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DANVERS

503

DARKFS

Danube has been free to all nations. In

that year was appointed the International Danube Navigation Commission, made up of delegates of all the great powers. It has almost absolute power over the mouths of the Danube and as far inland as the Iron Gate. It has already made many improvements. It has its own flag, uniform and revenue; has made laws; and keeps its own small army of police.

Danvers, a small town in Essex County, Mass., five miles from Salem on the Boston & Maine Railroad. It manufactures shoes, carpets and bricks, and has rolling-mills, tanneries and foundries. The town has churches, a public library and good public and private schools, and is the seat of Pea-body Institute. This institution was founded by George Peabody, who donated $200,-ooo in 1852 for the promotion of knowledge and morality among the inhabitants. The Danvers Insane Asylum was built at a cost of $2,000,000. Population, 9,407.

Danville, 111., like most of the towns in this state, is a flourishing center, and has an extensive trade in the mining and shipment of coal, taken from the contiguous bluffs. It is the capital of Vermilion County, and lies on the Vermilion River, 120 miles south of Chicago. It has a national soldiers' home, a high school, several churches, three national banks and daily newspapers, iron-foundries, planing-mills, carriage, wagon, organ and furniture-factories, together with the car and machine-shops of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes Railroad. Its population has increased some n.ooo in the past decade, and now numbers 27,871.

Danville, Pa., a borough, the county-seat of Montaur County, on the northern branch of the Susquehanna River (with a bridge here spanning the stream), also on the Phila. & Reading and the D. L. & W. railways 41 miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre. It is the seat of the state hospital for the insane, has a good public library, and owns and operates its own water-works. In the neighborhood are coal, iron-ore and limestone deposits; while its industrial establishments embrace stove-works, rolling-mills and extensive blast-furnaces. Population, 7,517.

Danville, Va., a thriving town and important tobacco center in Pittsylvania County, southwestern Virginia, situated on the Dan River falls, 65 miles south of Lynch-burg and 140 miles southwest of Richmond. It is at the junction of the Richmond, Danville and Norfolk Division of the Southern Railway and of the main line of the Danville and Western. The river furnishes power for cotton-mills, flour-mills, foundries and an electric-light "plant," and further development of its power is being made at a cost of $2,000,000. Danville is the largest loose-tobacco market in the world, having 150 tobacco-factories and manufacturing

nearly 40,000,000 pounds of tobacco annually. It is the seat of Roanoke Female College (Baptist), Randolph-Macon Institute for young ladies (Methodist) and Danville Military School. Danville has a good public school system, churches, a general hospital and seven banks. Population, 19,020.

Daphne (daj'ne) in the Greek myths was a river-nymph, the daughter of Gaea, goddess of the earth, and a river-god. In answer to her prayer to Zeus, Daphne was changed into a laurel, and so escaped the pursuit of Apollo, her wooer. Her lover, Leucippus, had been slain by the nymphs through the jealous wiles of Apollo. Daphne in the Greek means laurel.

Dardanelles (ddr'dd-nelz'), the ancient Hellespont, a narrow channel separating Europe from Asia and uniting the Sea of Marmora with the ^Egean archipelago. The name is derived from the ancient city of Dardanus in the Troad. The strait has a length of about 45 miles, running from northeast to southwest, and a breadth of from one to four miles. From the Sea of Marmora a strong current runs through it. Both sides are strongly fortified. Since 1841 it has been agreed by the five great powers and Turkey that no ship of war belonging to any nation, save Turkey, should pass through the Dardanelles without the express consent of Turkey. Though nominally closed to the passage of foreign war-vessels, some modification of the prohibitory edict was in 1891 made by Turkey in favor of Russia. The Dardanelles are celebrated in ancient history by the passage of Xerxes in 480 B. C. to enter Europe and of Alexander in 334 B. C. to enter Asia. Both crossings took place near Abydos. See ABYDOS and BOSPORUS.

Dare, Virginia, the granddaughter of John White, whom Raleigh had sent in 1587 to found a settlement in Virginia, was the first child to be born of English parentage in America. The date of her birth was a few weeks after the expedition had landed, in the summer of 1587.

Darfur (ddhr-foor) is a semi-independent Moslem state in Central Africa, bounded on the north by the Sahara, on the east by Egyptian Sudan and Kordofan, on the south by Bahr-el-Ghazal, on the southwest by French Congo and on the west by Wadai. It pays tribute to the Egyptian government, but its affairs are entirely within the control of its sultan for the present. Area, 170,000 square miles; capital, El Fasher; population, 1,500,000.

Da'rien, Isthmus of. See PANAMA.

Dari'us, the name of three kings of Per* sia, the greatest of whom was Darius I, who ruled from 521 to 485 B. C. He was the son of Hystaspes, and succeeded to the Persian throne after putting to death the usurper Gaumata, who had given himself out to be