Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/531

LEFT SMOKY HILL RIVER 467 SMOLLETT. duced, and with a good type of furnace under the control of a skilled and intelli- gent fireman, it is possible to burn even soft coal with the production of no more than a negligible quantity of smoke. Soft coal is more liable to produce smoke than hard coal because it contains a much larger proportion of volatile hydrocar- bons, and for this reason its use in many cities is prohibited. Since smoke consists of unburned fuel, it follows that its elimi- nation would be a saving to the coal con- sumer, provided the cost of elimination did not exceed the value of the coal. In spite of this, however, the smoke nuisance has become serious in cities in all parts of the world, and in most cases special legis- lation has been needed to combat it. SMOKY HILL RIVER, or SMOKY HILL EORK, a river whose source is in eastern Colorado, and which flows into the State of Kansas. It traverses Gove, Tre- go, Ellis, Russell and Ellsworth counties, and 10 miles W. of Abilene unites with the Solomon river, the two streams form- ing the Kansas river. On both banks are extensive fertile prairies. It is 400 miles long. SMOKY MOUNTAINS, or GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS, a range on the boundary of North Carolina and Tennes- see; is a part of the Appalachian system. Mount Guyot, 6,636 feet high, and Cling- man's Peak, 6,660 feet high, are among its loftiest summits. SMOLENSK, a town of Russia in Europe, capital of a government of the same name, on the Dnieper, 230 miles S. W. of Moscow. It is the see of an archbishop, and has three cathedrals, nu- merous other churches, monasteries, and an episcopal palace. It has, besides, nu- merous schools, a college, hospitals, a house of correction, and assembly rooms. Manufactures, linens, leather, carpets, and soap. Smolensk was the scene of an ob- stinate conflict between the French and Russians, Aug. 16-17, 1812, in which vic- tory is claimed on both sides. The day following, Aug. 18, the French returning to the attack, found the city deserted and in ruins. Pop. about 76,000. SMOLENSK, a government of Russia. It is hilly in the N., and level in the S., and has an area of 21,624 square miles. It is watered by the Dnieper and Diina and several tributaries of the Volga and the Oka. Forests cover one-third of the soil. Manufacturing industries are de- veloping and there is also considerable stock-raising. Oil, textiles, and lumber are among the chief products. The gov- ernment was a mediaeval principality and is mentioned in 1054. Tartars took pos- session of it and Lithuania held it in the 15th century. It was united to Russia in 1654. The capital is Smolensk. Pop. about 2,250,000. SMOLLETT, TOBIAS GEORGE, an English novelist, born in March, 1721, the son of Archibald Smollett, of Dalquhurn, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, and his wife, Barbara Cunningham. He was educated in Dumbarton and at Glasgow University, where he studied medicine. After some years of an apprenticeship with a Dr. John Gordon, he went to London, where he sought to find patronage for a tragedy he had written. Failing in this, he shipped as surgeon on H.M.S. Cumber- land, and served in the operations against Carthagena. He accompanied the fleet to Jamaica, where he met Nancy Laseelles, a Creole beauty, whom he married in Eng- land about 1747. Leaving the navy, he settled as a surgeon in Westminster, and became a favorite of the taverns and cof- fee-houses on account of his talent for story-telling. But he made little of his practice, and, turning to literature, he published in 1758 "Roderick Random," a picaresque novel, modeled on "Gil Bias" and including a good deal of autobiogra- phy. It was well received, and its profits enabled him to publish his youthful trag- edy, "The Regicide." His second novel, "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle," appeared in 1751, and was even more suc- cessful, though it was disfigured by many coarse attacks on his personal enemies, and had an unsympathetic hero. He now made another unsuccessful at- tempt to establish himself as a physician, this time at Bath, but gained little save material for future satire, especially on the medical profession. With his return to London in 1753, he gave himself up to literature, and produced "Ferdinand Count Fathom," which shows an increase in power. He spent extravagantly, and in the effort to get money made a lively but inaccurate version of "Don Quixote" (1755). After a visit to Scotland he be- came the chief director of the new "Criti- cal Review" (1756), the severity of which brought a number of reprisals on his head; and in 1757, he published a "His- tory of England" in four volumes. After a period of hack work for the booksellers, in the course of which he served three months in prison for slandering an ad- miral in the "Critical Review," he joined the staff of the new "British Magazine" (1760) in which appeared "Sir Launce- lot Greaves," a weak imitation of "Don Quixote." Two years later he became ed- itor of the "Briton," a weekly periodical started in defence of Lord Bute, which evoked Wilkes's notorious "North Briton." In 1763, Smollett, having lost his only child, ill, in debt and harassed by enemies,