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ELIZABETH, SAINT

608

ELK3NS

Carol I) of Rumania, and with her marriage she began to take an enthusiastic interest in Rumania, especially when its independence of Turkey was proclaimed, and it was erected in 1879 into a kingdom. In 1881 she and her consort came to the throne, and in that year she published Pensees d'nne Reine, and some years later she issued a collection of her lyric poems. In her kingdom she is deemed the mother of her people.

Elizabeth, Saint, daughter of Andreas II, king of Hungary, was born at Presburg in 1207. When four years old, she was prom-ished in marriage to Louis IV, landgraf of Thuringia, and was brought to his court in the Wartburg, to be raised under the eyes of her future husband's parents. She early became passionately devoted to the Christian life. She despised pomp, and tried to be humble, and was most self-denying in her gifts to the poor. The marriage took place when she was but 14, and six years later Louis died as a crusader, while at Otranto. Great misfortunes soon befell the saintly landgravine. She was deprived of her regency by her husband's brother, and driven out of her kingdom on the ground that she wasted the state-treasures by her charities. At last she found refuge in a church, where her first care was to thank God that He had found her worthy to suffer. After other trials, such as being forced to take up her abode in the stable of an inn, she was received into a monastery by the abbess, who was her aunt. When the warriors who had gone with her husband on the crusade came back from the east,*she gathered them around her and recounted her sufferings. Steps were at once taken to give her back her rights, but she refused again to be regent and would only take the revenues that belonged to her as landgravine. She was allowed to go back to her castle at Marburg, but in her humility she lived in a cottage at the foot of the hill on which it stood, donning the nun's dress and spending all her life and all that she had in relief of the poor, earning with her own hands what little she needed for herself. She died on Nov. 19, 1231, and four years later was added to the number of the saints by Pope Gregory I. For ages her shrine was one of the most famous in Europe, and the altar-steps before it are worn hollow by the knees of pilgrims. Even during her life many miracles were connected with her name. The best-known story is that of the basket of roses. Against her husband's command she carried a basket of food to a poor family. On the way she met her husband, who sternly ordered the basket to be opened. Frightened and trembling, she obeyed, only to find in answer to her prayer the basket filled with beautiful roses. See Kingsley's Saints' Tragedy.

HEAD OF ELK

Elk or Moose, the largest living deer common to the Old and New World in northern regions. In the New World it is found mostly in northern Maine and British North America. It has long legs, standing about six feet high, a large head with broad muzzle and large nostrils, but can be dis-tinguished from all other deer by the horns or antlers of the male, each of which is in two parts, like a broad hand with the palm curved and held upward; around the margins are prongs or snags. An average full-grown pair, with the skull, weighs 70 pounds. They grow gradually; the first year being only knobs an inch high, the second year they are about a foot long, and the third year are palm-shaped. The fully formed horns are shed in December, and sprout again in April, reaching their full size in June. It is remarkable to think of these enormous horns being shed annually and produced again in so short a time. The moose feeds on willow-tips, the tender shoots of the striped maple and other trees, bark and various evergreens Moose are rapid runners, and, having sharp senses of hearing and smell, are difficult to hunt. In winter they herd in small troops for protection. Remains of an extinct elk of gigantic size are found in the peatbogs of Ireland. This Irish elk held its antlers ten feet high, and they measured ii or 12 feet from tip to tip. In America the wapiti is of ten wrongly called the American elk. See Edward's Campfires of a Naturalist.

Elkhart, Ind., a city of central northern Indiana, capital of Elkhart County, 20 miles east of South Bend and 100 east of Chicago. It lies at the confluence of the St. Joseph and Elkhart Rivers, and is the junction of a number of railroads. These advantages make it a good shipping-point and attractive manufacturing city. The town was founded early in the thirties, and incorporated in 1875. Here are located the locomotive-shops of the Lake Shore Railroad, foundries, planing-mills and factories. Among its manufactories are paper-mills, carriage and musical-instrument establishments, the largest band-instrument factory in the world being here. The city has 30 churches and ten schools, and is a modern, progressive, business city. Population, 19,282.

Elkins, Stephen Benton, American politician, was born in Perry County, Ohio,