Crepe Lisse
krap lees, a thin, gauzy silk fabric, plain woven, and stiffened in finishing with sizing. Sometimes it is crimped to imitate real crape. It is used for ruchings, trimmings, and millinery purposes.
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Single-source entries: C (132)
Each of these 14 subjects appears in only one of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. None is long enough to carry a page by itself, so they are gathered here by letter. Anything that grows moves out to a page of its own.
Crepon
kra-pon, a name signifying coarse crape, applied to several articles of worsted fabrics made in imitation of real crape. The crinkled effect of crepon is produced by the Jacquard loom . Two sets of warp threads are used, the one having greater tension than the other. The lower set, which is sometimes of cotton, forms the foundation of the fabric. The upper set forms the face and is of silk, wool, or mohair. The Jacquard loom is so arranged that certain warp threads are skipped in the weaving to form a pattern. The varied effects produced are described as pebbled, cockled, dimpled, souffle, brocaded, blistered, etc. The fabric is dyed and finished with as little stretching as possible, that the crinkle effect may not be lessened. The material is sometimes silk striped, sometimes embroidered with silk on the Swiss embroidery machine. Crepons are classed frequently as "novelty goods." Cotton crepon is woven of yarns which have been mercerized and then protected by gum or some gelatinous substance from the action of caustic soda. These yarns are used in combination with others not so protected. The fabric is then treated with a solution of caustic soda which shrinks the unprotected yarns, producing a crinkled effect. See Mercerizing ; Swiss Embroidery; Jacquard
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Crerar
JOHN, an American philanthropist; born in New York City, about 1828. He entered mercantile life and accumulated a fortune, removing to Chicago in 1862, and adding to his wealth by railway financiering. He readily bestowed large sums upon charitable undertakings, and in his will left $2,500,000 to found the John Crerar Public L Library, from which sensational novels and skeptical works should be excluded. He died in Chicago, Oct. 19, 1889.
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Crescendo
increasing; a gradual increase in the force of sound. Expressed by the sign <, or the abbreviation cres. The sign was first employed in England by Matthew Locke, in 1676. CRESCENTIACEÆ, crescentiads, an order of perigynous exogens. It consists of small trees, with alternate or clustered exstipulate leaves and flowers growing out of the old stems or branches.
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Crescent City
a popular name for the city of New Orleans .
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Cress
the name of several species of plants, most of them of the natural order Cruciferæ. Water-cress, or Nasturtium officināle, is used as a salad, and is valued in medicine for its antiscorbutic qualities. The leaves have a moderately pungent taste. It grows on the brinks of rivulets and in moist grounds. Common garden cress is the Lepidium sativum; Normandy cress, Barbarea præcox; winter cress, B. vulgāris; Indian cress, Tropæõlum majus; bitter cress, Cardamine pratensis (cuckoo-flower). CRESSY. See CRÉCY-EN-PONTHIEU.
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Creston
a city of Iowa and the county-seat of Union co. Its industries include machine shops, car works, planing mills, and cold-storage plant. It is on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad. There are a public library, Elks' Home, and other public buildings. Pop. (1910) 6,924; (1920) 8,034.
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Cresus
the fifth and last king of Lydia. He succeeded his father Alyattes, 560 b. c. He was so successful in all his enterprises that he soon became one of the richest monarchs of that time. He asked the philosopher Solon what he thought of his good fortune. "I pronounce no man fortunate until his death," was the reply . Cresus was made prisoner by Cyrus, King of Persia. When bound to the stake and about to be burned to death, he recalled the words of Solon, and thrice repeated his name . Cyrus demanded an explanation . Cræsus gave it, and Cyrus not only spared his life, but also took him into his favor. At the death of Cyrus he recommended Cræsus to the favor of Cambyses, who dered him to be put to death.
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Cretinism
a kind of idiocy prevalent in various Alpine valleys. In most, if not in all cases, the afflicted person has an ugly swelling called a goître on the neck. The mental deficiency varies in degree, being in some cases so great that the unhappy person thus affected is unable to do anything for himself, and cannot even articulate words; in others there are some faint glimmerings of mind.
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Creusa
cre-u'sa. See Aeneas
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Creuse
a river and a department in the center of France. The river rises near Féniers, on the N. slope of Mont Odouze, and flows 146 miles N. W. till it falls into the Vienne, a tributary of the Loire, 12 miles N. of Chatellerault. The department has an area of 2,163 square miles. Pop. about 266,000. the French department of Saone-et-Loire,
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Creusot
LE (krez-ō'), a town in 236 miles S. S. E. of Paris. Situated in the midst of a district rich in coal and iron, it owes its importance to the establishment here in 1837 of the great ironworks of Schneider & Co., which rank among the largest in the world. In normal times over 15,000 men are em- War the number of workers was more ployed. During the World than doubled.
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Crime
an act or an omission punishable by law. An offense, however repugnant to a sense of right and wrong, is not a crime until the law makes it so. In the full legal sense a crime is any offense against the law; but violations of local ordinances, subject to fines only, are not regarded usually as crimes. A capital crime is a crime punishable by death. Murder, piracy, and treason are the capital crimes of most governments. Crimes punishable by death and those punishable by imprisonment in a penitentiary are ordinarily called felonies. Offenses below the rank of felonies are known as misdemeanors. High crimes are felonies; petty crimes are misdemeanors. See Capital Punishment ; Penitentiary ; Treason ; Arson
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Criminology
a term denoting the branch of anthropology which deals with crime and criminals, sometimes called "criminal anthropology." The science is largely based on the researches and views of Dr. Cesare Lombroso, born of Jewish stock at Verona in 1836, who, after serving as an army surgeon and ingly concluded at Paris on April 27, holding posts as professor of mental diseases at Pavia and director of a lunatic asylum at Pesaro, was appointed Professor of Forensic Medicine and Psychiatry at Turin. His great work is "The Delinquent Man" (1875), in which his theory of criminology is expounded. The criminologist holds that the congenital habitual criminal is marked by conspicuous physical and mental defects. Arrested cranial development and deformity, heavy jaws, ugly features, and many other minor abnormal physical characters, are associated with moral insensibility, low intelligence, vanity, and irregular emotional peculiarities verging on insanity. The occasional criminal who yields to severe or special temptations is treated as belonging to a wholly distinct category. The acceptance these anthropological views would naturally lead to somewhat sweeping changes in the treatment of criminals, with a view to their reclamation somewhat on the lines of the treatment in use at Elmira. See also BERTILLON SYSTEM. ce of
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