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JET 255 JEWETT JET, a dense variety of lignite pass- ing by degrees of quality into bituminous fossil wood, sometimes perfectly black, capable of being easily cut and carved, and of receiving a very beautiful polish. It takes its name from Gagas or Gages, a place in Asia Minor, where, according to Pliny, the substance was obtained, whence in his time it was called gagates, afterward corrupted into gagat, the mod- em German name, and jet. As a ma- terial for mourning ornaments jet is ad- mirably adapted, and for that purpose is largely used. JETHBO, a king and priest of the Midianites, surnamed Raguel, who re- ceived Moses into his family when he fled from Egypt, and gave him his daughter Zipporah in marriage. When Moses had delivered the Israelites from their bond- age, Jethro met him, and delivered him his wife and children. JETSAM. See Flotsam. JETTEE, the fiber of Marsdenia tenacissima, a small climbing plant of the natural order Asclepiadacess, of which the Rajmahal mountaineers make bowstrings. JEVONS, WILLIAM STANLEY, an English logician; born in Liverpool, in 1835; was educated at University Col- lege, London ; held an appointment in the royal mint in Australia from 1854 to 1859; graduated at London University in 1862; was appointed Professor of Logic, Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Cobden lecturer on political economy in Owens College, Manchester, afterward Professor of Political Economy in Uni- versity College, London, a post which he resigned in 1881. Among his works are "Elementary Treatise on Logic" (1870); "Theory of Political Economy" (1871) ; "Principles of Science" (1874) ; and many essays and addresses on economic questions. He was drowned in 1882. JEW, THE WANDERING, a mythi- cal personage who forms the subject of many popular traditions. According to one account he was a carpenter and as our Saviour passed his workshop on his way to execution, the soldiers begged that He might be allowed to enter for a few moments and rest; but he not only refused, but ordered Him off. Jesus replied, "Thou shalt wander on the earth till I return." Driven by fear and re- morse, he has since wandered, according to the command of our Lord, from place to place, and has in vain sought death. The legend first appears in the Chronicle of Matthew Paris, in the 13th century, where the Wandering Jew is called Car- taphilus, and is said to have been a servant of Pilate. His name in the later legends is Ahasuerus. This legend has formed the subject of long poems by Schubert and Mosen; of a tragedy by Klingmann; of a mystico-philosophical drama by Edgar Quinet; of prose ro- mances by George Croly ("Salathiel"), Alexandre Dumas the elder, M. (Elckers, and David Hoffman ("Chronicles Se- lected from the Originals of Carta- philus") ; "The Wandering Jew," by Eugene Sue; "The Prince of India," by Lew Wallace; and of numerous small lyrical pieces. JEW BUSH, Pedilanthus tithy- maloides, a plant of the order Euphor- biacese. It grows in the West Indies, and is used in decoction as an antisyphili- tic, and in cases of suppression of the menses. It is also called milk plant. JEWELBY, a collective name for articles intended for personal decora- tion, made of precious metals, which may be enriched with stones or enamels. Popularly, there is much confusion be- tween the terms gem and jewel; the former belongs especially to engraved stones. Before the use of metals was known, jewelry, if it can be so termed, consisted of carved beads and fragments of such bright substances as were at the com- mand of prehistoric man. Gold is the first metal of which there is any men- tion in literature, and there is no doubt that, being always found native, it was the first to be used by mankind. Among the numerous finds of gold jewelry of prehistoric times there are many speci- mens which show that the early arti- ficers possessed considerable command over their material in the way of ham- mering out plates to uniform thickness, drawing or beating the metal into wire, and plaiting and twisting it into torques, armillae, rings, and other forms of orna- rnent. In these earliest gold ornaments there is no attempt at decorative treat- ment other than that what could be pro- duced by the hammer; and it is only by degrees that simple efforts at chasing, engraving, and embossing make their appearance. The distinction between jewelry of the present day and that of earlier times is found in the fundamental fact that the old work is the creation of the crafts- man, while the modem jewel is the prod- uct of a manufacturer who adopts all labor - saving machines and appliances for the economical finishing of his wares. JEWETT, SARAH ORNE, an Ameri- can writer; born in South Berwick, Me., Sept. 3, 1849. She received an aca-