Page 980 : JOSIAH — JUAN FERNANDEZ
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Josi′ah, king of Judah from B. C. 638 to 609 entered upon his reign at the age of eight. He grew up an earnest, religious reformer, and purged Judah and Jerusalem from idolatry. Tosiah was the last of the “good” kings. Me was killed at the battle of Megiddo in the valley of Esdraelon, while trying to check the advance of Pharaoh-Necho against the Assyrians. The prophets of his reign were Jeremiah and Zephaniah.
Jötunheim (yẽ′ tŭn-hīm′). The ancient Scandinavians believed that besides Odin and the gods there lived giants of the frost, of the mountains etc., who had their separate home and feasting hall, Jötunheim. These giants after all were the forces of nature; hence, when Thor visits Jötunheim and would contend with them, he is easily worsted; for not even a god can shatter the earth, consume like fire, race with thought or wrestle with time and age. The giants lived before the gods; but some day they and the gods together would perish to make way for a happier earth.
Jötuns (yẽ′ tuns), divinities in Scandinavian mythology, which personified various elements of evil. Their stature and strength were gigantic, but their intelligence was inferior to that of human beings.
Joubert (you′ bĕrt), Petrus Jacobus, a Boer general, was born at Congo, Cape Colony, in 1833. He was state-attorney for Transvaal in 1867, and was prominent in affairs long before events gave his name to the world in later times. In his military career he first distinguished himself by the defeat of Gen. Sir George Colley at Majuba Hill in 1881. In 1896 he was prominent in causing the surrender of Dr. Jameson, following the latter’s famous raid that year. In the later war with England General Joubert became known as an able tactician in the kind of warfare practiced by the Boers. He was in command of the force that besieged Ladysmith, and repulsed General Buller at Chieveley. He died of disease at Pretoria, March 27, 1900.
Joule (jo͞ol), James Prescott, a distinguished English physicist, born at Salford, Dec. 24, 1818, died at his country place near Manchester, Oct. 11, 1889. He was a brewer by trade, as were his father and grandfather before him; but having become interested in chemical and physical problems through the instruction of Dalton, his father provided him with a private laboratory. His most important work includes (1) an accurate study of the heating effect of an electric current (See Joule’s Laws, “Electricity”); (2) a study of the changes in the dimensions of a body which accompany its magnetization; (3) accurate determinations of the mechanical equivalent of heat, employing various methods and showing the equivalence of energy of various forms; (4) an elaborate study of the subject of thermometry; and (5) the discovery of the exact laws according to which gases expand when they do no external work, a research of fundamental importance in establishing the absolute scale of temperatures. See Joule’s Scientific Papers.
Journalism, the art of making newspapers, is becoming very important with the rapid growth of the newspaper. The daily paper, which must be in every man’s hand in the early morning hours or ready for his evening’s rest, is the product of more than a hundred brains. The editor-in-chief decides the political policy; his staff is composed of a number oi subeditors or editors of departments — the city editor, the foreign editor, the telegraph editor, the financial editor, the agricultural editor etc. The city editor, next to the chief editor, is the most important. He has a large staff of reporters who gather the news of the day in the city where the paper is published. The managing editor on a large paper often is not the same person as the chief editor, but is the business manager. The night editor puts the paper to press — if it is a morning paper — decides all questions as to type, surplus matter, “boiling down” or condensing communications, not hesitating to cut down the work of all the other editors. The advertisements he cannot alter or throw out, as they have been paid for, and the reading matter must take what space is left. Reporters hold the lowest position on the literary staff. They usually begin work without a salary, and are paid only for what they write. Their work is hard — often dangerous and exciting. They must keep ahead of rival journals in gathering the news, and often have many disagreeable experiences and even hairbreadth escapes in their frantic rush for the latest information. As they show their fitness they are raised to the grade of special correspondents, sent to the legislatures and congress, European cities and seats of war. Nearly all large newspapers have offices in London and Paris, and by taking advantage of the five hours’ difference of time the news of the morning papers of Europe can be gathered and sent to the morning papers in the United States. The subeditors are usually taken from the reporters and special correspondents. Journalism has become a distinct profession, and there are schools of journalism and chairs of journalism in some colleges. See Newspapers.
Juan Fernandez (ho͝o-än′ fĕr-nän′ dĕth), a rocky island in the Pacific off the coast of Chile, to which it belongs. It is 13 miles long and four broad, and is covered for the most part with high, rocky peaks, the highest of which is about 3,000 feet above sea-level. There are many fertile valleys, which yield oats, apples, strawberries, peaches, figs and melons. Here Alexander Selkirk, a pirate, lived alone for four years.
