Bauer, George
who Latinized his name (a boor or husbandman) into "Agricola," was born in the province of Misnia, in 1494. An able and industrious man, he acquired a considerable knowledge of the principles of medicine, which led him, as it led his contemporaries, to search for the elixir vitæ and the Philosopher's Stone. A treatise on these interesting subjects, which he published at Cologne in 1531, secured him the favour of Duke Maurice of Saxony, who appointed him the superintendent of his silver-mines at Chemnitz. In this post he obtained a practical acquaintance with the properties of metals which dissipated his wild notions of their possible transmutation into gold; but if he abandoned one superstition he adopted another, and from the legends of the miners imbibed a belief in the existence of good and evil spirits in the bowels of the earth, and in the creation of explosive gases and fire-damp by the malicious agency of the latter. Bauer died in 1555.
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Baum
(LYMAN) FRANK, an American author, born in 1856 in Chittenango, N. Y. He received an academic education, entered the newspaper field, and for several years edited papers in Chicago and elsewhere. He was best known as a writer for children. "The Wizard of Oz," a musical comedy made from one of his books, had a run of several years in New York and Chicago. Other works include "Mother Goose in Prose" (1897); "Baum's Fairy Tales" (1908); "Patchwork Girl of Oz" (1913). He died in 1920.
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Baumbach
RUDOLF (boum'bäch), a German poet, born at Kranichfeld, Saxe-Meiningen, Sept. 28, 1840. After studying natural science in Würzburg, Leipsic, Freiburg, and Heidelberg, he lived as a tutor in Austria, last at Trieste, where he devoted himself afterward exclusively to writing. In 1885 he returned to Meiningen. He has most successfully cultivated the poetical tale, based upon ancient popular legends. Epics: "Zlatorog,' ," a Slovenic Alpine legend (1875); "Horand and Hilda" (1879); ; Lyrics: "Songs of a Travel- Songs" (1882); "Traveling Songs from the Alps" (1883); "Jug and Inkstand" (1887); "Thuringian Songs" (1891). He is also author of "False Gold" (1878), a historical romance; "Summer Legends" (1881); "Once Upon a Time" (1889); etc. He died in 1905.
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Bautzen
an important manufacturing town in Saxony, situated on a rising ground overlooking the river Spree, 35 miles W. of Görlitz by rail. It is the chief town of an administrative district of the same name. Pop. about 50,000. The chief buildings are a former cathedral (1497), and the Castle of Ortenburg, dating from 958, and a frequent residence of the Kings of Bohemia. The leading industries are manufactures of woolens, fustian, linen, hosiery, leather, and gunpowder. Bautzen was first made a town under Otho I. It suffered greatly in the war with Hussites, and still more during the Thirty Years' War. Here Napoleon won a barren victory over Russians and Prussians, May 20-21, 1813.
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Bave
Daughter of the wizard Calatin. She figures in the famous Irish legend The Cattle Raid of Quelgny. By taking the form of one of Niam's handmaids she succeeded in enticing her away from Cuchulin, and led her forth to wander in the woods.
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Bax
ERNEST BELFORT, an English socialist, born in Leamington, July 23, 1854; was educated in London and Germany; followed journalism in Germany as foreign correspondent in 1880- 1881; and returning to England, became one of the founders of the English socialist movement. In 1885 he aided in starting the Socialist League. Subsequently, he resigned from the league and joined the Social Democratic Federation, and for a time also edited its organ, "Justice." His publications include "Jean-Paul Marat" (1878); "Kant's Prolegomena, etc." (1882); "Religion of Socialism" (1886); "Ethics of Socialism" (1889); "French Revolution" (1890); "Outlooks from the New Standpoint" (1891); "The Problem of Reality" (1893); "German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages" (1894); "Outspoken Essays on Social Subjects" (1897); "The Peasants' War in Germany" (1899); "Impressions and Reflections" (1918); etc.
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Baxter
RICHARD, an English Nonconformist preacher and theological writer, born in Shropshire in 1615. He early entered the Church the Church, and, taking sides with the Parliamentary party, became chaplain to one of the regiments of the Commonwealth, accompanying the troops in every conflict in the Civil War. It was while so employed that he wrote his first book, the "Saint's Rest." The Restoration and the Act of Conformity drove Baxter into retirement, and shut him out of the pulpit, during which time he wrote his second book, "The Call." After much persecution, he, then 70 years old, was brought before Judge Jeffreys, who fined him £500, with imprisonment till paid. His most popular books are the "Saint's Everlasting Rest," "Dying Thoughts," and "Call to the Unconverted." His theological views are set forth in the "Methodus Theologiæ," and "Catholic Theology"; and he has left an account of his life in the "Reliquiæ Baxterianæ." He died Dec. 8, 1691.
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Bay
an arm or inlet of the sea extending into the land, with a wider mouth proportionally than a gulf. Compare in this respect the Bay of Biscay with the Gulf of Venice. In hydraulics: a pond-head raised to keep a store of water for driving a mill. In architecture: a term used to signify the magnitude of a building. Thus, if a barn consists of a floor and two heads, where they lay corn, they call it a barn of two bays. These bays are from 14 to 20 feet long, and floors from 10 to 12 broad, and usually 20 feet long, which is the breadth of the barn.
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Bay City
city and county-seat of Bay co., Mich.; on the Saginaw river and several railroads; 13 miles N. of Saginaw. It is noted for its large shipbuilding plants and its extensive trade in lumber, coal, and manufactured products. The city is the farming, lumbering, and mining trade and wholesale center for northern Michigan; has National banks, a number of imposing public buildings, buildings, including the United States Government Building, City Hall, Masonic Temple, and the First Presbyterian Church. Bay City and West Bay City, which have many trade, manufacturing, and financial interests in common, were consolidated in 1905. Pop. (1910) 45,166; (1920) 47,554. BAYERN. See BAVARIA.
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