Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/145

ALDRICH of "Festina lente" or of "Sudavit et alsit." Among the Aldine works which have now become very rare may be mentioned the "Horæ Beatæ Mariæ Virginis," of 1497. the "Vergil" of 1501, and the "Rhetores Græci," not to mention all the editions, dated and undated, from 1490 to 1497.

ALDRICH, NELSON WILMARTH, an American politician, born in Foster, R. I., in 1841. His early life was spent in business and he became a partner in a wholesale grocery firm in Providence. He early showed an interest in and capacity for politics and was elected to the Rhode Island House of Representatives in 1875. Within a few years he was the chief political power in the State. He was elected to Congress in 1878, but resigned in 1881 to enter the Senate, to which he was successfully re-elected until 1911. His powerful personality and his deep knowledge of business and economics from the political standpoint made him a powerful factor in the Senate, especially in relation to measures affecting the tariff. He was chiefly responsible for the McKinley Bill in 1890. Greatly interested in financial matters, he was largely responsible for the Aldrich-Vreeland Currency Law. At the height of his power he was the most dominant figure in the Senate. At the expiration of his term in 1911 he declined renomination, undoubtedly foreseeing the conditions that were about to result from the splitting up of the Republican party, which took place in the following year. He was a chief authority on banking and finance and through his efforts banking laws were greatly improved. After his retirement he took no active part in politics, and died on April 16, 1915.

ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY, an American poet, essayist, and writer of fiction, born in Portsmouth, N. H., Nov. 11, 1836. He spent his early youth in Louisiana, but at the age of 17 entered a mercantile house in New York. Removing to Boston in 1866, he became editor of "Every Saturday," and, in 1881, editor of the "Atlantic Monthly." He has become almost equally eminent as a prose writer and poet. Among his prose works the best known are: "The Story of a Bad Boy" (1870); "Marjorie Daw and Other People" (1873); "Prudence Palfrey" (1874); "The Queen of Sheba," a romance of travel (1877); "The Stillwater Tragedy" (1880). Of his poems, most are included in "Complete Poems" (1882) and "Household Edition" (1895). He died in Boston, Mass.. March 19, 1907.

ALDRICH, WILLIAM SLEEPER, an American educator, born in Philadelphia in 1863. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1883, and in the following year received a degree in engineering from the Stevens Institute of Technology. After teaching for several years in high schools he became a member of the staff of Johns Hopkins University. From 1893 to 1899 he was professor of mechanical engineering and director of mechanical arts at West Virginia University. From 1899 to 1901 he was professor and head of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois. From 1901 to 1911 he was director of the Thomas S. Clarkson School of Technology. He was a member of many scientific societies. He wrote much on building construction and architecture and manuals for electrical engineering laboratories.

ALE, the current name in England for malt liquor in general before the introduction of "the wicked weed called hops" from the Netherlands, about the year 1524. The two names, ale and beer, are both Teutonic, and seem originally to have been synonymous. In the eastern counties of England, and over the greater portion of the country, ale means strong, and beer, small, malt liquor; while in the W. country, beer is the strong liquor and ale the small. The ales of Edinburgh, Wrexham, and Alloa have a high reputation. Burton ale is the strongest made, containing as much as 8 per cent, of alcohol; while the best brown stout has about 6 per cent., and table-beer only 1 or 2 per cent. India pale ale differs chiefly in having a larger quantity of hops.

ALEMAN, MATTEO (ä-lā-män´), a Spanish novelist, born in Seville about 1550. For some time an oflfcial in the royal treasury, he resigned or was dismissed, and about 1608 went to Mexico. His fame rests on the satirical romance, "The Life and Deeds of the Picaroon Gusman de Alfarache," one of the most famous representatives of the "picaresque" novel. Its first part, under the title of "Watch-Tower of Human Life," appeared in 1599. The work was translated into every European language, and, in 1623, even into Latin. He died in Mexico after 1609.

ALEMANNI or ALAMANNI, a confederacy of several German tribes which, at the commencement of the 3d century after Christ, lived near the Roman territory, and came then and subsequently into conflict with the imperial troops.