HOUSSAYE, o͞o′sā̇′, Arsène (1815-96). A French author, born at Bruyères. He went to Paris at an early age, and at twenty-one became widely known as the author of two romances, La couronne de bluets and La pécheresse. He attracted attention particularly as an art critic, publishing his Histoire de la peinture flamande et hollandaise in 1846. In 1849 Houssaye was appointed director of the Comédie Française at the suggestion of Rachel, and held the place until 1856. He was a prolific writer in many departments of literature, producing poetry, dramas, romances, philosophical, historical, and critical works—the last being of especial merit. He was long editor of L'Artiste, and for some years was editor and proprietor of La Presse. Among his works are: Histoire du quarante et unième fauteuil (1845), dealing with the great men who failed of election to the French Academy; La poesie dans les bois (1845); Le voyage à ma fenêtre (1851); Le roi Voltaire (1858); Rousseau et Mme. de Warens (1864); and Les confessions (1885-91).
HOUSSAYE, Henry (1848—). A French historian and critic, born in Paris. He distinguished himself in the Franco-Prussian War, and was subsequently an editor of the Journal des Débats and the Revue des Deux Mondes. His Histoire d'Alcibiade et de la république athénienne depuis la mort de Pericles jusqu'à l'avenement des trente tyrans (1873) received from the French Academy the prize established by Thiers. In 1894 he was elected to the Academy. His further works include: Athénes, Rome, Paris (1878); L'art français depuis dix ans (1882). He made a careful study from the original documents of the fall of Napoleon and of the first French Empire. The work is in three parts, the first entitled 1814; the second, entitled 1815, includes the first Restoration, the return from Elba, and the Hundred Days. The third volume, also entitled 1815, is devoted to Waterloo. Those books are among the most readable that have ever been published upon the latter part of Napoleon's career.
HOUSTON, hū′ston. A city and the county-seat of Harris County, Tex., 50 miles northwest of Galveston; on Buffalo Bayou, an arm of Galveston Bay, at the head of navigation, and on the International and Great Northern, the Southern Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the Houston and Texas Central, and several other railroads (Map: Texas, G 5). It is a railroad centre of great importance, and improvements by the Federal Government have added to its transportation facilities by giving direct water communication with the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean; while local transit is facilitated by several bridges across the bayou. Houston occupies an area of nine square miles. It has the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie libraries, the building of the latter costing $50,000. Other prominent structures include the high school ($155,000), the United States Government building, the city hall, the court-house, the cotton exchange and market, and the Masonic Temple. The William M. Rice Polytechnical Institute, endowed with the estate of the founder, amounting to about $20,000,000, will be located in Houston. The city controls extensive commercial interests; it is one of the most important cotton markets in the United States, and in its lumber trade ranks with the leading cities of the Southwest. Cottonseed oil and sugar are also exported, and a large general trade contributes to the city's prosperity. There are extensive railroad car and machine shops, cotton-compresses and oil-mills, planing-mills, foundries and machine-shops, rolling-mills, potteries, brick and tile works, flour-mills, carriage and wagon shops, etc. The government, under a charter of 1897, is vested in a mayor, elected every two years, a municipal council, and administrative officials, who are chosen by popular vote. Houston spends annually in maintenance and operation about $565,000, the principal items of expenditure being $145,000 for interest on debt, $100,000 for schools, $70,000 for street expenditures, $55,000 for the fire department, $50,000 for the police department (including amounts for courts, jails, reformatories, etc.), and $20,000 for the health department (including amounts for charitable institutions). Houston was laid out and settled in 1836, was named in honor of General Sam Houston, and temporarily (in 1837) was capital of the Republic of Texas. Population, in 1890, 27,557; in 1900, 44,633.
HOUSTON, Sam (1793-1863). An American soldier and political leader, who was instrumental in securing the independence of Texas. He was born near Lexington, in Rockbridge County, Va., March 2, 1793, of Scotch-Irish parentage. After his father's death in 1806, the family emigrated to Tennessee, where he entered an academy, but left to try a clerkship in a store, and wearying of this, went to live among the Cherokees. He remained with them three years, when he returned to civilization and taught school. In 1813 he enlisted as a private in the United States Army; served bravely in General Jackson's campaign against the Creeks, being wounded at Tohopeka, and soon rose to be lieutenant. In 1817 he was appointed agent to aid in negotiations with the Cherokees; incurred hostility for attempting to prevent the smuggling of negroes from Florida into the United States, and resigned his commission, 1818, and began the study of law at Nashville. He soon opened an office at Lebanon, was made Adjutant-General of the State in 1819, and major of the State Militia. He was elected to Congress in 1822, was reëlected in 1824, and in 1827 was elected Governor. In January, 1829, he married Miss Allen, a Tennessee lady, but three months afterwards left her, and, resigning his office without giving either public or private reasons for his course, went to live among his old friends the Cherokees, who had emigrated to Arkansas. He championed their cause before Congress, incurring by this much enmity, especially from the ‘Indian ring,’ and becoming involved in an encounter with William R. Stanbury, Representative from Ohio, who had accused him of fraudulent attempts to obtain a contract for Indian rations. For beating Stanbury he was reprimanded in the House of Representatives, and was tried and fined, but President Jackson remitted the fine. The incident served to give Houston once more a national notoriety.
Visiting Texas in December, 1832, he was invited to settle there and become the leader of the American colonists in their struggle for their rights. He complied, and was elected a delegate to the convention held April 1, 1833, to form a State Constitution and seek membership in the
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