Virginia and North Carolina, and in smaller quantities in other states. Soapstone in slabs is largely used for wash-tubs and for tables in chemical laboratories. It does not crack when exposed to moderate heat, as slate usually does.
Tal′ent, anciently a weight and a denomination of money, varying at different periods and among different nations, as the Greeks, Babylonians and Phœnicians. The Greek talent of weight contained 60 minæ or about 80 pounds avoirdupois; the monetary talent among the Greeks was a talent's weight of silver or gold — the monetary unit. The Attic talent of silver, which weighed about 58 pounds avoirdupois, was of the value of about $1,200. Among the Hebrews a talent of silver was equivalent to 3,000 shekels (about $1,700 or $1,800); the gold talent was equal to 10,000 gold shekels — the value being determined by the current price or purchasing power of the metal of which it was weighed, whether of silver or of gold.
Tal′isman, The, a novel by Scott, was published with The Betrothed in June of 1825, and written in the true spirit of old romance. Most of its incidents are fictitious, though the ideals of the crusading times are made to live again. The spirit of the Holy Land vies with that of the Scottish border. The action takes place in Palestine, the title being derived from an amulet or charmed stone with which Saladin cures King Richard Cœur de Leon in his illness. This he afterwards presents to Sir Kenneth, the hero, finally discovered to be the prince royal of Scotland on his marriage with Edith the sister of Richard. The Talisman has always been a favorite with the young. It glows with bright impossibilities, even to a fault.
Tal′lade′ga, Ala., county-seat of Talladega County, on the Southern, the Louisville and Nashville and the Birm. and Ala. railway, about 50 miles east by south of Birmingham. Here in 1813 was fought a battle between Creek Indians and an American force under Andrew Jackson. It is the seat of Talladega College (Cong.) for colored students, of the Orphan's Home (Presb.) and of state schools for the deaf, dumb and blind. Its industries embrace cotton, knitted goods, chemicals, fertilizers, cottonseed-oil, furniture, cordage, oil, ice brick and marble products. Population 5,824.
Tallahassee (tăllȧ-hăs′sḗ), Fla., the capital of the state and county-seat of Leon County, stands on high ground, 21 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico. The capitol was begun in 1826. There are railroad-car and machine shops, a cotton-factory, novelty works and cigar-factories. The leading educational institutions are Florida State College, which has a normal department, West Florida Seminary and a fine public-school system. The old Spanish fort of San Louis is near by, and 16 miles away is the well-known and beautiful spring Wakulla. The town is noted for its flowers. Tallahassee was made the territorial capital in 1822, but was not laid out until 1824. Population 5,018.
Talleyrand (tăl′lĭ-rănd) de Perigord, Charles Maurice, Prince, a famous French diplomatist, was born at Paris, Feb. 14, 1754. His father, Count of Talleyrand, would have had him enter the army, had he not been accidentally lamed when a child. So he became a priest and rose to be bishop of Autun, As a member of the national assembly of 1789 he was a hearty friend of Mirabeau, and at the feast of the federation in the next year he headed a procession of 200 priests wearing the national colors over their white robes and performed mass on the altar set up in Champ de Mars. After the fall of Louis XVI Talleyrand went to England and then to the United States, where he reaped a fortune by speculation. He went back to France as soon as his name was crossed off the list of exiles, and in 1797, as the newly appointed minister of foreign affairs, welcomed Napoleon on his return from his famous Italian campaign. He greatly helped Napoleon to seize absolute power, and as his minister of foreign affairs became the ablest diplomat in Europe. An estrangement, however, separated the co-workers, Talleyrand resigning in 1807. To his intrigues was chiefly due Napoleon's fall in 1814, and for this treachery he was for the third time made foreign minister by Louis XVIII. At Napoleon's return from Elba he was in Austria as French commissioner to the Congress of Vienna, but after Waterloo he accompanied the king to Paris. He soon resigned his office, but retained great influence, men of all parties thronging his salon. He came to the front again after the revolution of 1830, as ambassador to England. His personal Memoirs and his Memoir on the Commercial Relations of the United States are the most valuable of his writings. He died on May 20, 1838.
Tallien (tä-lyăn′), Jean Lambert, a French revolutionist, was born at Paris in 1769. He first came to the front in 1792 as editor of a Jacobin newspaper, which gave him great influence. As secretary of the commune he helped on the September massacres. He was a supporter of Marat, and was eager for the death of Louis XVI and the Girondists. In 1793 he was sent to Bordeaux to root out this party, where he gained lasting infamy by his reckless cruelty. In 1794 he came back to Paris to become president of the Convention; and, to save himself from the attacks of Robespierre, he organized the destruction of the Terrorists, though he had himself perhaps been more guilty than they. Tallien now became one of the most influential men, but his past crimes could not be forgiven, and in 1798
