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Vail (THEODORE NEWTON an American)

THEODORE NEWTON, an American capitalist; born in Carroll co., Ohio, in 1845. He was educated at Morristown (N. J.) Academy. After studying medicine for 2 years he became in 1873 assistant superintendent of railway mail service at Washington, assistant general superintendent dent in 1874 and general superintendent in 1875. From 1878 to 1887 he was in the telephone business. After traveling for some years he took up farming in Vermont in 1893, and in 1896 became interested in electrical enterprises in Argentina, introduc- THEODORE N. VAIL ing an electrical street railway system in Buenos Aires and installing telephone systems in the principal Argentine cities.

In 1907 he became president of the American Telegraph and Telephone Company, serving in this capacity until he died on April 15, 1920. He was an officer and director in many corporations in the United States and England, and was a member of many scientific and other societies. He received honorary degrees from Dartmouth, Middelbury College, Princeton, Harvard and the University of Vermont. VAISHNAVA (vish'nä-väz), a primary religious sect of the Hindus, who VALDÉS adore Vishnu in preference to, if not to the exclusion of, the other persons of the Hindu triad. To carry individual preference to this extent is not considered orthodox, and many of those who do so have united themselves into monastic bodies, which, drawing their devotees from various castes, virtually merge them in a new one-that of the Sec tarian brotherhood. Horace Hayman Wilson divided the Vaishnavas into the following sections: (1) Rámánujas, Sri Sampradáyís, or Sri Vaishnavas; (2) Rámánandis, or Rámâvats; (3) Kabír Panthís; (4) Khákís; (5) Malúk Dásís; (6) Dádú Panthís; (7) Ráya Dásís; (8) Senáís; (9) Vallabháchárís, or Rudra Sampradáyís; (10) Mírá Báís; (11) Madhwáchárís or Brahma Sampradáyís; (12) Nímávats, or Sanakádi Samprayadáyis; (13) the Vaishnavas of Bengal. (14) Radhá Vallabhís; (15) the Sakł Bhávas; (16) Charan Dásis; (17) Harischandís; (18) Sadhná Panthís, (19) Mádhavis; and (20) Sannyásís Vairágís, and Nágas.

VALAIS (välā') (German, Wallis), a frontier canton of Switzerland; bounded on the N. by the cantons of Vaud and Bern, and on the S. by Italy; area, 2,027 square miles; pop. about 130,000. It forms one long and deep valley, included between two of the loftiest mountain chains of Europe-the Pennine and the Bernese Alps-and is drained by the Upper Rhône, which, rising at its N. E. extremity, falls at the W. boundary of ty falls the canton into the Lake of Geneva. The greater part of the surface consists of barren mountain slopes in their higher elevations covered with the greatest of the Swiss glaciers. The forests and pasture-lands supply the inhabitants with their chief occupations. The heat at the bottom of the valley, where there is a strip of corn land, is intense in summer, and Indian corn and the vine are grown with great success. The Grimsel and Gemmi passes connect the E. part of the valley with German Switzerland; and the Great St. Bernard and SIMPLON (q. v.) passes connect it with Italy. Sion and Martigny are the chief towns.

VALDAI HILLS (väldi), a range of hills in western Russia, averaging about 300 feet in height, but rising in Mount Popovagora to 1,080 feet. They are well wooded, and contain the sources of the Volga, Dnieper, and Düna.

VALDENSES. See WALDENSES.

VALDÉS, ARMANDO PALACIO (väl-dās'). See PALACIO VALDÉS.

VALDÉS, JUAN DE, a Spanish theologian, reformer and writer, born in wrote "Diálogo de Mercurio y Caron," Cuenca, Castile, about 1500. In 1528 he church. Fearing the Spanish Inquisition, a treatise severely criticising the Roman wrote "Diálogo de Mercurio y Caron," Valdés left the country and settled in church. Fearing the Spanish Inquisition, Valdés left the country and settled in Naples, where he resided until his death in 1541. Although a Catholic, he was a strong advocate of doctrines usually iden- Chile; capital of a province of the same