Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/348

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BOOTH
BORDA

cities. He went into Germany in the autumn of 1882, and was there received with extraordinary enthusiasm. In 1883 he returned home and resumed his starring tours of America. Booth acted many parts in his day, but of late years his repertory had been limited to Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Iago, Wolsey, Richard III, Shylock, Richard II, Benedick, Petruchio, Richelieu, Payne's Brutus, Bertuccio (in “The Fool's Revenge,” by Tom Taylor), Ruy Blas, and Don Cæsar de Bazan. He published an edition of these plays, in fifteen volumes, the text cut and adapted by himself for stage use, with introductions and notes by William Winter (Boston, 1877-'8).


BOOTH, Mary H. C., poet, b. in Connecticut in 1831; d. in New York city, 11 April, 1865. She married a journalist, and went to reside in Milwaukee, Wis., about 1850. She lived in Zurich, Switzerland, several years for the benefit of her health, and while there corresponded with American journals. In 1804, just before her return to the United States, she published a volume of poetry, partly original and partly translated, entitled “Wayside Blossoms among Flowers from German Gardens” (Milwaukee). She reached New York in the last stage of consumption, but succeeded, before her death, in preparing a revised edition of her poetry (Philadelphia, 1805).


BOOTH, Mary Louise, author, b. in Millville, now Yaphank, N. Y., 19 April, 1831; d. in New York city, 5 March, 1889. She was descended on her father's side from John Booth, who came to America about 1649, while her mother was the granddaughter of a refugee of the French revolution. At an early age she became a contributor to various journals. In 1845 and 1846 she taught in her father's school at Williamsburg, L. I., but gave up that pursuit on account of her health, and devoted herself to literature. Besides writing tales and sketches for newspapers and magazines, she translated from the French “The Marble-Worker's Manual” (New York, 1856) and “The Clock and Watch Maker's Manual.” She translated Mery's “André Chenier” and About's “King of the Mountains” for “Emerson's Magazine,” which also published original articles from her pen. She next translated Victor Cousin's “Secret History of the French Court: or, Life and Times of Madame de Chevreuse” (1859). The same year appeared the first edition of her “History of the City of New York,” which was the result of great research. After its publication Miss Booth assisted O. W. Wight in making a series of translations of the French classics, and she also translated Edmund About's “Germaine” (Boston, 1860). During the civil war she engaged in the patriotic task of translating the writings of eminent Frenchmen in favor of the cause of the union, and these were published in rapid succession: Gasparin's “Uprising of a Great People” and “America before Europe” (New York, 1861), Edouard Laboulaye's “Paris in America” (New York, 1865), and Augustin Cochin's “Results of Emancipation” and “Results of Slavery” (Boston, 1862). For this work she received praise and encouragement from President Lincoln, Senator Sumner, and other statesmen. During the entire war she maintained a correspondence with Gasparin, Cochin, Henri Martin, Laboulaye, Montalembert, and other European sympathizers with the union. She also translated at that time the Countess de Gasparin's “Vesper,” “Camille,” and “Human Sorrows,” and Count Gasparin's “Happiness.” Documents forwarded to her by French friends of the union were translated and published in pamphlets, issued by the union league club, or printed in the New York journals. Miss Booth's next undertaking was a translation of Henri Martin's “History of France.” The two volumes treating of “The Age of Louis XIV.” were issued in 1864, and two others, the last of the seventeen volumes of the original work, in 1866 under the title of “The Decline of the French Monarchy.” It was intended to follow these with the other volumes from the beginning, but, although two others were translated by Miss Booth, the enterprise was abandoned for lack of success, and no more were printed. Her translation of Martin's abridgment of his “History of France” appeared in 1880. She also translated Laboulaye's “Fairy Book,” and Macé's “Fairy Tales.” An enlarged edition of the “History of the City of New York” was printed in 1867, and a second revised edition, brought down to date, in 1880. Miss Booth was the editor of “Harper's Bazar” since its establishment in 1867.


BOOTH, Newton, senator, b. in Salem, Ind., 25 Dec, 1825: d. in Sacramento, Cal., 14 July, 1892. He was graduated at Asbury University, after which he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. Subsequently he removed to California, and engaged in business as a wholesale grocer in Sacramento. In 1857 he returned to Terre Haute, where he practised his profession until 1860, when he again went to California. He was elected to the state senate in 1863, and in 1871 to the governorship on an independent ticket. This office he resigned in 1875, when he was elected to the U. S. senate as an anti-monopolist. He took his seat on 9 March, 1875. and served until 3 March, 1881. Subsequently he engaged in commercial occupations in California.


BOOTT, Elizabeth, artist, b. in Cambridge, Mass. She studied painting on the continent, of Europe, ending her studies in Paris with Couture, remained in that city, and devoted herself mainly to figure-painting. She sent a portrait to the Philadelphia centennial exhibition. Some of her pictures were exhibited in Boston in 1877; and at the mechanics' fair in Boston in 1878 she exhibited “Head of a Tuscan Ox” and “Old Man Reading.” At the national academy exhibition of 1886 she had “Hydrangias” and “Old Woman Spinning.”


BORDA, Jean Charles de, French navigator, b. in Dax, 4 May, 1733; d. in Paris, 20 Feb., 1799. When a young man, he served in both the army and navy. He commanded the ship "Solitaire" with great distinction during the American war of independence, rose to the rank of major-general, and by his scientific knowledge was of great service to the Count d'Estaing. He was chosen a member of the academy in 1756, and contributed valuable papers to it on the subjects of projectiles and the construction of ships. In 1771 he was employed by the government on an expedition to ascertain the value of chronometers in determining longitudes. In 1771, 1774, and at a later period, he made voyages to America for scientific purposes, of which he published an account. He was one of the commissioners, with Delambre and Mechain, to determine an arc of the meridian as a basis for the metric system of weights and measures, and was sent on several expeditions to decide this question. He invented an instrument for measuring the inclination of the magnetic needle. His corrections of the seconds pendulum are still in use; but his reputation rests principally on his improvement of the reflecting circle, on which instrument he published a work (2 vols., Paris, 1787). He also published several able treatises on hydraulics, wrote on mathematics and navigation, and constructed logarithmic tables for the centesimal division of