Metz and the Vosges, which is called German Lorraine, was ceded to Germany in 1871. It has rich coal and iron fields. See Alsace-Lorraine.
Los An'geles, the most populous city in southern California, situated on the Southern Pacific, Santa Fe and San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroads was a thriving place when the Franciscans founded a mission there in 1781. It is the center of orange-growing. A large industry is the manufacture of water-pipes for irrigation purposes. A 209 mile aqueduct from the Sierra Nevada Mountains supplies drinking water and in the city are irrigating reservoirs with a capacity of 850,000 gallons. The University of Southern California, founded in 1880, with colleges of letters, music and medicine, has its seat here; here, also are Occidental College, founded in 1887, and St. Vincent's College, established in 1865. The city has a notable observatory, a cathedral, a fine botanic garden, six parks and many fine buildings among other attractions. Its exports are largely oranges, grapes and wine which is manufactured. It was founded by the Spaniards, and called The Town of the Queen of the Angels from its delightful climate. The Spanish population is rapidly disappearing. The present population, according to the latest census (1910) is 319,198.
Los'sing, Benson John, American historian, was born at Beekman, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1813; and died near Dover Plains, N. Y., June 3, 1891. He began life as a journalist, and conducted The American Historical Record at Philadelphia. In the fifties he devoted himself to authorcraft and became a voluminous writer. His best-known works include the Pictorial Field-Book of the Revolution; a History of the United States; a History of the Civil War; Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812; and Seventeen Hundred and Seventy-Six or the War for Independence.
Lot, a nephew of Abraham, who went with him to Canaan. Quarrels arose between their shepherds, and they agreed to separate. Lot chose the well-watered region of the Jordan and fixed his abode in Sodom, but was warned in time to escape its destruction. He became the ancestor of the Moabites and Ammonites.
Lot'teries are a species of gambling wherein the holders of certain numbers have prizes apportioned to them by a drawing of chance. In the United States the largest scheme of this kind was the Louisiana lottery, which was supported by the constitution of that state on the payment of a certain amount annually into the state's treasury, but in 1891 the constitution was amended prohibiting the existence of the lottery after 1895. The postal laws of the United States prohibit the passage of any lottery matter through the mails.
Lo'tus, a name applied to the most widely different plants. The Lotus of botanists is a genus of about 100 species found in temperate regions and belonging to the well-known pea-family, a genus probably not known at all in a popular way. The lotus referred to by the Greeks probably was the species (L. corniculatus) spoken of to-day as the bird's-foot tree-foil. The African lotus has given certain tribes the name of lotus-eaters, and the fruit was said to be the size of an olive and to have the sweetness of honey and the taste of a date. A number of shrubby desert forms have been pointed out as the probable lotus of the lotus-eaters. The Egyptian lotus, the sacred lotus of the Nile, is Nymphœa lotus, a large water-lily with rose-colored as well as white flowers. The Hindoo and Chinese lotus, also called the sacred bean, is a Nelumbo, another genus of the water-lily family.
Lotze (lōts'ĕh), Rudolf Hermann, a philosopher, was born in Saxony, May 21, 1817. He studied at Leipsic, and became professor of philosophy at its university in 1842 and at Göttingen in 1844. But he first attracted attention as a physiological writer, contributing articles to the Handbook of Physiology. His Metaphysics was published in 1841, and his Microcosmos, giving his views of nature and man, in 1856-64. It is sufficiently popular in style to be read by general readers. His General Physiology of Life, published in 1851, dealt with the phenomena of life. Lotze died at Berlin on July 1, 1881.
Loubet (lōō'bā'), Émile, president of France, was born at Marsanne, Dec. 31, 1838. Early in life he took to the study of law and practiced at Montélimar, at the same time taking a prominent part in public life. In 1876 he was elected to the chamber of deputies as a Republican; in 1885 to the senate, of which he became president and also president of the council. On the death of President Faure Loubet was elected to succeed him as head of the Republic. During his term of office (1899-1906), he was popular with all classes and greatly respected and liked.
Lou'is, the name of 18 kings of France.
Louis IX or St. Louis, born at Poissy, April 25, 1215, became king in 1226. During a dangerous illness he made a vow that he would go as a crusader if he recovered, and on recovering he appointed his mother regent and sailed with 40,000 men for Egypt, thinking by its conquest to take Palestine. He, however, was taken prisoner by the Mohammedans, but afterward freed by a heavy ransom. He remained abroad until his mother's death compelled him to return to France. He founded the Sorbonne, a theological college at Paris; decided the relation of the French church to the pope; and brought into use a code of
