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LACHINE

10x8

LA CROSSE

Point lace, a development from embroidery, was first known in the first half of the i6th century, its original production and development being in yenice. From Venice the manufacture of point lace passed into France and Flanders, the principal places of production being Alencon and Brussels. At Honi-ton and other points in southwestern England the manufacture was begun about the end of the i6th century by refugees from the Low Countries. To encourage the trade and induce lacemakers to come to England, Parliament in 1662 prohibited the importation of lace; but the makers, being unable to procure the fine thread necessary, were forced to return to their own countries. Then ensued extensive smuggling between Brussels and England. Cheap imitations are now driving the real article from the market. Gold and silver lace are made of flat bands or very thin ribbons wrapped closely around cotton thread of yellow and white respectively as a basis. This manufacture is associated with the ribbon trade and is carried on in the same districts.

Lachine', a town of 6,000 people on the St. Lawrence River, is noted for its picturesque rapids and important canal. Lachine Canal is eight and a half miles long. It has five locks 270 by 45 feet. The total rise or lockage is 45 feet. Its average width is 150 feet, the depth of water on the sills being 14 feet. The canal consists of one channel only. It extends from Montreal to Lachine, overcoming St. Louis Rapids, the first of the series which bars the ascent of the St. Lawrence. They are 986 miles from the Straits of Belle Isle. See WELLAND CANAL and ST. LAWRENCE RIVER.

Lachine Rapids. These form a rough and dangerous, although short, section of the St. Lawrence. Lachine Canal enables vessels to avoid the rapids. The name, which means China, refers to a delusion of some early explorers who had expected the St. Lawrence to leal them into China!

Lackawanna (lak'd-won'a) River, Pennsylvania, flows through the Wyoming and Lackawanna coalfields, which produce half the anthracite mined in the United States. It is a tributary of the Susquehanna, and empties into it near Pittston. Its length is 60 miles.

Laco'nia, N. H., city, county-seat of Belknap County, on the Winnepesaukee River, about 100 miles north of Boston, is situated in a lake region, where attractive scenery, good climate and fine fishing have made it an inviting summer resort. It manufactures machinery, lumber, paper boxes, hosiery and railroad cars. The hosiery mills and car-shops employ about 1,800 people. The city has good public and parochial schools, Gale Memorial Library and several churches, and here are the state Home for Feeble-Minded Children and the state fish-hatchery. The settlement was formed in

1800-2, incorporated as a town in 1852 and chartered as a city in 1893. Two divisions of the Boston and Maine Railroad run through Laconia. Population 10,183.

Lacquer (lak'er), a yellowish varnish made by dissolving shellac in alcohol, and colored with gamboge, saffron and the like. It is used chiefly for metals, especially brass, to give them a golden color and preserve their luster. The name is also given to the varnish used by the Chinese and Japanese in their beautiful lacquered ware, and is made from the juice of a kind of sumac which grows in their country and is called the varnish tree. This varnish is mixed with vermilion for making red lacquer, and other colors or golddust are so used. The most costly lacquer work is that inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ornamented with gold designs. This brings high prices even in China and Japan. See LAC.

Lacrosse (ia-krbsf), a Canadian field-game played with a long, light hickory stick, bent like a shepherd's crook, with thongs of deer-skin drawn across in the form of a netting, and with an india-rubber ball eight or nine inches in circumference. The goals are two posts about six feet high, with a flag at the top of each. The object is to drive or carry the ball through the opposing side's goal. There usually are 12 on a side, and the players are not allowed to touch either the ball or each other with their hands. The National Lacrosse Association of Canada was formed in 1867, and since then the game has become popular in places.

La Crosse, a city of Wisconsin, is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi, where it is joined by the Black and La Crosse Rivers. The former comes from the great forests of the north, from which it has brought down more than 5,000,000,000 feet of pine. The valley of the latter furnishes an easy outlet for railway lines to the east, while Root River, coming into the Mississippi just below the city from _ the west, gives easy access to the fertile prairies of Minnesota and Dakota. The location has given La Crosse the nickname of The Gateway City. It lies about midway of the most picturesque section of the Mississippi, the bluffs here attaining their greatest height — about 600 feet above the river. The site was known as Prairie La Crosse from the Indians' custom of assembling there to play lacrosse, and from this the city gets its name. It was settled as an Indian trading-post in 1841. The manufactures of sash, doors and blinds, church altars, ornamental iron work, telephones, electrical fixtures, gasoline engines, launches, tools, wagons, carriages agricultural machinery, tinware, clothing, knitgoods, boots, shoes, rubber goods, spring mattresses, leather, flour, candy, crackers, f>earl buttons and beer are leading industries. The city has three hospitals,