Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/625

 PLATTE PLAUTUS 605 preacher. His works include a history of the Russian church (2 vols., Moscow, 1805 ; 2d ed., 1823), and 20 volumes of sermons. His biography was written by Snegireff (Moscow, 1831 ; new ed., 2 vols., 1856). PLATTE. I. A N. W. county of Missouri, separated from Kansas by the Missouri river, which bounds it S. and S. W., and intersected by the Little Platte river; area, 416 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 17,352, of whom 1,192 were col- ored. It has a diversified surface and fertile soil. It is intersected by the Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs railroad, and the southwestern division of the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific. The chief productions in 1870 were 196,060 bushels of wheat, 1,470,861 of Indian corn, 152,114 of oats, 62,046 of pota- toes, 311,495 Ibs. of butter, 24,577 of wool, and 2,802 tons of hay. There were 6,525 horses, 1,476 mules and asses, 4,487 milch cows, 7,442 other cattle, 11,702 sheep, and 35,985 swine ; 11 flour mills, 4 distilleries, 12 saw mills, and 2 pork-packing establishments. Capital, Platte City. II. An E. central county of Nebraska, bounded S. E. by Platte river, and intersected by Loup fork and Shell creek ; area, about 700 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,899. The Union Pacific railroad passes along the S. border. The soil is generally fertile, and the surface undulating and diversified with prairies and woodland along the streams. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 43,905 bushels of wheat, 65,290 of Indian corn, 40,230 of oats, 18,350 of potatoes, 57,625 Ibs. of butter, and 5,879 tons of hay. There were 552 horses, 835 milch cows, 2,237 other cattle, 427 sheep, and 782 swine. Capital, Columbus. PLATTE RIVER. See NEBRASKA. PLATTSBURGH, a town and village of Clinton co., New York, capital of the county, situated on Cumberland bay, an inlet of the W. shore of Lake Champlain, at the mouth of the Sara- nac river, 145 m. N. of Albany and 22 m. S. of the Canada line ; pop. of the town in 1870, 8,414; of the village, 5,139. The village is lighted with gas, has a good fire department, and is supplied with water from a reservoir fed by springs, 7 m. distant. The principal public buildings are the custom house and post office, court house and jail, and the high school building recently erected at a cost of $40,000. Plattsburgh is a" United States military station, the barracks being situated about a mile S. of the village. It is a station on the New York and Canada railroad, a branch of which ex- tends to Au Sable Forks, 20 m. S. W., bring- ing the village into easy communication with Vdirondack wilderness. The wonderful A u Sable chasm is 12 m. distant. Plattsburgh is the port of entry of the Champlain customs district. The value of imports into the dis- trirt for the year ending June 30, 1874, was '.784; of exports therefrom, $1,076,111. The number of entrances from Canada was 1,707, tonnage 136,870 ; clearances, 1,798, ton- nage 145,612 ; clearances in the coastwise trade, 993, tonnage 68,098 ; belonging in the dis- trict, 849 vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 58,268, of which 769 of 52,487 tons were ca- nal boats. Large quantities of logs are floated down the Saranac river at high water, and the product of 52 iron bloom forge fires is brought to Plattsburgh for shipment, the ore being obtained from mines on the Saranac and Au Sable and their tributaries. The village con- tains a foundery, two machine shops, a bloom forge, planing mill, shingle mill, woollen fac- tory, four saw mills (producing annually about 25,000,000 ft. of lumber), and several large carriage and furniture manufactories. It has two national banks, a savings bank, three good hotels, five public school houses besides the high school building, two weekly newspapers, a public library containing 1,000 volumes, and six churches. Plattsburgh was settled in 1785, principally from Long Island and Dutchess county. One of the first naval battles of the revolution was fought on Lake Champlain off this place, Oct. 11, 1776, Benedict Arnold commanding the American fleet. The Royal Savage, Arnold's supply ship, which was sunk early in the battle, is still visible at low water. During the war of 1812 Plattsburgh was the headquarters of the United States forces on the northern frontier, and Cumberland bay was the scene of an engagement between the American and British flotillas, Sept. 11, 1814. (See CHAMPLAIN, LAKE.) The place has been devastated by two remarkable fires, in 1849 and 1867 ; each time the main business por- tion of the village was destroyed. PLATYPUS. See OKNITHOKHYNCHUS. PLAUEN, a town of Saxony, in the circle of Zwickau, on the White Elster, 60 m. S. by W. of Leipsic; pop. in 1871, 23,355. It is the chief point in Germany for the manufacture of white cotton goods and embroidery. The town is the seat of numerous officials, and con- tains a gymnasium, a teachers' seminary, and industrial and other schools. PLAUTUS, Titus Maciins, a Roman dramatist, born at Sarsina in Umbria about 254 B. C., died in 184. The little we know of his life is derived from a passage in Aulus Gellius, quoted from Varro. He went to Rome when young, entered the service of the actors, and having made sufficient money left the city, and set up in business for himself. He failed, and re- turned to Rome, where he was employed in turning a hand mill. While thus occupied he wrote three comedies, which were successful ; and from that time he wrote constantly, and became the favorite comic dramatist. His plays continued to be performed as late as the reign of Diocletian. Cicero considers his wit as equal to that of the old Attic comedy. When Varro wrote there were 130 plays at- tributed to Plautus, although some were sup- posed either to have been written by another person of the same name, or to have been old plays rewritten and improved by the poet him- self. Varro could enumerate only 21 which 669 VOL. xin. 39