Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/475

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DETROIT — DEUS the centre of the town; whilst at the entrance to the large park on the south is the New Palace (1708-18), enlarged in 1850, used as the dower-house. Detmold possesses a natural history museum, theatre, high school, library, the house in which the poet Freiligrath (1810-76) was born, and that in which the dramatist Grabbe (1801-36), also a native, died. Population (1885), 8916; (1900), 11,971. Detroit, a city of the United States, the county seat of Wayne county, and metropolis of the state of Michigan, is situated on the Detroit river in lat. 42° 20' N. and long. 83° 3' W. It is generally level, and has an extent along the river of 7 miles and a depth of 3 miles, except that at the centre of the city it extends towards the north more than 5 miles. Its area is 29^ square miles. The streets are very wide, and are kept scrupulously clean. There are three lines of electric street railways, aggregating 160 miles of track, and ten lines of suburban electric cars, carrying both passengers and freight. Sixteen lines of railways connect the city with all parts of the United States and Canada. Ferries connect the city with Windsor and Walkerville in Canada, directly opposite, and with the island park and the various summer resorts along the river front. The foot of each street reaching to the river is converted into a public wharf. There are 28 parks and parkways, aggregating 912 acres, besides the Grand Boulevard, which is a drive 11 miles long, around the city. The largest park is Belle Isle, an island within the city limits, at its eastern extremity, and connected with the mainland by a bridge over the American channel of the Detroit river. The population in 1890 was 205,876, and in 1900 it had increased to 285,704, of whom 96,503 were foreignborn and 4111 negroes. Out of 78,855 males 21 years of age and over, 3587 (of whom 3262 were foreignborn) were illiterate (unable to write). The birth-rate per thousand averages 14. The death-rate in 1900 was 17T ; in 1890 it was 18‘7. There are 69 public schools (3 of which are high schools) and 59 private and parochial schools, employing 1187 teachers. In 1900 there were 91,777 persons of school age (5 to 20 years inclusive). There is one literary college (Jesuit), three colleges of medicine, one of dentistry, and one of law. The State University at Ann Arbor is within easy reach (37 miles). There are four public libraries, the largest of which contains 157,934 volumes. Branches of this library are established in the public schools. The Museum of Art is supported in part by taxation. The building cost $127,000, and the contents, paintings, and articles of vertu are valued at $150,000. There are 80 newspapers and periodicals published in the city, of which 7 are dailies. There are 30 asylums, hospitals, and charitable homes. There are 183 churches, of which 30 are Roman Catholic, 28 Methodist, 25 Lutheran, 24 Episcopal, 17 Baptist. The basis of the government is the city charter, granted by the State Legislature. The mayor is elected every two years by popular vote; and the council is composed of two members from each of the 17 wards of the city, one from each being elected every year. The waterworks are owned by the city, and are maintained by water rates and an annual tax of $75,000. The supply is taken from Lake St Clair, immediately above the city. The public lighting is entirely electric, and the plant is owned by the city. Much of the lighting is by arc lights on towers 100 to 150 feet high. Detroit river is so deep at the foot of the streets that any vessel can approach the wharf. It is never so affected by storms that vessels are in danger, and the most severe rains never perceptibly raise its waters. The main

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commerce of the Great Lakes passes through it. How much this amounts to it is impossible to ascertain, but certainly twice as much as passes the famous Sault fete Marie Canal, 25,255,810 tons. The shipments of grain from Detroit for 1899 were as follow :—Wheat 1,56/,132 bushels, corn 2,304,105 bushels, oats 266,133 bushels, rye 261,869 bushels, and flour 137,000 barrels. There are 23 banks, with an aggregate capital of $7,850,000, deposits amounting to $67,744,955, and total resources of $91,020,715. The bank clearances for the year 1899 were $415,073,499. The assessed valuation of the city, on a basis estimated at 70 per cent, of full value, is $237,799,250, and the entire tax - levy for general purposes about 2 per cent. The total public debt, exclusive of water bonds, is $3,617,165. There is also a debt of the county, for the new county building, of about $1,500,000. The property belonging to the city is valued at $20,430,985. (c. m. b.) Deus, Joao de(1830-1896),the greatest Portuguese poet of his generation, and perhaps of the 19th century, was born at San Bartholomeu de Messines in the province of Algarbe on 8th March 1830. Matriculating in the faculty of law at the university of Coimbra, he did not proceed to his degree but settled in the city, dedicating himself wholly to the composition of verses, which circulated among professors and undergraduates in manuscript copies. In the volume of his art, as in the conduct of life, he practised a rigorous self-control. Though it is by no means uncommon for Portuguese poets to publish books of verse before they are of age, and though Joao de Deus was the idol of an academic circle from a very early date, he printed nothing previous to 1855, and the first of his poems to appear in a separate form was La Lata, which was issued in 1860. In 1862 he left Coimbra for Beja, where he was appointed editor of 0 Bejense, the chief newspaper in the province of Alemtejo, and four years later he edited the Folha do Sul. As the pungent satirical verses entitled Eleifies prove, he was not an ardent politician, and, though he was returned as Liberal deputy for the constituency of Silves in 1869, he acted independently of all political parties and promptly resigned his mandate. The renunciation implied in the act, which cut him off from all advancement, is in accord with nearly all that is known of his lofty character. In the year of his election as deputy, his friend, Jose Antonio Garcia Blanco, collected from local journals the series of poems, Flores do Gampo, which is supplemented by the Eamo de Flores (1869). This is Joao de Deus’s masterpiece. Fires de Marmalada (1869) is an improvisation of no great merit. The four theatrical pieces—Amemos o nosso proximo, Ser apresentado, Ensaio de Casamento, and A Viuva iuconsolavel—are prose translations from Mery, cleverly done but not worth the doing. Horacio e Lydia (1872), a translation from Ponsard, is a good example of artifice in manipulating that dangerously monotonous measure, the Portuguese couplet. As an indication of a strong spiritual reaction three prose fragments (1873)—Anna, Mae de Maria, A Virgem Maria and A Mulher do Levita de Ephrain—translated from Darboy’s Femmes de la Bible, are full of significance. The Folhas soltas (1876) is a collection of verse in the manner of Flores do Campo, brilliantly effective and exquisitely refined. Within the next few years the writer turned his attention to educational problems, and in his Cartilha maternal (1876) first expressed the conclusions to which his study of Pestalozzi and Frbbel had led him. This patriotic, pedagogical apostolate was a misfortune for Portuguese literature; his educational mission absorbed Joao de Deus completely, and is responsible for numerous controversial letters, for a translation