Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/221

Rh E A C R A C 203 range extends over the whole of the United States, and stretches on the west northwards to Alaska and southwards Raccoon. well into Central America, where it attains its maximum size. The following notes on the habits of the raccoon are extracted from Dr C. Hart Merriam's charming work on the mammals of the Adirondacks (N. E. New York). "Raccoons are omnivorous beasts and feed upon mice, small birds, birds' eggs, turtles and their eggs, frogs, fish, crayfish, molluscs, insects, nuts, fruits, maize, and sometimes poultry. Excepting alone the bats and flying-squirrels, they are the most strictly nocturnal of all our mammals, and yet I have several times seen them abroad on cloudy days. They haunt the banks of ponds and streams, and find much of their food in these places, such as crayfish, mussels, and fish, although they are unable to dive and pursue the latter under water, like the otter and mink. They are good swimmers and do not hesitate to cross rivers that lie in their path. . . . The raccoon hibernates during the severest part of the winter, retiring to its nest rather early, and appearing again in February or March, according to the earliuess or lateness of the season. It makes its home high up in the hollow of some large tree, preferring a dead limb to the trunk itself. It does little in tlie way of constructing a nest, and from four to six young are commonly born at a time, generally early in April in this region. The young remain with the mother about a year." The South -American species, Procyon cancrivorus, the crab -eating raccoon, is very similar to P. lotor, but differs by its much shorter fur, larger size, proportionally more powerful teeth, and other minor characters. It extends over the whole of South America, as far south as the Rio Negro, and is very common in all suitable localities. Its habits are similar to those of the North -American species. RACHEL (1820 or 1821-1858), the stage name of a French actress, whose true name was ELIZABETH F^LIX, and who was the daughter of Jacob Felix and Esther Haya, Alsatian Jews, who travelled on foot through France as pedlars. She was born according to one account on 24th March 1820, according to another on 28th February of the following year, in a small inn in Mumpf in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland. At Rheims she and her eldest sister Sophia, afterwards known as Sarah, joined a troupe of Italian children who made their living by singing in the cafes, Sarah taking part in the singing and Elizabeth, then only four years of age, collecting the coppers. In 1830 they came to Paris, where they sang in the streets, Rachel giving such patriotic songs as the Parisienne and the Marseillaise with a rude but precocious energy which evoked special admiration and an abundant shower of coppers. Choron, a famous teacher of singing, was so im- pressed with the talents of the two sisters that he under- took to give them gratuitous instruction, and after his death in 1833 they were received into the Conservatoire. Sophia gained a medal for singing, but Rachel at an early period gave her chief attention to elocution and acting. Her voice, though deep and powerful, was at first hard and inflexible ; and her thin and meagre appearance con- veyed an impression of insignificance, which her plain features and generally impassive manner tended to confirm. It was only her remarkable intelligence that encouraged her instructors to persevere ; but even they did not recognize her talents as exceptional. She made her first appearance at the Gymnase in the Vendeenne in 1837 with only medi- ocre success. On 12th June of the following year she succeeded, after great difficulty, in making a debut at the Theatre Francais, appearing as Camille in Les Horaces, when, attention having been directed to her remarkable genius by Jules Janin in the Debats and Madame de Girardin in the Presse, it at once received universal recognition. Her range of characters was limited, but within this range she was unsurpassable. It was especially in the tragedies of Racine and Corneille that she excelled, and more particularly in the impersonation of evil or malignant passion. By care- ful training her originally hard and harsh voice had become flexible and melodious, and its low and muffled notes under the influence of passion possessed a thrilling and penetrat- ing quality that was irresistible. When excited her plain features became transfigured by the glow of genius, and in her impersonations of evil and malignant emotions there was a majesty and dignity which fascinated whilst it re- pelled. Her facial elocution was unsurpassable in variety and expressiveness, whilst the grace of her gestures and the marvellous skill with which she varied her tones with every shade of thought and emotion were completely beyond criti- cism. It was, however, the predominance of intellect and will rather than the perfection of her art that most specially characterized her impersonations and conferred on them their unique excellence. She appeared successively as Emilie in Cinna, Hermione in Andromaque, Eriphile in Iphigenie, Monime in Mitkridate, and Amenaide in Tancrede ; but it was in P/iedre, which she first played on 21st January 1843, that her peculiar gifts were most strikingly mani- fested. In modern plays she created the characters of Judith and Cleopatra in the tragedies of Madame de Gir- ardin, but her most successful appearance was in 1849 in Adrienne Lecouvreur. In 1840 she visited London, where her interpretations of Corneille and Racine were the sen- sation of the season. She also played successively in the principal capitals of Europe. In 1855 she made a tour in the United States with comparatively small success. This was, however, after her powers through continued ill-health had begun to deteriorate. She died of consumption at Cannet, near Cannes, on 4th January 1858. RACINE, a city of the United States, the county seat of Racine county, Wisconsin, lies 23 miles by rail south of Milwaukee, and occupies a plateau projecting for about 6 miles into Lake Michigan, 40 feet above its level. The town is the seat of extensive manufacturing industries producing carriages, waggons, ploughs, threshing-machines, portable steam-engines, fanning -mills, leather, blinds and sashes, school furniture, wire, linseed oil, baskets, &c. is engaged in the lumber trade and general commerce, and contains two city hospitals, an orphan asylum, Racine (Episcopalian) college founded in 1852, and a Roman Catholic academy. The harbour is open to vessels drawing 15 feet. Racine, first settled in 1834, was incorporated in 1848, four years after the first steamer had entered the port. The population was 7822 in 1860, 9880 in 1870, and 16,031 in 1880. RACINE, JEAN (1639-1699), the most equal and accom- plished, if not the greatest, tragic dramatist of France, was born at La Ferte Milon in the old duchy of Valois in the month of December 1639. The 20th and the two follow-