Gabardine
a long, loose, coarse cloak, with or without sleeves and a hood. It was an outdoor garment worn by peasants and workmen and by Jews. The laws of the Middle Ages forbade the Jew to wear the cloak of a gentleman; hence the gabardine carried with it the idea of social inferiority. You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gabardine, And all for use of that which is mine own. --Merchant of Venice. Here was a Tangier merchant in sky-blue gabardine with a Persian shawl twisted around his waist.--Aldrich, Ponkapog to Pesth.
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Gabinian Law
in Roman history, a name given to two distinct laws passed by the Senate. 1. A law, passed in 67 B. C., investing Pompey with unlimited command for the space of three years over the Mediterranean and its coasts for fifty miles inland. He was given control also of the public treasure of the provinces. Under authority of this law, Pompey cleared the Mediterranean of pirates. 2. A Roman law, passed 58 B. C., which forbade loans of money at Rome to legations from foreign countries. It was enacted to prevent the "raising of funds with which to bribe the senators."
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Gabion
a military term from the Italian, used to designate a hollow wicker cylinder or basket without top or bottom. Soldiers desiring to intrench themselves quickly formed willow gabions in a place of shelter, and carried them forward under fire or perhaps in the night. Two rows of gabions, set so as to break joints and filled with earth, formed a secure breastwork against musketry. The advantage of gabions lay in the fact that they afforded concealment and could be filled with earth in far less time than would be required to throw up an embankment of equal height. See Blockhouse ; Vauban ; Fort
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Gable
the end wall of a house, especially the triangular portion above the level of the eaves, and included between the sides of the roof. In medieval cities, particularly those of the Netherlands and Germany, houses were built customarily with their gables turned toward the street. The Norman-French introduced the same custom into this country. These gables were adorned frequently with rich wood carvings and are still a source of pleasure to artists and tourists. In Edinburgh stone gables grow narrow by a series of steps, like a flight of stairs. Owing to the convenient perches they afforded for crows they are called corbie steps, corbie being Scotch for crow. From the builder's point of view gables came into use in connection with the Gothic style of architecture.
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Gablonz
a town of the N. of Bohemia, 6 miles S. E. of Reichenberg, celebrated for its glass manufactures, in which thousands of men are employed. The town has also textile industries, bookbinding, and porcelain painting. Pop. about 30,000.
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Gaboon
or GABUN, a French colony on the W. coast of Africa on an estuary of the Gaboon river, 40 miles long by 10 miles, just north of the equator. The climate on the coastal strip is extremely unhealthy. On the inland plateau (2,600 feet above sea-level) it is better. Among the exports figure timber, gum, ivory, gutta-percha, palm oil and kernels, earth nuts, sesamum, and malachite; other products are brown hematite, quicksilver, sugar cane, cotton and bananas. The people belong for the most part to tribes of the Bantu stock, the more important being the Mpongwe, the Fans, Bakele, Bateke, etc. Sheep and goats are numer- 236 ous, but the former yield no wool. This part of Africa was discovered by the Spaniards in the 15th century. The French made their first settlement on the Gaboon estuary in 1842; 20 years later they extended their sway to the Ogowe. But they seem never to have attached any importance to the colony till after Savorgnan de Brazza began to explore it in 1876-1886. See FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA.
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Gaboriau
ÉMILE (ga-bo-ryō'), a French writer of detective stories; born in Saujon, Charente-Inférieure, France, Nov. 9, 1835. His early years were a succession of vicissitudes; the army, the law, and even the Church, were in turn the objects of his inconstant attentions till at last he wrote the highly successful romance, "The Lerouge Affair" in 1866. His works include: "File No. 113" (1867); "The Crime of Orcival" (1867); "Monsieur Lecoq" (1869); "The Fall" (The Rope About the Neck About (1873); etc. He died in Paris, Sept. 28, 1873.
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Gaboriau, Emile
ga-bo re-o, Emile (1835-1873), a French novelist. He was born at Saujon. He was by turns a soldier, a lawyer, a priest, and a writer for the Paris papers. In 1866 he made a hit by The Lerouge Affair, a story contributed to the story insert of Le Pays. Gaboriau was a writer of detective stories. His most famous creation is Monsieur Lecoq, the prototype, it may be, of Sherlock Holmes.
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Gabriel Channel
a strait of 1 Tierra del Fuego, between Dawson Island and the mainland. This remarkable channel is about 2½ miles wide at either end, but the shores approach toward the middle, and rise to an almost perpendicular height of 1,500 feet. Lat. 54° 20′ S.; lon. 70° 40′ W.
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Gabrilovitch
OSSIP, a Russian pianist and composer. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1878, he studied at the conservatory there under the famous Rubinstein. Later he studied in Vienna, and in 1896 made his début in Berlin. After this he toured the Continent, and four years later came to the United States. His reception was most cordial both on this and on his numerous subsequent tours. In 1909 he married Mark Twain's daughter, Clara Clemens.
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Gad
the seventh son of Jacob by Zilpah, the handmaid of Leah, and founder of an Israelitish tribe numbering at the exodus from Egypt over 40,- 000 fighting men. Nomadic by by nature, and possessing large herds of cattle, they preferred to remain on the E. side of Jordan. Their territory lay to the N. of that of Reuben, and comprised the mountainous district known as Gilead, through which flowed the brook Jabbock, touching the Sea of Galilee at its N. extremity, and reaching as far E. as Rabbath-Ammon.
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