Gooseberry
a fruit-bearing shrub closely related to the currant, from which it differs in having a spiny stem and frequently spiny berries. The name is an English corruption of gorse berry. Our cultivated varieties are chiefly from England, though they are supposed to be native to North Asia. An effort is now being made to tame our native gooseberries. Were it not for its spines, the gooseberry would be more popular. Several of our wild gooseberries are smooth, but it must be acknowledged that our prickly fruit has a superior taste.
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Gordium
The ancient capital of Phrygia, situated on the Sangarius, the royal residence of the kings of the dynasty of Gordius , and the scene of Alexander 's celebrated exploit of " cutting the Gordian knot."
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Gordius
A Phrygian who, from the position of a peasant, was raised to the throne consequent to a prediction of the oracle. Gordius consecrated his chariot in the temple of Jupiter . The knot which tied the yoke to the draught-tree of his chariot was made so cunningly that the ends of the cord could not be seen, and a report arose that the empire of Asia was promised by the oracle to him who should untie the Gordian knot. Alexander cut the knot with his sword.
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Gordon Bennett
MOUNT (named from James Gordon Bennett), a mountain seen in Africa by Stanley in 1875. It lies S. of Albert Nyanza, a little N. of the equator and E. of lon. 30° E. It is a truncated cone, probably an extinct crater, and rises 14,000 or 15,000 feet in height. It is sometimes covered with snow.
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Gordon, Charles William
Charles William (1860-), a Canadian novelist, better known by his pen name of Ralph Connor. He was born at Glengarry, Ontario. He received his education at Toronto University and at Knox College. He became a Presbyterian minister and in 1890 went into the Rocky Mountains as a missionary among the miners and lumbermen. Four years later he became pastor of a church in Winnipeg, and there began writing his popular stories, The Sky Pilot , Black Rock, The Man from Glengarry, and Glengarry School Days.
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Gore
THOMAS PYROR, an American senator; born in Webster co., Miss., in 1870. Although deprived of the sight of both eyes by two accidents in his early youth, he completed his education at the Normal School at Walthall, Miss., in 1890, received the degree of B. L. from Cumberland University in 1892, and was admitted to the bar the same year. He removed to Texas in 1895 after active participation in local politics. After several years' connection with the People's party, he allied himself with the Democratic organization in 1899. He took an active part in the presidential campaigns of 1900 and 1904. Having removed to Oklahoma in 1901, he was a member of the Territorial Council 1902- 1905, and became Senator from Oklahoma in 1907. He was re-elected in 1909 and 1915, but was defeated in 1920. From 1912-1916 he was a member of the executive committee of the Democratic National Committee.
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Gorges
SIR FERDINANDO, styled "the father of colonization in America"; born in Ashton, Somersetshire, England, about 1565. He founded two Plymouth companies (1606-1620 and 1620-1635) for acquiring and planting lands in New England, and in 1639 received from the king a charter constituting him proprietor of Maine. He adhered to the king in the civil war, and died in 1647. His son neglected the province, which finally placed itself under the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, to which colony Sir Ferdinando's grandson sold his rights in 1677 for £1,250.
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Gorgon
or Gorgo, in Greek mythology, a frightful monster with brazen claws, huge teeth, and hair entwined with snakes. Homer refers to a gorgon as one of the phantoms of Hades. Hesiod, however, mentions three gorgons. Two of them were immortal, but Medusa, the only one who figures prominently in ancient legends, was subject to death. Any mortal who looked upon a gorgon was turned immediately to stone. Medusa was slain by Perseus, and her head given to Minerva, who placed it in the center of her shield. The word gorgon is used frequently to designate anything which is unusually hideous. Hawthorne has retold the story of Medusa in The Gorgon's Head.
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Gorky, Maxim
Maxim (1868-), the pen name of a Russian social writer whose real name is hardly pronounceable by an English reader. He was born at Nijni-Novgorod. He was by turns a shoemaker's apprentice, a scullery boy, baker, ship's cook , porter, gardener, painter of ikons or sacred images, lawyer's clerk, and literary tramp. His writings set forth the thoughts and want of thoughts of the vagrant and working classes with which his life has made him familiar. His novels began to attract attention in 1892. Foma Gordyeeff is best known. Titles more easily remembered are The Orloff Couple, About the Devil, More About the Devil, The Reader, The Outcasts (1902), Three Men (1902). Gorky visited the United States in 1906, lecturing on social themes and advocating the extreme measures of the Russian radicals.
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Gormogons
A Jacobite Masonic Society, perhaps related to the Lodges of Harodim (q.v.) They employed pseudonyms like the latter, and had an ambassador at Rome . Their history is sketched in a pamphlet dated 1724, entitled "Two Letters to a Friend," and in the work of Prichard (1730). The Duke of Wharton and the Chevalier Ramsay who were well-known Jacobites, were members of the Order. They had a cipher and secret reception of their own, and used a jargon in which the names of places and individuals were hidden and transposed. A plate of Hogarth's is extant in which the Order is lampooned under the title of "The Mystery of Masonry brought to light by ye Gormogons."
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Gorse
a thorny shrub of the pea family, also called furze and whin. Gorse grows abundantly on the hills of northern England and Scotland. It is a bushy plant, two to four feet high, with narrow, dark, evergreen-like leaves, and a wealth of two-lipped yellow flowers. Scott, Stevenson, and other writers of Scottish adventure make much of hiding in the whin. This is the plant from which the gooseberry or gorseberry is named. See Broom ; Gooseberry
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