Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/447

LEFT WINDOW 387 WINE foi- the terms ending in 1878 and 1883. He resigned, however, in 1881 to accept the Treasury portfolio in President Gar- field's cabinet, and on his retirement from the cabinet after that President's death he returned to the Senate, where he served the remainder of his term. He became Secretary of the Treasury in President Harrison's cabinet in 1889, and died in New York City, Jan. 29, 1891. WINDOW, an aperture in the wall of a building for the admission of light and air. Modern domestic windows are usually rectangular openings occupied by movable frames filled with glass. The glazed portion or sash is hung or hinged in a frame, the horizontal stone forming the top of the window is the lintel, that at the bottom the sill, the sides of the opening are the jambs, and the portion between the outer face of the wall and the frame is the reveal. Architraves and other moldings commonly appear on the exterior. Venetian windows are large openings divided by piers or col- umns into three lights, sometimes arched. Windows projecting in a polygonal or semicircular form from the wall are termed bay or oriel windows; they were first introduced in Perpendicular style. WINDSOR, properly called New- Windsor, a parliamentary borough of Berkshire, England, on the Thames. Windsor and Eton in reality form one town, which is chiefly interesting on ac- count of the antiquity of its castle and park, which have been a favorite resi- dence of English monarchs, especially since the time of William the Conqueror. The older palace of the English kings was the Old Windsor, about 2 miles dis- tant. The buildings may be said to be grouped in three portions: the Middle Ward, containing the Round Tower; the Lower Ward, on the W., containing St. George's Chapel, the houses of the Mili- tary Knights, cloisters, etc., and the Up- per Ward, on the E., containing the sovereign's private apartments. The un- finished chapel, which was begun by Henry III., was completed by Edward III., rebuilt by Henry VII., and added to by Cardinal Wolsey. Under this chapel is the burial vault of the present royal family. The park and forest adjoining are 13,000 acres in extent. Pop. about 15,000. WINDWARD ISLANDS, a group in the West Indies, comprising St. Lucia (the largest), St. Vincent, Barbadoes, Grenada, and Tobago. WINE, a spirituous liquor produced by fermentation from vegetable substances containing saccharine matter. There are a great many vegetable substances from which, by this process, wine may be pro- duced, such as apples, pears, currants, elderberries, and others; but unless otherwise expressed, the term is always used to indicate the fermented juice of the fruit of the common vine. The history of the vine and its product goes back to the very earliest times of which there is any record, and it may al- most be said that its use is coeval with the existence of man. In a very eai'ly part of the Mosaic record it is said, "Noah began to be a husbandman, and he planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine, and was drunken" (Gen. ix: 20) ; and throughout the whole of the Old Testament narrative, and in the prophetical books, there are frequent ref- erences to the use of wine and its effects. In mythological times Bacchus or Di- onysos, the son of Zeus and Semele, is known as the god of wine, and the early Greek poets have sung its praises. Homer speaks of wine in its 11th year; Horace commends wine which was of equal age with himself; and Pliny, who devotes to the subject an entire book cf his work on natural history, mentions some which he had tasted which was 200 years old. In more modern times the culture of the vine has been a matter of careful study and anxious observation, and so important has become everything connected with its proper growth and propagation and the most advantageous use of its fruit that the published works on the subject are said to number no fewer than 600. In wine producing countries the culti- vation of the vine is as much a branch of national industry as that of wheat or other food producers is in others. The soils which are found to be suitable for its growth are very various in quality, but it thrives best along the borders of rivers or in places where a constant sup- ply of water can easily reach its roots, as along the Rhine valley or in the paludial districts of the Gironde. It is usually propagated, not by seed, which takes five or six years before a seedling begins to bear, but by means of eyes cut from vines and planted in open beds and vine- yards, or by planting cut canes which have been obtained from plants of the previous year, and which are usually not interfered with for three years after be- ing put in the ground. "The plants are placed in parallel lines, about a yard apart from each other, while the single vines are removed from each other by about the same interval. When the grapes are ripe they are col- lected and transformed into wine with no unnecessary delay. White grapes are crushed and pressed, and the juice, freed from stalks and husks, is put into clean