Page:LA2-NSRW-2-0560.jpg



religion his supreme idea was that of duty and obligation, leaving but little room for the play of the feelings. "Whoever will tell me," he was accustomed to say, "of a good action done, him will I thank, though it be the last hour of my life." A short time before his death he said to his friends: "I do not fear death; if I were sure of being called away this night, I could raise my hand to heaven and say: 'God be praised I' "

Kar'nak, Egypt. See THEBES.

Karyokinesis (kăr'ĭ-ō-ki-nē'sĭs) (in plants), the process by which cells ordinarily divide, The name refers to the fact that this prevailing method of division begins with a division of the nucleus, and then involves the whole cell. The various steps by which the nucleus divides are exceedingly numerous and intricate, and furnish some of the most recondite of botanical problems. This method of cell-division is also often called mitosis or indirect division. See CELL.

Katahdin (kȧ-tȧ'dĭn), the highest mountain in Maine, U. S. A. It has an elevation of 5,000 feet.

Ka'tydid', familiar insect, classed as a long-horned grasshopper. It is a great singer, known more by its song of "Katy did, Katy didn't; she did, she didn't" than by sight. These insects are difficult to see on account of their color, which matches that of the leaves of the trees and bushes on which they live. They sing by night, sing all night, do not come to the fore until midsummer or later. It is a popular fancy that the song of the first katydid means six weeks to frost, – the prediction being often fulfilled. The males are the music makers, and call to their mates with their music. By rubbing the fore-wings little membranes are made to vibrate, a sound produced that carries sometimes a quarter of a mile and seems like human speech. The song of the snowy tree-cricket is often mistaken for that of the katydid in sections of the country where the latter does not live. Katydids are of a lovely pale-green color; the wing-covers delicate, not stiff like a grasshopper; the hind-legs longer and more delicate. It flies prettily, is a good jumper, and walks more than does the grasshopper. The broad-winged katydid has wings that bulge on each side, giving the insect an appearance of plumpness. The eggs are laid in regular rows on leaves and branches, The angular-winged katydid is common in our southern states. Early in the autumn the eggs are laid, deposited in a curious, overlapping double row on twigs, edges of leaves, sometimes on the edge of a fence-board, gummed securely in their place. They do not hatch until spring; then the egg splits along the top edge and the young katydid cornea forth, at first very pale in color. In the south there are two broods a year, in the north but one. The eggs are often stung by a curious chalcidid parasite. Katydids do but little harm to vegetation, are looked upon friendlywise. Oliver Wendell Holmes speaks thus to the katydid:


 * "I love to hear thine earnest voice,
 * Wherever thou art hid,
 * Thou testy little dogmatist,
 * Thou pretty katydid!
 * Thou mindest me of gentlefolks–
 * Old gentlefolks are they–
 * Thou say'st an undisputed thing
 * In such a solemn way."

Kaunitz (kou'nĭts), Wenzel Anton, PRINCE VON, an Austrian statesman and diplomat, was born at Vienna, Feb. 2, 1711. Kaunitz began his public career under Charles VI, and was afterward employed by Empress Maria Theresa on diplomatic missions to Rome, Florence and Turin. At the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, he earned the rank of minister of state by the diplomatic talents he displayed. As Austrian ambassador at the French court in 1750-52, he succeeded in changing the enmity which had existed between France and Austria for nearly a century into friendship and good-will. For this service he was appointed prime minister, and for more than 40 years had the principal direction of Austria's political affairs. He also was a liberal patron of the arts and sciences. He resigned all his offices and retired from public life when Francis II ascended the throne (1792). He died on June 27, 1794. See Lives by Hormayr and by Beer.

Kazan (kä-zän), capital of the Russian government of Kazan and ancient capital of the Mongol kingdom, was founded in the 15th century. The city was taken by the Russians under Ivan the Terrible in 1552 after a bloody siege, and the Mongol kingdom was brought to an end. Kazan is one of the most important educational centers of Russia, the university founded by Alexander I in 1804 containing a library of 80,000 volumes, an observatory, a botanical garden, four faculties and 875 students. The yards in which Peter the Great built his Caspian fleet are not far from the town. Population 143,707. Kazan also is a province, area 24,587 square miles with a population of about 2,200,000.

Kean, Edmund, a distinguished English actor, was born at London in 1787. He exhibited signs of dramatic genius at an