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Rh with provisions. Congress having failed to make the necessary appropriations to carry out the con- tract, and the price of provisions having increased on account of the war, he went to Washington for the purpose of vacating his agreement. But, on re- ceiving verbal assurances from the secretary of war that the difference in rate would be made up to him, he continued to embark his own means in the venture. The army under Gen. Harrison was well supplied, but after the establishment of peace the government repudiated the verbal contract, and he was thrown into prison for debt at the capital, and died there. Sixty years later the su- preme court of the United States ordered judg- ment in behalf of his heirs for the full amount claimed, but the interest has never been paid.

PIATT, John James, poet, b. in James's Mills (now Milton), Ind., 1 March. 1885. He was sent at the age of fourteen to learn the printing busi- ness in the office of the Ohio "State Journal," and subsequently studied in Cajjital university and Kenyon college, but was not graduated. In 1859 he became associated with George D. Prentice, and at the same time a contributor to the Louisville •'Journal." He was appointed clerk in the U. S. treasury department at Washington in 1861, and remained there for six years, when he returned to Cincinnati and was successively connected with the " Chronicle " and " Commercial " of that city. In 1870 he was made enrolling clerk of the U. S. house of representatives in Washington, and in 1871 he became its librarian. Mr. Piatt was ap- pointed U. S. consul at Cork (Queenstown), Ireland, in 1882, which office he now (1888) holds. His first poetical contributions were made to the Louisville " Journal " in 1857. and in 1859 he became a con- tributor to the "Atlantic Monthly." His publica- tions in book - form include " Poems of Two Friends," with William D. Howells (Columbus. 1860) ; " The Nests at Washington, and other Poems," with Mrs. Piatt (New York, 1864) : " Poems in Sunshine and Firelight" (Cincinnati, 1866); " Western Windows, and other Poems " (New York, 1869) ; " Landmarks, and other Poems " (1871) ; " Poems of George D. Prentice," edited with a bio- graphical sketch (Cincinnati, 1875) ; " Poems of House and Home" (Boston, 1878); "The Union of American Poetry and Art" (Cincinnati, 1880-'l) ; " The Children Out-of- Doors : a Book of Verses by Two in One House," with Mrs. Piatt (Edinburgh, 1884); "Idvls and Lvrics of the Ohio Vailev" (London, 1884; Boston. 1888); and " At the Holy Well : a Handful of New Verses " (Dublin, 1887). — His wife, Sarah Morgan Bryan, b. in Lex- ington, Ky., 11 Aug., 1886, is the granddaughter of Morgan Bryan, an early settler in Kentucky. She was graduated at Heniy female college in Newcastle, Ky., in 1854, and married Mr. Piatt in 1861. Her early poems appeared in the Louisville "Journal" and the "New York Ledger," and gained for her recognition from Fitz-Greene Halleek and George D. Prentice. In addition to the works previously mentioned with her husband, she has published " A Woman's Poems " (Boston, 1871) ; "A Voyage to the Fortunate Isles, and other Poems" (1874); "That New World, and other Poems" (1876); "Poems in Company with Chil- dren" (1877); "Dramatic Persons and Moods" (1879); "An Irish Garland" (Edinburgh, 1884); "Selected Poems" (London. 1885); "In Primrose Time " (1886) : and " Child's- World Ballads " (1887).

PICARD, George Henry, author, b. in Berea, Ohio, 3 Aug., 1850. He was graduated at Baldwin university, Berea, in 1869, and at the College of medicine and surgery, Cincinnati, in 1877. He now (1888) practises his profession in New York city. Dr. Picard is the author of the novels " A Matter of Taste" (New York, 1884); "A Mission Flower" (1885) ; and "Old Boniface" (1880).

PI€HARDO Y TAPI A. Estehan (pee-char -do), Cuban author, b. in Santiago de los Caballeros, Santo Domingo, in December, 1799; d. in Havana, Cuba, in 1879. His parents emigrated in 1801 to Puerto Principe, Cuba. The son studied there and at Havana, and was admitted to the bar in 1821. In the following year he published in Puerto Principe " Miscelanea Poetica," but he soon aban- doned poetry, and in 1824 published at Havana, where he had fixed his residence, his " Xotas ci-ono- logicas sobre Cuba." He made in 1825 and following years a tour through the European continent and the United States, and on his return published his "Itinerario general de la Isla de Cuba " (Havana, 1830). The first edition of his " Diccionario provincial de voces Cubanas " was published in 1836, and it has passed through several editions and been revised and considerably enlarged. His " Geografia General de la Isla de Cuba," the best and most complete book on the subject, was published in 1854. His other works include a novel, "El Fatalista" (1865); " Caminos de la Isla" (3 vols.. 1865) ; and " Gran Carta geo-topografica de Cuba," on which he spent about forty years traversing the island in all directions (1874). A "Memoria Justificativa" accompanies this great chart.

PICK, Bernhard, clergyman, b. in Kempen, Prussia, 19 Dec, 1842. He completed his theo- logical course in Union theological seminary, New York city, in 1868. In that year he was ordained to the ministry in the Presbyterian church, but in 1884 he was received by the Lutheran ministeriura of Pennsylvania as a member of that denomination. He has been successively pastor of congregations at New York in 1868, North Buffalo, N. Y., in 1869, Syracuse in 1870-4, Rochester in 1874-81, and at vVlleghany, Pa., since 1881. He is a fine Hebrew and rabbinical scholar, and contributed many articles to McClintock and Strong's "Cyclopjedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature " and to the Schafli-IIerzog " Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge." He is also a frequent contributor to various theological reviews, both in this country and in Europe, and among his works are " Luther as a Hymnist " (Philadelphia, 1875) ; " Juedisches Volksleben zur Zeit Jesus " (Rochester, N. Y., 1880) ; " Luther's ' Ein' festeBurg' in Nineteen Languages" (1880: 2d ed., in twenty-one languages, Chicago, 1883) ; •' Index to ' Lange's Commentary on the Old Testament ' " (New York, 1882); "Jewish Artisan Life in the Time of Jesus," from the German of Franz De- litzsch (1883) ; " Historical Sketch of the Jews since the Destruction of Jerusalem" (1887); "Life of Christ according to Extra - Canonical Sources'* (1887) ; " Index to the Ante-Nicene Fathers " (1887) : and "The Talmud: what it is and what it says about Jesus and tlie Christians" (1887).

PICKEN, Joanna Belfrasre, poet, b. in Edinburgh, Scotland, 8 May, 1798; d. in Montreal. Canada, 24 March, 1849. She was the daughter of Ebenezer Picken, called the "Poet of Paisley," and Robina, sister of the Rev. Dr. Henry Belfrage, the author and philanthropist, and was early left an orphan. In 1828 she contributed poems to Glasgow papers, and in 1842 emigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal, where she taught music and wrote for periodicals under the pen-name of " Alpha." Her poems, which were never published in book-form, number about forty-five, and include "An Auid Friend wi' a New Face" and "The Death Watch."