Stockholm. Under Charles XI. he became director of fortifications. He rebuilt most of the works then existing with such skill as to be called the 'Vauban of Sweden.' He was appointed a royal councilor, a field-marshal, and in 1696 Governor of Livonia. Consult Schlözer, Schwedische Biographien (vol. i., Altona, 1760). DAHLGREN, däl'gren, FREDRIK AUGUST (1816-95). A Swedish poet, born at Nordmark, August 20, 1816. He is the author of many popular dialect songs and ballads (3 vols., 1876) and of some successful dramas, of which Vermlåndingarne (1846) is most noteworthy. He was also a facile translator for the theatre and wrote a history of the Swedish stage. DAHLGREN, dăl'gren, JOHN ADOLF (180970). An American naval officer, prominent on the Federal side during the Civil War. He was born in Philadelphia of Swedish parentage; entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1826; cruised for a time on the Macedonian and the Ontario; and from 1834 to 1838 was engaged in the United States Coast Survey work, for which his aptitude and training in mathematical studies had well fitted him. In 1837 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant, but in the same year was forced by failing eyesight to leave the active service, and did not resume his duties until 1842. After a cruise of two years in the Mediterranean on board the Cumberland, he was assigned to the Ordnance Department, which absorbed the greater part of his energies from this time on, and of which he was twice chief-in 1862-63 and in 1868-70. In his many years of service he greatly increased the efficiency of the department and became especially well known through his invention (1850) of the Dahlgren gun, which proved of the utmost value to the Government during the Civil War. In April, 1861, on the defection of Franklin Buchanan (q.v.), he succeeded that officer as commandant of the Washington Navy Yard, a position which he held until the fall of 1862, when he became chief of the Bureau of Ordnance. In February, 1863, he was raised to the rank of rearadmiral, and in July replaced Admiral Dupont as commander-in-chief of the South Atlantic blockading squadron, the greater part of which was engaged in the siege of Charleston, S. C. Soon after taking command, he, in coöperation with General Gillmore, the commander of the Federal troops near Charleston, succeeded in capturing Morris Island, silencing Fort Sumter, and completing the closing of the port. Finally, in February, 1865, Charleston was evacuated by the Confederates, and Dahlgren occupied Charleston Harbor, while General Schimmelpfennig took possession of the city. Soon afterwards he resigned as commander of the South Atlantic squadron, and from 1866 to 1868 commanded the South Pacific squadron. After finishing his second term as chief of the Bureau of Ordnance, he was placed in command, at his own request, of the United States Navy Yard in Washington, where several months later he died. In addition to many reports and magazine articles, he published: Thirty-two-Pound Practice for Ranges (1850); Systems of Boat Armament in the United States Navy (1852); Naval Percussion Locks and Primers (1852); Ordnance Memoranda (1853); Shell and Shell Guns (1856); and an uncompleted volume entitled Notes on Maritime and International Law was published posthumously in 1877. Consult Madeleine V. Dahlgren (his widow), Memoir of John A. Dahlgren (Boston, 1882). DAHLGREN, däl'gren, KARL FREDRIK (17911844). A Swedish humorist and poet whose ballads and songs are widely sung. He was born near Norrköping, June 20, 1791. Descriptions of natural scenes and the burlesque idyll are his fortes. Like Hood, whom in many ways he resembled, he published for some years an annual, The Muses' Almanac, as a receptacle for his stories and comic sketches. His sole novel, Nahum Fredrik Bergströms krönika (1831), is excellent. He died at Stockholm, May 2, 1844. DAHLGREN, dăl'gren, MADELEINE VINTON (1835-98). An American author, wife of Admiral J. A. Dahlgren, born in Gallipolis, Ohio. Under the name of "Corinne," and later that of "Cornelia," she wrote many sketches and poems. She was one of the founders of the Literary Society of Washington, and at one time its vice-president. A list of her works includes the following: Idealities (1859); South Sea Sketches (1881); Etiquette of Social Life in Washington (1881); South Mountain Magic (1882); and Lights and Shadows of a Life (1886). She also rendered from the Spanish Donoso Cortes's Catholicism, Liberalism, and Socialism, and from the French the Pius IX. of Montalembert and the Executive Power of De Chambrun (1874), with a preface by James A. Garfield. DAHLGREN GUN. The type of gun designed by Admiral Dahlgren after a series of experiments to determine the pressures at different parts of the bore. They were introduced into the Navy in 1852 and were in general use during the Civil War. See BALLISTICS; GUNS, NAVAL; ORDNANCE. DAHLIA, dälʼyå or dāl′yå (Neo-Lat.). A genus of large perennial herbaceous plants of the natural order Compositæ, natives of Mexico. Most of the varieties in cultivation are derived from the species Dahlia variabilis and Dahlia Juarezii, the latter being the parent of the cactus forms. Dahlias were first brought to Madrid by Spanish botanists in 1789. The name was given in honor of Dahl, a Swedish botanist. The dahlia varies greatly under cultivation. Some 3000 varieties have been catalogued. Most of these have been the showy and fancy kinds with spherical, symmetrical flowers differing mainly in color. The cactus or decorative types are more chrysanthemum-like in form. introduction within recent years has done much to increase the popularity of the dahlia. The dahlia possesses a wide range of colors and lacks practically only sky-blue and kindred shades. It is propagated by division of the root, cuttings, and seed. The first method is that of the amateur, the second that of the commercial grower, and the last is used in the production of new varieties. In gardens the roots are planted 18 to 36 inches apart in any good soil and require ordinary cultivation. In the fall the roots are dug and stored in the cellar like potatoes. Their A beetle injurious to dahlias (Diabrotica 12punctata) is illustrated under CORN-INSECTS. school of Lohenstein and the Italians of the school of Marini. But their florid pomposity could not always smother his true poetic fire, and his "Elegy on the Death of Charles XI." (1697) (Kungaskald) is sometimes sublime, while his "Goth's Battle Song" (1701) is an admirable popular ballad, an exulting defiance of the Russians, whose triumph at Poltava Dahlstjerna could not survive. He was a man of varied gifts, distinguished as a cartographer, and as the author of a number of scientific papers. He died in Pomerania, September 7, 1709. DAHN, dän, FELIX (1834-). An historian, DAHLMANN, däl'mån, FRIEdrich ChristopH choose bad models, the Silesian poets of the (1785-1860). A German historian and statesman, born May 13, 1785, at Wismar. His earlier studies in Copenhagen and Halle were devoted to archæology and philology, but his attention was subsequently directed to political science and history. In 1812 he was made a professor in the University of Kiel, and in 1815 became secretary of the permanent committee of the Schleswig-Holstein clergy and nobility, in which capacity he opposed the Danish policy concerning those duchies. He published several historical works, and in 1829 was appointed professor of political science in Göttingen, where he published his valuable work, Quellenkunde der deutschen Geschichte (1st ed. 1830; reedited by Weitz, 1875, and subsequent editions). Dismissed from the university in 1837, with six of his colleagues, by King Ernest Augustus, on account of their protest against the abrogation of the Hanoverian Constitution, he went to Leipzig and afterwards to Jena, where he wrote his admirable Geschichte von Dänemark (Hamburg, 1840-43). In 1842 he became professor of history and political science at Bonn, and later on took a prominent part in the political affairs of Germany. At the outbreak of the Revolution, in 1848, he was appointed deputy of Prussia in the Germanic Diet, and was the principal member of the committee appointed to draft a new German constitution. He exerted his influence in the Frankfort Parliament in favor of an hereditary German empire, the dignity to inhere in the King of Prussia, but his views were not accepted, either by King Frederick William IV. or the majority of the Parliament. After a less conspicuous parliamentary activity at Erfurt and Berlin, Dahlmann returned to his academic duties, to which he devoted himself till his death, December 5, 1860. Besides the works mentioned above, he was the author of important histories of the English and French revolutions, of a work in two volumes on early Germanic history, and the editor of the Ditmarsh Chronicle. Consult: Springer, F. C. Dahlmann (Leipzig, 1870-72); Nasse, F. C. Dahlmann, an inaugural lecture (Kiel, 1885). DAHLONEGA, dä'lô-ně'gå (from American Indian Taulauneca, yellow gold. A town and the county-seat of Lumpkin County, Ga., about 60 miles (direct) north-northeast of Atlanta (Map: Georgia, B 1). It is situated among the foothills of the southern portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a gold-mining region, and has goldmills, concentrators, and an extensive chlorination plant. Until the Civil War, a United States branch mint was situated here. Dahlonega is the seat of the North Georgia Agricultural College, a department of the State University. The Cherokee Indians called the place Dah-lo-ne-ga, meaning yellow money. Settled in 1831, it was incorporated in the following year, and is governed by a mayor and a city council. Pop., in 1890, 896; in 1900, 1255. DAHLSTJERNA, däl'shĕr-nå, GUNNO EURELIUS (1661-1709). A Swedish poet, born at Ohr, September 7, 1661. He was an intense patriot, and beguiled the tedium of surveying expeditions in Sweden, Livonia, and Pomerania, by composing songs that are at times the best of his epoch, and again nearly the worst in their pathetic puerility. He had the misfortune to It is jurist, and novelist. He was born in Hamburg, finally, the extreme north is characterized by bare tracts of desert, forming part of what is called Upper Dahomey. The only river of importance is the navigable Weme, which traverses the eastern part of the country. Monc, however, borders on the west, and the Niger on the northeast. The climate is unhealthful in the low coast lands, being both hot and moist, but is favorable in the interior. The rainy season is in summer. A large part of Dahomey is covered with thick forests abounding in rubber-plants, and also palms which yield large quantities of oil and kernels for export. The soil is remarkably fertile, and along the coast manioc, maize, and potatoes are grown by the industrious natives, who also weave, and make pottery. Trade, which in former days was little more than an exchange of trinkets for gold and other equally precious articles, has now assumed an entirely modern aspect and importance. The commerce is mostly concentrated in the Gulf towns, especially in Porto Novo, the main port of the colony. The exports, consisting almost entirely of palm-oil and palm-kernels, amounted to over 7,600,000 francs in 1905. The imports for 1905 exceeded 10,700,000 francs, and were made up chiefly of liquors, cotton, and tobacco. About one-fourth of the trade is with France. In 1902 vessels with a total tonnage of over 1,081,000 entered and cleared the ports. The port Kotonu is connected with the Niger and the Senegal by telegraph. There is regular steamship communication with Europe. Dahomey was an absolute monarchy previous to the French occupation. There was a standing army estimated at over 15,000, consisting partly of female warriors or amazons, who were distinguished for superior physique and high skill in the use of weapons. At present the colony is locally administered by a French Governor, assisted by a council over which he presides. The council is made up of higher officials, and also two prominent residents, one of whom is native and one white. (See FRENCH WEST AFRICA.) The local budget for 1904 balanced at 5,306,218 francs. The colony is self-supporting. The population is estimated at nearly 1,000,000, composed of full-blooded Guinea Negroes, or Nigritians of the coast (Deniker). The Dahomans are tall, very long-headed (index 75.1), but not so black as the tribes of Senegal. In their own tongue, a dialect of the Ewe language, common on this part of the Slave Coast, they are called Fon or Fawin. Their religion is purely fetish, and the sacrifice of human beings, a widespread custom in former times, is still supposed to be practiced. In spite of a low standard of morality and warlike attributes and usages, the Dahomans are polite in their intercourse. The activity of missionaries has thus far been attended with little success, except in the case of the dervishes, who are indefatigable in their efforts to spread the gospel of Islam. The capital of the colony has been removed, since the French occupation, from Abomey to Porto Novo (q.v.). Other towns are Grand Popo, Agoué, Say (on the Niger), Whydah, and Allada, an important trading point. The kingdom of Dahomey arose in the seventeenth century around the city of Abomey as a nucleus. By successive conquests the kings extended their rule to the highlands of the Mahé on the north and to the Slave Coast on the south (1772). There they came into contact with the Europeans and succeeded in obtaining control of a large part of the slave trade, which was then carried on actively by the English, the French, and Portuguese. With the cessation of the slave traffic, the prosperity of the country came to an end. France secured a firm footing on the coast in the second half of the nineteenth century. Between 1878 and 1885 it obtained possession of Kotonu, Porto Novo, and Grand Popo, and after a bloody contest in 1890 forced King Behanzin to acknowledge its title to the coast region. War broke out again in 1892, and resulted in the taking of Abomey, the deposition of Behanzin (since retained as prisoner at Fort-deFrance, Martinique), and the establishment of a virtual French protectorate. Since then the French have been actively engaged in extending their authority over the region to the north, so as to bring Dahomey into touch with their possessions in the Sudan. In 1897 and 1898 they concluded treaties with the Germans and the English, and the sphere of influence claimed by each was determined. Consult: Skèrtchley, Dahomey As It Is (London, 1874; Careb, Les territoires africains et les conventions anglaises (Paris, 1901); Touttée, Du Dahomé au Sahara (Paris, 1899); Keane, in Stanford's Africa (London, 1895); Verdier, Trente-cinq années de lutte aux colonies, côte occidentale d'Afrique (Paris, 1897); Aublet, La guerre au Dahomé (Paris, 1894). DAIBUTSU, di'boo'tsoo (Japanese, great Buddha). A famous Japanese image of Buddha 1252 and is a unique production of Japanese at Kamakura, near Yokohama. It dates from art, wrought of bronze and silver, with eyes of gold, and measures 50 feet in height and 97 feet More ancient, even, dating in circumference. of inferior artistic merit, is the Daibutsu at from 749, and of more gigantic proportions, but Nara, in the main island of Japan. D'AIGUEBELLE, dâg'běl. See AIGUEBELLE. DAILLÉ, dä’ya', or DALLÆUS, dăl-lē'ús, JEAN (1594-1670). A French Reformed theologian, born at Châtellerault. He was tutor to the grandsons of Philippe de Mornay and traveled with them through Italy, Germany, Holland, and England in 1621-25. He became preacher at Saumur in 1625, and at Charenton in 1626, and was president of the last national synod of the Reformed Church held in France in 1859. He was one of the most learned and influential theo logians of the Reformed Church in France, and wrote a considerable number of controversial works, among which the Traité de l'emploi des Saints Pères (1623) is of permanent value. DAILY COURANT, THE. A journal called the first English daily newspaper, which first appeared March 11, 1702. DAIMIEL, di-myâl'. A town in Spain, in the Province of Ciudad Real, 20 miles east-northeast of the city of that name, with which it is connected by rail (Map: Spain, D 3). It lies on the Azuer River, in the fertile Campo de Calatrava; it has several squares, and its principal streets, though unpaved, are wide and comparatively clean. Its chief buildings are the churches of San Pedro and Santa Maria-the former a Doric and the latter a Gothic structure |