Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/351

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WARSAW—WART
335


burned in 1863, but rebuilt in 1870; the small Pod Blacha palace, now occupied by a chancery; the theatre (1833); the old mint; the beautiful Reformed church (1882); the Orthodox Greek cathedral of the Trinity, rebuilt in 1837; the Krasinski palace (1692), burned in 1782 but rebuilt; the place of meeting of the Polish diets, now the Supreme Court; the church of the Transfiguration, a thank-offering by John Sobieski for his victory of 1683, and containing his heart and that of Stanislaus Poniatowski; and several palaces are grouped in or near Senators' Street and Miodowa Street.

To the west Senators' Street is continued by Electors' Street, where is the very elegant church (1849) of St Charles Borromeo, and the Chlodna Street leading to the suburb of Wola, with a large field where the kings of Poland used to be elected. In Leshno Street, which branches off from Senators' Street, are the Zelazna Brama, or Iron Gate; in the market-place the bazaar, the arsenal and the Wielopolski barracks.

To the north of Sigismund Square is the old town—Stare Miasto—the Jewish quarter, and farther north still the Alexander citadel. The old town very much recalls old Germany by its narrow streets and antique buildings, the cathedral of St John, the most ancient church in Warsaw, having been built in the 13th century and restored in the 17th. The citadel, erected in 1832–1835 as a punishment for the insurrection of 1831, is of the old type, with six forts too close to the walls of the fortress to be useful in modern warfare.

The suburb of Praga, on the right bank of the Vistula, is poorly built and often flooded; but the bloody assaults which led to its capture in 1794 by the Russians under Suvarov, and in 1831 by Paskevich, give it a name in history.

In the outskirts of Warsaw are various more or less noteworthy villas, palaces and battlefields. Willanow, the palace of John Sobieski, afterwards belonging to Count X. Branicki, was partly built in 1678–1694 by Turkish prisoners in a fine Italian style, and is now renowned for its historical relics, portraits and pictures. It is situated to the south of Warsaw, together with the pretty pilgrimage church of Czerniaków, built by Prince Stanislaus Lubomirski in 1691, and many other fine villas (Morysinek, Natolin, Królikarnia, which also has a picture gallery, Wierzbno and Mokotów). Marymont, an old country residence of the wife of John Sobieski, and the Kaskada, much visited by the inhabitants of Warsaw, in the north, the Saska Kempa on the right bank of the Vistula, and the castle of Jabłona down the Vistula are among others that deserve mention. The castle and forest of Bielany (4½ m. N.), on the bank of the Vistula, are a popular holiday resort in the spring.

Among the battlefields in the neighbourhood is that of Grochów where the Polish troops were defeated in 1831, and Wawer in the same quarter (E. of Praga), where Prince Joseph Poniatowski defeated the Austrians in the war of 1809; at Maciejowice, 50 m. up the Vistula, Kościuszko was wounded and taken by the Russians in 1794; and 20 m. down the river stands the fortress of Modlin, now Novogeorgievsk.

History.—The history of Warsaw from the 16th century onwards is intimately connected with that of Poland. The precise date of the foundation of the town is not known; but it is supposed that Conrad, duke of Mazovia, erected a castle on the present site of Warsaw as early as the 9th century. Casimir the Just is supposed to have fortified it in the 11th century, but Warsaw is not mentioned in annals before 1224. Until 1526 it was the residence of the dukes of Mazovia, but when their dynasty became extinct it was annexed to Poland. When Poland and Lithuania were united, Warsaw was chosen as the royal residence. Sigismund Augustus (Wasa) made it (1550) the real capital of Poland, and from 1572 onwards the election of the kings of Poland took place on the field of Wola, on the W. outskirts of the city. From the 17th century possession of it was continually disputed between the Swedes, the Russians, the Brandenburgers and the Austrians. Charles Gustavus of Sweden took it in 1655 and kept it for a year; the Poles retook it in July 1656, but lost it again almost immediately. Augustus II. and Augustus III. did much for its embellishment, but it had much to suffer during the war with Charles XII. of Sweden, who captured it in 1702; but in the following year peace was made, and it became free again. The disorders which followed upon the death of Augustus III. in 1763 opened a field for Russian intrigue, and in 1764 the Russians took possession of the town and secured the election of Stanislaus Poniatowski, which led in 1773 to the first partition of Poland. In November 1794 the Russians took it again, after the bloody assault on Praga, but next year, in the third partition of Poland, Warsaw was given to Prussia. In November 1806 the town was occupied by the troops of Napoleon, and after the peace of Tilsit (1807) was made the capital of the independent duchy of Warsaw; but the Austrians seized it on the 21st of April 1809, and kept possession of it till the 2nd of June, when it once more became independent. The Russians finally took it on the 8th of February 1813. On the 29th of November 1830, Warsaw gave the signal for the unsuccessful insurrection which lasted nearly one year; the city was captured after great bloodshed by Paskevich, on the 7th of September 1831. Deportations on a large scale, executions, and confiscation of the domains of the nobility followed, and until 1856 Warsaw remained under severe military rule. In 1862 a series of demonstrations began to be made in Warsaw in favour of the independence of Poland, and after a bloody repression a general insurrection followed in January 1863, the Russians remaining, however, masters of the situation. Executions, banishment to the convict prisons of Siberia, and confiscation of estates followed. Deportation to Siberia and the interior of Russia was carried out on an unheard-of scale. Scientific societies and high schools were closed; monasteries and nunneries were emptied. Hundreds of Russian officials were called in to fill the administrative posts, and to teach in the schools and the university; the Russian language was made obligatory in all official acts, in all legal proceedings, and even, to a great extent, in trade. The very name of Poland was expunged from official writings, and, while the old institutions were abolished, the Russian tribunals and administrative institutions were introduced. The serfs were liberated. Much rioting and lawless bloodshed took place in the city in 1905–1906.  (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.) 

WARSAW, a city and the county-seat of Kosciusko county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the Tippecanoe river, about 110 m. E. of Chicago. Pop. (1890) 3547; (1900) 3987, including 102 foreign-born; (1910) 4430. Warsaw is served by the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago (Pennsylvania system) and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis railways, and by interurban electric lines. It is picturesquely situated in the lake country of Indiana on Center, Pike and Winona lakes. Immediately E. of the city, on Winona (formerly Eagle) Lake, which is about 2 by 3 m. and has an average depth of 30 ft., is Winona (formerly Spring Fountain) Park (incorporated 1895 largely by Presbyterians), which primarily aims to combine the advantages of Northfield, Massachusetts, and Chautauqua, New York. There is excellent boating and bathing here, and there are mineral springs in the Park, where in the summer there are a Chautauqua course lasting for six weeks, a normal school, a Bible school, a Bible conference, a school of missions, an International Training School for Sunday School Workers, a conference of temperance workers and nature study and other regular summer school courses; and in other months of the year courses are given here by the Winona Normal School and Agricultural Institute, Winona Academy (for boys) and Winona Conservatory of Music, and the Winona Park School for Young Women. The control of the Park is inter-denominational—the Winona Federated Church was organized in 1905. Under practically the same control is the Winona Technical Institute in Indianapolis. The surrounding country is devoted to farming and stock raising. Warsaw was first platted in 1836, and became a city in 1875.

WART (Lat. verruca), a papillary excrescence of the skin, or mucous membrane. The ordinary flat warts of the skin occur mostly upon the hands of children and young persons; a long pendulous variety occurs about the chin or neck of delicate children, and on the scalp in adults. Warts are apt to come out in numbers at a time; a crop of them suddenly appears, to disappear after a time with equal suddenness. Hence the supposed efficacy of charms. A single wart will sometimes remain when the general eruption has vanished. The liability of crops of warts runs in families. In after life a wart on the hands or fingers is usually brought on by some irritation, often repeated, even if it be slight. Warts often occur on the wrists and knuckles of slaughter-house men and of those much occupied with anatomical dissection; they are often of tuberculous origin (butchers' warts). Chimney-sweeps and workers in coal-tar, petroleum, &c., are subject to warts, which often become cancerous. Warts occur singly in later life on the nose or lips or other parts of the