March
March names 5 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
March the third month of the year
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
the third month of the year. It was originally the first month of the Roman year, and was named in honor of Mars, the god of war. Astronomically, it is the first month of spring. In northern latitudes, however, it is a winter month. In southern Australia, it is, of course, the last month of summer, corresponding to our September. The Anglo-Saxons called it the loud or stormy month. The farmers of England desire a dry March for the sake of their crops. There is a popular proverb that "A bushel of March dust is worth a king's ransom." To people impatient for spring, it seems the longest month in the year. The Scotch have a tradition to the effect that March borrowed its last three days from April in order to prolong winter weather. These borrowing days, as they are called, are considered ill days. They are described in a countryside rhyme as follows: The first, it sall be wind and weet, The next, it sall be snow and sleet; The third, it sall be sic a freeze, Sall gar the birds stick to the trees.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the first month of the Roman year, and the third according to our present calendar, consisting of 31 days. It was considered as the first month of the year in England till the change of style in 1752, and the legal year was reckoned from March 25. Its last three days (old style) were once popularly supposed to have been "borrowed" by March from April, and are proverbially stormy.
March PEYTON CONWAY, army officer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
PEYTON CONWAY, army officer; born at Easton, Pa., in 1864, graduated from Lafayette College in 1887. He then spent a year at the United States Military Academy, ten years later graduating from the Artillery School, Fort Monroe. He commanded the Astor Battery in 1898, and was at the head of the American forces in action at Tilad Pass, Luzon, P. I., in 1899, in which General Gregorio del Pilar was killed. During this expedition General Concepcion surrendered to Major March, and Aguinaldo's wife and her escort were captured. In 1917 he was appointed army artillery commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in France, and in February, 1918, was made chief of staff in the United States with the rank of Major General in the permanent establishment.
March the principal river of Moravia
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the principal river of Moravia, rising on the boundary between that country and Prussian Silesia, and flowing 214 miles S. to the Danube, which it joins 6 miles above Pressburg. It receives on the right the Thaya. In its lower course it forms the boundary between Austria and Hungary. It is navigable for small boats from Göding, 80 miles from its mouth.
March a musical composition
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a musical composition, chiefly for military bands, with wind instruments, intended to accompany the marching of troops. There are slow and quick marches, and marches peculiar to different countries. Marches are also introduced into oratorios, the best-known examples being the "Dead March" from the oratorio of "Saul" and Mendelssohn's "Wedding March."
March a frontier or boundary of a territory
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a frontier or boundary of a territory; especially applied to the boundaries or confines of political divisions, or to the country lying near and about such; as, for example, the frontiers between England and Scotland, and England and Wales. Geneva is situated in the Marches of France, Savoy and Switzerland.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The calendar and folklore accounts still stand: March remains the third month, the borrowing-days rhyme is still collected in Scotland, and the Welsh and Scottish Marches are still spoken of by that name. What has moved is the map and the man. The river Collier's called "the principal river of Moravia" is now usually known by its Czech name, the Morava; Pressburg at its mouth has been Bratislava since 1919, and the lower river now divides Austria not from Hungary but from Slovakia, having served as part of the Iron Curtain from 1948 to 1989. Peyton Conway March, "made chief of staff" in 1918 as Collier's went to press, held that post until 1921, retired the following year, published his memoir The Nation at War in 1932, and died in Washington in 1955 at the age of 91.
Written for this edition, 2026.