Battle Creek
a city in Calhoun co. , Mich .; at the junction of Kalamazoo river and Battle creek, and on several railroads. It is an agricultural, fruit growing and sandstone quarrying region. It contains a college, the headquarters, and the publishing house of the Seventh-Day Adventists; Battle Creek Medical College ; division offices of the Grand Trunk railway; and one of the largest sanitariums in the world. The city is an attractive summer resort, with more than 75 lakes in its immediate vicinity. In recent years it has become important as a manufacturing city. Its cereal foods have now an international reputation. Pop. (1910) 25,267; (1920) 36,164. 36 BATTLEDORE AND COCK. See BADMINTON. SHUTTLEpart built around the top of a fortified BATTLEMENT. (1) A wall or ramto discharge arrows or darts, or fire guns building, with interstices or embrasures through. (2) A similar erection around buildings, where the object was princionly upon parapets, but as ornaments on pally ornamental. They are found not wall built around a flat-roofed house, in the transoms of windows, etc. ( 3) A the East and elsewhere, to prevent any garden. one from falling into the street, area or the roofs of churches and other Gothic heaviest class, designed for fighting in
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Battle of the Books
a satirical work by Jonathan Swift, written in 1697, and printed seven years later. It was written when the controversy as to the relative merits of ancient and modern literature was at its height. The Battle of the Books represents a contest between the classic and modern books in the king's library. It is clever and witty, sneering at the shams of pedantry. It was written to uphold the views of Sir William Temple. It contains, however, no true argument, but is merely a satire on Temple's opponents and is full of savage spite. See Swift
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Battle of the Frogs and Mice
an ancient Greek mock-epic. It is known by its Greek name, Batrachomyomachia bat-ra-ko-mi-o-ma'ki-a. Its authorship is unknown. The plot is witty. A mouse, having escaped from a cat, is urged by a frog to visit his home. At the first sign of danger the frog plumps into a pool. The deserted mouse soliloquizes after the manner of an epic hero and dies. The mice hear of the affair and wage war on the frogs. The battle is a parody on Homer's Iliad. The gods are brought in, the deliberations of Zeus and Athena being very clever. The mice win the victory but are put to flight by an army of crabs, who appear to aid the frogs.
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Battle of the Kegs
a mock heroic poem by Francis Hopkinson. During the winter of 1777-8 the British army under General Howe made Philadelphia winter headquarters. The Americans made a few torpedoes out of kegs and sent them down the Delaware in hopes of annoying the British shipping. One keg seems to have exploded in the hands of some curious boys, maiming one of them. The British gunners occupied themselves in firing at other kegs that appeared with the tide a few days afterward, but the incident attracted no particular attention until Francis Hopkinson got hold of it and wrote a poem to the tune of Maggy Lander, in which he described the alarm created by the kegs, and heroism displayed by the British in the terrific attack made on the kegs. The song served to keep up the spirits of the colonists.
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Battle of the Nations
the third battle of Leipsic, October 16-18, 1813. A combined force of 300,000 Austrians, Russians, Swedes, and Prussians defeated Napoleon's army of 180,000. The French loss was 40,000 killed and wounded, and 30,000 taken prisoner. The loss of the allied forces was about 54,000 killed and wounded.
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Battle of the Three Emperors
. See Austerlitz
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Battledore and Shuttlecock
a game played by two players. Each is provided with a bat or battledore, shaped somewhat like a small tennis racket. The shuttlecock consists of a cork dressed out with feathers. It is thrown into the air and batted back and forth from one player to the other, each aiming to prevent its falling to the floor at his end of the room. Whenever a player fails to return the shuttlecock, his opponent scores one.
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Batum
a acquired by Russia by the Treaty of Berlin, on condition that its fortifications were dismantled and it was thrown open the main outlet for Transcaucasia; its as a free port. It rapidly grew to be harbor was enlarged for alleged commercial reasons; an arsenal was built outroad with Kars; and, finally, in July, side it; it was connected by a military 1886, the Russian government declared it to be a free port no longer. As a repart of the Republic of GEORGIA (q. v.). sult of the World War Batoum became It is the capital of the province of the same name (area, 6,129 square versts; pop., about 123,000 ). The Allied Supreme Council, in April, 1920, internationalized it and made it the common outlet for Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The the Transcaucasian railway and of the petroleum pipe line from Baku and the principal center of export for petroleum from the Baku fields. Pop. about 25,000. The city is the terminus of panies; the tactical and administrative
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Baudelaire
CHARLES (bōd- 21, 1821. In his youth he traveled to India, and is said to have likewise visited the Mauritius and Madagascar. On his return to Paris he became a notable figure in the second group of romantic poets the Romanticists of 1830. His "Flowers who carried on the movement begun by of Evil," a volume of poems issued in 1857, was the subject of a prosecution on the score of immorality. He afterward published "Artificial Paradises," taining selections from Poe and De Quincey, besides original material. His occasional essays, collected in a volume able for the finish of the style and the entitled "Romanesque Art," are remarksubtlety of the criticism. Apart from his verse, however, Baudelaire's finest work is contained in his 50 "Little Aug. 31, 1867. Poems in Prose." He died in Paris, con-
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Bauer
HAROLD, an English pianist, born in London in 1873. He learned to play the violin from his father and afterward studied under several German masters. His first successful tour was made in 1883 when he was ten years of age. His success continued thereafter. He studied under Paderewski for one year, and in 1893 made a tour through Russia and other European countries. In 1900 he came to the United States, where he was received with success similar to that which had greeted him in Europe. He continued to make annual tours in the United States. BAUHINIA (named by Blumier after John and Caspar Bauhin, the plants which have two-lobed leaves being deemed suitable for rendering honor to two brothers, instead of to one person simply), mountain ebony, a genus of plants belonging to the order fabaceæ, or leguminosæ, and the sub-order cæsalpiniex. The species, which are mostly climbers, belonging to the East or West Indies, have beautiful flowers.
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