Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/233

PEONAGE 179 PEPPElt it of Sir Humphry Davy; and public rooms (1867), Italian Renaissance in style, and comprising a guildhall, mu- seum, library, etc. The harbor has two piers (1772-1845) half a mile long, form- ing a tidal basin of 21 acres; and docks have been added since 1882. Penzance is a headquarters of the mackerel and pilchard fisheries. Pop. (1917) about 15,000. Burned by Spaniards in 1595, and sacked by Fairfax in 1646, it was incorporated in 1614, and from 1663 to 1838, was one of the five "coinage towns." PEONAGE, a system of agricultural servitude common in Mexico, and some other parts of Spanish America. The peon in debt to his employer was by the Spanish colonial system bound to labor for his employer till the debt was paid. Peonage in New Mexico was abolished by Act of Congress in 1867; it was also abolished in the Argentine Republic. PEONY, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Rammculacese, and very generally cultivated in gardens for the sake_ of their large showy flowers. The species are mostly herbaceous, hav- ing perennial tuberous roots and large deeply-lobed leaves. The flowers are solitary, and of a variety of colors, crim- son, purplish, pink, yellow, and white. The flowers, however, have no smell, or not an agreeable one, except in the case of a shrubby species, P. Moutan, a na- tive of China, of which several varieties, with beautiful whitish flowers stained with pink, are cultivated in gardens. The roots and seeds of all the species are emetic and cathartic in moderate doses. P. officinalis or f estiva, the common peony of cottage gardens, was formerly in great repute as a medicine. PEORIA, a city and county-seat of Peoria co.. 111.; on the Illinois river, and on the Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis, the Chicago and Alton, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Burlington Route, and other railroads; 160 miles S. W. of Chicago. It is built at the foot of Peoria Lake, an expansion of the Illinois river, and has a water frontage of about four miles. It covers an elevated plateau, extending back to a high bluff, on which many fine residences have been erected. A beautiful system of parks and drive- ways is laid out. The city contains 35 miles of paved streets, electric light and street railroad plants, high and graded schools, a public libraiy, Peoria Law Library, hospitals, National and private banks, and many daily and weekly news- papers. There is an excellent street system. It also has barrel factories, foundry and machine products, planing mills, flour and grist mills, glucose fac- tories, strawboard mills, rolling mills, lead works, stock yard, meat packing plants, wagon and buggy factories, grain elevators, etc., comprising in all over 600 establishments. The site of Peoria was first chosen by La Salle in 1680 as a trading post. It was settled in 1779, and incorporated as a city in 1845. The as- sessed property valuation is nearly $9,- 500,000. Pop. (1890) 41,024; (1900, with South and West Peoria annexed since 1890) 56,100; (1910) 66,950; (1920) 76,121. PEPIN, grandson of Charlemagne, and son of Louis le Debonnaire, became King of Aquitaine in 817. He died in 838 or 839. PEPIN, THE SHORT, a King of France, the first of the Carlovingian kings. He was at first mayor of the palace under Childeric III.; but in 752 he dethroned that monarch and confined him in a monastery. Having requested and obtained the sanction of the Pope, Pepin was constituted king. He assisted Pope Stephen III. against the Longo- bards, defeated the Saxons, Bavarians, and other German nations, and united Aquitaine to his crown. After a reign of 16 years, he died in St. Denis, in 768. His son Charlemagne succeeded him as King of the Franks. PEPPER, GEORGE WHARTON, a Philadelphia lawyer and church author- ity. Born in Philadelphia in 1867, and graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania in the class of '87. For a few years he practiced law, and then in 1893, became professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his legal studies he has taken a great interest in the law and polity of the Protestant Episcopal Church. He is the author of a number of works on eccle- siastical and legal matters. PEPPER, WILLIAM, an American physician and university president; born in 1843. He was educated at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and took up the practice of medicine in the city of Philadelphia, where he became connected with several large hospitals. In 1868 he became professor of anatomy at the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, and from 1881 to 1894 was provost of the University. He devoted much time and attention to the medical school, which, under his direction, took a front rank among the leading medical schools in the United States. He died in 1898. PEPPER, the dried immature fruit or berry of P. nigrum, used as a condi-