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The long, coarse hair of the body is grayish-brown, and the tail is ringed with black and white. The raccoon has a broad head and a pointed muzzle, and the face is crossed by a dark band which includes the eyes. The home of the animal is usually high up in the hollow of a large tree; here it rests by day and hibernates through the severe winter-weather. It is active at night, and, during the season of young corn, is often very destructive to the green ears. Besides corn, in season, its usual food is fish, crayfish and various mollusks, though it also eats mice, insects, fruits, small birds and eggs. It has the curious habit of washing or dousing its food repeatedly in the water, and by the Germans is therefore called the wash-bear. The common raccoon of South America is called the crab-eating raccoon. A coon-hunt on a moonlight night, with torches and dogs, is a common form of sport in the southern United States.

Ra′ces of the World. The most general division of the human family is into five great races: the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Malay, the Ethiopian and the American. The Caucasian race is the most numerous and the most widely spread over the earth of all the races. It is distinguished by a fair complexion, a high forehead, straight hair and a beard varying in color. This race is dispersed over nearly the whole of Europe and North America, northern Africa and large areas in Asia, Australia and southern Africa. It leads the other races in literature, commerce and all the arts of civilization. The Mongolian race has a yellowish complexion, small eyes, prominent cheekbones and rather coarse, black hair. It comprises the Chinese, the Japanese, the Turks and many other nations in Asia, with the Magyars of Hungary and the Esquimaux of North America. The Malay race has a dark-brown complexion, with a skull like the Caucasian; a flat face like the Ethiopian; and straight, dark hair like the Mongolian. This race is found in Madagascar, Australia, the islands of the Pacific and the Malay Peninsula of Asia. The Ethiopian or African race has a black complexion, a rather low forehead, a broad, flat nose, thick lips, thin beard and woolly hair. It inhabits the greater part of Africa, although it has ten million representatives in North America. The American race (Indians) has a red or copper-colored skin, high cheek bones, coarse, black hair and scanty beard. It is found in certain portions of North America and South America. The population of the world may be estimated in round numbers at 1,500,000,000, of which more than 1,000,000,000 belong to the Caucasian and Mongolian races. Various divisions and subdivisions of thece races have been made by ethnologists durng the last twenty-five years.

Ra′chel, properly Elisa Rachel Felix, the great French tragic actress, was born of Jewish parents at Mumpf, in the Swiss canton of Aargau, March 24, 1820. She had her first lessons in singing at Paris about 1830, when her parents took up residence in that city, and in 1838 appeared as Camille in Les Horaces in the Thèâtre Français. From this time she shone without a rival; and the furore excited in Paris in 1848 by her recitation of the Marseillaise will continue to connect her name with the Revolution of that year. In 1849 she made the tour of the French provinces, and afterwards visited London, St. Petersburg, Berlin and other great cities of Europe, everywhere meeting enthusiastic admiration and applause. In 1855, while on a professional visit to America, her health gave way, and she returned home utterly prostrated, her death taking place at Cannes, near Toulon, Jan. 3, 1858. As an artist, within the limits prescribed by her genius, Rachel has never been surpassed. No language can give an idea of the force and intensity which characterized her rendering of passion. Her Phèdre, by common consent her masterpiece, was the incarnation of agony, not to be forgotten by anyone who ever heard it. "She does not act — she suffers," a fine critic has observed of her. But in spite of her great genius she was never tenderly loved, being grasping and avaricious. She left a large fortune, besides the amounts lavished upon her family during her life.

Racine′, Wis., is a prosperous manufacturing city at the mouth of Root River, 23 miles south of Milwaukee. Racine's position on a bluff, fifty feet above Lake Michigan, gives an excellent drainage as well as a beautiful view of the lake. Racine is noted for the manufacture of wagons, thrashing-machines, boots, shoes, boilers, engines, boats, malleable iron and automobiles. There are three banks, a public library and an excellent system of public schools. Population 38,002.

Racine (rȧ′sĕn′), Jean Baptiste, the greatest dramatic poet of France, was born at La-Ferté-Milon, in the modern department of Aisne, in December, 1639. His parents dying when he was very young, he was cared for by his maternal grandfather, being sent first to Beauvais College and afterwards to Port Royal, at which he studied diligently under such masters as Claude Lancelot, Nicole and La Maitre. At 19 he left Port Royal to pursue a course of philosophy at the College d'Harcourt, where he appears to have first felt the attractions of a life devoted to letters and to have become intimately acquainted with various actors and actresses. Racine's earliest play was acted by Molière's company at the Palais Royal theatre in June, 1664, and in the same year he received from the king a pension of 600 francs for a congratulatory ode. The next fifteen years Racine devoted to writing plays, and pro