Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 04.djvu/325

LEFT GAYA 273 OEAB which won many medals, include "Bene- dicite" (Bless ye), now in the Museum of Amiens, France, "Las Cigarreras" (The Cigarette Sellers), in the Luxem- bourg, Paris; and canvases in the Metro- politan Museum of Fine Arts, New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and several noted collections in Europe. The French Government made him a Cheva- lier of the Legion of Honor in 1894, and an officer of the order in 190G. GAYA (gi'a), the chief town of Gaya district, in Bengal, India, on the Phalgu, 57 miles S. of Patna. It is a place of the greatest sanctity, from its associations with the founder of Buddhism (q. v.), and is annually visited by about 100,000 Hindu pilgrims, who, under the guidance of the Brahman pi'iests, pray for the souls of their ancestors at the 45 sacred shrines within and without the walls. Pop. about 50,000. GAY HEAD, a promontory and light- house on the S. W. extremity of Martha's Vineyard, Mass. GAY-LUSSAC, JOSEPH LOUIS (ga-lii-sak'), a French physicist; born in St. Leonard, Haute-Vienne, France, Dec. 6, 1778. In 1804 he was the first to make balloon ascensions for purposes of scien- tific investigation; became a member of the society of Arcueil, and was intro- duced to Humboldt, with whom he prose- cuted an investigation of the polarization of light and other subjects. To him we are indebted for the discovery of the hydro-sulphuric and oxy-chloride acids. •In 1830 he became a member of the Cham- ber of Deputies, and in 1839 was created a peer of France. He was Professor of Chemistry at the Jardin du Roi. He died in Paris, May 9, 1850. GAYNOR, WILLIAM JAY, an Amer- ican lawyer and public official; born at Whitestown, Oneida co., N. Y., in 1851; educated in the local seminary and at the Christian Brothers' College, St. Louis, Mo. Employed for a time as a teacher in Boston, he subsequently removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., became a reporter and studied law. In 1875 he was admitted to practice and quickly identified himself with the reform party in Flatbush. Elected Police Commissioner of that vil- lage, his activities against corrupt poli- tics soon made him a prominent figure in municipal affairs. After serving two terms as Supreme Court Justice, he was elected Mayor of New York City in 1909, with the support of Tammany Hall. Shot, Aug. 9, 1910, while boarding an ocean liner, he never fully recovei'ed from the wound and succumbed to the strain of his campaign for re-election, Sept. 10, 1913. GAZA (ga'za), one of the five chief cities of the ancient Philistines, situated in the S. W. of Palestine, about 3 miles from the sea, on the borders of the desert which separates Palestine from Egypt. It is often mentioned in the history of Sam- son, and was the scene of constant strug gles between the Israelites and the Philis tines. In 333 B. c. it was taken after a five months' siege by Alexander the Great, and from that time down to 1790, when the French under Kleber captured it, it witnessed the victories of the Mac- cabees, the Calif Abubekr, the Templars, and the heroic Saladin. Constantine the Great, who rebuilt the town, made it the seat of a bishop. The modern Guzzeh is a collection of mere villages. It was occupied by British forces Nov. 7, 1917, in the advance on Palestine. GAZALAND, a district in the Portu- guese possession in east Africa, lying to the eastward of the Transvaal and watered by the Limpopo river. The Portuguese obtained their first foothold here in 1830. In 1833 they were almost driven out by an uprising of the natives, all their trading posts being captured. Gradually the country was securely oc- cupied and the district enlarged, notably in 1884, after the death of the friendly chieftain, Umzila. In 1890 a war was waged with the forces of the British South African Company, with the final result of a boundary settlement in the interior in favor of the Portuguese. After 1906 the Portuguese occupation was more firmly established by the death of the chief of the unruly elements among the natives, Gungunyana. GAZELLE, a kind of antelope, Gazella dorcas, formerly called Antilope dorcas. From the large bright eyes of the animal and its general gracefulness, it was sometimes used for a Greek female name, as in the case of Dorcas, who made gar- ments for the poor (Acts ix: 36 — end). The horns are rounded, thick, and black; the hair on the body light yellow on the back, while on the lower parts a broad band exists along each flank, a bunch of hairs on each knee, and a deep pouch at each groin. It lives in north Africa. GEAR, in machinery, the furniture, rigging, tackle (jeers), apparatus, and appurtenances of an implement: e. g., expansion gear, valve gear, pump gear, plow gear; the working parts of a loco- motive ; the rigging of a spar or sail ; the running parts of a wheeled vehicle, as the fore gears, hind gears, referring to the fore axle and its wheels, the hind axle and its wheels. To the former is attached the tongue and fore hounds, to the latter the hind hounds. Each carries