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THOMPSON 363 THOMPSON THOMPSON, JOHN POLK, an Ameri- can inventor; born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1838; came to the United States in 1848, and assumed charge of the Sprague Cotton Mill in Baltic, Conn., in 1864. Subsequently he was president of the Voluntown, Robeson and other cotton mills, and invented 14 distinct mechani- cal devices, each of which produced a radical improvement in methods of card- ing, stop and let-off motions, and self- threading shuttles. He died in Olney- ville, R. I., Sept. 16, 1899. THOMPSON, SIR JOHN SPARROW DAVID, a Canadian jurist; born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nov. 10, 1844; was called to the bar in 1865; elected to the executive council and to the office of at- torney-general of Nova Scotia in 1878; appointed queen's counsellor in 1879 and judge of the Supreme Court in 1882 ; and in 1895 became minister of justice and attorney-general of Canada. He was a member of the Provincial Assembly of Nova Scotia in 1877-1882; was elected to the Dominion Parliament in 1885, 1887, and 1891; was attached 1j the British Fishery Commission at Washington, D. C, in 1887; represented Great Britain before the Bering Sea Arbitration Tribu- nal, in Paris in 1893, and in 1894 was made a member of the Queen's Privy Council, He died in Windsor, England, Dec. 12, 1894. THOMPSON, LAUNT, an American sculptor; born in Abbeyleix, Ireland, Feb. 8, 1833; went to Albany, N. Y., in 1847, and there entered the office of a pro- fessor of anatomy. Later he studied sculpture under Erastus D. Palmer, pro- duced several portrait busts and ideal heads of merit, and in 1850 removed to New York City, where he became an as- sociate of the Academy of Design in 1859; an academician in 1862; and vice- president in 1874. After traveling in Italy for several years he returned to New York and thereafter devoted himself to his art work. His productions include a bust entitled "Elaine"; "Morning Glory," a medallion; statues of Abra- ham Pierson at New Haven, Conn., and of Winfield Scott, at Washington, D. C; portrait busts of William C. Bryant in the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, Edwin Booth as Hamlet, S. F. B. Morse, etc. He died in 1894. THOMPSON, MORTIMER M., pseudo- nym "Q. K. Philander Doesticks, P. B., an American humorist; born in Riga, N. Y., Sept. 2, 1830. He contributed at first to the daily and in later years regularly to the weekly newspapers, and published in book form in 1855-1857; "Doesticks: What He Says"; "Plu-Ri-Bus-Tah," a travesty of "Hiawatha"; "The Witches of New York"; "Nothing to Say"; "The Ele- phant Club." He died in New York city, June 25, 1875. THOMPSON, RICHARD WIGGIN- TON, an American lawyer; born in Culpeper co., Va., June 9, 1809; removed to Indiana, and was admitted to the bar there in 1834. The same year he was elected to the legislature, serving two terms; was a presidential elector on the Harrison and Tyler ticket; and in 1841 was elected to Congress. In 1843 he be- gan to practise law in Terre Haute, was reelected to Congress in 1847; and during the Civil War had charge of a recruiting post near Terre Haute and was provost marshal of the district. In 1877 he be- came Secretary of the Navy, but retired in 1881 to become chairman of the Amer- ican Committee of the Panama Canal Company. His publications include: "The Papacy and the Civil Power"; "The His- tory of the Protective Tariff"; "Foot- prints of the Jesuits"; "Recollections of Sixteen Presidents, From Washington to Lincoln," etc. He died in Terre Haute, Ind., Feb. 9, 1900. THOMPSON, ROBERT ELLIS, an American educator; born near Lurgan, Ireland, April 5, 1844 ; was graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1865 and ordained to the Presbyterian minis- try in 1874. He was Professor of Latin and Mathematics in the University of Pennsylvania in 1868-1871, of Social Sci- ence there in 1871-1881, and of History and English in 1881-1892. He lectured on protective tariff at Harvard Univer- sity in 1885, at Yale in 1886-1887, and on theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1891. He was editor of the "Pennsylvania Monthly" in 1870-1881, and of the "American Weekly' in 1881- 1892; was on the staff of the "Sunday- School Times," and in 1894 was chosen president of the Central High School of Philadelphia. His publications include "SociaJ Science and National Economy"; "Protection to Home Industry"; "History of the Presbyterian Churches of Amer- ica"; "De Civitate Dei," etc. THOMPSON, SLASON, an American journalist and playwright, born in Fred- erickton, N. B., 1849, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1870, He entered journalism by becoming a mem- ber of the staff of the San Francisco Call, in 1876, then, two years later, came to New York and joined the New York Tribune. He was one of the founders of the Chicago Herald in 1881, and has held editorial positions with the Chica- go Record and a number of other large