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The pupils are usually persons who are prevented from attending day schools by their regular occupations.
Night-schools are of great variety, their nature in any particular locality depending upon local needs. Before the days of compulsory education many persons took advantage of this means of remedying deficiencies in their elementary education. At the present time there is much more demand for evening classes in high school grade of work and for courses in trade and technical schools. Evening schools are of earlier origin and more highly developed in Europe than in America. In many cities good high-school courses are now offered in evening schools. Many of the best trade and technical institutes give evening instruction equal in efficiency to that given in their day classes, as Pratt Institute, New York; Maryland Institute, Baltimore; and Drexel Institute, Philadelphia. Most business and commercial schools, many Y. M. C. A.’s and some law schools give evening courses. Much of the university extension and university settlement work is done in this way.
Night′shade, an order of tropical and subtropical herbs and shrubs and a few trees, having for the most part a heavy, offensive odor. There are over a thousand species, the greatest number being found in Central and South America. The leaves have the property of putting to sleep, but lose this when boiled. The typical nightshade has a slender stem, pointed oval leaves, white clustered flowers and small rounded black berries. The several kinds are known by different names — the woody nightshade as bittersweet, deadly nightshade as belladonna, and enchanter’s nightshade as circæa.
Ni′hilist, now used as designating a Russian revolutionist. It was first so introduced by [[../Turgenev, Ivan|Turgenieff]], who defined a nihilist as one who “bows before no authority of any kind, and accepts on faith no principle, whatever veneration surround it.” The nihilist believes in no institution of government, progress, or art, unless it be by and for the benefit of the masses. The movement with which the nihilist is identified had its origin in 1860, when the proposed freeing of serfs was prevented by the influence of the serf-owners with the czar. From this time the nihilists organized societies to force the adoption of a new constitution, and in their efforts resorted to violence repeatedly, going so far as to kill czar Alexander II on March 13, 1881. For alleged crimes previous to this hundreds were sent to Siberia in exile, while for the murder of Alexander II many were hanged and hundreds exiled. See Russia and the Siberian Exiles by George Kennan.
Nijni-Novgorod. See Novgorod.
Nikko (nēk′ kō), one of the chief religious centers of Japan, is beautifully situated in the Nikko Zan (Mountains of the Sun’s Brightness), about eighty miles northwest of Tokio. A Shinto temple seems to have existed at Nikko from time immemorial, and in 767 its first Buddhist temple was founded; but the main celebrity of the place is due to the sepulchers and sanctuaries of Iyeyasu and Iyemitsu, the first and third shoguns of the Tokugawa dynasty. Iyeyasu was buried here with amazing pomp in 1617. His tomb lies forty steps higher up the hills than the numerous magnificent temples and other structures which cluster around it. Above the tomb, the hill on which it stands is covered to the summit with trees of various tints, while below are a vast number of temples, shrines, pagodas, monuments and religious edifices of all kinds, to which thousands of pilgrims resort every year, and by whose gifts Nikko has been thus beautified, making it one of the most attractive spots in all Japan, in addition to being the great sanctuary of the Shinto cult.
Nile, a great river of Africa, the ancient Nilus, the second longest river in the world and the sacred river of the [[../Egypt|Egyptians]]. It has its source at the southern end of Lake Victoria Nyanza, and, pouring over Ripon Falls, runs 300 miles to join Albert Nyanza, 20 miles from which it falls 120 feet into a deep gorge, and flows in a northerly direction into the [[../Mediterranean, The|Mediterranean]]. At 7½° N. the channel is divided in two, only to join again at 9½°, to be called the White Nile, flowing thus to Khartum, where it is joined by the Blue Nile, 950 miles long. These augmented waters flow for 200 miles before they are joined by the Black Nile. Below Khartum the navigation is impeded and dangerous on account of six rapids. The Nile begins to rise in April and reaches the highest point in September, often causing disastrous floods. The ancients believed that the river rose in Morocco and flowed underground for several days’ journey, rising to the south of Ethiopia, thence passing northward. The Emperor Nero first began the investigations of the source of the river by sending out two expeditions, but they were not completed in their present form until the explorations by [[../Speke, John Hanning|Speke]] in 1858, by Baker and Schweinfurth in 1868–71 and by [[../Stanley, Henry Morton|Stanley]] in 1875 and 1889. The total length of the Nile from Victoria Nyanza to the Mediterranean is 3,400 miles, although the river actually draws its water as far as 250 miles south of Lake Victoria. See the writings of the explorers named.
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