Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 09.djvu/653

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.
*
597
*

HABT. 597 HARTE. Cattle" (1879); "Hillside Pasture" (1880); "Landscape and Cattle;" "Path by the River;" "Group of Cattle;" "After a Shower." HARTBEEST (Boer Dutch harlcbeest, hart- beast, from liiiilt; Uutcli hart, hart + bcest, beastj. A hirge anteloiie of .South Africa, the type of a genus (IJubalis or Alcehipbiis) contain- ing several simihir species, all African except one, the titel (see Bvhalis), wiiich also inluiUits Arabia anil Syria. The genus is characterized by its long, pointed liead terminating in a narrow- muzzle, ringed, compressed, and often lyrate horns, and a comparatively short, cow-like tail. As is the case with most antelopes of the plains, the fore quarters are heavy and higlier than the hind quarters, which are narrow and drooping. The reverse is the case with the buslibucks and others inhabiting a bushy or forested country. The typical or common hartbcest (Biibalis cama) formerly ranged from Cape Colony to Mashonaland, and gathered in great herds ; but it has been slaughtered until now it is toinid only in remote regions. It stands about four feet high at the withers, and is grayish-brown, with a yellowish patch on the buttocks and black mark- ings on the face. The heavily ringed, divergent horns are bent sharply back at the tips. The ani- mal was noted among hunters as one of the swiftest of African antelopes, and easily dis- tanced greyhounds. Near the Victoria Nyanza lives a similar but pale-faced species {Biibalis Jacksoni) . German and British East Africa and Western Abyssinia are the home of three reddish species, having widely expanding horns, and these are still fairly nmnerous there on the bushy plains. One is the red or Cooke's hartbecst {liiibalis Vookei), another the tora (Biibalis tora ) . and the third Swayne's, or the "sig' ( Bu- balls Sirai/nei). Sir H. Johnston found the first-named extremely numerous in the plains about Kilimanjaro in 1885. The konzi (Biibalis Lichtensteini) of all the Zambezi region and Nyassaland : Hunter's hart- beest (Bubalis Uunteri) of the Tana River Valley, marked with a conspicuous white chev- ron on the forehead; the black-faced korrigum (Bubalis Senefialensis) of the whole Sudan; and the large Tunisian hartbeest (Bubalis major) of the western Sahara, are allied species of the Xorth. In South Africa there formerly ranged in great herds, and still sparingly exist, three other well-known species. One, the sassaby, or bastard hartbeest (Bubalis lunata), was one of the most numerous and well-known antelopes of the plains of Cape Colony and northward ; it is about three feet ten inches high, and dark purplish red, near- ly black on the face and along the spine. Like all of this group, their flesh is excellent food. The blesbok (Bubalis albifrons) and bontebok (Bubalis pi/riargus) are smaller, and remarkable for their brilliant purple-red color and white legs, and each has a white blaze on the face. In the bontebok this mark continues to the base of the horns, while in the blesbok it is divided by a dark cross-bar between the eyes. See Ante- LorE ; and Plate of Antelopes. HART'-DYKE', Sir William (18.37—). An English landowner and politician, born in Kent. He was educated at Harrow- .-ind Oxford, was elected to Parliament for his native shire in 180.5. was Chief Secretary for Ireland (1885-86), and vite-president of the Council on Education (1887- 02). HARTE^ Francis Bret (1839-1902). An -Vnierican humorous poet and novelist, born at Albany, N. V., August 25, 18.3!). At fifteen he wandered to California, where he spent three years digging for gold and teaching school. In 1857 he entered the olhce of the UoUkn Era as a compositor, and presently began to write for that paper sketches which attracted favorable notice. He became its assistant editor, and soon afterwards editor-in-chief of the Weekly Califor- iiiau, in which he piddished his parodies of novels. -Meanwhile, from 1804 to 1807, he wa.s secretary of the United States Mint in San Francisco, and was writing for newspapers poems that won him great popularity, e.g. "The Society upon the Stanislaus." His first book of verse. The Lost Oalleoii and Other Poeiiis, was gathered in 1807; his first prose book, t'oiideiised Xoiwls, apixsared in 1807. From 1868 till 1870 he edited the Occr- lanil ilonthlii, which he had helped to organize, and in it he published 77(c Luck of Roarimi Caiiip (1808) and The Outcasts of Poker Flat (i869) — perliajis his best short stories — and also many ethers. His most popular poem, "Plain Language from Truthful James," better knowii as "The Heathen Chinee," made Bret Harte famous in 1870. In this year he was made professor of recent literature in the University of California, but he went to New York in 1871 to continue writing. After 1878 he held consular appoint- ments at Crefeld in Germany (1878-80), at Glas- gow, Scotland ( 1880-85), and after 1885 he dwelt in England. During the last years of his life he had his home near London, and a new volume, chiefly of short stories, appeared nearly every vear. He died in Camberley, near London, May 5. 1902. Most of Bret Harte's works depict life on the Pacific Slope in the early days, but he de- scribes life also in the Atlantic States and in England. The more noteworthy among his works are: Poems (1870); East and West Poems (1871) ; The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches (1871) ; Poetical Works (1873) ; Tales of the Argonauts (1875); Gabriel Conroy (1876); Two Men of Sandy Bar (1876); The Story of a. Mine (1878): The Tiri'ns of Table Mountain (1879) : Flip (1882) ; In the Carquincz Woods (1883); On the Frontier (1884); By Shore and Sedge (1885) ; Snoicbound at Eagle's ( 1886) : A Millionaire of Rough and Ready (1887); The Argonauts of North Liberty (1888); A Sappho of Green Sprinc/s (1891); Salli/ Dou-s (1893> ; In the Hollow of the Bills (1895); Clarence Barker's Luck (1896); Bul- qer's Reputation (1896); The Three Partners '(1897) ; A Protigee of Jack Hamlin's (1899); From Sandhill to Pine (1900) ; Under the Red- iroods (1901). Bret Harte's collected works ap- peared in London (1881) and in Boston (1891), with supplementary volumes up to 1902. Of those American authors whose charm lies mainl3- in their manner of emphasizing the char- aeteristics of a highly flavored coninumity, Bret Harte is one of the best. He was open-eyed and sympathetic in his delineation of adventurers. His story of the gambler wlin sacrificed himself for his snow-bound companions bears witness to Harte's first-hand acquaintance with perverse humanity. All his strongest tales of the Forty-