276
BLIDA — BLUMENTHAL
there are factories for the production of wire cable. the seat of the state university, which in 1900 had a faculty numbering 7 7, and students numbering 113/. Population (1900), 3435. Population (1890), 4018; (1900), 6460. Blida, a town of Algeria, 32 miles by rail S.W. of Bloomsburg, a chartered town of Pennsylvania, the city of Algiers, capital of a canton in the department of Algiers, situated at the foot of the first slopes U.S.A., capital of Columbia county, on the north branch of the Atlas mountains. It carries on an important flour of the Susquehanna river, and on the Delaware, trade, but its principal commerce is in oranges, surrounded Lackawanna, and Western, and the Philadelphia and as it is with orangeries numbering from 50,000 to 60,000 Beading railways. Its industries are connected chiefly trees. Its population, 15,255 in 1872, increased to 23,685 with iron manufacture. Population (1890), 4635 ; (1900), in 1890, and in 1900 numbered 27,772, of whom 6991 6170. were French. Blue Island, a village of Cook county, Illinois, Blind, Mathilde (1841 1896), author, was born U.S.A., in the north-eastern part of the state, adjoining at Mannheim on 21 st March 1841. Her father was a banker Chicago, of which it is a suburb. Population (1890), named Cohen, but she took the name of Blind in conse- 3329; (1900), 6114. quence of her mother’s marriage to Karl Blind, one of the Bluff Harbour. See Invercargill. leaders of the Baden insurrection in 1848-49. The family Blumenthal, Leonhard von (1810-1900), was compelled to take refuge in England, and in course of time Mathilde Blind devoted herself to literature and Prussian field-marshal, son of Captain Louis von Blumenthal to endeavours for the elevation of her sex. As a writer (d. 1813), was born at Schwedt, on the Oder, on 30th of verse she produced some remarkable work, such as July 1810. Educated at the military schools of Culm and “The Prophecy of St Oran,” “The Heather on Fire,” Berlin, he entered the Guards landwehr regiment as. 2nd “ The Ascent of Man,” and other minor poems. She wrote lieutenant in 1827. After serving in the Bhine provinces biographies of George Eliot and Madame Boland, and he joined the topographical division of the general staff in translated Strauss’s The Old Faith avd the Few, and the 1846. As lieutenant of the 31st foot he took part, in Memoirs of Marie Bashlcirtseff. She died in 1896, be- 1848, in the suppression of the Berlin riots, and in 1849 queathing her property to Newnham College, Cambridge. was promoted captain on the General Staff. The same year he served on the staff of General von Bonin in the Her collected poetical works have been republished. Bloemfontein, a town of British South Africa, Schleswig-Holstein campaign, and so distinguished himself, capital of the Orange Biver Colony, and formerly of the particularly at Frederick, that he was appointed chief of Orange Free State. It was founded by the early Boer the staff of the Schleswig-Holstein army. In 1850 he was trekkers about 1836 on a southern affluent of the Vaal, on general staff officer of the mobile division under von the open veldt amid a few low detached kopjes at an alti- Tietzen in Hesse Cassel. He was sent on a mission to tude of 4518 feet above the sea, about 120 miles from the England in that year (4th class of Bed Eagle) and on several Cape frontier, 750 from Cape Town, and 450 from Port subsequent occasions. He became a major in 1853, was Elizabeth. Of its normal population of 10,000 (1901), appointed personal adjutant to Prince Frederick Charles fully 7000 are whites (Dutch and English), and 3000 in 1859, and promoted in 1860 to be colonel of the 31st blacks (Basutos and Bechuanas, commonly called “Kaffirs”). regiment, and later of the 71st regiment. He was chief The town is regularly laid out with streets running at right of the staff of the 3rd army corps when, on the outbreak angles and flanked by several fine buildings, mostly of of the Danish war of 1864, he was nominated chief of the stone quarried in the vicinity. Amongst them are the general staff of the army against Denmark, and displayed government offices and the former Baadzaal (Parliament so much ability, particularly at Missunde, Duppel, and the House), now used for general municipal purposes. It is well passage to Alsen island, that he was promoted to be majorsupplied with electric light and good water, and is a great general and given the Order of Merit. In the Austrian railway centre with lines converging from Cape Town, Port war of 1866 Blumenthal was chief of the General Staff of Elizabeth, and Pretoria. Owing to its dry, salubrious the second army under the Prussian crown prince, and climate it has become a sort of South African sanatorium, led it with a swiftness of decision and directness of aim recommended especially for pulmonary affections. During which enabled it to strike home on the heights of Culm, the Boer war Bloemfontein was occupied without resistance and tp decide the fortunes of the day at Koniggratz (lieut.by Lord Boberts, soon after the surrender of Kronje general, the oak-leaf of the Order of Merit, and knight commander of Hohenzollern). In the years of peace which at Paardeberg (27th-28th February 1900). followed he commanded the 14th army division at Bloomfield, a township of Essex county, New Dusseldorf, and his conduct of the manoeuvres arranged Jersey, U.S.A., situated in the north-eastern part of the with the 13th division under General yon Groeben state, on the Erie and the Delaware, Lackawanna and earned the highest praise from military critics. In the Western railways, at an altitude of 130 feet; founded Franco-German war of 1870-71, as chief of the staff of toward the close of the 17 th century, under the name of the third army, Blumenthal’s knowledge and skill were inWatsesson. Population (1880), 5748; (1900), 9668. valuable. His co-operation with Moltke was masterly. Bloomington, capital of M'Lean county, Illinois, Before orders had been given for the decisive flank march U.S.A., situated in 40° 30' N. lat. and 89° 00' W. long., which ended at Sedan, he had grasped the position of in the central part of the state, at an altitude of 785 feet. Bazaine at Metz and had made all his preparations. No It is a railway centre, being on the Chicago and Alton, general order was ever given for the battle of Sedan, but the Cleveland, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis, the Moltke knew that the third and fourth armies would close Illinois Central, and the Lake Erie and Western railways. the iron ring in the nick of time. In 18/1 Blumenthal It is the seat of Illinois Wesleyan University, with a faculty represented Germany at the Chobham manoeuvres, and numbering 34, and with 300 students, one-third of whom was given the command of the 4th army corps at Magdeare women. Population (1880), 17,180; (1900), 23,286. bui’g. He was made a field-marshal in 1888, and died at Bloomington, a city of Indiana, U.S.A., capital Quillendorf, 21st December 1900. He married in 1852 of Munroe county, S.W. of the centre of the state, Delicia Anna von Yyner {nee Calthorpe), and left two sons on the Chicago, Indiana, and Louisville railway. It is and three daughters. Field-Marshal Blumenthal had the
