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MURCHISON

X28o

MURFREE

lie took refuge in Corsica. From here he went with a few followers to the coast of Calabria and proclaimed himself king, but was soon taken prisoner, tried by court-martial and shot at Pizzo, Italy, Oct. 13, 1815. Of his two sons, Achille Napoleon, the older, went to America, married a niece of Washington, and settled in Florida; Lucien Charles Napoleon, the younger, became a French senator and ambassador under Napoleon III. See Macirone's Fall and Death of Murat.

Murchison (mur'kt-sun), Sir Roderick Impey, Scottish geologist and geographer, was born at Tarradale, Ross, Feb. 19, 1792. He studied at the Military College, Great Marlow, and entered the army at an early age. He served as an officer in Spain and Portugal, but left the army in 1816. He then studied and traveled in various parts of the globe. He found the same rock-strata underlying the red sandstone of mountainous regions of Norway and Sweden, in the distant provinces of the Russian empire and in America. This gave him the clew to the discovery of the silurian system and a wide reputation as a geologist. He explored several parts of Germany, Poland and the Carpathians; and in 1840-45 carried out a geological survey of the Russian Empire. Struck with the similarity between the rocks of the Ural Mountains and the Australian chain, Murchison in 1844 first foretold the discovery of gold in Australia. Perhaps no man of his time did more to encourage geographical science and kindle the spirit of adventure among those engaged both in arctic exploration and in African discovery. He was a member of many scientific societies, was knighted in 1846, became a baronet in 1863, and in 1855 was made director of the Royal School of Mines. His chief works are The Silurian System and The Geology of Russia in Europe and the Ural Mountains. Murchison died on Oct. 22, 1871. See his Life by Professor Archibald Geikie.

Murcia (mur'sht-d), an old city of Spain, on Segura River. It is an old-fashio^d, Moorish place, surrounded by gardens of mulberry, orange, fig, palm and other fruit-trees. The main buildings are the bishop's palace and the cathedral, begun in 1353. Silks, saltpeter, gunpowder, soda, musical instruments and glass are manufactured. Fruit-growing, the preparation of olive-oil and esparto-weaving also flourish. Alfonso X took the city from the Moors in 1263. An earthquake almost destroyed it in 1829, and it was captured by Spanish rebels in 1843. Population 133,045.

Mur'doch, James Edward, an American actor, was born at Philadelphia, June 25, 1811. He first appeared on the stage in his native city. In 1838 he supported Ellen Tree in leading characters at New York. He

left the stage in 1842 to teach elocution. He also lectured on Shakespeare. In 1845 he again became an actor, appearing at New York as Hamlet and afterward toured in Canada, California and England. During the Civil War he gave readings throughout the North in aid of the sanitary commission, devoted himself to the care of sick and wounded soldiers, and served for a while on General Rousseau's staff. Together with William Russell he published Orthophony or Culture of the Voice. After the war Mr. Murdoch lived at Philadelphia, and died at Cincinnati, May 19, 1893.

Murdock, William, the inventor of gas used as a light, was born on Aug. 21, 1754, near Auchinleck, Ayrshire, Scotland. He worked under his father, who was a millwright and miller, till he was twenty-three. He then entered the employment of a Birmingham house and showed such marked ability that he was sent to Cornwall to superintend the setting up of mining engines there. In 1784 he built the model of a high-pressure engine to run on wheels. His work at Cornwall was hard, yet up to his forty-fourth year his wages were not more than $5 a week. Murdock's inventive brain was never idle; he introduced labor-saving machinery of various kinds and an oscillating engine of a pattern still in use. His investigations in the distillation of coal-gas began in 1792, when he lighted his offices and cottages by this means. But he reaped little profit from this useful invention. Murdock died at Birmingham, England, Nov. 15, 1839.

Mur'free, Mary Noailles, whose fame as a writer was gained under the name of Charles Egbert Craddock, was born in 1850 near Murfreesborough, Tenn. Her first story, which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, was The Dancin* Party. Egbert Craddock was the name of the hero of her second short story, which was half-written when she was about to mail the first part to the publishers. Being at a loss for a pseudonym, she stole that of her hero, with the prefix Charles. The buildings at Miss Murfree's birthplace, the scenes of parts of Where the Battle was Fought, were riddled by shot and shell at the battle of Stone River. This is a nova of great and picturesque power, though The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains ii held to be her best work. In the Tennessee Mountains is a collection of eight stories Down the Ravine professes to be a youn£ people's story, but no one is too old to be entranced by its sketches of scenery in the Cumberland Mountains and the picture of the "powerfulpeart" little sister, Tennessee. Miss Murfree puts her heart into her work. Her later books include The Juggler; The Phantoms of the Footbridge; The Mystery of Witch-face Mountain; The Bushwackers; A Spectre of Power; and The Frontiersman,