Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/213

 L A F - - L A F 201 ns the kindred race of the Cyclopes is a multiplication of the single one-eyed sun god Polyphemus, the Cyclops par excellence. The name Antiphates is a fanciful one, but the other name Lamus takes us into a religious world where we can trace the origin of the legend, and observe the god of an older religion becoming the subject of fairy tales in a later period (see LAMIA). Among the Greeks it was usual to place the country of theLaestrygones in Sicily, either beside Etna or towards the north-west promontory of the island ; but, on the other hand, Horace and other Latin authors speak of them as living in southern Latium, near FormicO. LA FARINA, GIUSEPPE (1815-1863), Italian author and politician, was born at Messina in 1815. On account of the part taken by him in the insurrection of 1837 he found it necessary to quit Sicily, but returning in 1839 he conducted various newspapers of liberal tendencies, until his efforts were completely interdicted, when he removed to Florence. In 1840 he had published Messina ed i suoi Monumenti, and after his removal to Florence lie brought out La Germania coi suoi Monumenti, 1842 ; L Italia coi suoi Monumenti, 1842; La Svizzera Storica ed Artist ica, 1842-43; La China, 4 vols., 1843-47; and Storia d? Italia, 1 vols., 1840-51. He also in 1847 established a democratic journal LAlba in the interests of Italian freedom and unity, but on the outbreak of the revolution in Sicily in 1848 Ii3 returned thither arid was elected one of the committee of war. In the following year lie was chosen to represent Messina in parliament, where he moved the deposition of King Ferdinand and the adoption of a new constitution. In April 1849 the provisional govern ment, in which La Farina was minister successively of public instruction, of public works, and of the interior, resolved, notwithstanding his strong advocacy of resistance, to submit to the royal authority, and he removed to France. In 1850 he published Istoria della liivoluzione Siciliana, and in 1851-52, in 6 vols., Storia d&quot; Italia dal 1815 al 1850. He also began in 1851 Rivista Enciclo- psdica Italiana, and in 185(5 Piccolo Corri?re d Italia, an organ svhich had great influence in propagating the political sentiments of the Societa Nazionale Italiana, of which he ultimately w.is chosen president. During the remainder of his life he vas a devoted supporter of Victor Emmanuel, and in 1860 he was chosen a member of the first Italian parliament. He died 5th September 1863. See Franchi s Epistolario de Giuseppe La Farina, 2 vols., 1869. LA FAYETTE, the capital of Tippecanoe county, Indiana, U.S., is situated at the head of navigation on the Wabash river, and near the battle-ground of Tippecanos, where, in 1811, General Harrison, afterwards president, defeated a large force of Indians. The city which is much the largest of the twenty-four towns in the United States named in honour of General La Fayette is beauti fully situated in the centre of a rich agricultural region and amid an amphitheatre of hills, which are covered with suburban homes. La Fayette has eight lines of railway communication and ten graded turnpikes extending in various directions. The La Fayette car-works employ eight hundred men. There are four national banks, three daily and nine weekly newspapers, five large boot and shoe manufactories, four breweries, one distillery, four large cooperage establishments, a paper mill, porkhouses for summer and winter curing, a horning mill, iron-works, together with numerous foundries and smaller manufactur ing enterprises. The city is supplied with gas nnd water works, and sulphur water, valuable for drinking and bathing purposes, flows from an artesian well in the public square. It is the seat of Purdue university, an agricultural college, richly endowed by a congressional land grant, and named in honour of John Purdue, who gave it $150,000. Population in 1880, 14,860. LA FAYETTE Copyright, 1882, by John Bigclow. /TARIE JEAN PAUL KOCH YVES GILBERT LL MOTIEB, MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE (1757-1834), was born at the chateau of Chavagniac in Auyergne, France, September 6, 1757. Left an orphan with a princely fortune at the tender age of thirteen, lie married at sixteen a daughter of the Due d Ayen and granddaughter of the Due de Noailles, then one of the most influential families in the kingdom. In selecting a career, the choice of a young man of his rank in France at that time was practically limited to the court or the camp. He chose to follow the career of his father, and entered the Guards. La Fayette was nineteen years of age and a captain of dragoons when the English colonies in America proclaimed their independence. &quot;At the first news of this quarrel,&quot; he afterwards wrote in his memoirs, &quot; my heart was enrolled in it.&quot; The count de Broglie, whom he consulted, discour aged his zeal for the cause of liberty. &quot; I have seen your uncle die in the wars of Italy; I witnessed your father s death at the battle of Minden; and I will not be a:cessory to the ruin of the only remaining branch of the family.&quot; Finding his purpose unchangeable, however, the count presented the young enthusiast to the Baron de Kalb, who was also seeking service in America, and through Deane, an American agent in Paris, an arrangement was concluded, December 7, 1776, by which La Fayette was to enter the American service as major-general. At this critical moment the news arrived of a series of grave disasters to the American arms, includ ing the evacuation of New York. La Fayette s friends again advised him to abandon his purpose. Even the American envoys, Franklin and Lee, who had superseded Deane the very day after the contract was signed, and who did not feel authorized to confirm his engagements, deemed it their duty to withhold any further encouragement of the plans of the marquis, and the king himself forbade his leav ing. So far from being discouraged by these difficulties La Fayette proceeded to purchase a ship on his own account, and to invite such of his friends as were willing to share his fortunes. The British ambassador at Versailles remonstrated, and at his instance orders were issued to seize the ship then fitting out at Bordeaux, and La Fayette him self was arrested. But the ship was sent from Bordeaux to the neighbouring port of Pasajes in Spain, La Fayette escaped from the custody of his guards in disguise, and before a second lettre de cachet could reach him he wns afloat with eleven chosen companions. Though two British cruisers had been sent in pursuit of him, he effected a safe landing near Georgetown in South Carolina, after a tedious voyage of nearly two months, and hastened to Philadelphia, then the seat of government of the colonies. When this lacl of nineteen, with the command of only what little English he had been able to pick up on his voyage, presented himself to the Congress of the Revolu tion, then sitting in Philadelphia, with Deane s authority to demand a commission of the highest rank after the commander-in-chief, it is not surprising that his reception seemed to him a little chilly. Nor did he then know all the disadvantages under which he presented himself. Deane s contracts were so numerous, and for officers of such high rank, that it was quite impossible for Congress t) ratify them without injustice to Americans who had become entitled by their service to promotion. La Fayette appreciated the situation as soon as it was explained to him, and immediately addressed a note to the president of Congress, in which he expressed his desire to be permitted to serve in the American army upon two conditions, that he should receive no pay, and that he should act as a Tolunteer These terms were so different from those made XIV. 26