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feAVANNAH RIVER

1684

SAXE

Savannah River, which with its right branch forms the boundary between Georgia and South Carolina, rises near the southern border of North Carolina and flows southeast to the Atlantic. It is 450 miles long, and is navigable from November to June for large vessels to Savannah and for steamboats to Augusta.

Save (sav), a river in southern Austria, an important branch of the Danube, rises in Carniola, crosses Croatia, separates Bosnia and Servia on the south from Slavonia on the north, and falls into the Danube at Belgrade. It is 556 miles long and is navigable for 336 miles to Sissek in Croatia.

Savonarola (sa'vo-nd-rd'la), Girolamo, an Italian reformer, was born at Ferrara, Sept. 21, 1452. He was taught at home, and in 1474 entered the Dominican order at Bologna. He first preached at the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence in 1482, where his harsh voice and lack of the graces of a speaker caused his lectures to be deserted. After seven years' absence in another convent he appeared again before the Florentines, and this time his sterling genius and enthusiasm gained complete success, as he preached against the sins and luxuries of Florence, then at the height of its wealth and brilliancy, under Lorenzo the Magnificent. At this time he stood well with the government, and the church, the pope appointing him vicar-general to carry out a reform that Savonarola had

Sroposed in the Dominican order in Tuscany, ut about 1493 ne began to preach plainly at the government, and in one of his sermons he referred to the coming of the French under Charles VIII; when what he had foretold happened, Savonarola was one of the committee sent to welcome the French king as the savior of Italy. When the French were forced to leave Florence, a republic was established, of which Savonarola, without holding any office, became the guiding spirit, his party, who were called Piagnoni or Weepers from the character of penitence which they professed, being in power. Savonarola aimed at making Florence a model of a Christian commonwealth. Gambling and other vices were sternly punished; vanities of dress were ruled by law; and under the enthusiasm whicn this prophet stirred among the people women flocked in troops to the public square to fling down their costliest jewelry, and his followers made a "bonfire of vanities " including cards, dice and carnival costumes. Meanwhile his denunciations which did not spare even the pope himself —• Alexander VI — and his followers' claim that he was a heaven-sent prophet arrayed the church against him. He refused to go to Rome to answer a charge of heresy, and refused the offer of a cardinal's hat if he would change his style of preaching, and kept on preaching when forbidden

by the pope. He was then excommunicated; the elections at Florence were carried by the party called the Arrabbiati or the Enraged against Savonarola's upright but vigorous government; and lastly, a Franciscan preacher having denounced him, an appeal was made to the ordeal of fire, a Franciscan and a Dominican monk agreeing to make a trial of this dread ordeal to prove which side in this quarrel was favored by Providence. The trial was not made, owing to difficulties and disputes, the failure destroying Savonarola's prestige among the people. No longer having the support of Florence, he was tried by a church council, tortured, and condemned as a heretic and an enemy of the state. So, on May 23, 1498, this extraordinary man and two other Dominicans were strangled and their bodies burned by the executioner. See his Life by Villari (English translation); Mrs. Oliphant's Makers of Florence; and George Eliot's Romola.

Saw'fish, a cartilaginous fish related to sharks and rays, with the snout prolonged into a bony blade and sharp teeth along each edge. The body is shaped like that of a shark, and the saw sometimes reaches a length of six feet. There are 16 to 20 pairs of teeth in different species. These fish normally are inhabitants of warm seas. They abound in the Mediterranean, and are found about the West Indies and off the southern coast of North America. They attack whales and large fish. With the saw they rasp off flesh which is eaten, and sometimes they rip open their prey. Their nostrils and mouth with small teeth are on the under surface of the head near the base of the saw.

Saxe=Coburg=Qotha (ko'"b*farg-go'ta}, a duchy in Thuringia, one of the German states, area 764 square miles, with a population of 257,208. The principality consists chiefly of two detached portions, the duchy of Gotha in the north and the duchy of Coburg in the south, the chief towns of which -are Gotha (population 39,553) and Coburg (population 23,789). The reigning family, until 1893, was represented by Duke Ernest II, who was succeeded by his nephew Prince Alfred of England, Duke of Edinburgh, who died in 1900. A son of the latter, heir presumptive, having died in 1899, the duke of Connaught became heir to the ducal throne; but, as he with his son renounced all claim to the succession, the throne fell to the present incumbent, Charles Edward, son of Prince Leopold (Duke of Albany). The latter succeeded on July 30, 1900. There are 173 miles of railway, the chief products ^ being agricultural and the crop consisting largely of rye, wheat and barley.

Saxe (saks), John Godfrey, was born at Highgate, Vt., June 2,1816. He graduated at Middlebury College, Vermont, in 1839,