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SALVINI

1669

SAMOA

casts are first taken into a city-colony, given shelter and food and offered work. If found willing to work and do right, they are then sent to the farm-colony and afterwards shipped to the colony over the seas as emigrants. In 1896 Ballington Booth, son of General Booth, who had for some years been in charge of the Salvation Army in the United States, separated from the parent society and established a new organization, named The Volunteers of America. In character, aims and methods this organization is similar to the Salvation Army. See General Booth's book and his Aggressive Christianity.

Salvini (sdl-vefne), Tommaso, was born at Milan, Italy, Jan. i, 1830, of a family of actors. The boy had a 'good training and became well-known as a member of Ristori's company. In 1849 he fought in the war for Italian independence, after which he went back to the stage. He played tragic parts, especially (Edipus, Saul and Othello. He was popular and successful at Paris, Madrid, Brussels, in England and in the United States, which he visited in 1874 and 1881. In 1884 Salvini left the stage and retired to his villa near Florence. He died in 1896.

ALEXANDER SALVINI, son of the above,, followed his father's profession, and gained considerable reputation, appearing successfully in  the   United   States   in   the   Three Guardsmen and other plays.

Samarcand (sdm1'dr-kdndf), a city of western Turkestan, 130 miles southeast of Bokhara in Russia in Asia. Under its old name of Maracanda it was taken and destroyed by Alexander the Great. Since its capture in 712 A. D. by the Arabs, it has been a sacred Moslem city. Genghis Khan took it in 1219 and killed three fourths of its half million people. Timur the Great made it his capital in the 14th century, when it had a population of 150,000. From Timur's time date its finest buildings, as the Ulug-bed College, the tombs of the conqueror and his wives and the great stone which he used as a throne. Samarcand had a checkered history from the decay of Timur's empire, till in 1868 it was taken by the Russians from the emirs of Bokhara. A railroad now joins Samarcand to Merv and the Caspian Sea. The many gardens are irrigated; manufactures of harness, pottery etc. are carried on; and there is a brisk trade in silk, rice, horses etc. A garrison of 6,000 Russians holds the citadel, which is built on a steep hill. Population 58,194.

Sama'ria, the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, after the ten tribes became independent of Judah. It was founded by Omri. It was about five miles northwest of Shechem, .and thus near the middle of Palestine. It stood on the top of a hill 1,450 feet high, and was easily made a place of considerable strength. The Syrians besieged it in vain, but about 721 B. C. it fell before the attacks of the Assyrian kings, Shalmane-

ser and Sargon. Nearly all the Hebrews of the capital and country were carried captives into Babylonia. Their places were taken by Assyrian colonists. These settlers, though still keeping a good deal of their heathen ways of worship, adopted for the greater part the religion of the Israelites; but the refusal of the Jews to accept their help in rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem caused bitter feeling; and in 409 B. C. the Samaritans built a rival temple on Mt. Gerizim. This enmity between the Samaritans and the Jews became so great, that the ' * Jews had no dealings with the Samaritans" and the Samaritans none with the Jews. Alexander the Great captured Samaria, and brought there a colony of Greeks. John Hyrcanus, the Jewish captain, after a year's siege took Samaria and razed it to the ground about no B. C. But the Samaritans clung to the spot, and after a bloody siege by the Romans saw their city a second, time destroyed. Samaria was, however, rebuilt, and held by Herod the Great. The place is now but a heap of ruins, and most of the Samaritans were, like the Jews, scattered to the four winds; yet as late as 529 the few left rose in rebellion against the Eastern Empire.

Samoa (sd-mo'a), is the name of a group of islands in the Pacific, from 400 to 500 miles northeast of Fiji. All but one are of volcanic formation, and are mostly surrounded by coral reefs. They are mountainous, well-wooded, with ricn soil. Only four are of any size. The largest, Savaii, is 47 miles long and 28 wide. Upolu has on its northern side the bay and harbor of Apia, while on the shore of the bay is Apia, the chief town of the islands. In the spring there are disastrous hurricanes. Copra, the dried kernel of the cocoanut, is the chief export. Cotton, coffee and tobacco are cultivated, and sugarcane grows wild. Steamers ply between Apia and San Francisco, Auckland and Sydney. The Samoans belong to the brown Polynesian race. They are a well-formed people, but lessening in numbers, the present population being about 35,000. The Frenchman Bougainville visited the islands in 1768, and called them the Navigators' Islands, from the skill of the native boatman. The natives are Christians. By treaty, in 1889, the United States, Great Britain and Germany assumed joint control of the islands. This arrangement continued in force till 1898, when King Malietoa Laupepa died, and disturbances arose regarding the succession. A joint commission which was appointed recommended, among other measures, the abolition of the kingship. The result was that, by the Anglo-German agreement of Nov. 14, 1899, accepted and ratified by the United States in January, 1900, Great Britain renounced all rights over the islands in favor of Germany as regards Savaii and Upolu and in favor of the United States as regards Tutuila and other islands.