Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the important distributing agency of thewholesale bookseller. It is to him that the retailer looks for his miscellaneous supplies, as it is simply impossible for him to stock one-half of the books published. In Paternoster Row, London, which has for over a hundred years been the centre of this industry, may be seen the collectors from the shops of the retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered by the book-buying public. It is also through these agencies that the country bookseller obtains his miscellaneous supplies. At the leading house in this department of bookselling almost any book can be found, or information obtained concerning it. At one of these establishments over 1,000,000 books are constantly kept in stock. It is here that the publisher calls first on showing or “subscribing” a new book, a critical process, for by the number thus subscribed the fate of a book is sometimes determined.What may be termed the third partner in publishing and its ramification is theretail bookseller; and to protect his interests there was established in 1890 a London booksellers’ society, which had for its object the restriction of discounts to 25%, and also to arrange prices generally and control all details connected with the trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its field of operations so as to include the whole of the United Kingdom, and its designation then became “The Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland.”The trade in old or (as they are sometimes called) second-hand books is in a sense, no doubt, a higher class of business, requiring a knowledge of bibliography, while the transactions are with individual books rather than with numbers of copies. Occasionally dealers in this class of books replenish their stocks by purchasing remainders of books, which, having ceased from one cause or another to sell with the publisher, they offer to the public as bargains. The periodical trade grew up during the 19th century, and was in its infancy when thePenny Magazine,Chambers’s Journal, and similar publications first appeared. The growth of this important part of the business was greatly promoted by the abolition of the newspaper stamp and of the duty upon paper, the introduction of attractive illustrations, and the facilities offered for purchasing books by instalments.
Coming between the publisher and the retail bookseller is the important distributing agency of thewholesale bookseller. It is to him that the retailer looks for his miscellaneous supplies, as it is simply impossible for him to stock one-half of the books published. In Paternoster Row, London, which has for over a hundred years been the centre of this industry, may be seen the collectors from the shops of the retail booksellers, busily engaged in obtaining the books ordered by the book-buying public. It is also through these agencies that the country bookseller obtains his miscellaneous supplies. At the leading house in this department of bookselling almost any book can be found, or information obtained concerning it. At one of these establishments over 1,000,000 books are constantly kept in stock. It is here that the publisher calls first on showing or “subscribing” a new book, a critical process, for by the number thus subscribed the fate of a book is sometimes determined.
What may be termed the third partner in publishing and its ramification is theretail bookseller; and to protect his interests there was established in 1890 a London booksellers’ society, which had for its object the restriction of discounts to 25%, and also to arrange prices generally and control all details connected with the trade. The society a few years afterwards widened its field of operations so as to include the whole of the United Kingdom, and its designation then became “The Associated Booksellers of Great Britain and Ireland.”
The trade in old or (as they are sometimes called) second-hand books is in a sense, no doubt, a higher class of business, requiring a knowledge of bibliography, while the transactions are with individual books rather than with numbers of copies. Occasionally dealers in this class of books replenish their stocks by purchasing remainders of books, which, having ceased from one cause or another to sell with the publisher, they offer to the public as bargains. The periodical trade grew up during the 19th century, and was in its infancy when thePenny Magazine,Chambers’s Journal, and similar publications first appeared. The growth of this important part of the business was greatly promoted by the abolition of the newspaper stamp and of the duty upon paper, the introduction of attractive illustrations, and the facilities offered for purchasing books by instalments.
The history of bookselling in America has a special interest. The Spanish settlements drew away from the old country much of its enterprise and best talent, and the presses of Mexico and other cities teemed with publications mostly of a religious character, but many others, especially linguistic and historical, were also published. Bookselling in the United States was of a somewhat later growth, although printing was introduced into Boston as early as 1676, Philadelphia in 1685, and New York in 1693. Franklin had served to make the trade illustrious, yet few persons were engaged in it at the commencement of the 19th century. Books chiefly for scholars and libraries were imported from Europe; but after the second war printing-presses multiplied rapidly, and with the spread of newspapers and education there also arose a demand for books, and publishers set to work to secure the advantages offered by the wide field of English literature, the whole of which they had the liberty of reaping free of all cost beyond that of production. The works of Scott, Byron, Moore, Southey, Wordsworth, and indeed of every author of note, were reprinted without the smallest payment to author or proprietor. Half the names of the authors in the so-called “American” catalogue of books printed between 1820 and 1852 are British. By this means the works of the bestauthors were brought to the doors of all classes in the cheapest variety of forms. In consequence of the Civil War, the high price of labour, and the restrictive duties laid on in order to protect native industry, coupled with the frequent intercourse with England, a great change took place, and American publishers and booksellers, while there was still no international copyright, made liberal offers for early sheets of new publications. Boston, New York and Philadelphia still retained their old supremacy as bookselling centres. Meanwhile, the distinct publishing business also grew, till gradually the conditions of business became assimilated to those of Europe.
In the course of the 16th and 17th centuries the Low Countries for a time became the chief centre of the bookselling world, and many of the finest folios and quartos in our libraries bear the names of Jansen, Blauw or Plantin, with the imprint of Amsterdam, Utrecht, Leiden or Antwerp, while the Elzevirs besides other works produced their charming little pocket classics. The southern towns of Douai and St Omer at the same time furnished polemical works in English.
UnderPublishingare noticed various further developments of this subject. Much interesting information on the history of the book trade will be found in Charles Knight’sBiography of William Caxton, and in the same author’sShadows of the Old Booksellers(1865). See also Henry Curwen,History of Booksellers(1873); and Heinrich Lempertz,Bilder-Hefte zur Geschichte des Bücherhandels(Cologne, 1854).
UnderPublishingare noticed various further developments of this subject. Much interesting information on the history of the book trade will be found in Charles Knight’sBiography of William Caxton, and in the same author’sShadows of the Old Booksellers(1865). See also Henry Curwen,History of Booksellers(1873); and Heinrich Lempertz,Bilder-Hefte zur Geschichte des Bücherhandels(Cologne, 1854).
BOOLE, GEORGE(1815-1864), English logician and mathematician, was born in Lincoln on the 2nd of November 1815. His father was a tradesman of limited means, but of studious character and active mind. Being especially interested in mathematical science, the father gave his son his first lessons; but the extraordinary mathematical powers of George Boole did not manifest themselves in early life. At first his favourite subject was classics. Not until the age of seventeen did he attack the higher mathematics, and his progress was much retarded by the want of efficient help. When about sixteen years of age he became assistant-master in a private school at Doncaster, and he maintained himself to the end of his life in one grade or other of the scholastic profession. Few distinguished men, indeed, have had a less eventful life. Almost the only changes which can be called events are his successful establishment of a school at Lincoln, its removal to Waddington, his appointment in 1849 as professor of mathematics in the Queen’s College at Cork, and his marriage in 1855 to Miss Mary Everest, who, as Mrs Boole, afterwards wrote several useful educational works on her husband’s principles.
To the public Boole was known only as the author of numerous abstruse papers on mathematical topics, and of three or four distinct publications which have become standard works. His earliest published paper was one upon the “Theory of Analytical Transformations,” printed in theCambridge Mathematical Journalfor 1839, and it led to a friendship between Boole and D.F. Gregory, the editor of the journal, which lasted until the premature death of the latter in 1844. A long list of Boole’s memoirs and detached papers, both on logical and mathematical topics, will be found in theCatalogue of Scientific Memoirspublished by the Royal Society, and in the supplementary volume onDifferential Equations, edited by Isaac Todhunter. To theCambridge Mathematical Journaland its successor, theCambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal, Boole contributed in all twenty-two articles. In the third and fourth series of thePhilosophical Magazinewill be found sixteen papers. The Royal Society printed six important memoirs in thePhilosophical Transactions, and a few other memoirs are to be found in theTransactions of the Royal Society of Edinburghand of theRoyal Irish Academy, in theBulletin de l’Académie de St-Pétersbourgfor 1862 (under the name G. Boldt, vol. iv. pp. 198-215), and inCrelle’s Journal. To these lists should be added a paper on the mathematical basis of logic, published in theMechanic’s Magazinefor 1848. The works of Boole are thus contained in about fifty scattered articles and a few separate publications.
Only two systematic treatises on mathematical subjects were completed by Boole during his lifetime. The well-knownTreatise on Differential Equationsappeared in 1859, and was followed, the next year, by aTreatise on the Calculus of Finite Differences, designed to serve as a sequel to the former work. These treatises are valuable contributions to the important branches of mathematics in question, and Boole, in composing them, seems to have combined elementary exposition with the profound investigation of the philosophy of the subject in a manner hardly admitting of improvement. To a certain extent these works embody the more important discoveries of their author. In the 16th and 17th chapters of theDifferential Equationswe find, for instance, a lucid account of the general symbolic method, the bold and skilful employment of which led to Boole’s chief discoveries, and of a general method in analysis, originally described in his famous memoir printed in thePhilosophical Transactionsfor 1844. Boole was one of the most eminent of those who perceived that the symbols of operation could be separated from those of quantity and treated as distinct objects of calculation. His principal characteristic was perfect confidence in any result obtained by the treatment of symbols in accordance with their primary laws and conditions, and an almost unrivalled skill and power in tracing out these results.
During the last few years of his life Boole was constantly engaged in extending his researches with the object of producing a second edition of hisDifferential Equationsmuch more complete than the first edition; and part of his last vacation was spent in the libraries of the Royal Society and the British Museum. But this new edition was never completed. Even the manuscripts left at his death were so incomplete that Todhunter, into whose hands they were put, found it impossible to use them in the publication of a second edition of the original treatise, and wisely printed them, in 1865, in a supplementary volume.
With the exception of Augustus de Morgan, Boole was probably the first English mathematician since the time of John Wallis who had also written upon logic. His novel views of logical method were due to the same profound confidence in symbolic reasoning to which he had successfully trusted in mathematical investigation. Speculations concerning a calculus of reasoning had at different times occupied Boole’s thoughts, but it was not till the spring of 1847 that he put his ideas into the pamphlet calledMathematical Analysis of Logic. Boole afterwards regarded this as a hasty and imperfect exposition of his logical system, and he desired that his much larger work,An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on which are founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities(1854), should alone be considered as containing a mature statement of his views. Nevertheless, there is a charm of originality about his earlier logical work which no competent reader can fail to appreciate. He did not regard logic as a branch of mathematics, as the title of his earlier pamphlet might be taken to imply, but he pointed out such a deep analogy between the symbols of algebra and those which can be made, in his opinion, to represent logical forms and syllogisms, that we can hardly help saying that logic is mathematics restricted to the two quantities, 0 and 1. By unity Boole denoted the universe of thinkable objects; literal symbols, such asx, y, z, v, u, &c., were used with the elective meaning attaching to common adjectives and substantives. Thus, if x = horned and y = sheep, then the successive acts of election represented by x and y, if performed on unity, give the whole of the classhorned sheep. Boole showed that elective symbols of this kind obey the same primary laws of combination as algebraical symbols, whence it followed that they could be added, subtracted, multiplied and even divided, almost exactly in the same manner as numbers. Thus, 1 − x would represent the operation of selecting all things in the world excepthorned things, that is,all not horned things, and (1 − x)(1 − y) would give usall things neither horned nor sheep. By the use of such symbols propositions could be reduced to the form of equations, and the syllogistic conclusion from two premises was obtained by eliminating the middle term according to ordinary algebraic rules.
Still more original and remarkable, however, was that part of his system, fully stated in hisLaws of Thought, which formeda general symbolic method of logical inference. Given any propositions involving any number of terms, Boole showed how, by the purely symbolic treatment of the premises, to draw any conclusion logically contained in those premises. The second part of theLaws of Thoughtcontained a corresponding attempt to discover a general method in probabilities, which should enable us from the given probabilities of any system of events to determine the consequent probability of any other event logically connected with the given events.
Though Boole published little except his mathematical and logical works, his acquaintance with general literature was wide and deep. Dante was his favourite poet, and he preferred theParadisoto theInferno. The metaphysics of Aristotle, the ethics of Spinoza, the philosophical works of Cicero, and many kindred works, were also frequent subjects of study. His reflections upon scientific, philosophical and religious questions are contained in four addresses uponThe Genius of Sir Isaac Newton,The Right Use of Leisure,The Claims of ScienceandThe Social Aspect of Intellectual Culture, which he delivered and printed at different times.
The personal character of Boole inspired all his friends with the deepest esteem. He was marked by the modesty of true genius, and his life was given to the single-minded pursuit of truth. Though he received a medal from the Royal Society for his memoir of 1844, and the honorary degree of LL.D. from the university of Dublin, he neither sought nor received the ordinary rewards to which his discoveries would entitle him. On the 8th of December 1864, in the full vigour of his intellectual powers, he died of an attack of fever, ending in suffusion on the lungs.
An excellent sketch of his life and works, by the Rev. R. Harley, F.R.S., is to be found in theBritish Quarterly Reviewfor July 1866, No. 87.
An excellent sketch of his life and works, by the Rev. R. Harley, F.R.S., is to be found in theBritish Quarterly Reviewfor July 1866, No. 87.
(W. S. J.)
BOOM,a word of Teutonic origin (cf. the Ger.Baum, tree, and the Eng.beam) for a pole, bar or barrier, used especially as a nautical term, for a long spar, used to extend a sail at the foot (main-boom, jib-boom, &c.). The “boom” of a cannon (note of a bell, cry of the bittern) is distinct from this, being onomatopoeic. In the sense of a barrier, a boom is generally formed of timber lashed together, or of chains, built across the mouth of a river or harbour as a means of defence. Possibly from the metaphor of a breaking boom, and the accompanying rush and roar, or from the rush of rising waters (mingled with the onomatopoeic use), “boom” began in America to be used of a sudden “spurt” or access of industrial activity, as in the phrase “a boom in cotton.” Hence the verb “to boom,” meaning to advertise or push into public favour.
BOOMERANG,a missile weapon of the Australian aborigines and other peoples. The word is taken from the native name used by a single tribe in New South Wales, and was mentioned in 1827 by Captain King as “the Port Jackson term” (Nav. Surv. Coasts Austral.i. 355) It has been erroneously connected with thewomeraor spear-thrower, and equally erroneously regarded as onomatopoeic—for it does not “boom” but whistles in the air. Two main types may be distinguished: (a) the return boomerang; (b) the non-return or war boomerang. Both types are found in most parts of Australia; the return form was, according to General Pitt-Rivers, used in ancient Egypt; and a weapon which has a close resemblance to the boomerang survives to the present day in North-East Africa, whence it has spread in allied forms made of metal (throwing knives). Among the Dravidians of South India is found a boomerang-shaped instrument which can be made to return. It is, however, still uncertain whether the so-called boomerangs of Egypt and India have any real resemblance to the Australian return boomerang. The Hopis (Moquis) of Arizona use a non-return form. The general form of both weapons is the same. They are sickle-shaped, and made of wood (in India of ivory or steel), so modelled that the thickness is about1⁄6th of the breadth, which again is1⁄12th of the length, the last varying from 6 in. to 3 or 4 ft. The return boomerang, which may have two straight arms at an angle of from 70° to 120°, but in Australia is always curved at an angle of 90° or more, is usually 2 to 3 ft. in length and weighs some 8 oz.; the arms have a skew, being twisted 2° or 3° from the plane running through the centre of the weapon, so that B and D (fig. 1) are above it, A and E below it; the ends AB and DE are also to some extent raised above the plane of the weapon at C; the cross section is asymmetrical, the upper side in the figure being convex, the lower flat or nearly so; this must be thrown with the right hand. The non-return boomerang has a skew in the opposite direction but is otherwise similar.
The peculiarity of the boomerang’s flight depends mainly on its skew. The return boomerang is held vertically, the concave side forward, and thrown in a plane parallel to the surface of the ground, as much rotation as possible being imparted to it. It travels straight for 30 yds. or more, with nearly vertical rotation; then it inclines to the left, lying over on the flat side and rising in the air; after describing a circle of 50 or more yards in diameter it returns to the thrower. Some observers state that it returns after striking the object; it is certainly possible to strike the ground without affecting the return. Throws of 100 yds. or more, before the leftward curve begins, can be accomplished by Australian natives, the weapon rising as much as 150 ft. in the air and circling five times before returning. The non-return type may also be made to return in a nearly straight line by throwing it at an angle of 45°, but normally it is thrown like the return type, and will then travel an immense distance. No accurate measurements of Australian throws are available, but an English throw of 180 yds. has been recorded, compared with the same thrower’s 70 yds. with the cricket ball.
The war boomerang in an expert’s hand is a deadly weapon, and the lighter hunting boomerang is also effective. The return boomerang is chiefly used as a plaything or for killing birds, and is often as dangerous to the thrower as to the object at which it is aimed.
See Pitt-Rivers (Lane Fox) inAnthropological and Archaeological Fragments, “Primitive Warfare”; also inJourn. Royal United Service Inst.xii. No. 51;British Ass. Report(1872);Catalogue of Bethnal Green Collection, p. 28; Buchner inGlobus, lxxxviii. 39, 63; G.T. Walker inPhil. Trans.cxc. 23;Wide World Mag.ii. 626;Nature, xiv. 248, lxiv. 338; Brough Smyth,Aborigines of Victoria, i. 310-329; Roth,Ethnological Studies.
See Pitt-Rivers (Lane Fox) inAnthropological and Archaeological Fragments, “Primitive Warfare”; also inJourn. Royal United Service Inst.xii. No. 51;British Ass. Report(1872);Catalogue of Bethnal Green Collection, p. 28; Buchner inGlobus, lxxxviii. 39, 63; G.T. Walker inPhil. Trans.cxc. 23;Wide World Mag.ii. 626;Nature, xiv. 248, lxiv. 338; Brough Smyth,Aborigines of Victoria, i. 310-329; Roth,Ethnological Studies.
(N. W. T.)
BOONE, DANIEL(1734-1820), American pioneer and backwoodsman, of English descent, was born near the present city of Reading, Pennsylvania, on the 2nd of November (N.S.) 1734. About 1751 his father, Squire Boone, with his family settled in the Yadkin Valley in what is now Davie county, North Carolina, then on the frontier. Daniel worked on his father’s farm, and spent much of his time hunting and trapping. In 1755 he served as a wagoner and blacksmith in Braddock’s disastrous expedition against the Indians. In 1765 he visited Florida, and in 1767 he first visited the Kentucky region. With several companions, including John Finley, who had been there as early as 1752, he spent two years, 1769-1771, roaming about what is now Kentucky, meeting with numberless adventures, coming in conflict with roving bands of Indians, and collecting bear, beaver and deer skins. He served in Lord Dunmore’s War (1774), and in 1775 led to Kentucky the party of settlers who founded Boonesborough, long an important settlement. On the 7th of February 1778 he,and the party he led, were captured by a band of Shawnees. He was adopted into the Shawnee tribe, was taken to Detroit, and on the return from that place escaped, reaching Boonesborough, after a perilous journey of 160 m., within four days, in time to give warning of a formidable attack by his captors. In repelling this attack, which lasted from the 8th to the 17th of September, he bore a conspicuous part. He also took part in the sanguinary “Battle of Blue Licks” in 1782. For a time he represented the settlers in the Virginia legislature (Kentucky then being a part of Virginia), and he also served as deputy surveyor, sheriff and county lieutenant of Fayette county, one of the three counties into which Kentucky was then divided. Having lost all his land through his carelessness in regard to titles, he removed in 1788 to Point Pleasant, Virginia (now W. Va.), whence about 1799 he removed to a place in what is now Missouri, about 45 m. west of St Louis, in territory then owned by Spain. He received a grant of 1000 arpents (about 845 acres) of land, and was appointed syndic of the district. After the United States gained possession of “Louisiana” in 1803, Boone’s title was found to be defective, and he was again dispossessed. He died on the 22nd of September 1820, and in 1845 his remains were removed to Frankfort, Kentucky, where a monument has been erected to his memory. Boone was a typical American pioneer and backwoodsman, a great hunter and trapper, highly skilled in all the arts of woodcraft, familiar with the Indians and their methods of warfare, a famous Indian fighter, restless, resourceful and fearless. His services, however, have been greatly over-estimated, and he was not, as is popularly believed, either the first to explore or the first to settle the Kentucky region.
The best biography is that by Reuben G. Thwaites,Daniel Boone(New York, 1902).
The best biography is that by Reuben G. Thwaites,Daniel Boone(New York, 1902).
BOONE,a city and the county-seat of Boone county, Iowa, U.S.A., a short distance from the Des Moines river and near the centre of the state. Pop. (1890) 6520; (1900) 8880; (1905, state census) 9500 (1334 foreign-born); (1910) 10,347. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western (which has construction and repair shops here), the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul railways, and by the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern (inter-urban) railway, which connects with Des Moines, Ames, &c. Boone is an important coal centre; bricks and tiles are manufactured from the clay obtained near by; there is a packing plant for the manufacture of beef and pork products; and from the rich farming section by which the city is surrounded come large quantities of grain, some of which is milled here, and live-stock. Boone was laid out in 1865, was incorporated as a town in 1866, and was chartered as a city in 1868.
BOONVILLE,a city and the county-seat of Cooper county, Missouri, U.S.A., on the right bank of the Missouri river, about 210 m. W. by N. of St Louis. Pop. (1890) 4141; (1900) 4377, including 1111 negroes; (1910) 4252. It is served by the Missouri Pacific, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railways. The city lies along a bluff about 100 ft. above the river. It is the seat of the Missouri training school for boys (1889), and of the Kemper military school (1844). Among its manufactures are earthenware, tobacco, vinegar, flour, farm-gates (iron), sash and doors, marble and granite monuments, carriages and bricks. Iron, zinc and lead are found in the vicinity, and some coal is mined. Boonville, named in honour of Daniel Boone, was settled in 1810, was laid out in 1817, incorporated as a village in 1839, and chartered as a city of the third class in 1896. Here on the 17th of June 1861, Captain (Major-General) Nathaniel Lyon, commanding about 2000 Union troops, defeated a slightly larger, but undisciplined Confederate force under Brigadier-General John S. Marmaduke. David Barton (d. 1837), one of the first two United States senators from Missouri, was buried here.
BOORDE(orBorde),ANDREW(1490?-1549), English physician and author, was born at Boord’s Hill, Holms Dale, Sussex. He was educated at Oxford, and was admitted a member of the Carthusian order while under age. In 1521 he was “dispensed from religion” in order that he might act as suffragan bishop of Chichester, though he never actually filled the office, and in 1529 he was freed from his monastic vows, not being able to endure, as he said, the “rugorosite off your relygyon.” He then went abroad to study medicine, and on his return was summoned to attend the duke of Norfolk. He subsequently visited the universities of Orleans, Poitiers, Toulouse, Montpellier and Wittenberg, saw the practice of surgery at Rome, and went on pilgrimage with others of his nation to Compostella in Navarre. In 1534 Boorde was again in London at the Charterhouse, and in 1536 wrote to Thomas Cromwell, complaining that he was in “thraldom” there. Cromwell set him at liberty, and after entertaining him at his house at Bishops Waltham in Hampshire, seems to have entrusted him with a mission to find out the state of public feeling abroad with regard to the English king. He writes to Cromwell from various places, and from Catalonia he sends him the seeds of rhubarb, two hundred years before that plant was generally cultivated in England. Two letters in 1535 and 1536 to the prior of the Charterhouse anxiously argue for his complete release from monastic vows. In 1536 he was studying medicine at Glasgow and gathering his observations about the Scots and the “devellyshe dysposicion of a Scottysh man, not to love nor favour an Englishe man.” About 1538 Boorde set out on his most extensive journey, visiting nearly all the countries of Europe except Russia and Turkey, and making his way to Jerusalem. Of these travels he wrote a full itinerary, lost unfortunately by Cromwell, to whom it was sent. He finally settled at Montpellier and before 1542 had completed hisFyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, which ranks as the earliest continental guide book, hisDietaryand hisBrevyary. He probably returned to England in 1542, and lived at Winchester and perhaps at Pevensey. John Ponet, bishop of Winchester, in anApologyagainst Bishop Gardiner, relates as matter of common knowledge that in 1547 Doctor Boord, a physician and a holy man, who still kept the Carthusian rules of fasting and wearing a hair shirt, was convicted in Winchester of keeping in his house three loose women. For this offence, apparently, he was imprisoned in the Fleet, where he made his will on the 9th of April 1549. It was proved on the 25th of the same month. Thomas Hearne (Benedictus Abbas, i, p. 52) says that he went round like a quack doctor to country fairs, and therefore rashly supposed him to have been the original merry-andrew.
Andrew Boorde was no doubt a learned physician, and he has left two amusing and often sensible works on domestic hygiene and medicine, but his most entertaining book isThe Fyrst Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge. The whyche dothe teache a man to speake parte of all maner of languages, and to know the usage and fashion of all maner of countreys. And for to know the moste parte of all maner of coynes of money, the whych is currant in every region. Made by Andrew Borde, of Physycke Doctor. Dedycated to the right honourable, and gracious lady Mary daughter of our soverayne Lorde Kyng Henry the eyght(c. 1547). The Englishman describes himself and his foibles—his fickleness, his fondness for new fashions and his obstinacy—in lively verse. Then follows a geographical description of the country, followed by a model dialogue in the Cornish language. Each country in turn is dealt with on similar lines. His other authentic works are:Here foloweth a Compendyous Regimente or Dyetary of health, made in Mountpyllor(Thomas Colwell, 1562), of which there are undated and doubtless earlier editions;The Brevyary of Health(1547?);The Princyples of Astronamy(1547?); “The Peregrination of Doctor Board,” printed by Thomas Hearne inBenedictus Abbas Petroburgensis, vol. ii. (1735);A Pronostycacyon or an Almanacke for the yere of our lorde MCCCCCXLV. made by Andrew Boorde. HisItinerary of EuropeandTreatyse upon Berdesare lost. Several jest-books are attributed to him without authority—The Merie Tales of the Mad Men of Gotam(earliest extant edition, 1630),Scogin’s Jests(1626),A mery jest of the Mylner of Abyngton, with his wyfe, and his daughter, and of two poore scholers of Cambridge(printed by Wynkyn de Worde), and a Latin poem,Nos Vagabunduli.
See Dr F.J. Furnivall’s reprint of theIntroductionand some other selections for the Early English Text Society (new series, 1870).
See Dr F.J. Furnivall’s reprint of theIntroductionand some other selections for the Early English Text Society (new series, 1870).
BOOS, MARTIN(1762-1825), German Roman Catholic theologian, was born at Huttenried in Bavaria on the 25th of December 1762. Orphaned at the age of four, he was reared by an uncle at Augsburg, who finally sent him to the university of Dillingen. There he laid the foundation of the modest piety by which his whole life was distinguished. After serving as priest in several Bavarian towns, he made his way in 1799 to Linz in Austria, where he was welcomed by Bishop Gall, and set to work first at Leonding and then at Waldneukirchen, becoming in 1806 pastor at Gallneukirchen. His pietistic movement won considerable way among the Catholic laity, and even attracted some fifty or sixty priests. The death of Gall and other powerful friends, however, exposed him to bitter enmity and persecution from about 1812, and he had to answer endless accusations in the consistorial courts. His enemies followed him when he returned to Bavaria, but in 1817 the Prussian government appointed him to a professorship at Düsseldorf, and in 1819 gave him the pastorate at Sayn near Neuwied. He died on the 29th of August 1825.
SeeLifeby J. Gossner (1831).
SeeLifeby J. Gossner (1831).
BOOT,(1) (From the O. Eng.bót, a word common to Teutonic languages,e.g.Goth,bóta, “good, advantage,” O.H.G.Buoza, Mod. Ger.Busse, “penance, fine”; cf. “better,” the comparative of “good”), profit or advantage. The word survives in “bootless,”i.e.useless or unavailing, and in such expressions, chiefly archaistic, as “what boots it?” “Bote,” an old form, survives in some old compound legal words, such as “house-bote,” “fire-bote,” “hedge-bote,” &c., for particular rights of “estover,” the Norman French word corresponding to the Saxon “bote” (seeEstoversandCommons). The same form survives also in such expressions as “thief-bote” for the Old English customary compensation paid for injuries.
(2) (A word of uncertain origin, which came into English through the O. Fr.bote, modernbotte; Med. Lat.bottaorbota), a covering for the foot. Properly a boot covers the whole lower part of the leg, sometimes reaching to or above the knee, but in common usage it is applied to one which reaches only above the ankle, and is thus distinguished from “shoe” (seeCostumeandShoe).
The “boot” of a coach has the same derivation. It was originally applied to the fixed outside step, the Frenchbotte, then to the uncovered spaces on or beside the step on which the attendants sat facing sideways. Both senses are now obsolete, the term now being applied to the covered receptacles under the seats of the guard and coachman.
The Boot, BootsorBootikinwas an instrument of torture formerly in use to extort confessions from suspected persons, or obtain evidence from unwilling witnesses. It originated in Scotland, but the date of its first use is unknown. It was certainly frequently employed there in the latter years of the 16th century. In a case of forgery in 1579 two witnesses, a clergyman and an attorney, were so tortured. In a letter dated 1583 at the Record Office in London, Walsingham instructs the English ambassador at Edinburgh to have Father Holt, an English Jesuit, “put to the boots.” It seems to have fallen into disuse after 1630, but was revived in 1666 on the occasion of the Covenanters’ rebellion, and was employed during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. Upon the accession of William III. the Scottish convention denounced “the use of torture, without evidence and in ordinary crimes, as contrary to law.” However, a year or so later, one Neville Payne, an Englishman suspected of treasonable motives for visiting Scotland, was put to the torture under the authority of a warrant signed by the king. This is the last recorded case of its use, torture being finally abolished in Scotland in 1709. It was not used in England after 1640. The boot was made of iron or wood and iron fastened on the leg, between which and the boot wedges were driven by blows from a mallet. After each blow a question was put to the victim, and the ordeal was continued until he gave the information or fainted. The wedges were usually placed against the calf of the leg, but Bishop Burnet says that they were sometimes put against the shin-bone. A similar instrument, called “Spanish boots,” was used in Germany. There were also iron boots which were heated on the victim’s foot. A less cruel form was a boot or buskin made wet and drawn upon the legs and then dried with fire.
BOÖTES(Gr.βοώτης, a ploughman, fromβοῦς, an ox), a constellation of the northern hemisphere, mentioned by Eudoxus (4th centuryB.C.) and Aratus (3rd centuryB.C.), and perhaps alluded to in the book of Job (seeArcturus), and by Homer and Hesiod. The ancient Greeks symbolized it as a man walking, with his right hand grasping a club, and his left extending upwards and holding the leash of two dogs, which are apparently barking at the Great Bear. Ptolemy catalogues twenty-three stars, Tycho Brahe twenty-eight, Hevelius fifty-two. In addition to Arcturus, the brightest in the group, the most interesting stars of this constellation are: εBoötis, a beautiful double star composed of a yellow star of magnitude 3, and a blue star of magnitude 6½; ξBoötis, a double star composed of a yellow star, magnitude 4½, and a purple star, magnitude 6½; andW. Boötis, an irregularly variable star. This constellation has been known by many other names—Arcas, Arctophylax, Arcturus minor, Bubuleus, Bubulus, Canis latrans, Clamator, Icarus, Lycaon, Philometus, Plaustri custos, Plorans, Thegnis, Vociferator; the Arabs termed it Aramech or Archamech; Hesychius named it Orion; Jules Schiller, St Sylvester; Schickard, Nimrod; and Weigelius, the Three Swedish Crowns.
BOOTH, BARTON(1681-1733), English actor, who came of a good Lancashire family, was educated at Westminster school, where his success in the Latin playAndriagave him an inclination for the stage. He was intended for the church; but in 1698 he ran away from Trinity College, Cambridge, and obtained employment in a theatrical company in Dublin, where he made his first appearance as Oroonoko. After two seasons in Ireland he returned to London, where Betterton, who on an earlier application had withheld his active aid, probably out of regard for Booth’s family, now gave him all the assistance in his power. At Lincoln’s Inn Fields (1700-1704) he first appeared as Maximus inValentinian, and his success was immediate. He was at the Haymarket with Betterton from 1705 to 1708, and for the next twenty years at Drury Lane. Booth died on the 10th of May 1733, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His greatest parts, after the title-part of Addison’sCato, which established his reputation as a tragedian, were probably Hotspur and Brutus. His Lear was deemed worthy of comparison with Garrick’s. As the ghost inHamlethe is said never to have had a superior. Among his other Shakespearian rôles were Mark Antony, Timon of Athens and Othello. He also played to perfection the gay Lothario in Rowe’sFair Penitent. Booth was twice married; his second wife, Hester Santlow, an actress of some merit, survived him.
See Cibber,Lives and Characters of the most eminent Actors and Actresses(1753); Victor,Memoirs of the Life of Barton Booth(1733).
See Cibber,Lives and Characters of the most eminent Actors and Actresses(1753); Victor,Memoirs of the Life of Barton Booth(1733).
BOOTH, CHARLES(1840- ), English sociologist, was born at Liverpool on the 30th of March 1840. In 1862 he became a partner in Alfred Booth & Company, a Liverpool firm engaged in the Brazil trade, and subsequently chairman of the Booth Steamship Company. He devoted much time, and no inconsiderable sums of money, to inquiries into the statistical aspects of social questions. The results of these are chiefly embodied in a work entitledLife and Labour of the People in London(1891-1903), of which the earlier portion appeared under the title ofLife and Labourin 1889. The book is designed to show “the numerical relation which poverty, misery and depravity bear to regular earnings and comparative comfort, and to describe the general conditions under which each class lives.” It contains a most striking series of maps, in which the varying degrees of poverty are represented street by street, by shades of colour. The data for the work were derived in part from the detailed records kept by school-board “visitors,” partly from systematic inquiries directed by Mr Booth himself, supplemented by information derived from relieving officers and the Charity Organization Society. Mr Booth also paid much attention to a kindred subject—the lot of the aged poor. In 1894 he published a volume of statistics on the subject, and, in 1891and 1899, works on Old-age pensions, his scheme for the latter depending on a general provision of pensions of five shillings a week to all aged persons, irrespective of the cost to the state. He married, in 1871, the daughter of Charles Zachary Macaulay. In 1904 he was made a privy councillor.
BOOTH, EDWIN [THOMAS](1833-1893), American actor, was the second son of the actor Junius Brutus Booth, and was born in Belair, Maryland, on the 13th of November 1833. His father (1796-1852) was born in London on the 1st of May 1796, and, after trying printing, law, painting and the sea, made his first appearance on the stage in 1813, and appeared in London at Covent Garden in 1815. He became almost at once a great favourite, and a rival of Kean, whom he was thought to resemble. To Kean’s Othello nevertheless he played Iago on several occasions. Richard III., Hamlet, King Lear, Shylock and Sir Giles Overreach were his best parts, and in America, whither he removed in 1821, they brought him great popularity. His eccentricities sometimes bordered on insanity, and his excited and furious fencing as Richard III. and as Hamlet frequently compelled the Richmond and Laertes to fight for their lives in deadly earnest.
Edwin Booth’s first regular appearance was at the Boston Museum on the 10th of September 1849, as Tressel to his father’s Richard, in Colley Cibber’s version ofRichard III.He was lithe and graceful in figure, buoyant in spirits; his dark hair fell in waving curls across his brow, and his eyes were soft, luminous and most expressive. His father watched him with great interest, but with evident disappointment, and the members of the theatrical profession, who held the acting of the elder Booth in great reverence, seemed to agree that the genius of the father had not descended to the son. Edwin Booth’s first appearance in New York was in the character of Wilford inThe Iron Chest, which he played at the National theatre in Chatham Street, on the 27th of September 1850. A year later, on the illness of the father, the son took his place in the character of Richard III. It was not until after his parent’s death that the son conquered for himself an unassailable position on the stage. Between 1852 and 1856 he played in California, Australia and the Sandwich Islands, and those who had known him in the east were surprised when the news came that he had captivated his audiences with his brilliant acting. From this time forward his dramatic triumphs were warmly acknowledged. His Hamlet, Richard and Richelieu were pronounced to be superior to the performances of Edwin Forrest; his success as Sir Giles Overreach inA New Way to Pay Old Debtssurpassed his father’s. In 1862 he became manager of the Winter Garden theatre, New York, where he gave a series of Shakespearian productions of then unexampled magnificence (1864-1867), includingHamlet,OthelloandThe Merchant of Venice. The splendour of this period in his career was dashed for many months when in 1865 his brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated President Lincoln (seeLincoln, Abraham). The three Booth brothers, Junius Brutus (1821-1853), Edwin and John Wilkes (1839-1865), had played together inJulius Caesarin the autumn of the previous year—the performance being memorable both for its own excellence, and for the tragic situation into which two of the principal performers were subsequently hurled by the crime of the third. Edwin Booth did not reappear on the stage until the 3rd of January 1866, when he played Hamlet at the Winter Garden theatre, the audience showing by unstinted applause their conviction that the glory of the one brother would never be imperilled by the infamy of the other.
In 1868-1869 Edwin Booth built a theatre of his own—Booth’s theatre, at the corner of 23rd Street and 6th Avenue, New York—and organized an excellent stock company, which producedRomeo and Juliet,The Winter’s Tale,Julius Caesar,Macbeth,Much Ado about Nothing,The Merchant of Veniceand other plays. In all cases Booth used the true text of Shakespeare, thus antedating by many years a similar reform in England. Almost invariably his ventures were successful, but he was of a generous and confiding nature, and his management was not economical. In 1874 the grand dramatic structure he had raised was taken from him, and with it went his entire fortune. By arduous toil, however, he again accumulated wealth, in the use of which his generous nature was shown. He converted his spacious residence in Gramercy Park, New York, into a club—The Players’—for the elect of his profession, and for such members of other professions as they might choose. The house, with all his books and works of art, and many invaluable mementos of the stage, became the property of the club. A single apartment he kept for himself. In this he died on the 7th of June 1893. Among his parts were Macbeth, Lear, Othello, Iago, Shylock, Wolsey, Richard II., Richard III., Benedick, Petruccio, Richelieu, Sir Giles Overreach, Brutus (Payne’s), Bertuccio (in Tom Taylor’sThe Fool’s Revenge), Ruy Blas, Don Cesar de Bazan, and many more. His most famous part was Hamlet, for which his extraordinary grace and beauty and his eloquent sensibility peculiarly fitted him. He probably played the part oftener than any other actor before or since. He visited London in 1851, and again in 1880 and in 1882, playing at the Haymarket theatre with brilliant success. In the last year he also visited Germany, where his acting was received with the highest enthusiasm. His last appearance was in Brooklyn as Hamlet in 1891. Booth was twice married: in 1860 to Mary Devlin (d. 1863), and in 1869 to Mary F. McVicker (d. 1881). He left by his first wife one daughter, Edwina Booth Grossman, who publishedEdwin Booth: Recollections(New York, 1894).
Edwin Booth’s prompt-books were edited by William Winter (1878). In a series of volumes,Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and America, edited by Lawrence Hutton and Brander Matthews, Edwin Booth contributed recollections of his father, which contain much valuable autobiographic material. For the same series Lawrence Barrett contributed an article on Edwin Booth. See also William Winter,Life and Art of Edwin Booth(1893); Lawrence Hutton,Edwin Booth(1893); Henry A. Clapp,Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic(Boston, 1902); A.B. Clarke.The Elder and the Younger Booth(Boston, 1882).
Edwin Booth’s prompt-books were edited by William Winter (1878). In a series of volumes,Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and America, edited by Lawrence Hutton and Brander Matthews, Edwin Booth contributed recollections of his father, which contain much valuable autobiographic material. For the same series Lawrence Barrett contributed an article on Edwin Booth. See also William Winter,Life and Art of Edwin Booth(1893); Lawrence Hutton,Edwin Booth(1893); Henry A. Clapp,Reminiscences of a Dramatic Critic(Boston, 1902); A.B. Clarke.The Elder and the Younger Booth(Boston, 1882).
(J. J.*)
BOOTH, WILLIAM(1829- ), founder and “general” of the Salvation Army (q.v.), was born at Nottingham on the 10th of April 1829. At the age of fifteen his mind took a strongly religious turn, under the influence of the Wesleyan Methodists, in which body he became a local preacher. In 1849 he came to London, where, according to his own account, his passion for open-air preaching caused his severance from the Wesleyans. Joining the Methodist New Connexion, he was ordained a minister, but, not being employed as he wished in active “travelling evangelization,” left that body also in 1861. Meanwhile he had (1855) married Miss Catherine Mumford, and had a family of four children. Both he and his wife occupied themselves with preaching, first in Cornwall and then in Cardiff and Walsall. At the last-named place was first organized a “Hallelujah band” of converted criminals and others, who testified in public of their conversion. In 1864 Booth went to London and continued his services in tents and in the open air, and founded a body which was successively known as the East London Revival Society, the East London Christian Mission, the Christian Mission and (in 1878) the Salvation Army. The Army operates (1) by outdoor meetings and processions; (2) by visiting public-houses, prisons, private houses; (3) by holding meetings in theatres, factories and other unusual buildings; (4) by using the most popular song-tunes and the language of everyday life, &c.; (5) by making every convert a daily witness for Christ, both in public and private. The army is a quasi-military organization, and Booth modelled its “Orders and Regulations” on those of the British army. Its early “campaigns” excited violent opposition, a “Skeleton Army” being organized to break up the meetings, and for many years Booth’s followers were subjected to fine and imprisonment as breakers of the peace. Since 1889, however, these disorders have been little heard of. The operations of the army were extended in 1880 to the United States, in 1881 to Australia, and spread to the European continent, to India, Ceylon and elsewhere, “General” Booth himself being an indefatigable traveller, organizer and speaker. His wife (b. 1829) died in 1890. By her preaching at Gateshead, where her husband was circuit minister, in 1860, she began the women’s ministry which is so prominent a feature of the army’s work. A biography of her by Mr Booth Tucker appeared in 1892.
In 1890 “General” Booth attracted further public attention by the publication of a work entitledIn Darkest England, and the Way Out, in which he proposed to remedy pauperism and vice by a series of ten expedients: (1) the city colony; (2) the farm colony; (3) the over-sea colony; (4) the household salvage brigade; (5) the rescue homes for fallen women; (6) deliverance for the drunkard; (7) the prison-gate brigade; (8) the poor man’s bank; (9) the poor man’s lawyer; (10) Whitechapel-by-the-Sea. Money was liberally subscribed and a large part of the scheme was carried out. The opposition and ridicule with which Booth’s work was for many years received gave way, towards the end of the 19th century, to very widespread sympathy as his genius and its results were more fully realized.
The active encouragement of King Edward VII., at whose instance in 1902 he was invited officially to be present at the coronation ceremony, marked the completeness of the change; and when, in 1905, the “general” went on a progress through England, he was received in state by the mayors and corporations of many towns. In the United States also, and elsewhere, his work was cordially encouraged by the authorities.