epic Oberon (1780). Ben Jonson wrote a masque of Oberon, or the Fairy Prince (Works, 1616). Weber’s opera, Oberon, to the words of J. R. Planché, was first produced at Covent Garden on the 12th of April 1826. In the Wagner dramas Alberich is the Nibelung who steals the magic gold from the Rhine maidens. He is there the father of Hagen, and has throughout the Ring a darker character than that assigned to him in the original legend. There have been attempts to find the original Oberon in the Celtic Gwyn Aron, but there is no doubt of his Germanic origin, although his history, as given by the poet of Huon of Bordeaux, contains elements derived from Celtic tradition—the magic cup which remains full for the virtuous, and his parentage (he is the son of Morgan la fay and Julius Caesar). With Oberon in the character of guardian of the treasure should be compared Andvari, the dwarf of Scandinavian legend, who, in the shape of a pike, was seized by Loki and made to give up his treasure and the magic ring by which he could create more gold. This ring, the Andvaranautr, with the curse of Andvari upon it, caused the misfortunes of the Volsungs and the Burgundian Nibelungs, and is known in German romance as the Ring of the Nibelungen.
See also C. Voretzsch, Epische Studien. Die Kompositionen des Huon von Bordeaux (Halle, 1900); J. Seemüller, “Die Zwergensage von Ortnit,” in Zeitschr. für deut. Altert. vol. xvi. (1882).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Obit

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​OBIT (through O. Fr., from Lat. obitus, death, obire, to go down, to die), a term for death, formerly used for the account ​of a person’s death (now “obituary”). An “obit” was also a service performed at a funeral or in commemoration of a dead person, particularly the founder or benefactor of a church, college or other institution, hence “obit-days,” “obit Sunday,” &c. A “post-obit” is a bond given as a security for the repayment of money lent upon the death of a person from whom the borrower has expectations (see Bond).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberlahnstein

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​OBERLAHNSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Hesse-Nassau, on the right bank of the Rhine, at the confluence of the Lahn 4 m. above Coblenz, on the railway from Cologne to Frankfort-on-Main. Pop. (1905) 8472. It still retains parts of its ancient walls and towers, and possesses a castle, the Schloss Martinsburg, formerly the residence of the electors of Mainz, and the chapel, Marien Kapelle, in which the German king Wenceslaus was deposed by the electors in 1400. Near the town is the castle of Lahneck, built about 1290, destroyed by the French in 1689, and restored in 1854. In the neighbourhood are lead and silver mines.
See J. Wegeler, Lahneck und Oberlahnstein (Trier, 1881).
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberlin, Jérémie Jacques

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​OBERLIN, JÉRÉMIE JACQUES (1735–1886), Alsatian philologist and archaeologist, brother of Jean Frédéric Oberlin, was born at Strassburg on the 8th of August 1735. While studying theology at the university he devoted special attention to Biblical archaeology. In 1755 he was chosen professor at the gymnasium of his native town, in 1763 librarian to the university, in 1770 professor of rhetoric, and in 1782 of logic and metaphysics. Oberlin published several manuals on archaeology and ancient geography, and made frequent excursions into different provinces of France to investigate antiquarian remains and study provincial dialects, the result appearing in Essai sur le patois Lorrain (1775); Dissertations sur les Minnesingers (1782-1789); and Observations concernant le patois et les mœurs des gens de la campagne (1791). He also published several editions of Latin authors. He died on the 10th of October 1806.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Oberstein

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​OBERSTEIN, a town of Germany, in the principality of Birkenfeld, belonging to the grand duchy of Oldenburg, on the river Nahe, 33 m. S.W. of Kreuznach, by the railway to Münster-am-Stein. Pop. (1905) 9669. It is famous for the cutting and setting of agates and other precious stones, an industry which has been established here, and in the neighbouring township of Idar, since the 16th century. The Evangelical church, built in the 12th century and restored in 1482, is partly hewn out of the solid rock. On the hills above the town are the ruins of two castles.
See Hisserich, Die Idar-Obersteiner Industrie (Oberstein, 1894).
# A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên Shou

​245 Ch'ên Shou 陳壽 (T. 承祚) A.D. 233-297. A native of Ssŭch'uan, who after studying under Ch'iao Chou took service under the Minor Han dynasty, and alone ventured to oppose the ​all-powerful eunuch Huang Hao. He brought himself into notice by collecting the public papers of Chu-ko Liang, and was employed under the Chin dynasty to edit the History of the Three Kingdoms, which was much admired. His biographies of Chin men, however, are marked by personal bias. He became a Censor, but retired at the death of his mother, chiefly on account of the opposition of his rival Hsün Hsü; and later he refused to take up a post of Instructor to the Heir Apparent. He also wrote the 故國志 History of Ancient States and a biographical work on Ssŭch'uan worthies, entitled 益都耆舊傳.
# A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên Shêng

​242 Ch'ên Shêng 陳勝 (T. 涉). Died B.C. 209. A ploughman of the Ch'in State. One day he stood still in the furrows and said to his fellow-labourers, "When I am rich and powerful, I will not forget you." "How is a ploughman going to get rich and powerful?" asked his companions, mockingly. "Ah," replied Ch'ên, "what can swallows and sparrows know of the aims of the snow-goose or the wild swan?" Entering upon a military career, he rose to a rank of some importance; but revolted, together with 吳廣 Wu Kuang, because being prevented by flood from reaching a certain place by a certain date, he was liable under the prevailing law to execution. He seized 蘄 Ch'i in modern Anhui, and established himself at Ch'ên in Honan. The people rose on all sides against the Ch'in officials, and he soon had a large following. His armies however were unsuccessful, and he was driven out of Ch'in by 章邯 Chang Han at the head of a body of enfranchised slaves, whereupon he took to flight, but was slain by his charioteer. He refused to allow himself to be styled Prince of Ch'u, but he is often referred to as Prince of Ch'ên. He was posthumously known as 隱王.
# A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên Po-tsung

​241 Ch'ên Po-tsung 陳伯宗 (T. 奉業). A.D. 550-568. Son of Ch'ên Ch'ien, whom he succeeded in 566 as third sovereign of the Ch'ên dynasty. He was a weak youth, and was deposed after little more than a year by his uncle, to whom his father had offered the succession. Known in history as 廢帝 or 臨海王.
# A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên Shih-kuan

​244 Ch'ên Shih-kuan 陳世倌 (T. 秉之, H. 蓮宇). A.D. 1680—1757. Fourth son of Ch'ên Hsien. He graduated as chin shih in 1708, and after several educational and literary posts, became Governor of Shantung in 1724. He was degraded in 1734 for procrastination in reporting on the Kiangnan waterways, but rose again in 1741 to be a Grand Secretary. At the end of 1748 an erroneous judgment led to his dismissal, but he was recalled to his high office three years later. He retired with honour in 1757, leaving behind him the reputation of a most conscientious officer. Canonised as 文勤.
# A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ên Shu-pao

​246 Ch'ên Shu-pao 陳叔寶 (T. 元秀). A.D. 553-604. Eldest son of Ch'ên Hsü, whom he succeeded in 582, and fifth and last sovereign of the Ch'ên dynasty. He gave himself up to a life of debauchery, employing unworthy minions to oppress the people, until the Sui armies took his capital without any opposition in 589. When the victorious invaders burst into the palace, the wretched poltroon caused himself and his favourite concubines, Chang Li-hua and others, to be lowered into a well, from which they were ignominiously dragged up by the conquerors. His life was spared, and he was sent as Duke of Ch'ang-ch'êng, his family home, to Ch'ang-an. Known in history as 後主.