BLAND SILVER BILL 59 of Congress in 1873-1895 and from 1897 till his death. In 1896 he was a con- spicuous candidate for the Presidential nomination in the Democratic National Convention. Mr. Bland was best known as the leader in the Lower House of Con- gress of the Free-Silver movement, and the author of the Bland Silver Bill. He died in Lebanon, Mo., June 15, 1899. See Bland Silver Bill. BLAND SILVER BILL, one of the most notable measures of American Con- gressional history. The original bill, as introduced by Representative Bland and passed by the House late in 1877, pro- vided simply for the free and unlimited coinage of silver by all the mints of the United States. This program represented the full policy of the Silver men. The silver dollar had been demonetized by the act of 1873, and its coinage had been wholly abandoned. The Bimetallists de- sired to restore it to perfect equality with gold as a standard of value, and the original Bland bill, permitting owners of silver bullion to have their commodity coined into dollars by the mints, was in- tended as the means to accomplish that object. But the Senate amended the measure materially. The free coinage clause was stricken out, and, as a con- cession to the Silver men, it was directed that the Secretary of the Treasury should purchase monthly not less than $2,000,000 and not more than $4,000,- 000 worth of silver bullion, at the market price of the metal, and coin it into standard silver dollars, which should be unlimited legal tender for all debts. The amended bill was reported by Senator Allison, Chairman of the Finance Com- mittee, and hence received the name of the Bland-Allison Act. It was vetoed by President Hayes, but passed over his veto, Feb. 28, 1878, by 196 to 73 in the House, and by 46 to 19 in the Senate. The silver purchase clause in this act was repealed by the Sherman Act of 1890. BLANKENBURG, RUDOLPH, an American business man and politician, born in Lippe-Detmold, Germany, in 1843, whei'e he received his education. He came to the United States in 1865, and embarked on a business career, first as an employee and afterward on his own account in Philadelphia. There he became prominent in civic movements, and in 1905 was elected county com- missioner by a large majority. He was chosen mayor two years later and served until 1916. He was an extensive traveler and a frequent contributor to periodicals. He died April 12, 1918. BLASCO IBANEZ BLANKET, a coarse, heavy, loosely woven, woolen stuff, usually napped and sometimes twilled, used for covering one when in bed. The word is also applied to anything fitted to intercept vision, the allusion being to the fact that a blanket was formerly used as a curtain in front of the stage. BLANK VERSE, verse which is void of rhjrme; any kind of verse in which there is not rhyme, blanched or omitted. The verse of the Greeks and Romans — at least such of it as has come down to us — is without rhyme. The first attempt at blank verse in English appears to have been a translation of the first and fourth books of the "^neid" by the Earl of Surrey, who was executed in 1547. Its suitability for the drama was at once felt, and it was in general use in dra- matic composition before Shakespeare began to write, which is supposed to have been about 1591. It was, however, almost entirely confined to the drama down to the appearance of "Paradise Lost," by Milton, in 1667. Since Milton's time, blank verse has come into use in various kinds of poetry besides the dramatic; but it is principally in the heroic meter of 10 syllables that blank verse is used, and, indeed, by some the term is re- stricted to that kind of meter. BLAPSID.ffi, a family of nocturnal black beetles, whose wings are generally obsolete and their elytra soldered to- gether. They frequent gloomy, damp places, and when seized discharge, in self-defense, a liquid of a peculiar, pene- trating odor. Blaps mortisaga, or church- yard bettle, is the most familiar British specimen. BLARNEY, a village in Ireland, 4 miles N. W. of the city of Cork, with Blarney Castle in its vicinity. A stone called the Blarney Stone, near the top of the castle, is said to confer on those who kiss it the peculiar kind of persuasive eloquence alleged to be characteristic of the natives of Ireland. BLASCO IBANEZ, VICENTE, Span- ish novelist; born 1866. He early be- came active in radical agitation, and suf- fered several terms of imprisonment for too fiery expression of his political con- victions. He has represented Valencia in the Cortes as a Republican deputy. It is as a novelist, however, that he is best known. His novels, "La Catedral," "La Barraca," "El Intruso," have a great vogue in Spain. After the war began he gained a wider audience in the world at large by his "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," based on the German inva-
