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PAIRBAIRN

646

FAITHFULL

Evangelical Union Theological College, Glasgow. For a time* he held charges at Bathgate and Aberdeen, and from 1877 to 1886 was principal of Airedale College. In the latter year he was elected principal, on its foundation, of Mansfield College, Oxford, where his labors as a metaphysician and theologian have made him famous. He resigned in 1908. His many books, which are erudite and scholarly, have added greatly to his repute as a divine. These embrace Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and History; The City of God; Christ in Modern Theology; and Religion in History and in Modern Life.

Fairbairn, Sir William, a notable Scottish engineer, was born at Kelso, Scotland, on Feb. 19, 1789. He was the first to use iron instead of wood in the shafting of cotton-mills. He also was among the earliest of iron shipbuilders, and made many improvements. Fairbairn built the tubular bridge across Menai Strait, after a plan of Robert Stephenson's. He improved upon this in the construction of the Britannia and Conway bridges, and, patenting his design, erected more than a thousand bridges upon this principle. He also devised improvements for steam-boilers and other steam machinery, in 1869 he was made a British baronet and a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor. He published many works and papers on iron bridges, boilers, mills. Fairbairn died at Moor Park, Surrey, England, on Aug. 18,1874. See Smiles' Lives of the Engineers.

Fairbanks, Charles Warren, American statesman, was born in 1852 near Union-ville Centre Ohio. His father was one of Ohio's pioneers, having left his early home in yermont in 1836. Mr. Fairbanks attended Ohio Wesleyan University, graduating with a very creditable record in 1872. After graduation he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1874, He then went to Indianapolis, Ind., and entered upon a successful legal practice. In 1893 ^e received the entire support of his party as nominee for U. S, senator, but was defeated by David Turpie, the Democratic candidate. In 1893 he was delegate-at-large to the Republican national comention held at St. Louis, and in 1897 became U. S. senator. The following year he was appointed member of the Joint nigh-Commission which met in Quebec to settle matters of dispute between the United States and Great Britain relative to the seal fisheries of Alaska. He was elected vice-president of the United States in 1904.

Fairfax (fdr'faks}, Thomas, Lord, generally known as Sir Thomas Fairfax, an English general, was-born at Denton, in Yorkshire, England, on Jan. 17, 1612. He distinguished himself at the battle of Marston Moor in 1644, and in 1645 was appointed to the command of the parliamentary forces. In 1650 he refused to march against the

Scots, and the command was given to Cromwell. He retired into private life, and in 1660 was appointed head of the commission sent to The Hague to arrange for the return to England of Charles II. He died at Nun-appleton, Yorkshire, on Nov. 12, 1671. See his Correspondence.

Fairmount Park. See PHILADELPHIA.

Fair Oaks is a small place in Henrico County, Virginia, the scene of a battle fought between the Union forces under General McClellan and the Confederate army under General Johnston, on May 31 and June i, 1862. At the end of two days' fighting the Confederates retreated, their loss being estimated at 6,500. The Union loss was 790 killed and 3,627 wounded.

Fair'y or Elf, an imaginary being, generally thought to be of human form but very diminutive. A belief in fairies has heen among the superstitions of most European nations. Other names for them are elves, brownies, dwarfs, pixies, mermaids, sirens, banshees, kelpies and gnomes; while Puck, Mab, Oberon and Titania are well-known names of individuals among them. The belief in their wonderful powers varies in different countries, but in all they have a great deal to do with human beings and their affairs. In England the good fairies care for the home, sweeping the house, preserving the butter, while the evil ones lure people into dangerous places. The pixies in Ireland are thought to be the souls of children who have died unbaptized. The banshee is an Irish fairy or elf, watching over a special family, as the brownies do in Scotland, many a Scottish family placing a dish of milk in a convenient place for the brownie, as regularly as for the cat or the dog. The kelpie, mermaid and siren are all water-fairies; the mermaids and sirens, half-woman, half-fish, with their beauty and their song lure unsuspecting travelers to their death. During the day fairies are invisible to man; they have their homes in the clefts of rocks, in caves and in forests. It is dangerous to come upon them unawares when in their night revels, and ill-luck follows one who offends them. The literature of all countries abounds in fairy tales. Midsummer Night's Dream, Walpurgis Night, Hans Andersen's Danish Stories and the Grimm brothers' popular German ones are examples well-known. See Keightley's Fairy Mythology,

Faith'full, Emily, was born at Headley Rectory, Surrey, England in 1835, and devoted her life to the improvement of the condition of working-women. In 1860 she founded a printing-house in London, where women only were employed as compositors. In 1863 she founded the Victoria Magazine, for the purpose of setting forth the claims of women to remunerative employment. Queen Victoria recognized Miss Faithfull's work by appointing her her publisher, and