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RAWLINS

1589

READE

hands of the Romans. Augustus made it a firstclass seaport and naval station, and 400 years later Emperor Honorius took refuge there and made it the capital of the Roman empire. It attained its greatest glory under Theodoric the Ostrogoth, whose mausoleum is outside the walls. It contains the tomb of Galla Placidia, a Roman princess, who lived from 388 to 450 A. D.. and was the daughter of Theodosius the Great. Dante died there in 1321, and his ashes remain there still. It became a republic in the early part of the i3th century, but was subject to Venice from 1440 to 1509. Then it passed into the hands of the popes and continued under their domination until 1860. Byron resided at Ravenna from June, 1819, to October, 1821. Population 64,031.

Raw'Iins, John A., American soldier, was born at Galena, 111., Feb. 13, 1831, where he was admitted to the bar and commenced the practice of law in 1855. He was appointed adjutant-general on the staff of General Grant in 1861, and with scarcely any interruption he was with Grant in all his battles, marches and campaigns, rising from captain to major-general. He died on Sept. 9, 1869.

Raw'linson, George, was born at Chad-lington, Oxfordshire, in 1815, and after graduating at Oxford was elected a fellow and tutor in Exeter College. In 1860 he published his notable Bampton lectures on the Historic Evidence for the Truth of the Christian Records. His historical works cover nearly the entire history of the ancient orient, commencing with an edition of Herodotus, in which many of his brother's discoveries are incorporated. This was followed by The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy,The Seventh. . . Monarchy, A Manual of Ancient History| and A History vf Ancient Egypt. He died in 1902.

Rawlinson, Sir Henry, K. C. B., oriental scholar and diplomat, was born at Chad-lington, Oxfordshire, England, April u, 1810. He entered the Indian military service in 1827, and served in Bombay presidency until 1833, when ne was appointed to assist in reorganizing the army of the Shah-of Persia. During the six years he spent in that country he began to study the cuneiform or wedge-shaped inscriptions, and made a translation of the famous Behistun inscription of Darius, which he published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society. He held command of Kandahar during 1840-42, and in 1844 was appointed political agent at Bagdad and consul-general in 1851. In 1858 he was sent to Persia as British minister. In 1871 he became president of the Royal Geo-

fraphical  Society. He  died   at   London, larch 5, 1895. He wrote England and Russia in the East, The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western Asia, Outline History of Assyria etc. See CUNEIFORM.

Ray'leigh  (ra'U),'John William Strutt,

BARON, one of the most eminent of English physicists, was born on Nov. 12, 1842. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as senior wrangler and Smith prizeman in 1865. In 1879 he succeeded Clerk-Maxwell as professor of experimental physics at the University of Cambridge, but resigned in 1884. Later he succeeded Tyndall as professor of physics at the Royal Institution in London. His profound scholarship is well illustrated by his Theory of Sound, which has remained a standard ever since its publication in 1877-8 His prodigious activity is illustrated by his Scientific Papers, published in 1901.

Ra'zor«Shell, a long bivalve-shell, shaped like a razor-case and belonging to the razor-clam. The shell gaps at each end, and from one the siphons or water-tubes of the animal protrude. This animal makes vertical burrows in the sand, two or three feet deep, and ascends and descends by means of its foot. Razor-shells are used both for food and bait.

Read, Opie, American novelist and journalist, was born at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 22, 1852, and educated at Gallatin, Tenn. He began newspaper work at Franklin, Ky., but proceeding west made Little Rock, Ark., his home for about ten years, where he founded and edited a humorous weekly, The Arkansaw Traveler. He subsequently removed to Chicago, where he has published successful stories dealing with southern life. His more important novels include A Kentucky Colonel, A Tennessee Judge, An Arkansaw Planter and On the Suwanee River.

Read, Thomas Buchanan, American poet and painter, was born in Chester County, Pa., March 12, 1822, and after spending a year or two in the studio of a sculptor in Cincinnati, O., he gave his attention to painting, entering on the practice of that art in Boston at 20. In 1850 he went to Florence, Italy, where he continued to Hve, visiting America occasionally until his death, at New York, May n, 1872. He won considerable fame as a portrait-painter, and took an active interest in the cause of his native land during the great Civil War, his most popular poem, Sheridan's Ride, being written during that conflict, which he afterwards illustrated. His Wagoner of the Alle-ghanies was written in 1862, and read publicly throughout the country by James E. Murdock for the benefit of the sanitary commission.

Reade, Charles, a distinguished English novelist, was born at Ipsden House, Oxfordshire, June 8, 1814. He received his education at Oxford, where he so distinguished himself as to secure a fellowship in 1835. It was not until 1850, however, that he commenced his career as a writer. **!,*' he himself tells us, "studied the great art of fiction for 15 years before I presumed to