Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/454

LEFT PUBLITJS SYRT7S 378 PUDDING BEimiES 1.1 the United States was the Gas and Electric Light Commission, of Massa- chusetts, in 1885. Then came the Fed- eral Interstate Commerce Commission, appointed in 1887, with the power to en- force the laws passed by Congress regu- lating trade between the various States. This body has gradually been given more and more jurisdiction, with the growing sentiment in favor of regula- tion. Having found her gas and electric light commission a success, Massachu- setts later created a Railroad Commis- sion, a Highways Commission, to regulate telephone and telegraph companies, and granted to the State Board of Health the authority to regulate the water sup- ply companies. In 1907 Governor La FoUette, in Wisconsin, was authorized by the legislature to appoint a railroad and a public service commission, and Gover- nor Hughes, in the same year, appointed two public service commissions in New York. One of the New York commis- sions regulated all the public utilities in the city of New York, while the other's jurisdiction covered the rest of the State. In 1919 the commission for the city was abolished, and two created in its place; one to regulate public utilities in gen- eral, the other to regulate only rapid transit corporations, this latter com- mission being paid by the city, the for- mer by the State. The work of these public service commissions, especially in the ca.se of street railways, has become very difficult during the past few years, on account of the rising cost of labor and materials. On the one hand justice de- mands that fare increases be allowed, but on the other hand commissioners granting such rises are compelled to face the disapproval of the public. PUBLIUS (more correctly PUBLILI- US) SYRUS, a Latin writer, so called because a native of Syria, was carried as a slave to Rome about the middle of the 1st century b. C. His master gave him a good education, and afterward set him free. He excelled in writing mimi, or farces, which were interspersed with moral sentences, and a collection of them was used by the Romans as a school book, PUCCINI, GIACOMO, an Italian com- poser and musician; born at Lucca in 1858. He was trained in music at the conservatory of Milan. In 1884 ap- peared his first opera ''Le Villi," but it was not until nine years later upon the appearance of "Manon Lescaut" that his genius received world-wide recognition. His best known operas include "La Bo- heme" (1896) ; "La Tosca" (1900) ; "Madame Butterfly" (1904), and "The Girl of the Golden West" (1910). The latter piece was written by Puccini es- pecially for Americans, but it has had a doubtful success. In 1907 Puccini su- perintended the rehearsals and conducted the performance of his opera "Madame Butterfly" at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. This opera is gen- GIACOMO PUCCINI erally conceded his masterpiece, and Puccini is usually regarded as the suc- cessor of Verdi in the development of Italian opera. PUCCINIA, in botany, the typical genus of Puccinsei. The genus is para- sitic and destructive to the plants on which it grows. P. graminis, the com- mon mildew, causes the rust or blight in corn. PUCK, in mediaeval mythology, the "merry wanderer of the night," depicted in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." This fairy is known as Robin Goodfellow and Friar Rush in England, and in Germany as Knecht Ruprecht; but it is by his designation of Puck that he is most generally known in England, Germany, and the more northern nations. PUD, or POOD, a Russian weight which contains 40 Russian pounds, equiv- alent to 36 pounds avoirdupois. PUDDING BERRIES, the berries of the Canadian dogwood (Cormis canaden- sis), common throughout North America.