Page:EB1911 - Volume 24.djvu/133

Rh neighbouring town of Cornigliano is a bridge, where Masséna signed the capitulation of Genoa.

 SAMPLE (through the O. Fr. essemple, from Lat. exemplum; a doublet of “example”), a small portion of merchandise taken from the whole to serve as a specimen or evidence of the whole; hence a pattern or model. Sale by sample obviates the necessity on the part of sellers of keeping large quantities of goods on premises unsuitable for storage, and on the part of buyers of having to make a special visit' to inspect the goods in bulk. The sale of goods by sample is dealt with in England by the Sale of Goods Act 1893, s. 15, which provides that a contract of sale shall be a contract for sale by sample Where there is a term in the contract, express or implied, to that effect. In the case of such a contract, there must be (a) an implied condition that the bulk shall correspond with the sample in quality; (b) an implied condition that the buyer shall have a reasonable opportunity of comparing the bulk with the sample; (c) an implied condition that the goods shall be free from any defect, rendering them unmerchantable, which would not be apparent on reasonable examination of the sample. (See also .)

 SAMPLER (from O. Fr. essemploire, with dropping of initial a, Late Lat. exemplariam, from exemplum, example; it is a doublet of “examplar” or “exempler,” as “sample” is of “example”), a model or pattern to be copied, particularly a small rectangular piece of embroidery worked on canvas or other material as a pattern or example of a beginner’s skill in needlework, as a means of teaching the stitches. Down to comparatively recent times every little girl worked her “sampler,” and examples of 17th-century work are still found and have become the object of the collector’s search. They usually contained the alphabet, the worker’s name, the date, and Bible texts, verses, mottoes, the whole surrounded with some conventional design.

The earliest sampler in existence is dated 1643 and is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington (see M. B. Huish, Samplers and Tapestry Embroideries, 1900, and List of Samplers in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, Board of Education, South Kensington, 1906).

 SAMPSON, WILLIAM THOMAS (1840–1902), American naval commander, was born at Palmyra, New York, on the 9th of February 1840, and graduated at the head of his class from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1861. In this year he was promoted to master, and in the following year was made lieutenant. He was executive officer in the “Patapsco” when she was blown up in Charleston Harbor in January 1865. He served on distant stations and (1868–1871 and 1876–1878) at the Naval Academy, and became lieutenant-commander in 1866 and commander in 1874. He was a member of the International Prime Meridian and Time Conference in 1884, and of the Board of Fortifications in 1885–1886; was superintendent of the Naval Academy from 1886 to 1890; and was promoted to captain and served as delegate at the International Maritime Conference at Washington in 1889. He was chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in 1893–1897. About 95% of the guns employed in the Spanish-American War were made under his superintendence. His influence was felt decisively in the distribution of guns and armour, and in the training of the personnel of the navy. He superintended the gunnery training and prepared a new drill-book for the fleet. In February 1898 Sampson, then a captain, was president of Board of Inquiry as to the cause of destruction of the “Maine.” At the outbreak of the war with Spain he was placed in charge of the N. Atlantic squadron, and conducted the blockade of Cuba. When it was known that Admiral Cervera, with a Spanish fleet, had left the Cape Verde Islands, Sampson withdrew a force from the blockade to cruise in the Windward Passage, and made an attack upon the forts at San Juan, Porto Rico. After his return to the coast of Cuba he conducted the blockade of Santiago, and the ships under his command destroyed the Spanish vessels when they issued from the harbor of Santiago and attempted to escape (see ). Sampson himself was not actually present at the battle, having started for Siboney just before it began to confer with General Shafter, commanding the land forces. He reached the scene of battle as the last Spanish vessel surrendered, and the engagement was fought in accordance with his instructions. He was promoted to commodore in 1898, to rear-admiral on the 3rd of March 1899, and was made commandant of the Boston (Charlestown) Navy Yard in October of the same year. He died on the 6th of May 1902.

 SAMSON (cf. Heb. shémesh, “sun”), in the Bible, the antagonist of the Philistines, reckoned as one of the “judges” of Israel (Judg. xv. 20, xvi. 31), the story itself (Judg. xiii. 2–xvi. 31a), however, represents him not as a judge but as a popular hero of vast strength and sarcastic humour. He is consecrated from his birth to be a Nazarite or religious devotee (ch. xiii., cf. Samuel), and it is possible that this was conceived simply as a vow of revenge, which is the meaning it would have in an Arab story (W. R. Smith). But he is inspired by no serious religious or patriotic purpose, and becomes the enemy of the Philistines only from personal motives of revenge, the one passion which is stronger in him than the love of women. The stories of his exploits are plainly taken from the mouths of the people and have all the appearance of folk-tales, not unmixed with mythical motives. Samson commenced his career by strangling a lion on his way to visit a Philistine woman. On his return he found that the carcase, like the skull of Onesilus (Herod. v. 114), was occupied by a swarm of bees; he took the honey and the incident suggested a riddle. The narrative of Samson’s marriage and riddle is of peculiar interest as a record of manners; specially noteworthy is the custom of the wife remaining with her parents after marriage. His next exploit, an act of revenge for the faithlessness of his wife, was to catch 300 foxes and set them loose in the fields with firebrands tied to their tails. (Analogous customs, e.g. the Roman Cerealia, are referred to in G. F. Moore’s Commentary, p. 341.) The Philistines retaliated by burning her and her father’s household, and Samson in his turn smote them “hip and thigh” and slew a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass. The story has apparently been influenced by the existence of a rock, called by reason of its shape, “Ass’s Jawbone,” from which issued a fountain called En-haḳḳōrē, “the spring of the caller” (a name for the partridge). 'The well-known removal of the gates of Gaza to Hebron, 40 m. distant—“no journey of the Sabbathday” (Milton, Samson Agonistes)—has been rendered still more marvellous by a later exaggeration (xvi. 2). Finally the Philistine (q.v.) worms out of Samson the secret of his strength, and by shaving his head renders him an easy captive. He is blinded and put to menial work, and as his hair grows again his invincible strength returns. At a festival of Dagon he is led out before the Philistines in the temple, and by pulling down the house upon their heads kills more at his death than in all his life-time.

Points of similarity between Samson and the Babylonian Gilgamesh, the Egyptian Horus-Ra and Hercules, have been observed by many writers, and it has been inferred that the whole story of Samson is a solar myth. His name, and the proximity of Beth-shemesh (“house of the sun”) to his father’s home, favour the view that mythical elements have attached themselves to what may have been originally a legendary figure of the Danites, the tribe whose subsequent fortunes