of war, and should be escorted to Fort Edward by a detachment of French regulars. Early on the 10th the survivors began their march, but were soon set upon by the Indians, and a general massacre ensued, an unknown number of the troops being killed outright, and many more being carried into captivity. Though this attack was not instigated by the French, contemporary evidence seems to show that no earnest effort was made by them to force the Indians to observe the treaty stipulations. Cooper used this incident in his Last of the Mohicans. Consult Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe (Boston, 1884).
FORT WORTH. A city and the county-seat of Tarrant County, Texas, 30 miles west of Dallas; on Trinity River, and on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fé, the Texas and Pacific, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific, the Fort Worth and Denver, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande, and other railroads (Map: Texas, F 3). It is the seat of Fort Worth University (Methodist Episcopal) founded in 1881, Polytechnic College (Methodist Episcopal, South) opened in 1891, and the Fort Worth Medical College. Among the finest structures in the city are the Carnegie Public Library, railroad depots, post-office, city hall, and county court-house. Fort Worth has an annual trade valued at $30,000,000; it is the centre of a vast stock-raising country, and is an important cotton market. The industrial establishments include stock-yards, packing houses, grain-elevators, flour-mills, tanneries, breweries, railroad repair-shops, foundries and machine-shops, cotton and oil mills, etc. Settled in 1849, Fort Worth was incorporated in 1872, The government is administered under a charter of 1900, by a mayor elected biennially, and a council which controls the appointments to most of the subordinate municipal offices. The city owns and operates its water-works and electric-light plant. Population, in 1880, 6663; in 1890, 23,076; in 1900, 26,688.
FORT YELLOWSTONE. A United States military post, established in 1886, and formerly Camp Sheridan (1874). The reservation comprises 28 acres on Beaver Creek, and is eight miles from Cinnabar on the Northern Pacific Railroad, within the limits of Yellowstone National Park. The post-office and telegraph station (June to October) is Mammoth Hot Springs, near the post; and telegraph station (October to May) Cinnabar, Mont. The garrison is one company of cavalry, and has charge of the Yellowstone National Park.
FORTY-NINERS. A name popularly applied to the throng of fortune-seekers who emigrated to California in the years immediately following the discovery of gold there in 1848, especially to those who went during the period of greatest excitement in 1849. They were also called ‘Argonauts.’ They came, some by land and some by sea, from all parts of the world, and had among them representatives of almost every nationality, of every color, and of every social stratum. Those who came by sea embarked, for the most part, from ports in the Eastern States, some making the long and dangerous voyage around Cape Horn, and others proceeding to Chagres (q.v.),and thence across the Isthmus to Panama, where they again embarked on any vessel obtainable. The chief carriers were the three side-wheelers, the California, the Oregon, and the Panama, of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which frequently transported more than three or four times the number of passengers for which they were designed. Besides these, nondescript vessels, of every size and kind, were commissioned for the service, and were likewise greatly overcrowded, while many reckless adventurers, unable to force their way aboard, left for their destination in clumsy Indian dug-outs. Much as passengers by the sea suffered, however, overland travelers suffered even more. The majority of these gathered from May to June of each year at Independence or Saint Joseph, Mo., at that time on the frontiers of civilization, and then proceeded to Sacramento in long caravans, continually harassed on the way by the Indians, and forced to suffer terribly from starvation, exposure, and fatigue. The first emigrant train reached Sacramento in August, 1849, and others followed in quick succession. By the end of 1849 it is estimated that 42,000 emigrants had arrived by land, and 30,000 by sea. Consult: Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, vol. xviii. (San Francisco, 1888), and ib., California Inter Pocula (San Francisco, 1888); Bayard Taylor, El Dorado (New York, 1862); Stillman, Seeking the Golden Fleece (San Francisco, 1877); and Bret Harte, Tales of the Argonauts (Boston, 1875).
FORTY THIEVES, The. A band of robbers, in the tale of “Ali Baba,” in the ordinary translations of the Thousand and One Nights, although not found in the best Arabic manuscripts. They dwelt in a cave in the forest, the door of which opened only in response to the words ‘Open, sesame.’
FORUM (Lat., market-place; connected with foris, door) . The term applied by the Romans to the large open space in the central part of any city, which was the common resort of the people for business and pleasure. It was the political centre, where the magistrates and people met, and where elections were held; here were the administrative and civic buildings or inclosures, such as the comitium, with its tribunals and rostra for the large assembly; the curia or senate house, temples, treasuries, and basilicas, or law courts. At each end of the road or roads, crossing the fora were often archways, or Jani, used as resorts for merchants and scribes. The other buildings bounded the forum on different sides, and between them were shops or tabernæ belonging to the different trades.
Historic Evolution. In the early days of the Royal and Republican ages, there appears to have been but a single forum in each city, serving not only for political, legal, and mercantile purposes, but also for the popular games and amusements—the theatrical shows, wild-beast contests, gladiatorial fights, and races. The old Roman Forum and all those modeled upon it, like that of Sinuessa, were of this type. The next stage was the distinction into two fora, one devoted to law, administration, and politics, and the other to the sale of commodities. This was due, perhaps, to the influence of Greece, where there were often two agoras of this description—as at Athens. The Greek agoras were microcosms of the city, filled with tents, shops, and benches, surrounded by special buildings, and with bazaars in the connecting streets; here laborers were hired, slaves bought, and all business transacted. Until a few decades ago the plan and buildings of
