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TEXAS

sandstone. Among the most durable and costly varieties of stone are the granites, marbles, and serpentines of Burnet and Llano cos, and the Transpecos region. The principal forests are in E. Texas, and the prevailing growth is pine. In the W. part of the forest region oak, hickory, and ash are common. In the river bottoms of the SE. cypress is abundant, and in the NE. bois d'arc. Running from Red River S. are two belts of post oak and black-jacks about 40 m. apart, the E. being known as the Lower Cross Timbers and the W. as the Upper Cross Timbers. Toward the SW. the forests disappear and are replaced by cedar brakes, stretches of mesquite, etc. Along the Rio Grande border are dense thickets of chaparral, mimosa, and acacias. Texas ranks first among the cotton-growing states. It produces also large crops of maize, wheat, and oats.

The animals of Texas, like the vegetables, change in type in passing from the N. and E. toward Mexico. In the forests and along the streams of the E. part are the red deer, beaver, squirrel, gopher, and badger, with an occasional brown bear and panther. On the plains and in the more rugged districts of the W. are antelopes, black-tailed deer, and big-horn sheep. In different quarters are lobo-wolves and coyotes, red and gray foxes, skunks, wild cats and civet cats. The prairie districts abound in prairie dogs and Texas hares. Among the birds of the state are wild geese and ducks, mainly in the E. portions and on the coast, while farther W. the plover, curlew, snipe, and Mexican canary prevail. The quail, wild turkey, crow, hawk, owl, and mocking bird are widely distributed. The commonest reptiles are the alligator, horned toad, and snakes of various kinds, the only dangerous ones being the copperhead and rattlesnake. Two hundred and thirty species of fishes have been distinguished, most of them in the rivers of the Coast Prairie. The finest is the black bass. Among the invertebrates are the lobster, shrimp, crab, centipede, and tarantula, while along the coast are found oysters and clams in abundance. The principal crops in order of importance are cotton, corn, wheat, oats, and hay. Texas produces nearly twenty-five per cent of the cotton of the U. S. The total value of the farm animals exceeds $150,000,000. In the NE. and E. part there is a fair amount of humidity, but the SW. and W. are too arid for successful agriculture without irrigation.

TEXAS

reached in 1528 by Cabeza de Vaca, but the first European settlement within the present limits was planted by René Robert Cavelier, February, 1685, on the Lavaca River, and was named Fort St. Louis. Previous to this the country had been occupied only by scattered Indian tribes. In 1689 the Viceroy of Mexico sent a small force against the new colony, but the Indians had already stamped it out. In 1691 Don Domingo Teran, Governor of Coahuila and Texas, planted several settlements in the latter province, but none__survived long. In 1714 Crozat, to whom Louis XIV had granted Louisiana, sent Huchereau Saint-Denis through Texas to the Rio Grande to ascertain the trading possibilities. This roused the Spaniards to secure possession of Texas. In 1715 they established missions in the province, among them that of San Antonio de Valero, afterwards moved to the famous mission house known as the Alamo. From this time the hold of Spain on Texas was secure as against France, though the latter continued to assert its claims. In 1729 the Spanish Govt. tried to colonize the country, but the attempt failed. In 1735 the French planted a settlement on the W. bank of Red River, and the Spaniards protested; but an official investigation made in Mexico tended to show that the settlement was on French territory. In 1762 France ceded Louisiana to Spain, and in 1800 Spain gave it back to France.

The establishment of the independence of the U. S. was followed by a controversy as to the boundaries between it and the Spanish territory, and the sale of Louisiana to the U. S. in 1803 made it necessary to define the E. boundary of Mexico. Spain strengthened her forces in Texas, and in 1806 a conflict between the Spanish troops and those of the U. S. E. of the Sabine River was prevented only by an agreement between the opposing generals to recognize the strip between the Sabine and the Arroyo Hondo, a little farther E., as neutral ground. In 1819 the Sabine was agreed on as the E. limit of Mexico. During 1821-34 SE. Texas, except the part adjacent to the Mexican border, was settled by colonists from the U. S. The most important colony was that brought by Stephen F. Austin to the lower Colorado and the Brazos. The Anglo-Americans soon became so numerous in Texas as to excite the jealousy of the Mexicans. The province had been joined to Coahuila, and the whole was governed unsatisfactorily to the colonists. In 1830 further immigration from the U. S. was prohibited by the Mexican Congress. In 1833 the Texans sought to obtain a separate state government, but Santa Anna would not consent. In 1835 Texas revolted. A provisional government was organized and a war followed, which was ended by the rout of the Mexican army at San Jacinto, April 21, 1836. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independ

Principal cities and towns are: San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, Galveston, Fort Worth, Austin, Waco, El Paso, Laredo, Denison, Sherman, Beaumont, Paris, Corsicana, Palestine, Tyler, Gainesville, Marshall, Cleburne, Temple, Greenville, Terrell, Brownsville, Brenham, Hillsboro, Texarkana, Bonham. The system of public instruction includes common schools, high schools, the Sam Houston Normal Institute for whites at Huntsville, the Prairie View State Normal School for colored students near Hemp-ence, and on September 2d it adopted a repubstead, the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan, and the State Univ., which has the departments of literature, science, arts, and law at Austin, and that of medicine at Galveston.

It is believed that the coast of Texas was

lican constitution. Sam Houston was chosen president, and an almost unanimous vote was cast in favor of annexation to the U. S. The measure was then checked by Pres. Van Buren's declining the proposition, and it failed again in 1844 because the anti-slavery senti

TEXAS, UNIVERSITY OF

ment and the fact that annexation meant war with Mexico prevented confirmation by the Senate. In 1845, under Polk, who had been elected on a platform favoring annexation, Texas was annexed, not by treaty, but by a joint resolution of Congress. War with Mexico followed. The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 established the Texas claim to the strip between the Nueces and the Rio Grande, previously claimed by both Texas and Mexico. In 1861 Texas seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate states. From June, 1865, to March, 1867, the state was under a provisional government, and from the latter date to September, 1869, under military administration. After this it was restored to its place in the Union.

Texas, Univer'sity of, a coeducational institution comprising departments in Austin, Galveston, and Bryan, provided for by the constitution of the Republic of Texas. The Congress of 1839 provided for the selection of a site for a university, and when Austin was located as the capital of the state, forty acres of land in that city were designated for the seat of the university. This action of the republic was followed by a grant of 221,400 acres of land for the "establishment and endowment of two colleges or universities"; and in 1858 the state appropriated to the university $100,000 in U. S. bonds then in the state treasury, and confirmed to it the fifty leagues grant of the republic. In 1883 the legislature granted another million acres of land to the university. The main university establishment, embracing the academic and law departments, was located at Austin in accordance with a vote of the people of the state in 1881, and was opened by the admission of students, September 15, 1883, when rooms were provided for the purpose in the temporary capitol, and used till the university building was finished and occupied, January 1, 1884. The medical department, located at Galveston in 1881, was formally opened in October, 1891. The Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan, which had been in operation many years before the university was organized, and which, under the federal grant of 1862 for establishing agricultural colleges in the several states, was a beneficiary of the general government, was made a branch of the university by the state convention of 1876 in order that it might also have the benefit of appropriations from the university fund. The medical department at Galveston embraces the Medical College, which cost about $125,000, and the John Sealy Hospital, valued at $70,000, the latter having been originally willed to the city by John Sealy, a citizen of that place, and transferred to the university. In 1909 the university had 88 instructors, 2,573 students, and a library of 68,456 volumes.

Tex'tile Fab'rics, fabrics made by weaving threads in a loom. The threads usually employed are those made by spinning from vegetable fiber, such as that of hemp, flax, cotton, and many plants with fibrous leaves, especially common in the tropics; of animal fiber, such as wool of sheep, the hair of many varieties of

TEXTILE FABRICS

goat, the llama, the camel, the horse, and other beasts; and of the threads spun by the silkworm. A few exceptional fabrics have been woven from the thread of a spider, also from byssus, or the silky filaments attached to the bivalve shell, Pinna flabellum. Glass has been spun into threads and woven. Wire, as of silver and silver gilt, has been woven into cloth with other materials, as linen and silk, for ornament, and gilded paper cut into slender strips is used for the same purpose. Feathers also have been woven into fabrics.

Such are many

Simply woven goods are those in which one thread of the weft or woof passes across the width of the web, passing alternately above and below the threads of the warp, one at a time. Examples are common linen and cotton goods, such as are used for under garments or sheets. Linen cloth or linen is the common name for cloth made from flax. Cambric or linen cambric is a fine and close-woven material for handkerchiefs and for different articles of dress; batiste is a still finer cambric; dimity is a thin cotton fabric, usually ornamented in weaving by raised stripes or printed figures; crash, canvas, duck, and sailcloth are all stouter cloths, made originally of linen or hemp, although now more commonly of cotton. Other cotton goods of plain weave, besides cotton cambric, etc., are the cloth which is called in Great Britain calico and in the U. S. more commonly muslin, except when printed in colors, and muslin proper, a cloth which is either the fine hand-woven stuff of India or its Eurosilk and wool or cotton and wool are also freWoolen cloths and those of pean imitation. quently of simple weave. blankets and flannels, the stuff called challis, which is usually printed in colors and the dress material formerly called mousseline de laine. The patterns in simply woven stuffs must be either plain stripes, or stripes which when polka crossing each other form plaids, or spots,' or other plain figures. When the threads are slightly bunched together, so that three parallel threads of the woof which have been separately alternating with those of the web are gathered into one strand and alternate with another similar strand made up of three threads of the warp, there is produced a square of coarser weave, giving a decided pattern to the surface. In like manner, especially in silk weaving, threads are bunched together for the whole fabric, producing "basket weave," or an appearance of silky softness is got by bunching the threads lying in one direction, and holding these together by fine strong threads the other way, as in some silk blankets. A twill or a twilled fabric is one in which a thread of the woof is carried over and then under several threads of the warp at one time. This produces in the simple forms a kind of diagonal striping characteristic of the stuffs ordinarily called twill. Scotch tartan plaids, the soft India shawls called Rampoor Chuddahs, most linen diaper, tweeds and cheviots and serges, are examples of twilled fabrics. Satin is nothing more than a twill, the threads which lie side by side and form the surface being very soft, with a silky luster. Twilled fabrics are much stronger than those simply

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woven, and it is much easier in these to produce elaborate patterns on the surface, whether in different colors or by the mere arranging of the threads so as to catch the light. Linen damask, for instance, such as is used for tablecloths, has commonly a pattern, the principal threads of which lie in one direction, while those of the background lie in the contrary direction. Crape is the general name of material made of threads twisted in reverse directions, so that the surface of the stuff is crimped and blistered. Ordinary silk crape, a thin and gauzy textile, is dyed black and used for mourning garments in Europe, but is printed in bright colors in the East. Canton crape is a thicker and softer silk textile. Crêpon is a similar fabric made of woolen or other thread much heavier than crape. Perhaps the most important variety of weave is that which produces goods having a pile, such as velvet, velveteen, and fustian; also corduroy, which is merely velveteen or fustian in lengthwise ribs.

Thackeray, William Makepeace, 1811-63; English novelist; b. Calcutta. He was sent to England in 1816; educated at Charterhouse School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge (1829-30), but left without taking a degree. At Cambridge he edited The Snob, a weekly undergraduate paper, in which he printed a parody on Tennyson's prize poem, "Timbuctoo." He then traveled and studied on the Continent, especially in Italy, with a view to becoming a painter; spent a season (1830-31) in Weimar, enjoying free access to the ducal courts and becoming intimate with the aged Goethe and his circle. In 1831 he took up his residence in the Temple, and began to read law; but in 1832 he went to Paris, in which city he continued to be as much at home as in London for the next ten years. He had inherited about £20,000, which he lost in an Indian bank and in journalistic speculations, and by 1837 he began to devote himself seriously to literature.

He became a correspondent of The Times; wrote humorous papers for The New Monthly Magazine, for Fraser, and for Punch over a variety of signatures, such as "Michael Angelo Titmarsh" and "The Fat Contributor"; published collections of his magazine articles with original illustrations, as "The Paris Sketch Book, by Mr. Titmarsh "; " Comic Tales and Sketches," including the Yellowplush Papers"; The Irish Sketch Book." He visited the East in 1845, and published "Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo "; was first recognized as a literary celebrity upon the publication of his novel, "Vanity Fair."

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was called to the bar, 1848, but never practiced; availed himself of his recently acquired popularity to issue several small volumes made up from earlier articles; brought out in monthly parts his second novel, "The History of Pendennis," which confirmed his already high reputation, and made him in popular estimation a rival of Dickens for the first place in modern English fiction; lectured with brilliant success on the "English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century," in London, 1851, and in the U. S., 1852; published "The His

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tory of Henry Esmond" (1852), "The Newcomes (1853-55), and "The Virginians (1857-59), completing the series of his five really great novels; lectured in the U. S., 185556, and afterwards in England, on "The Four Georges "; presented himself unsuccessfully as a Liberal candidate for the representation of the city of Oxford in Parliament, 1857; founded The Cornhill Magazine (1859), in which he published his two latest novels, "Lovel the Widower" and "The Adventures of Philip," both inferior to his earlier productions, and a series of articles collected as "Roundabout Papers" (1862), and resigned his editorship, 1862.

A great part of his life was saddened by the insanity of his wife, who survived till 1894. Thackeray has been variously described as a realist and a caricaturist, a cynic and a sentimentalist. Beginning with burlesque, satirical character sketches, and all manner of humorous skits and broadly comical drolleries, he gradually widened his field and refined his method until in his great novels he was able to draw a picture of English life, and especially of the life of town, society, and the upper classes, which, while brilliant as satire, included the tragic as well as the comic elements, and in truth to nature was superior to the work of his great rival and counterpart, Dickens. He left an unfinished novel, "Denis Duval," printed in 1867.

Tha'is, an Athenian courtesan, as celebrated for her wit as for her beauty. She accompanied Alexander the Great on his expedition into Asia, and is said to have instigated him, during a festival at Persepolis, to set fire to the palace of the Persian kings in revenge for the calamities which Xerxes had brought on her native city.

Thaler (tä'ler), till 1871 the monetary unit for N. Germany, worth about seventy-three cents. See DOLLAR.

Thales (tha'lēz), abt. 636-546 B.C.; the earliest Greek philosopher, and one of the seven wise men; b. Miletus, Ionia. Various physical discoveries are attributed to him. He is said to have computed the sun's orbit, to have fixed the length of the year at 365 days, and to have been the first among the Greeks to predict eclipses. Philosophical language being then uninvented, he defined his abstract, universal ground of things as water, being led to this perhaps by observing that all nourishment contained moisture. Aristotle calls him the originator of the Ionic natural philosophy, and hence, indirectly, of Greek philosophy in gen

eral.

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