Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/454

PARSON. has full possession of all the rights of a paro- chial church, as the representative or imper- sonator of the Church, which is an invisible body. The term is collo<]uial]y applied in a loose sense to any clergyman.

PARSON-BIRD, or Tici. A small, noisy forest dwelling bird of Xew Zealand {Prosthe- madern yovfF-ZealandicB, of the family Meli- phacrids ) . Its plumage is blaek. excepting two small outgrowths of white feathers, one on each side of the throat, which suggest the "bands' of a

THE i'.ESOS BIRD.

clerg}"man in the pulpit robes of the Church of England. It "utters a wild song, laughs, coughs, sneezes, and mimics generally." Consult BuUer, Birds of Sew Zealand (London, 2d ed., 18S8). See Plate of Cbeepeks.

PAR'SONS. A city in Labette County, Kan., 137 miles .-outh by west of Kansas City, on the Mi.ssouri, Kansas and Texas and the Saint Louis and San Francisco railroads (Map: Kansas, G 4). One of the State insane hospitals has been located here, and five of the buildings are in process of erection. Among other prominent structures are the high school, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas railroad depot, the Catholic Church, Rasbach Hotel, the business college, the Masonic building, and the railroad Y. M. C. A. Thereare two fine parks — Forrest and Glenwood. The Missouri. Kansas and Texas maintains here car and machine shops, and its general olfices for the State. The industrial establishments include also flouring and feed mills, grain elevators, a creameiy, foundry, handle factory, chicken-feed factories, etc. Xatural gas is generally used for fuel and lighting. Founded and incorporated as a third-class city in 1871. Parsons became a city of the second class in 1873. The jjovernment is administered by a Mayor, elected every two years, and a council. Population, in 1890, 6736; 'in 1900. 7682.

PARSONS, Albert Ross (1847—). An American musician and archaeologist, born at Sanduskv, Ohio. He studied music with several American teachers: with iloscheles. Rcinecke, Papperitz, and Richeter in Leipzig, 186/ -69, and with Tausig, Weitzmann, and Kullak in Berlin. 1870-71. He became a very successful ieacher and composer, and his songs arc especial- ly popular. "Xight Has a Thousand Eyes. "Break, Break." and "Three Fishers" have been extensively sung throughout America and Europe. During his career as a teacher he originated the 'svnthetic method' for pianoforte: he trans- lated Wagner's Jieethnven (1870): wrote Pnrsi- fal; Xeic Light from the Great Pi/ramid (1893), a study in cosmic religion and prehistoric Chns- • tianity"; and edited KuUak's Complete Works of Chopin. He held several important New York church organistships; in 1889 was elected presi- dent of the Music Teachers' National Associa- tion, and subsequently acted as president of the American College of Musicians of the Cniversily of the State of New York, and vice-president of the Metropolitan College of Music.

PARSONS, AlJBED WitLlAM (1847—). An English painter, born at Beckington. He studied at Heatherley's. and at the South Kcn.-iu'.'ton art schools, and afterwards worked bj' himself from nature. He first exhibited at the Koyal Academy in 1871. His best known pictures are water- colors of English scenery. They arc carefully drawn and brilliant in color. His works include "When Nature Painted All Things G.ay" (1887), bought by the Chantrey bequest; "A Mid-M.iy Morning." "The First Frost." and "The Village by the Links." He received a gold medal for water-color and a silver medal for oil painting at Paris in 1889, two medals at Chicago in 1893, and a second-class gold medal at Munich in 1893. He also worked in blaek and white, and his illus- trations include those done with E. A. AblK-y for Old fiongs and A Quiet Life; The Wartcick- shire Avon; Wordsicorlh's Sonnets: and The Danube from the Black Forest to the Black (ira (1891).

PARSONS, Ch.U!LEs (1821—). An Ameri- can iiaiiikr and illustrator, born in Manchester, England. He studied at the National .cademy of Design in New York City, and afterwards worked in lithography. From 1861 until 1889 he had charge of the art department of Harper and Brothers, New York City. His work in- cludes landscapes and marines, which are usually in water-color, and. like his illustrations, are notable for their picturesque qualities. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1860, and a member of the .merican Water-Color Society.

PARSONS, Fba.-k (1854—). -American educator, linrn at Mount Holly. N. .J. He gradu- ated at Cornell in 1873, and in 1S97 became pro- fessor of history and political science at the Kansas Agricultural College. In 1900 he was appointed professor of political science and economics at Kuskin College, Missouri, and, in 1892. lecturer on law at Boston University. His publications include: Our Countrifs .Vrcd (1894); The Drift of Our Time (1898): The .A'eiP Political Economy (1899): and Direct Legixhilinn (1900).

PARSONS, or PERSONS. Robebt (1546- 1610). An English Jesuit and controversialist, born at Nether Stowey, Somersetshire. .Tunc 24, 1546 He is said to have been the son of a blacksmith. Educated at Saint Mary's Hall ami Balliol College. Oxford, he was elected fellow of Balliol (1568) and subsequently dean (lpi4). Parsons had declared to Dr. Clarke that the story of his bein" a Catholic was slander, but in 15.4 he left Oxford for Rome, where he was receive, into the Society of Jesus (1575), and "rd-ninrjl priest (1578)." In 1580 he was sent with F.I mund Campion to England to help the seeular clergy He made manv converts among the no- bilitv. Havinff set up a printing press, which was "moved about from place to place, he issm-.i. in conjunction with Campion, many jKimphlets. amon" which were A Brief Discourse Conta,m«g Certain R4:asons tchy Catholics Refuse to Go to-