Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/806

* HELODERMA. 746 HELSINGBORG. D. C, 1900) ; for external appearance and habits, see Gila Monster. HELOi'SE, i'lo'ez'. See Ab£lard. H:^'L0S (Lat., from Gk. "EXos, from kos, lielos, mareli)- A town of Laconia, near the coast and a short distance east of the mouth of the Eurotas, said to have been founded b}- Helens, son of Perseus. When the Dorians invaded the Pelopon- nesus, Helos defended itself with great stubborn- ness; it was finally taken and the inhabitants were made slaves. In Strabo's time it had become a village, and when Pausanias visited it it was already in ruins. The Helots were sup- posed to have received their name from this town; but the most probable view is that the ethnic term is related to the root eX-, take. The plain of the lower Eurotas is still called Helos. There were several other towns of this name in ancient Greece — one mentioned in the Iliad, and one situated in Argolis. HEL'OTISM (from Lat. Eelota, Gk. EiXcirj;!, Beilotcs, or EiTius, fleilos. Helot). A symbiotic relation in which one subject (see Symbiosis) is regarded (perhaps somewhat fancifully) as enslaved by another. This relation differs from parasitism in that the enslaved form is not neces- sarily harmed; it may even be benefited. Lichens (q.v. ) have been given as the type of helotism, the alga being regarded as enslaved by the fungus. HELOTS, he'lots or hel'ots (Lat. Eelotm, from Gk. Ei'XojTes, Eeilotes, or EiXwrai, Eeilofai; probably connected with AeiK, helein, to seize, less plausiuly with "EXos, lielos, a town of La- conia, whence the first Helots were said to have been enslaved). The lowest of the three classes into which the population of ancient Laconia was divided. The Helots were serfs of the soil, the prop- erty' of the State, by whom alone they could be freed, but assigned to individual Spartans for the cultivation of their allotments of land. If the Helots were originally the descendants of the pre-Doriaii population, the distinction of dialect and descent was early lost, for there is no indi- cation of any social or linguistic difference be- tween them and the ruling Spartans. The Helots paid the Spartan proprietors a fixed amount of produce, but could keep the remainder, and were thus enabled to acquire property. In fact, in general appearance and intelligence they seem to have been niuch like the free village population in other parts of Greece. In war they served as light-armed troops or on shipboard, and after the Peloponnesiaii War were sometime; employed in the heavy infantry, especially in Asia Minor. They were subject to harsh treatment, and were in the absolute power of the Ephors, though many of the ancient stories are scarcely trustworthy. Their great superiority in numbers and their known discontent rendered them objects of sus- picion ; and during the Peloponnesiaii War 2000 of them, who claimed to have rendered distin- guished services, were freed and then secretly murdered (see Thucyd. iv. 20). The Spartan secret service ( KpvTrrela ), in which the young men were sent singly tlirough the land to endure hardships and watch symptoms of discontent, kept the Helots under close observation, and any who showed special strength or intelligence are said to have been secretly assassinated. The statement that the Ephors annually declared formal war upon the Helots is doubtless an error. HELP. The character in Bunyan's Pilgrim's I'rogiess by whom Christian is rescued from the Slough of Despond. HELP'ER, HiNTO.N Rowan (1829—). An American author and railway projector. He was born near Jloeksville. X. C; graduated at Jlocks- ville Academy in 1848, and from 1851 to 1854 lived in California. In 1857 he pulilished a book entitled The Impending Crisis in the Houth, and How to Meet It, which perhaps did more to arouse a widespread opposition in the North to the institution of slavery than any other book except Vnelc 7'om's Cabin. This book was dedi- cated to the "non-slaveholding whites' of the South, and was written to prove that, wholly aside from its immorality, slavery was an eco- nomic curse. Between 1857 and 1801 nearly 150.000 copies of the book were circulated, and in 1800 the Republican Part.v distributed it as a campaign document. From 1861 to 18G6 Helper as United States Consul at Buenos Ayres, Ar- gentine Republic, and afterwards devoted his attention chiefly to the promotion of his project- ed intercontinental railway, or 'Tliree Americas Railway," to extend eventually from Bering Sea to the Strait of Magellan. In addition to The Impending Crisis, his publications include: The Land of Gold (1865) ; Sojoque: A Question of a Continent (1867); The Negroes in Segrolaixd, the Negroes in Ameriea, and the Negroes Gen- erally (1868) ; Oddments of Andean Diplomacy/ (1879) : and The Three Americas Railway (18S1). HELPS, Sir Arthub (1813-75). An English essaj'ist, born at Streatham, Surrey. He was educated at Eton, and at Trinity College. Cam- bridge, where he graduated B.A. in 18.35 and M.A" in 1839. He obtained a post in the civil service, but resigned in 1841 and retired to the country, where he cultivated his taste for litera- ture, in 1860 he was appointed clerk of the Pri'y Council, a post which he held until his death. For Queen Victoria he edited the speeches of the Prince Consort (1862), and prepared for the press her own Highland journals (1868-69). After beginning his literarv career in 1835 with a series of aphorisms entitled Thoughts in the Cloister and the Crowd, Helps attempted the essay, the novel, the drama, and history. With the drama and the novel he failed utterly; with history he succeeded moderatelv. In this field his best work is represented by Las Casas { 1868), Columhns (I860), Pizarro (1869), and Cortez (1871) — biographies which grew out of his Con- querors of the Neip World and Their Bond.^men (1848-52), and The Spayiish Conquest in America (4 vols., 1855-61). By his essays he won his contemporary fame, especially bv Friends in Council (1st series 1847; 2d series 1850). It consists of conversations on social and intellectual questions. Helps exhibits throughout these dia- logues acuteness. humor, a satire which gives no pain, and a quiet depth of moral feeling and sense of man's social responsibilities. HELSINGBORG, hel'sing-bor-y'. A fortified seaport of Sweden, situated at the narrowest point of the sound, opposite the Danish town of Elsinore, with which it is connected by ferry (Map: Sweden, E 8). Several railroad lines run into the town, and it carries on a floui'ishing trade with Denmark. It exports iron ore. bricks, earthenware, grain, and fish : imports coal, min-