RUBIDIUM 138 RUBRIC phrase "to pass the Rubicon" is to take the decisive step by which one commits one's self to a hazardous enterprise. RUBIDIUM, a metal much resembling ca?sium, with which it was discovered in 1860, by Bunsen and Kirchoff, during the analysis of a spring of water which con- tained these metals in minute quantities. Rubidium has since been found in small quantities in other mineral waters, in lepidolite, and in the ashes of many plants. This metal is closely related, in proper- ties, to potassium, but is more easily fusible and convertible into vapor, and actually surpasses that metal in its at- traction for oxygen, rubidium taking fire spontaneously in air. It burns on water with exactly the same flame as potassium. Its oxide, rubidia (RbO), is a powerful alkali, like potash, and its salts are iso- morphous with those of potash. RUBINSTEIN, ANTON GREGOR, a Russian musician; born in Wechwotynez, Kherson, Nov. 28, 1829. He was trained to music in Moscow by his mother and a master. Liszt heard him, "an infant ANTON GREGOR RUBINSTEIN prodigy," play in Paris in 1840, recog- nized his genius, and encouraged him to play in other cities. After some further "touring" he gave himself to serious study in Berlin and Vienna, and in 1848 settled in St. Petersburg as teacher of music. In 1854 he made another musical tour. On his return to St. Petersburg he succeeded in getting a musical conservatory founded (1862) there and became its director. But his concert tours engrossed a good deal of his time, and in 1867 he resigned the directorship of the conservatoire. In 1872 he went to the United States and had an enthusiastic reception. He ended his concert tours in 1886. He was induced in the following year to resume the direc- torship of the conservatory at St. Peters- burg. From the Russian Government he received a patent of nobility and other honors. He was a strongly pronounced opponent of the principles of Wagner. As a pian- ist he held the highest rank, being usually reckoned the greatest since Liszt. Among his best musical productions are the operas: "The Maccabees," "The Demon," "Feramors" (the libretto from Moore's "Lalla Rookh"), and "Kalaschni- koff"; the two symphonies: "Ocean" and "Dramatic"; and the sacred operas: "Par- adise Lost," "The Tower of Babel," and "Sulamith." His numerous songs and pieces of chamber music are highly es- teemed and more widely known. He wrote his "Autobiography" (1839-1889) and "Conversation on Music." He died in St. Petersburg, Russia, Nov. 20, 1894. RUBLEE, GEORGE, an American lawyer and public official, born in Madi- son, Wis., in 1868. He graduated from Harvard in 1890, from the Harvard Law School in 1895 and in 1896 became in- structor in that school. After practicing for one year in Chicago, he removed to New York in 1898. He was appointed a member of the Federal Trade Commis- sion in 1915, and in 1916 was appointed to report on the operation of the Adam- son 8-hour law. In 1917 he was ap- pointed a member of the Commercial Economy Board by the Council of Na- tional Defense, and in the same year acted as special counsel for the Treasury Department. He represented the United States Shipping Board, and the Emer- gency Fleet Corporation on the priorities committee of the War Industries Board, in 1917. In 1918-19 he was American delegate to the Allied Maritime Trans- port Council in London. RUBRIC, in the language of the old copies of MSS. and of modern printers, any writing or printing in red ink; the date and place in a title-page being fre- quently in red ink, the word rubric has come to signify the false name of a place on a title-page. Thus, many books printed at Paris bear the rubric of Lon- don, Geneva, etc. In law, the title of a statute; so called as being formerly written in red char- acters. Also, in MS. missals, the direc- tion prefixed to the several prayers and offices formerly written in red; — hence,
