Sparks, Jared
Jared (1789-1866), an American clergyman, educator, and historian. He was a native of Cambridge and was graduated at Harvard in 1815. From 1819 to 1823 he was the pastor of the Unitarian Church of Baltimore. From 1839 to 1849 he was professor of history at Harvard, and was its president from 1849 to 1853. Before his residence at Baltimore and again after his return to Boston, he was the general editor and part owner of the North American Review. He traveled extensively. As a historian, he was one of the earliest to apply himself to original sources. He is known chiefly as the editor of the Correspondence of George Washington, with a Life of the Author, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, The Library of American Biography, etc. The latter included lives of Arnold, Allen, Marquette, and La Salle. Modern historians have found much fault with Sparks' custom of omitting, or even slightly modifying, portions of his material for fear of injuring the mind or morals of the young reader. His works are readable, but have been superseded. His collection of books is owned by Cornell University .
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Sparrow
in ornithology, Passer domesticus, the house sparrow, a well known bird, the constant follower of civilized man. It ranges over Europe, into the N. of Africa and Asia, and has been introduced into America and Australia. Sparrows are found in crowded cities and in manufacturing towns. Mantle of male brown striped with black; head bluish-gray; two narrow bands, one white and the other rusty-yellow, on wings; cheeks grayish-white, front of
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Sparrow Hawk
in ornithology, the Accipiter nisus, extending across Europe, through Asia to Japan. The adult male is about 12 inches long, dark-brown on the upper surface, softening into gray as the bird grows old; the entire under surface is rusty-brown, with bands of a darker shade. The female is about 15 inches long, the upper surface nearly re sembling that of the male bird in ground-color, but having many of the feathers white at the base; under surface grayish-white, with dark transverse bars. The sparrow hawk is very destructive to small quadrupeds and young birds. The hen lays four or five eggs irregularly blotched with brownish-crimson on a bluish-white ground. The name is also applied to the American falcon, the Australian collared sparrow hawk, the European kestrel, and the New Zealand quail hawk.
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Sparta
. See Greece ; Athens ; Lycurgus ; Thermopylae
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Sparta
The capital of Laconia and the chief city of Peloponnesus , was situated on the right bank of the Eurotas (Iri), about twenty miles from the sea. It stood on a plain which contained within it several rising grounds and hills. 2026 Editor's Note: While the city was the dominant land power in Greece for centuries, its military supremacy ended following the defeat at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC by Epaminondas. The loss of slave labor from Messenia after this defeat triggered a terminal decline, and the city was eventually sacked by the Visigothic king Alaric in 396 AD. During the Roman era, the city experienced a brief period of prosperity as a tourist destination before its population eventually relocated to nearby Mystras. (Ed: BR 2026-07-05)
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Sparta (LACED MON a celebrated city)
or LACEDÆMON, a celebrated city of ancient Greece; capital of Laconia and of the Spartan state, and the chief city in the Peloponnesus; on the W. bank of the Eurotas river, and embraced a circuit of 6 miles. Sparta was a scattered city consisting of five separate quarters. Unlike Athens it was plainly built, and and had few notable public buildings; consequently there are no imposing ruins to be seen here as in Athens, and the modern Sparta is only a village of some 4,000 inhabitants. Laconia, the district in which Sparta was situated, was the S. E. division of the Peloponnesus, bounded on the W. by Messenia, from which it was separated by the chain of Taygetus, on the N. by Arcadia and Argolis, and on the E. and S. by the sea. The Eurotas (Vasilopotamo, "king of rivers") here flows through a picturesque valley and empties into the Gulf of Laconia. The Spartan state was founded, according to tradition, by Lacedæmon, son of Zeus. The most celebrated of its legendary kings was Menelaus. It is said to have been conquered by the Heraclidæ from N. Greece about 1080, who established a dyarchy or double
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Sparta (LACED MON neck black)
or LACEDÆMON neck black, underparts light gray. From a high antiquity, their great fecundity, their attachment to their young, their extreme pugnacity, and the large tolls they levy on the farmer and market gardener have been commented on by writers on ornithology. In many places a small sum is paid for the destruction of these birds, the legislatures of some of the States having made appropriations for this fund. The name sparrow is also loosely applied to several of the Fringillidæ.
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Spartanburg
a city and countythe seat of Spartanburg co., S. C.; on Glenn Springs, the Carolina, Clinchfield , the and Ohio and South Carolina Charleston and Western Carolina, and the Southern railroads; 98 miles N. of Columbia. Here are Wofford College (M. E., S.), Converse College for Women, Converse College, State Deaf, Dumb and Blind Institute, Kennedy elec- Public Library, street railroad and tric light plants, National and State banks, and daily and weekly newspapers. It has cotton mills, ironworks, lumber mills, limestone quarries, and iron States entered mines. When the United 16 the World War in 1917 one of the divisional cantonments, Camp Wadsworth, for the training of National the Guard troops, was established near York State town. Most of the New troops were trained there. Pop: (1910) 17,517; (1920) 22,638.
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Spartel
CAPE, a promontory at
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Spaulding
FRANK ELLSWORTH, an American educator, born at Dublin, at N. H., in 1866. He was educated Amherst College, the University of Berlin, the University of Leipzig zig, and he the Sorbonne. Beginning with 1895 successively superintendent of was schools at Ware, Mass., Passaic, N. J., Newton, Mass., Minneapolis, Minn., and Cleveland, Ohio. In 1920 he became professor of school administration and head of the department of education at the Graduate School, at Yale University. He was a member of the General Education Board, of the Army Educational Commission, and of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Besides contributing many articles on educational subjects to magazines he wrote "The Individual Child and His Education" (1904); "Learning to Read, a Manual for Teachers" (1907); and compiled several graded readers.
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