LANDFALL 409 LANDOR LANDFALL, the first sighting of land in the course of a voyage, or the land so sighted or discovered, as, the landfall of Columbus in Guanahani, in the New World. LAND GRANT, a grant made by Con- gress to assist railroad companies to se- cure funds, by the sale of bonds secured by lands so granted, to construct lines of railway through parts of the United States where the local traffic would not pay the running expenses. About 215,- 000,000 acres of land were given to the various railroads of the country by the government. The Illinois Central re- ceived a strip 12 miles wide, running the whole length of Illinois; the Northern Pacific received 47,000,000 acres; the At- lantic and Pacific, 42,000,000; the Union Pacific, 13,000,000 and other roads in proportion. Congress has also made many grants of land to the several States and Territories to promote public ed- ucation. LANDGRAVE (LANDGRAF), a Ger- man title adopted in the 12th century to distinguish a governor of a district or province from the inferior counts under his jurisdiction. Also the title of each of three princes of the German empire, whose territories were called landgravi- ates. LANDIS, KENESAW MOUNTAIN, an American jurist, born at Millville, Ohio in 1866. He was educated in the public schools of Logansport, Ind., and studied law at the Union College of Law in Chicago, In 1891 he was admitted to the bar and practiced law until 1905. He was appointed district judge of the Northern District of Illinois in 1905. He presided at the trial of many impor- tant cases including the Standard Oil rebate cases. In 1920 he was elected chairman of the National Baseball Com- mission. LAND LEAGUE, an association pro- jected by Charles S. Parnell, which came into being at a meeting held in Dublin, Nov. 18, 1879. Nominally the pro- gramme was the "three F's" — fixity of tenure, fair rent, and free sale (of the tenant's interest) ; but many speakers at Land League meetings, demanded that the soil should belong to the cultivator. Opposition by direct violence was dep- recated, and recourse was had to boy- cotting. This state of things continued till the end of 1880, when 14 members of the Land League, of whom the most im- portant were Parnell, Dillon, Biggar, T. D. Sullivan, and T. Sexton, were in- dicted. The trial, which took place early in 1881, was a fiasco, but it drew from Justice Fitzgerald the declaration that the Land League was an illegal body. A Ladies' Land League, under the presi- dency of Miss Anna Parnell, was then formed. The agitation increased, and the "No Rent" cry became more frequent. On Oct. 7 Gladstone denounced Parnell, and soon afterward Parnell, Dillon, Sex- ton, O'Kelly, and the chief officials of the League, were arrested and imprisoned in Kilmainham. They issued a mani- festo calling on the Irish tenants to pay no rent during their imprisonment. The government replied by declaring the Land League an illegal body, and sup- pressed its branches throughout the country. LAND OF BONDAGE, a Scripture name for Egypt, in allusion to the harsh treatment received by the Israelites dur- ing the latter part of their sojourn in that country. LANDON, LETITIA ELIZABETH (MRS. MACLEAN), an English poet and novelist; born in Chelsea, London, Aug. 14, 1802. She was a poet of genu- ine feeling and descriptive power, and published under the pseudonym of "L. E. L.": "The Improvisatrice, and Other Poems" (1824) ; "The Golden Violet," etc. (1841); and several novels. In June, 1838, she married Mr. George Mac- lean, governor of Cape Coast Castle. She died in Cape Coast Castle, Africa, Oct. 15, 1838. LANDON, MELVILLE DE LANCET (pseudonym Eli Perkins), an Ameri- can humorist; born in Eaton, N. Y., Sept. 7, 1839. Among his works are: "History of the Franco-Prussian War" (1871) ; "Saratoga in 1901" (1870) ; "Thirty Years of Wit" (1890); "Eli Perkins on Money" (1895). He died in 1910. LANDOR, WALTER SAVAGE, an English poet; born in Warwick, England, Jan. 30, 1775. He was educated at Rugby and Oxford. He inherited con- siderable wealth. During the Peninsular War, raising a troop of cavalry at his own cost, he fought for the Spanish cause till the restoration of Ferdinand VII. After his marriage, in 1811, he took up his abode in Flovence, where he resided for several years, and where many of his works were written. His principal poetical works are "Gebir, Count Julian and other Poems"; "Hel- lenics"; "Poems and Inscriptions"; "Dry Sticks"; and "Last Fruit of an Old Tree" (1853). His most important prose work is the "Imaginary Conversations of Lit- erary Men and Statesmen," which ap- peared, in five volumes between 1824 and
