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PRIOR 349 PRIPET MARSHES plements of the pictorial journals are often admirable reproductions of works of high art. A single color press built in 1898 contained between 50,000 and 60,000 individual parts. Books are generally printed in sheets of 16 pages, or multiples of 16 (32, 64, 128) ; in the latter case they are cut into sheets of 16 after being printed. Several very ingenious machines have been invented for setting type which have been successful. They are worked something after the manner of typewrit- ing machines. Several of the latest of these cast and set the type by one movement. Thia saves the labor of re- distributing the types, as when done with they ai'e melted again. The latest achievement in printing machines is the combination color octiple rotary perfecting press. Four-roller dis- tribution on the color portion insures fine work, and special oil-fountain ar- rangements take care of the offset. The printing is done from both stereotype and electrotype plates. The combination half-tone and color pictorial electrotype pei'fecting press is designed especially for printing, from electrotype plates, high-grade periodical work, with half- tone and color illustrations. PRIOR, a title loosely applied before the 13th century to any monk rank- ing above his fellows. Priors are now of two kinds: conventual and claustral. A conventional prior is the head of a religious house, either independently, as among the Regular Canons, the Car- thusians, and the Dominicans, or as superior of a cell or offshoot from some larger monastery. A claustral prior is appointed in houses in which the head is an abbot, to act as superior in the ab- bot's absence. PRIOR, MATTHEW, an English poet; born in Wimborne-Minster, England, July 21, 1644; educated at Westminster School and Cambridge. At college he contracted an intimacy with Charles Montagu, afterward Earl of Halifax, with whom, in 1687, he composed the "Country Mouse and City Mouse" — a parody on Dryden's "Hind and Panther.'* This work brought him fame, and in 1690 he was appointed secretary to the English embassy at The Hague. In 1697 he was nominated secretary to the plenipotentiaries who concluded the Peace of Ryswick, and on his return was made secretary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In 1701 he entered Parlia- ment as a Whig, but soon after changed his politics and joined the Tory party. In 1711 he was employed in secretly ne- gotiating at Paris the terms of the treaty of Utrecht, and he remained in France Vol. VII — Cyc till 1714, at first as secret agent, after- ward as ambassador. On the accession of George I., he was kept in custody on a charge of high treason for two years. During his imprisonment he wrote "Alma, or the Progress of the Mind," MATTHEW PRIOR which with his most ambitious work, "Solomon," was published in 1718. He died in Wimpole, Sept. 18, 1721. PRIPET MARSHES, an extensive swamp surrounding the city of Pinsk, in western Russia, and extending up and down both banks of the Pripet river. Officially this region is known as the Ro- kitno Marsh. In area these bogs are about half the size of the entire terri- tory of Rumania. Only a comparatively small portion of the marsh had been ex- plored before the outbreak of the World War, when it became the theater of important military operations between the Russian and German forces, espe- cially after the capture of Brest-Litovsk by the Germans, on Aug. 27, 1915. After their disastrous defeat at thia time the Russian line retired and took its stand along the eastern side of the Pripet marshes. Along this front there was, of necessity, a large territory inter- vening between the Russian and German lines, invaded only by raiding parties and occasional patrols, moving in punts in summer, and on the ice in winter. It was only during the winter months that fighting of any magnitude could take place here, and then the contending forces would advance over the ice and engage 23