Single-source entries: B (15)

Barbarossa

Frederick I, Emperor of Germany. The term means "red beard." See Frederick Barbarossa

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Barbecue

bar'be-ku, a West Indian word applied to a platform of sticks, supported by posts. It is interesting to trace the history of the word. In Cuba, it is a platform of poles on which corn and fruits are stored. Next it is a scaffold on which to dry or smoke fish and fresh meats. Then a huge gridiron on which joints of meat may be roasted. Still later it is the carcass of a sheep, hog, or ox roasted whole, and finally a large social or political meeting at which a barbecued ox forms a prominent part of the entertainment. In the hard-cider, log-rolling presidential campaigns of William Henry Harrison's day, barbecues were a prominent means of awakening jollity and enthusiasm. While the political barbecue has not been abandoned entirely, it is not so popular as it once was. See Hecatomb

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Barber

one whose occupation is to shave or trim the beard and to cut and dress the hair. The term is derived from the Latin barba, meaning a beard. Formerly the victim who desired to be shaved sat on a high stool. He held a crescent-shaped or semi-circular basin under his chin, in which the barber made the lather and applied it with his hand. The brush and reclining barber's chair are of recent invention. In early days the business of the barber and surgeon were combined in one. The king's barber-surgeon was a man of eminent attainments. In the reign of Henry VIII the English surgeons secured the enactment of a law that barbers should confine themselves to the minor operations of bloodletting and drawing teeth. Surgeons were forbidden to practice barbery or shaving. The barber's sign or striped pole is a relic of the days when the stripes represented the ribbons or bandage with which the barber wrapped the arm of a patient after letting blood. According to the latest census report, there are 131,116 barbers and hairdressers in the United States . See Surgeon; Figaro

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Barber of Seville

a comedy by Beaumarchais, produced in 1775. Upon it was based the comic opera of the same name, by Rossini, produced in Rome in 1816, and a few years later in Paris. This opera was hissed the first night, but has since become one of the most popular light operas.

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Barberini

a celebrated Florentine family, which, since the pontificate of 1623 to Maffeo Barberini (Urban VIII., 1644), has occupied a distinguished place among the nobility of Rome. During his reign he seemed chiefly intent on the aggrandizement of his three nephews, of whom two were appointed cardinals, and the third Prince of Palestrina. The Barberini Palace in Rome contains a famous picture gallery.

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Barberry

or BERBERRY, the English name of the berberis, a genus of plants constituting the typical one of the order berberidaceæ (berberids). The common barberry (barberis vulgaris) is planted in gardens or in hedges, being an ornamental shrub, especially when covered with a profusion of yellow flowers or loaded with fruit. The flowers are much frequented by bees. The juice of the berries is acid, hence they are used for preserves and confectionery. The root, boiled in lye, and the inner yellow. bark of the stem, dye a fine

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Barberry Blight

the English name of a minute fungal, the æcidium berberidis of Persoon. It occurs on leaves of the barberry, forming roundish, bright red spots, consisting of the fruits of the æcidium, which form little cups full of spores when they burst. These spores germinate on the leaves or stems of wheat, send out mycelium into the called plant, and produce the disease rust.

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Barberton

a mining town of the province of Transvaal Union of South Africa, in the De Kaap gold fields. It is situated at the base of a high range of miles hills 2,500 feet above sea-level, 180 E. of Pretoria, and 100 N. W. of Delagoa Bay, with both of which it is connected by railway. In 1886-1887, owing to the discovery of rich gold reefs, there was a rush to the place, and the population soon rose to 8,000 or more; but the superior attraction of the Witwatersrand reefs and the growth of Johannesburg reduced Barberton to a subordinate place. Pop. about 3,000.

a city of Ohio, in Summit co. It is on the Baltimore and Ohio, the Erie, the Northern Ohio, and the Pennsylvania railroads, and on the Ohio canal. It has important industries, including the manufacture of matches, chemicals, sewer pipes, rubber, paint, etc. Pop. (1910) 9,410; (1920) 18,811.

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Barbizon

a village on the outskirts of the forest of Fontainebleau, a great artists' resort, the home of Millet; Corot, Diaz, Daubigny, Dupré, Troyon, and Rousseau were also of the "Barbizon school" of painters. They were really not a "school," but simply a group of painters of animal, landscape, and peasant subjects having similar aims and painting in accordance with similar principles: a close study of nature, an individual expression of the painter's mood of sentiment. They belonged to the Romantic school of painting.

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Barbour

RALPH HENRY, an American writer, born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1870. He received an academic education and began early in life to contribute to periodicals and magazines under the pen name of Richard Stillman Powell. He was a prolific writer of "The boys' story books, which whi include Junior Trophy" (1908); "Benton's Ven- " ture" (1914); (1914); "The Brother of a Hero (1914); "The Lucky Seventh (1915); "Hearts Content" (1915); etc.

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Barbuda

one of the Leeward Islands, West Indies, annexed by Great Britain in 1628; about 15 miles long and 8 wide; lying N. of Antigua. It is flat, fertile, and healthy. Corn, cotprinton, pepper, and tobacco are the cipal produce. There is no harbor, but a well sheltered roadstead on the W. side. It is a dependency of Antigua. Pop. about 1,000, mostly colored.

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Barcochba

or BARCOKECAS ("son of a star"), a famous Jewish impostor, whose real name was Simeon, and who lived in the 2d century A. D. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, the Jews, at different periods, sought to regain their independence; and Barcochba, seeing his countrymen still impatient of the Roman yo yoke, res resolved to attempt their emancipation. With this view he sought to sound the dispositions of his co-religionists of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy and Gaul, and sent forth emissaries, who traveled over all the provinces of the Roman Empire. When all was ready Barcochba solemnly announced himself as King and Messiah, and seized by surprise on many fortified places. All who refused to submit to him, particularly the Christians, were put to death. Great numbers of Jews, from all parts of the world, hastened to join his standard; and so formidable did this revolt become that Julius Severus, general of the armies of the Emperor Adrian, was compelled to act with extreme caution, and to content himself with surprising detached bodies of the enemy. Soon, however, the superior discipline of the Romans prevailed. The Jewish army, shut up in the fortress of Bethar, succumbed under fatigue and famine; Barcochba perished miserably, and all his followers were massacred or reduced to slavery. From this period may be dated the entire dispersion of the race of Israel over the face of the earth.

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