Wake Robin
or Trillium, a species of spring-flowering, tuberous herbs of the lily family. Erect stems, three-leaved near the flower. The flower has three green, spreading sepals and three white or colored petals, six stamens, and a three-celled pod illustrating well the plan of three in its make-up. The name is derived from the fact that they are in bloom to greet the robin shortly after his spring arrival. There are several species, all woodland flowers. Trilliums vary in size. A large form, with white to pink flowers and curved petals two to three inches long, is found from Canada to Florida, and westward to the plains. The largest of all, with purple to white petals four inches long, is found on the Pacific coast. The smallest is a dwarf three to five inches high, found from Minnesota to Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Purple trilliums are found from Idaho to Oregon and from Georgia to Alabama and Arkansas.
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Wakefield
a town including several villages, in Middlesex co., Mass. It is on the Boston and Maine railroads. Its industries include rattan goods, knit goods, pianos, stoves, shoes, etc. It has a town hall, a public library, and a home for aged women. Pop. (1910) 11,404; (1920) 13,025.
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Wakefield
EDWARD GIBBON, an English colonist; born in London, March 20, 1796; was in 1826 imprisoned for abducting a young lady and marrying her at Gretna Green. During his imprisonment he studied colonial questions with zeal, and after his liberation assisted in the colonization of South Australia. He was private secretary to Lord Durham in Canada in 1838, but is best known for his services to 'New Zealand colonization as managing director of the New Zealand Association. He was one of the founders of the High Church colony of Canterbury, where he died May 16, 1862.
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Wakefield (Capital of the West Riding)
the capital of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the Calder at a convergence of railways, 9 miles S. S. E. of Leeds, 27 S. S. W. of York, and 19 N. W. of Doncaster. In 1888 it was constituted the seat of a bishopric. Its cathedral, formerly the fine Perpendicular parish church, enlarged and reconsecrated in 1329, and' again enlarged about 1470, was restored in 1857-1886 from designs by Sir G. G. Scott, and has a tower and spire 227 feet high. On the eight-arch bridge over an interesting chapel the Calder is founded in 1357 by the townsmen of Wakefield, a building in the beautiful flowing Decorated style; it also was re stored in 1847. At the grammar school, chartered in 1591, and removed to new buildings on a different site in 1855, were educated Dr. Radcliffe, Archbishop Potter, the Benedictine Cressy, and Bentley, the first two of whom were natives. The town hall, French Renaissance in style, was erected in 1880; and other buildings are the corn exchange; fine art institute, Clayton hospital, and lunatic asylum. Though not the great "clothing town" it was formerly, Wakefield still has considerable manufactures of woolens, worsteds, and hosiery, as also of agricultural implements, machinery, etc. The chief event in the history of Wakefield is the Yorkist defeat in the Wars of the Roses, on Dec. 31, 1460. Pop. about 55,000.
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Wakefield (GILBERT an English clergyman)
GILBERT, an English clergyman; born in Nottingham, England, Feb. 22, 1756; was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he became fellow. He took orders, but renounced the Anglican communion, labored as classical tutor in dissenting academies at Warrington and Hackney, lay two years in Dorchester jail for a so-called seditious libel in answer to Bishop Watson, for which his political friends confriends soled him with a gift of $25,000. He published editions of Bion and Moschus, Vergil, Horace, and Lucretius; "Christian Writers of the Three First Centuries on the Person of Christ" (1784), left unfinished; "Inquiry into the Expediency and Propriety of Social Worship" (1791), the necessity for which he denied; "An Examination of Paine's Age of Reason" (1794); and "Silva Critica," a collection intended to illustrate the Scriptures from the stores of profane learning (1789-1795). He died in London, Sept. 9, 1801.
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Walcheren
an island of Holland; province of Zeeland, at the mouth of the Scheldt. It is level, below high-water mark, very fertile, populous, and prosperous. It contains the thriving towns of Flushing, Middelburg (capital), and Veere. On July 13, 1809, the British expedition under Lord Chatham (elder brother of Pitt) landed near Veere, and took it, Middelburg, and Flushing, but had to retire the December following, after losing 7,000 men by marsh fever.
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Wald
LILLIAN D., an American sociologist, born in Ohio, in 1867. She was educated in private schools, a; the New York Hospital Training School for Nurses, and at the Woman's Medical College. In 1893 she founded, and since then has been the president and head worker of the Henry Street (New York City) Settlement. She was also the originator, in 1902, of the work of the school nurses in New York City, this work representing the first municipalization of school nursing in the world. It was chiefly due to her efforts that, in 1908, the Federal Children's Bureau came into being. She was the delegate of the Federal Children's Bureau to the International Conference at Cannes, France, and the United States delegate to the Woman's International Conference at Zurich, in 1919. She was also a member and at times an officer of many charitable societies and institutions, most of which were connected with work on behalf of children. She wrote besides many magazine articles, pamphlets, and reports, "Th "The House on Henry Street" (1915).
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Walden Pond
. See Thoreau
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Walder, Phileas
A Swiss, originally a Lutheran minister, a well-known occultist and spiritualist, and friend of Eliphas Levi (q.v.). He is represented by the pseudohistorians of "Satanism" as a right-hand man of Albert Pike (q.v.) in his alleged diabolic practices at Charleston, U.S.A. (See Devil Worship .) In reality Walder was an earnest mason and mystic.
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Waldersee
ALFRED HEIN- RICH CARL LUDWIG, COUNT VON, a German military officer; born in Potsdam, Germany, April 8, 1832; entered the army in 1850; served with distinction in the campaign of 1860 and in the Franco-Prussian War; became Major- General in 1876, general in 1880, quartermaster-general in 1881, Lieutenant- General in 1882, general of cavalry in 1888; and succeeded Von Moltke as chief of the general staff of the German army in August, 1888. In 1895 he was promoted Field-Marshal, and in 1900 was chosen commander of the allied armies in China. His wife, MARY, born in New York City City, Oct. 3, 1837, was a daughter of David Lee; spent her early years in Paris with her sister Josephine, and there married Prince Frederic of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg - Augustenburg- Noër, in 1864. On the death of her husband in July, 1865, she returned to Paris, where she remained till 1870, when she removed to Württemberg, Germany. In 1871 she married Count von Waldersee. She was credited with much influence in the German court, and with_having brought about the marriage of Emperor William II. with the Princess Augusta Victoria. He died in Hanover, March 5, 1904.
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