Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 19.djvu/441

* TOWEES OF SILENCE. 383 TOWN HALL. less high than might he imagined. The best con- structed are of massive stone or of bricks covered with cement. They are 20 or 30 feet high, 75 to 100 in diameter, and they resemble huge gas reservoirs in form. The top is open to the sky; the floor below is built of large slabs resembling flagging-stones: in each slab is a slight depression called a pari in which the body is laid for the 'heaven-sent birds' to devour. Small ducts lead from every pavi into the central pit where the bones are )daced after the body has been denuded of flesh by the vultures, which is accomplished in a few hours. From this central well there run four carefully constructed drains, at right angles, to carry away any deposit that might remain and conduct it through chalk, quicklime, sand, and other absorbents lest the earth might be defiled by its contact. There is little, liowever, to be led ofT thus, for the tropical sun soon parches the bones and reduces them to dust. Herodotus (Hist. i. 140) alludes to this method of disposing of the dead in ancient Iran, and the Zoroastrians, who have kept it up till the present day, maintain that it is a solution of the sani- tary question even in plague times. See Karaka, History of the Parsis (London, 1884) ; Jlodi, A Tower of Silence (Bombay, 1885) ; Jackson, "The Parsee Towers of Silence," in the Evening Post, June 8 (Xew York, 1901). TOWLE, tol, George JNUkepeace (1841-93). An American historian and journalist, born in Wasliington, D. C. He graduated at Yale in 1801, and at the Harvard Law School in 1863, and practiced law in Boston. He was United States consul at Xantes (1806-68), and at Brad- ford, England (1868-70), was editor of the Bos- ton Coiiunrrcial Bulletin (1870-71), an editor of the Boston Post (1871-76), and later was connected with Api>letO)i's Journal, The Art Journal, and The Youth's Companion. His works include: History of Henry the Fifth, King of England (1860) ; The Eastern Question (1877) ; Principalities of the Danube (1877); Beacons- field- (1878); Young Folk's Heroes of History (1870-82); Modern France, 1S5JI-1[) (1879); Certain Men of Mark (1880); England and Russia in Asia (1885); England in Egypt (1885) ; Young People's History of England (1888) ; and Young People's History of Ireland (1887). TOWN (AS. tun, OHG. xun, Ger. Zauti, hedge, inclosure; connected with Ir. dun, Welsh din, hill fort). The name applied generally throughout the United States to small munici- palities or urban conununities between the village and the city. In New England it more often denotes a quasi-corporate area, either urban or rural, constituting a subdivision of the county, which elsewhere is usually called the town- ship or supervisor's district. (For the urban town, see Mv:*icip.lity, ob JMunicip.l Corpo- ration.) The Xew England town is the most im- portant local administrative unit in the govern- mental system. The centre of political activity is the 'town meeting,' which meets usiially once a year and may be attended by all the legal voters of the town. It discusses measures of conmion interest to the town, elects the town officers, and votes the taxes for the ensuing year. The government of the Xew England town is, therefore, a pure democracy, and the only real example of the kind in the American political system. The 'town meeting' governs through a body of ollicers, varying according to the needs of the conmumity. Thcjse are usually the select- men, varying in number from three to nine, who are the executive magistrates of the town, the town clerk, treasurer, constables, tax asses- sors, overseers of the poor, and school trus- tees. In some towns there are such ollicers as field drivers, pound-keepers, fence-viewers, meas- urers, sealers, etc. In England the word town applies to the small municipalities as in the United States, although the word borough is used to designate certain of the old towns. See Township. Consult: Asliley, "The Anglo-Saxon Townsliip," in Quarterly Journal of Economics ; Adams, Study of Church and Town (lovernment (1892); Bryce, American Commonwealth (Lon- don and New York, 1900). TOWN HALL. A building for the legislative and administrative business of a town or city. In the wider sense it comprises two chief divi- sions, the public offices of the Mayor and various municipal administrations, and the chambers for the meetings of the legislative bodies of the city (Aldermen and Council). In small towns court rooms and a jail aie added, and a large public hall is also often provided. A belfry and clock-tower is a feature of nearly all French, German, Flemish, and British town halls, and of many of the more notable American examples. The French treat with especial eft'ectiveness the entrances, lobbies, and grand stairways of their town halls. The oldest examples of the town hall in Eu- rope belong to the iliddlo Ages. They date from the time of recognition of the right of municipal self-government, of which they are the expression. In Southern France the town hall of Saint An- tonin (twelfth century) is one of the oldest in Europe. In Italy there grew up by the thirteenth century almost as many States as cities, each of which provided itself in time with one or more munici]ial buildings according to its pai-tieular form of administration. Of these the greater part date from the late thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries, some of the most important being those at Cremona (124.5) : at Sienna the superb red brick Palazzo Puliblico with its slender tower (1289) ; at Pistoia the two palaces del Podesta and del Comune (1294-1385); at Florence the vast Palazzo Vecchio (1298), with its impressive tower overhanging the street ; the Doge's Palace at Venice: the elegant Palazzo del Consiglio at Verona (1473). The Renaissance added but few to the Italian list. In Germany the Riithaus or ilunicipal Council house appears in the four- teenth century (e.g. Brunswick), but the finest and most numerous examples belong to the lienaissance. as at Bremen. Cologne. Liibeck. .- tenburg. Augsburg, and X'uremberg, with pic- turesque towers and high gables. But few medifeval town halls remain in France, that of Conipi^gne being the finest ( late fifteenth cen- tury ). The Renaissance gave France the fine town halls of Beaugency. Rheims. Rouen. Lyons, and Paris, the last two now replaced by modern edifices, recalling the original structures. The Paris ex- ample is the largest and most splendid of miKlern town halls, especially in its interior decorations. Very notable ai-e the sumptuously ornate Belgian town halls of the fifteenth century at Brussels,