Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 01.djvu/175

ALTENBURG gods, and some of lower elevation to the demigods and heroes, while they worshipped the infernal gods in trenches scooped out of the ground.

ALTENBURG (-börg), the capital of the former Duchy of Saxe-Altenburg, situated on the Pleisse, 30 miles S. of Leipsic. Standing on an almost perpendicular rock of porphyry, the old castle of Altenburg forms a striking feature in the landscape. It is memorable as the place whence, in 1455, a neighboring knight, Kunz von Kaufungen, carried off the young Saxon princes, Ernest and Albert. Before he could reach the Bohemian frontier, he was apprehended by a charcoal burner, and handed over to the executioner. Brushes, woolen goods, gloves, and cigars are among the manufactures. Pop. about 45,000. The Duchy became a republic in 1918.

ALTERATIVE, a kind of medicine which, when given, appears for a time to have little or no effect, but which ultimately changes, or tends to change, a morbid state into one of health.

ALTGELD, JOHN PETER, author, lawyer, and judge, born in Germany, in December, 1847. He was Judge of the Superior Court at Chicago in 1886-1901, and Governor of Illinois in 1893. His pardon of the Anarchists caused much controversy. He wrote "Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims," "Live Questions," and other books. He died in 1902.

ALTISCOPE, an instrument consisting of an arrangement of mirrors in a vertical framework, by means of which a person is enabled to overlook an object (a parapet, for instance) intervening between himself and whatever he desires to see, the picture of the latter being reflected from a higher to a lower mirror, where it is seen by the observer.

ALTITUDE, in mathematics the perpendicular height of the vertex or apex of a plane figure or solid above the base. In astronomy it is the vertical height of any point of body above the horizon.

ALTO, in music, the highest singing voice of a male adult, the lowest of a boy or a woman, being in the latter almost the same as contralto. The alto, or counter-tenor, is not a natural voice, but a development of the falsetto.

ALTON, a city in Madison co., Ill., on the Mississippi river, 5 miles above the mouth of the Missouri, and on several trunk line railroads; 21 miles N. of St. Louis, Mo. It is built on a high limestone bluff, and has very picturesque surroundings. The Mississippi is here spanned by a costly railroad bridge, and the city is connected with Upper Alton, 2 miles distant, by a trolley line. Alton has important manufactures, and a large river trade. Here are the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, St. Joseph's Hospital, Ursuline Convent (all Roman Catholic), Hayner Memorial Public Library, Monticello Seminary, Old Women's Home, several National banks, and daily and weekly newspapers. Upper Alton is the seat of Shurtleff College (Baptist), and Wyman Institute. Elijah P. Lovejoy, the abolitionist, was murdered at Alton by a mob in 1837. A monument to his memory was erected in 1897. Pop. (1910) 17,528; (1920) 24,682.

ALTONA, a city of Schleswig-Holstein, on the right bank of the Elbe river. Its boundary joins Hamburg on the east and it practically forms one city with Hamburg. It is an important trade center and has many important industrial works, including cotton and woolen mills, iron foundries, glass works, breweries, etc. Pop. about 200,000.

ALTOONA, a city in Blair co.. Pa.; on the Pennsylvania and the Altoona, Clearfield and Northern railroads; 117 miles E. of Pittsburgh. It is at the E. base of the Allegheny Mountains, at an elevation of 1,180 feet above sea-level, where the railroad begins to ascend the mountains at a grade of 90 feet to the mile. The city contains extensive machine shops of the Pennsylvania railroad, large individual car works, rolling and planing mills, a hospital, two convents, a public library, general offices of the Pennsylvania railroad, and several National banks. Altoona is a mining, manufacturing, lumbering, and farming trade center for central Pennsylvania, and has had a rapid development. Pop. (1910) 52,127; (1920) 60,331.

ALTORF, or ALTDORF, a town of Switzerland, in the canton of Uri, near Lake Lucerne. A tower marks the spot where William Tell is said to have shot the apple from his son's head. The adjacent village of Burglen is Tell's traditional birthplace. Pop. about 4,000.

ALTO-RILIEVO, or ALTO-RELIEVO, sculptured work of which the figures project more than half their true proportions. When they project just one-half, the term used is mezzo-relievo; and when less than half, basso-relievo, or in English, bas-relief.

ALTRANSTÄDT (ält´rän-stedt), an important village in the Prussian province of Saxony, near Lützen. It is fa-