Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 07.djvu/322

PIRACY 256 PISA The first player reckons his pointB and plays a card; the dealer then reckons his points, and follows his opponent's lead, and the cards are laid and tricks are taken as in any ordinary card game. Each player counts one for every card he holds, and the taker of the trick (if second player) counts one for it; the possessor of the greater number of tricks counting 10 in addition (the "cards"), or if he takes all the tricks, he counts 40 in addition (the "capot"). If one player counts 30 — i. e., 29 by his va- rious points, and one for the card he leads, before his adversary has counted anything, he at once doubles his score, reckoning 60 instead of 30 (this is called the "pique"), and should his score reach 30 before he plays a card, or his adver- sary begins to count, he mounts at once to 90 (the "repique"). PIRACY, the act, practice, or crime of robbing on the high seas. Other of- fenses have, by various statutes, been made piracy, and liable to the same pen- alty. Thus trading with, or in any way aiding, known pirates, is piracy. So, too, any commander or seaman of a ship who runs away with any ship, boat, goods, etc., or who voluntarily delivers such up to any pirate, is guilty of piracy. Anyone who conveys or removes any person as a slave is also by statute law of most civilized nations guilty of piracy. The penalty formerly was death, whether the guilty party were a principal, or merely implicated as an accessory be- fore or after the fact, but now is re- duced to imprisonment. Also, literary theft; an infringement of the law of copyright. PIR.aEUS, called also Port Draco, the harbor of both ancient and modern Athens. Planned by Themistocles and laid out by Hippodamus of Miletus, the Piraeus was built in the glorious days of Pericles; this ruler and Cimon before him built the three "long walls" that connected Athens with its port (5 miles to the S. W.) and so insured a free and safe passage from one to the other at all times. Its _ arsenal (built 347-823 B. c.) and fortifications were destroyed by Sulla in 86 B. c, and from that time the town sank into decay. The modern Piraeus, which has grown up since 1834, is regularly laid out with a naval and a military school, arsenal depots, and manufactures cottons, flour, paper, iron, nails, carts, furniture, etc., and is growing rapidly. A railway connects it with Athens. More than half the trade of Greece is through this port, which is also an important manufactur- ing center. Pop. about 75,000. PIRAI, or PIRAYA, the Serrasalmo Piraya, a voracious fresh-water fish of tropical America. It is three or four feet in length, and its jaws are armed with sharp lancet-shaped teeth, from which cattle when fording rivers some- times sulfer terribly. PIRANO, a city of Austria, situated on the Bay of Largone. It is in the former Crownland of Istria. There is a castle, dockyards, and the city before the World War had some commercial importance. Wine, oil, soa^ and chemi- cal products were manufactured. The salt works are among the most important in Austria. PIRMASENS, a town of the Bavarian Palatinate, and formerly the chief town of the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg, 34 miles W. of Landau; chief manufactures, shoes and musical instruments. Close by, the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick defeated the French com- manded by Moreau on Sept. 14, 1793. Pop. about 40,000. PIRN A, a town of Saxony; on the left bank of the Elbe, 11 miles S. E. of Dres- den. It contains a fine 16th century church; a castle (1573), used as a luna- tic asylum since 1811, and manufactures of glass, chemicals, tobacco, stoves, etc. Eight thousand men are employed in the sandstone quarries. Pop. about 20,- 000. PIROT, a town of Servia, situated on the railroad from Belgrade to Sofia, near the Bulgarian frontier. Near the be- ginning of the World War the town was captured by an Austro-Germanic force. Pop. about 10,000. PIRRIE, WILLIAM JAMES, BARON, an Irish shipbuilder. He was born in Quebec in 1847, and studied there and at Glasgow, becoming drafts- man with Harland and Wolff at Bel- fast, pf which he became head. Some of the biggest ships in the world have been turned out there, among them the White Star liners "Oceanic," "Olympic," "Titanic." He was Lord Mayor of Bel- fast in 1896. He is a strong supporter of Irish self-government in a stronghold of its opponents. In 1906 he was made baron and in 1910 a member of the Order of St. Patrick. During the World War he turned his yard over for the construction of warships. PISA, a city of central Italy, capital of the province of Pisa, on the Arno, 8 miles from its mouth, 13 miles N. E. of Leghorn, and 50 miles W. of Florence. The walls are 5 miles in circuit. The Arno flows through the city, and is crossed by several bridges, the principal