Main Traveled Roads; Wayside Courtships; Prairie Folks; Ulysses Grant: His Life and Character; The Trial of the Gold-Seekers; and Boy-Life on the Prairie.
Garnet, a mineral found distributed in crystals through many crystalline rocks. The commonest form are crystals of 12 or 24 sides, and the commonest color is some shade of red, but brown, yellow, green and black varieties are known. All garnets contain much silica; in fact, they are silicates; the others' constituents vary, and they are divided into a number of groups, according to what they contain. Among the best-known kinds are alumina-lime garnets, alumina-iron garnets, lime-iron garnets, etc. They also have popular names, as cinnamon-store, oriental garnet, common garnet. The garnets of commerce are brought from Bohemia, Ceylon, Peru and Brazil; and the most esteemed kinds are commonly called Syrian garnets. The stones vary in size from the smallest that can be worked to the size of a hazelnut. Larger ones usually have flaws or impurities.
Garonne (gȧ′rōn′), the principal river in the southwest of France, rises within the Spanish frontier in the Pyrenees, 6,142 feet above the sea. Flowing in a general northwesterly direction, it is joined by several tributaries, and widening into the estuary which bears the name of the Gironde, about 50 miles long, enters the Atlantic at Pointe de Grave. The total length is about 346 miles, and it drains an area of some 22,020 square miles. Ocean-steamers go up the river as far as Bordeaux and small craft as far as Cazeres. At Toulouse it is joined by the Central Canal, which, running eastward to the Mediterranean, forms with the Garonne a means of communication between that sea and the Atlantic. The valley of the Garonne is noted for its beauty.
Gar′rick, David, a celebrated British actor and dramatist, was born at Hereford, England, Feb. 20, 1717. He studied for a few months under Samuel Johnson, and in 1737 master and pupil set out for London. After some preparation Garrick made his appearance as an actor in 1741. At first he played minor parts, but his success as Richard III was so great that the other theaters were deserted. In 1747 he became manager of Drury Lane theater, which he continued to direct till 1776, when he retired from the stage. During this period Garrick was the great attraction and played continually, his only rest being a trip to the Continent. He died on Jan. 20, 1779, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. As an actor Garrick occupies the first rank. He found the stage given over to formality and tradition, and in their place he left the impress of his own naturalness. He was equally at home in tragedy, comedy and farce. His dramatic productions are of little value. See Percy Fitzgerald's Life of Garrick.
Gar′rison, William Lloyd, an American journalist and abolitionist, was born at
WM. L. GARRISON
Newburyport, Mass., Dec. 10, 1805. After trying shoemaking and cabinet-making, he became a printer on the Newburyport Herald, and when only 16 began to write for the newspapers, trying to arouse an interest in the slavery-question. In 1824 he became editor of the Herald and accepted some of Whittier's earliest poems, when their author was yet unknown to fame. Later he became editor of the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Baltimore, and was imprisoned for his outspoken antislavery views. In 1831 he founded The Liberator in Boston, without capital or subscribers, a paper which he carried on until slavery was abolished. He was threatened with imprisonment and even with assassination, and a mob severely handled him in Boston in 1835, but he kept to his purpose. He made several visits to England in the interest of the cause he had taken up, and in 1833 he organized the American antislavery society, of which he was afterwards president. He continued his newspaper during the Civil War, and discontinued it in 1865, when the amendment to the constitution prohibiting slavery in the United States was adopted. The same year a number of his friends presented him with $30,000 as a memorial of his services. He died at New York, May 24, 1879. See Life by Johnson.
Gar′ter, Order of the, the highest British order of knighthood, was originated by Edward III, probably on Jan. 18, 1344, to reward his most distinguished comrades in arms in his struggle with France. The story is told that the king was dancing with the countess of Salisbury, and when she happened to drop her garter, he picked it up and presented it to her, saying at the same time, in French, with reference to those who smiled at the action: "Dishonored be he who thinks ill of it," which became the motto of the order. It was founded in honor of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. George of Cappadocia and St. Edward the Confessor, but St. George is always accounted its special patron. The habit and badges of the order are the garter of dark-blue velvet, edged with gold, bearing the motto in golden letters, worn on the leg below the left knee; the mantle; the hood; the surcoat or gown; the hat; the plume; the golden collar; the George,
