Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/489

 ITHACA ITURBIDE 471 ITHACA, a village in the town of the same name, capital of Tompkina co., New York, situated on both sides of the Cayuga inlet, 1-J m. from the head or S. end of Cayuga lake, and 14-J m. W. by S. of Albany; pop. in 1870, 8,462; of the town, 10,107. The village is built partly on a fine plain, partly on the slope of a range of hills which bound it on all sides except the north. The court house, jail, and clerk's office are good brick or stone buildings. There are 10 or 12 beautiful cascades in or near the village. It is the terminus of the Cayuga division of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, and of the Ithaca and Athens, the Geneva and Ithaca, the Ithaca and Cort- land, and the Cayuga Lake railroads ; while by means of a daily line of steamboats on the lake between Ithaca and Cayuga bridge, it is con- nected with the New York Central railroad. It is a place of commercial activity, and an entrepot for the transshipment of Scranton and Lackawanna and Luhigh Valley coal. The principal manufactures are of paper, bent work, agricultural implements, calendar clock.3, glass, steam engines, and boats. There are two na- tional banks with an aggregate capital of $500,- 000. The village is the seat of Cornell uni- versity. (See CORNELL UNIVERSITY.) Graded public schools are in process of organization, and there are several private schools, a pre- paratory school, a public library, one daily and four weekly newspapers, and 12 churches. ITHACA (mod. Gr. Thiaki), the sixth in size of the Ionian islands, 2 m. E. of Cephalonia, of which it forms an eparchy, and 17 m. W. of the mainland of Greece; length 15 m., greatest breadth 4 m. ; area, 38 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 9,873. It is nearly divided by the deep harbor of Porto Molo on the E. coast. The surface is mountainous, a limestone range, with many craggy peaks, running the whole length of the island. The soil is light and shal- low, but nearly one third of the surface is cul- tivated, and yields grain, currants, and olives, which with good wine and honey are the prin- cipal agricultural products. The people are mainly engaged in maritime trade. The climate is noted for its salubrity. The capital and chief port is Vathy, built on a harbor of the Porto Molo. The island is divided into four districts : Vathy, Auto, Anoge, and Exoge. Ithaca is commonly believed to be the island of that name celebrated in the Homeric poems as the kingdom of Ulysses. On the sides and summit of Mount Aeto, which rises 1,200 ft. above the sea, at the foot of Porto Molo, are some Cyclo- pean ruins which the islanders call the Castle of Ulysses. At the foot of a white cliff on the S. E. coast there is a perennial spring, tradi- tionally regarded as the famous fountain of Arethnsa ; and it is believed that the precipice is the one to which the poet refers when he represents Ulysses as challenging Eumreus " to throw him over the great rock " if he lies. See Schliemann, Itliaka, der Peloponnes und Troja (Leipsic, 186S)). ITTEXBACH, Franz, a German painter, born at Konigswinter, near Bonn, in 1813. He studied in Dilsseldorf under Schadow, and in Italy, and became known as one of the best re- ligious painters of the Dusseldorf school, and as a successful imitator of the Italian masters. His "Holy Family in Egypt" was purchased in 1868 for the national gallery at Berlin. ITL'RBIDE, Agnstin de, emperor of Mexico, born at Valladolid (now Morelia), Sept. 27, 1783, executed near Padilla, July 19, 1824. His parents were from Pamplona, Spain, and set- tled in New Spain shortly before his birth. ' He studied at the seminary of his native town until the death of his father, when at the age of 15 years he assumed the direction of the patrimonial estates. In the same year (1798) he became lieutenant in a militia infantry regi- ment of Valladolid. In 1805 he joined the army at Jalapa. On his return in 1809 he aid- ed in repressing a revolutionary movement, which was followed on Sept. 16, 1810, by the revolution planned by the priest Hidalgo, who offered to make Iturbide lieutenant general. He declined from a conviction that the plan was not feasible, and Hidalgo sought to se- cure his neutrality, granting him a safe-con- duct for himself and family, and promising that his hacienda should be protected from pillage and fire. But this proposal also was rejected, and Iturbide took the field "in the service of the Mexicans, the king of Spain, and the Spaniards," vying with the latter in rigor toward the insurgents. He gained great dis- tinction in the battle of Cruces, and was made a captain in the southern army ; but ill health compelled him to go to the city of Mexico, and he was sent to Michoacan as second in command under Garcia Conde. Here he again aided in quenching the revolutionary fire, rekindled by Albino Garcia, whom he captured ; and he was soon afterward made colonel. From that time till the end of 1815 he took part in all the en- gagements of the royal troops, directed for the most part against Jos6 Maria Morelos, who af- ter the execution of Hidalgo succeeded him as leader of the insurgent forces. The year .1816 found him in command of the provinces of Guanajuato and Michoacan, and of the north- ern army, by which they were then occupied ; but he had incurred the displeasure of some leading citizens, and grave accusations were preferred against him, which led to his dismis- sal, although he was acquitted of the most seri- ous charge, that of complicity with the revo- lutionists. On returning to private life, Itur- bide set seriously to maturing his long cher- ished project of independence, and events soon opened a way to the accomplishment of his design. The news of the Spanish constitution, proclaimed in the peninsula in 1820, filled Mex- ican soldiers with the desire of freeing their country. The movement soon became general, and Iturbide, seeing that the time for action had come, secured the command of the south- ern army, about to march against Guerrero,