Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/118

 110 CATGUT CATHARINE I. (OF RUSSIA) catfish (P. allidus, Lesueur), of a whitish ash color, 12 to 15 in. long, from Delaware; the mudfish (P. jmnctulatus, Cuv.), 2 to 3 ft. long, of a brown color spotted with black, from Louisiana. Among the large species found in the Ohio river and its tributaries are the P. ceneus (Les.), 2 to 3 ft. long ; P. furcatus (Les.), 1 to 4 ft. long ; P. cupreus (Raf.), 1 to 4 ft. long ; P. limosug, P. ccerulescens, and P. xanthocephalus. The catfish are sluggish in their movements, securing their prey rather by stratagem than by swiftness. The female moves about with her young, like a hen with her brood. Though their flesh is generally esteenied in the country and on the western rivers, it is very insipid to persons accustomed to salt-water (ishes. Catfish is a name applied to other species of different genera, and among others to the ferocious anarrhicas lupus (Linn.), more properly called wolf-fish. CATGUT, string made of the dried and twisted intestines of animals. Such strings are usually made from the intestines of sheep, but some- times from those of the horse, ass, or mule. They are used on violins, harps, and other mu- sical instruments, for the cords of bows, clocks, and whips, and for belting. They are pre- pared by first being freed from all feculent and fatty substances, then soaked and divested of the outside or peritoneal membrane by scra- ping, again soaked and the inner or mucous membrane taken away, and still further cleaned by the use of lye. They are next exposed to fumes of burning sulphur to purify them, and are slit and twisted into different sizes. They are then dyed, and afterward, as they are stretched upon frames, dried and hardened by exposure to a temperature of 180 to 200. Lastly, they are cut off and coiled up for sale. Otto, in his " Treatise on the Violin," says that the best strings are those from Milan, sold by the name of Roman strings ; and as these are imitated by inferior cords made in Bohemia and the Tyrol, he gives the following as the marks of the best article : " The Milanese strings are as clear and transparent as glass. The third string should be equally clean as the first. They must by no means feel smooth to the touch, for they are not ground or polished off by any process, v <is all other manufactured strings are. If a good string be held by one end in the finger and opened out, it will recoil to its former position like a watch spring. Every string when stretched on the instrument should look like a thin strip of glass on the finger- board; those which are of a dull and opaque appearance are useless. Their elasticity is after all the best criterion, as no other strings which I have tried have that strength and elasticity for which the Milanese are so much esteemed." CATHARINE I., empress of Russia, born ac- cording to some in Livonia, according to others in Sweden, about 1685, died in St. Petersburg, May 17, 1727. She was formerly believed to have been the daughter of a Swedish quarter- master, John Rabe, but is now more generally represented as the daughter of a Lithuanian peasant, Skavronski ; her own original name was Martha. Left an orphan in a village of Livonia, she was taken care of by the sexton of the place, and subsequently by Gltick, the Protestant minister at Marienburg, who edu- cated her with his children. In 1701 she mar- ried a Swedish dragoon of the garrison of Marienburg; but the campaign of 1702, in which he had to serve, and the capture of Marienburg (Aug. 23) by the Russians, under Sheremetieff, separated them for ever. Martha, together with the family of her protector, GlQck, was made captive by the Russian gen- eral, who treated the old clergyman kindly, but retained the females. At the distribution of the spoils, she was allotted to Gen. Bauer, whose mistress she was until she was ceded by him to Prince Menshikoff. It was in the house of the latter that Peter the Great saw her, was captivated by her beauty, and made her his mistress (1703). She adopted the Greek creed, and with it the name of Catha- rine Alexievna. In 1706 she bore a daughter, Catharine ; in 1708 (after having been privately married to Peter) Anna, afterward duchess of Holstein-Gottorp, and mother of Peter III. ; in 1709 Elizabeth, afterward empress of Russia. She maintained her influence over Peter by her vivacity, activity, and good temper. She shared the troubles and fatigues of his cam- paigns, and frequently calmed the wild out- breaks of his savage temper. When in 1711 his great rival, Charles XII., who after the defeat of Poltava (1709) had found refuge and protection in Turkey, had succeeded in arming that empire against the Russians, and Peter, after an imprudent march, found himself re- duced to the extremity of starving on the banks of the Pruth, or surrendering his army, Catha- rine, with the assistance of Ostermann and Sha- firoff, saved him by bribing the Turkish grand vizier with her jewels. Peter proved his grat- itude by acknowledging her as his wife in 1712, and declaring her empress in 1718. As such she was crowned in Moscow in 1724. The de- termination of Peter to make her his successor was shaken by his suspicions of her conjugal fidelity, and still more in 1724 by his conviction of her infidelity, in consequence of which the chamberlain Moens was beheaded (ostensibly for mismanagement in office), his sister igno- miniously flogged, and his two sons sent to the army in Persia. It has been asserted that Catha- rinc, having been shown by Peter the head of Moens, still hanging on the scaffold, said calmly, " What a pity that the people of the court are so corrupt." She succeeded, however, in strength- ening her position by reinstating Menshikoff in the favor of Peter, which he had previously lost by his devotion to her. But still so doubt- ful was her situation, that at the death of Peter (Feb. 8, 1725), which was kept secret until her succession was secured, she could not avoid the suspicion of having poisoned her huskmd. The archbishop of Pskov, Theophanes, declared