Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/458

ALMONTE. dency, and party spirit led him to participate in the French invasion of Mexico and the election of Maximilian. Almonte was proclaimed dictator of Mexico in 1862, but was distrusted by all parties, and was removed the same year. The next year he was president of a junta styled the "Regency of the Mexican Empire." In 1804 Maximilian made him regent of the realm and Grand Marshal, and in 18(i(i he was sent as min- ister to Paris, where he died. ALMORA, al-mo'ra. The capital of the Ku- mann division, North-Western Provinces. British India. It is situated on the crest of a mountain ridge, 5337 feet above the sea, and on the head waters of the Kosila, a branch of the Ramgunga, 87 miles north of Bareilly. It gives its name to a district, has a cantonment for two battalions of Ghurkas, and is a health resort for invalids and consumptives. Pop., 7500. ALMOKAVIDES, al-mO'ra-vidz (Ar. al-Mu- robitiin, "pickets who have hobbled their horses on the enemies' frontier.") The Christian suc- cesses in Spain and the weakness of the Moslem powers in the Jlediterrancan in the elevpntli cen- tury excited a JIohamme<lan revival among the Berbers of Northern Africa. The holy war was preached by Abdallah ibn Tashfin, of the Lam- tuna tribe. Together with the Masmuda, and led by Abu Bekr and his second cousin, Yusuf ibn Tashfin, they quickly spre,ad over a part of Al- geria and Morocco, founding the city of that name. Called in 1080 to Spain by the Abadides to crush the power of the Aragonese, and espe- cially of the' Cid, Yusuf defeated the Spaniards at Saeralias (October 23), but returned to Afri- ca, leaving 3000 Berbers in Spain. In 1090 he was again called over (by the King of Seville), and conquered the whole of Moorish Spain, except Toledo and Saragossa. By 1147 the power of the Almoravides in Northern -Africa and Spain was overthrown by the Almohades (q.v.). Their name is preserved in the Maravedi (a coin) and the MaraboTits ( devotees ). ALMQVIST, iilm'kst, Kaiji, .Jonas Ludwig ( 17n3-lS0(i) . A Swedish writer of unusual versa- tility but very unstable genius. He was born at .Stockholm. At twenty, he left a good post in the civil service and founded a sort of Brook Farm in the forests of Vermland, where the 'come-outers" lived imder turf, wore homespun, and ate porridge. The experiment failed, and Almqvist resorted to school-teaching and the composition of text-books, at Stockholm, until the publication of a group of romances under the title. The Book of the Thorn Rose (begun in 1832), brought him sudden fame. This work shows great power of language and richness of color: and the dramas which followed, though erratic in plan, are masterly in dialogue and of great tragic force. Almqvist now gave himself wholly to literature and jiublished a great num- ber of books a7id pamphlets on history, religion, ethics, iBsthetics, .and pedagogy: as well as lyrics, dramas, and novels, chieily socialistic in tone, and often contradictory in teaching. His moral instability apparently led him to crime, for in 1S51 he was charged with forgery and murder, and fled from Sweden to America, where he earned a precarious living under an assumed name until 180(1, when he returned to Bremen, where he lived under the name of C. West- ermann. and where he died, September 26, 1866. The novels and tales on which his literary fame will rest are of the romantic type. The best of the tales are The Mill at Skiillnora, Ara- minta May, and Grimstahamn's Settlement. Of the novels. The Palaee is typically romantic in its poetic humor. A later work, It's All Right, is in another key, more like the problem novel of our day, and is a grim picture of the evils of conventional marriage, indicating the degeneracy of his misused genius. ALMS'HOUSE. The place where the publicly supported poor are cared for, sometimes called the poorhouse, the infirmary, etc., and in England, the workhouse. Wherever indoor relief is provided, the almshouse is the central local institution throughout the United States for the eare of the aged and infirm poor, and also for able-bodied poor who are not committed as va- grants to a correctional institution. It is fre- quently located on a farm, known as the poor- farm, where light vork is given the inmates, the results being utilized to contribute toward their support. The census of 1890 gave 73,045 inmates of almshouses in the United States. Consult: A. G. Warner, American Charities, chapter vi. (Boston, 1894); Mary V. Clark, "The Alms- house," a good descriptive paper in the Ticenty- Seventh Annual Report (1900) of the National Conference of Charities and Correction (Boston, 1901). See Pauperism; Poor Laws. ALMUCANTAR, armu-kan'ter (Ar. al-ma- kavtarijt, pi. of al-miikantar, sun-dial). In as- tronomj-, a small circle of the celestial sphere parallel to the horizon. The word had fallen rather into disuse among astronomers, but has been used of late years as a name for an instru- ment invented by Cliandler. The instrument consists of a telescope supported on a metal float placed in a basin of mercury. This arrangement assures the perfect horizontality of the float, and the telescope can be used to observe heavenly bodies situated at exactly equal latitudes in the celestial hemisphere. Astronomical investiga- tions of considerable importance have been car- ried out by the use of the almucantar. AL'MY, John Jay (1814-95). An American naval otiieer. He was born in Rhode Island, and entered the navy as a midshipman in 1829. He engaged in the suppression of the African slave trade in 1843-45, and took part in the capture of Vera Cruz and Tuspan in the Mexican War. He was in the blockade service during the Civil War, and ended his career as commander of the Pacific squadron. He became a rear-admiral in 1873. and was retired in 1877. ALNASCH'AR. In the Arabian Nights, the barber's fifth brother, proverbial as a dreamer. Having put his money into a stock of glassware with which to engage in trade, he falls to imag- ining what he will do with the wealth he is to gain from it. and inadvertently kicking over the basket, smashes all his wares. The name was humorouslj' applied to S. T. Coleridge from his having dreamed the fragment of Kubla Kahn, which he wrote after waking. ALNUS, ril'nus. See Alder. ALNWICK, an'ik. The capital of the county of Northumberland. England, on the Alne, about 32 miles north of Newcastle (Map: England, E 1 ). The streets are broad, well paved, and well lighted; the houses modern, built of stone, and in some instances handsome. A large marketplace occupies the centre of the town. Alnwick