escaped to Belgium, where he issued a pamphlet defending his action during the Commune. On his failure to appear before the court he was condemned to death, and remained in Belgium until 1879, when he was included in the amnesty proclaimed by Grévy. During his exile he continued his active collaboration on La République française. In 1873 he fought a duel with Paul de Cassagnac, and he acted as second to Clémenceau more than once. He energetically defended the republic against the Boulangist agitation, and took an equally courageous part in the Dreyfus affair. In the Picquart-Henry duel he was second to Colonel Picquart. He succeeded Clémenceau as editor of the Aurore, in which Zola's letter “J'accuse” had appeared, and was president of the Association of Republican Journalists. In 1903 he became senator for Corsica, and died on the 10th of August 1908.
In addition to his purely political writings, Arthur Ranc published political novels of the Second Empire, Sous l'empire (1872) and Le roman d'une conspiration (1868).
RANCÉ, ARMAND JEAN LE BOUTHILLIER DE (1626-1700), founder of the Trappist Cistercians. He was born in Paris of a noble and influential family of Normandy; hence, being destined to the ecclesiastical state, he was when ten years old commendatory abbot of La Trappe and two other abbeys, prior of two priories, and canon of Nôtre Dame, Paris. At twelve he published a translation of Anacreon. He went through his course of theological studies with great distinction, defeating Bossuet at the Baccalaureat in theology. He was ordained in 1651, and embarked on the ambitious and worldly career of a court abbé in the days of Louis XIV. But after a few years he underwent a complete change of life, and in 1662
he retired to his abbey of La Trappe, of which he became regular abbot in 1664 and introduced an austere reform (see Trappists). The best known episode of his subsequent life was the “Contestation” with Mabillon on the lawfulness of monks devoting themselves to study, which De Rancé denied. He resigned his abbacy in 1695, owing to declining health, and died in 1700.
(E. C. B.)
RANCH, a term in current usage among the English-speaking peoples for a large farm, particularly one for cattle or horse breeding. The word came into use in this application in the western states of North America, and was an adaptation of the Spanish-American rancho, herdsmen's huts; in Spanish a gathering of people having their meals in common, a mess.
RANCHI, a town and district of British India, in the Chota Nagpur division of Bengal. The town, which is situated on the Chota Nagpur plateau, about 2100 ft. above sea-level, is the headquarters of both the division and the district. Pop. (1901) 25,970. It is an important centre of local trade and the headquarters of the German Lutheran mission. There are a high school and an industrial school, and it is proposed to found here a residential college for all Bengal. The Cantonments, formerly, called Doranda, accommodate a detachment of native infantry.
The District of Ranchi, formerly called Lohardaga after the town which was its headquarters, has an area of 7128 sq. m. It consists of two tablelands, of which the higher rises to about 2000 ft. The whole area is broken by hills and undulations, which are terraced for rice. The steep slopes are covered with a dense forest, where wild animals still abound, but no profit is derived from the timber. The principal rivers are the Subanarekhà and the North and South Koel. In 1901 the population was 1,187,925, showing an increase of 5.2% in the decade. Christians form 10% of the total. The district was affected by the famine of 1896-1897, and still more severely by that of 1900. Rice is everywhere the staple crop, with some millets and pulses. Tea cultivation has been introduced, but does not flourish. The only industry on a large scale is the manufacture of shellac. Myrobalans are also exported. Iron and soapstone are worked in small quantities. Hopes of profitable gold-mining in the quartz veins of the schist formation have proved abortive. There is no railway in the district, though surveys have been made to connect with the Bengal-Nagpur line.
See F. B. Bradley-Birt, Chota Nagpur (1903).
RAND, a Dutch word meaning border, edge, used in South Africa to designate a low rounded range of hills; specifically it is an abbreviated form of Witwatersrand, an elevated ridge in the southern Transvaal, forming the water-parting between the basins of the Orange and Limpopo. The Rand is famous for its gold-bearing reefs (see Gold), and the word is often used as a synonym for the mining industry carried on over a great part of its area, or for Johannesburg (q.v.), the city which that industry created.
RANDALL, SAMUEL JACKSON (1828-1890), American politician, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 10th of October 1828. He was educated in the public schools and in the University Academy, Philadelphia. In 1858-1859 he was a Democratic member of the state Senate. During the Civil War he served as a private in the Union army for ninety days in 1861, and two years later took part in the Gettysburg campaign as a volunteer. From 1863 until his death he was a Democratic representative in Congress. During the session of 1874-1875 he first gained a national reputation by the masterful manner in which he revented the Republican majority from passing the Force Bill or Federal Election law. Under his leadership discipline and party harmony were established among the Democrats for the first time after the Civil War.
He was speaker of the House from December 1876 to March 1881, during a period marked by rancorous debates concerning the disputed Hayes-Tilden presidential election. With the disappearance of the Reconstruction questions and the emergence of the tariff issue, however, his influence began to wane. As the leader of the Protectionist wing of the party he was superseded by the tariff reform advocates, such as John G. Carlisle, William R. Morrison, and Roger Q. Mills, Carlisle defeating him for the speakership in 1883. He died in Washington, D.C., on the 13th of April 1890.
RANDAN, a name for a boat rowed by three persons, stroke and bow using a single oar each and the central person a pair of sculls. The word is of unknown origin, and can hardly be connected with a slang term for a row or spree, which is found as early as the beginning of the 18th century and is generally taken as a variation of “random,” haphazard.
RANDAZZO, a town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, at the N. foot of Mount Etna, 43 m. N. by W. of Catania by rail, and 26 m. direct. Pop. (1901) 11,798. It has considerable remains of architecture of the 13th and 14th centuries, including three Norman churches and some interesting palaces. The former contain some fine sculptures and goldsmith's work (Mauceri in L'Arte, 1906, 185). It is the nearest town to the summit of Etna (9 m.), and is one of the points from which the ascent may be made.
RANDERS, a town of Denmark, capital of the amt (county) of its name in Jutland, on the Gudenaa at the point where it begins to widen into Randers Fjord, an inlet of the Cattegat. Pop. (1901) 20,057. The town is 15 m. from the open Cattegat and the harbour has 15 ft. depth on the bar. The chief exports are butter and eggs; the chief imports sugar, petroleum, coal and iron. Two railways run north to Aalborg, continuing the main East Jutland line from the south, and an eastward branch serves Grenaa and Aebeltoft on the coast. Though a place of considerable antiquity ― being mentioned in 1086 as the meeting ― place of insurgents against Knud, the saint ― Randers has few remains of old buildings and bears the stamp of a compact, modern manufacturing town that owes its importance to its distilleries, manufactories of gloves, railway carriages, &c. St Marten's church dates from the 14th century, but was frequently altered and enlarged down to 1870. It has good woodwork of the 17th century. The high school is housed
