Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/259

MEXICO 215 MEYERBEER MEXICO, county-seat of Audrain cc, Mo., 50 miles N. E. of Jefferson City, on a tributary of the Salt river. Wabash and other railroads. Seat of Hardin College for Women. Commercial center of large stock-raising district. Has flour, carriage, cigar factories. Gov- erned by mayor and council. Pop. (1910) 5,939; (1920) 6,013. MEXICO, GULF OF, a basin of the Atlantic Oceacb closed in by the United States on the N., by Mexico on the W. and S., and its outlet on the E. narrowed by the jutting peninsulas of Yucatan and Florida, which approach within 500 miles of each other; length from S. W. to N. E. over 1,100 miles; area (est.) 716,200 square miles. Over a fourth of this area the ocean lies at a depth of between 1,000 and 2,000 fathoms, while 58,000 square miles is deeper still. The shores are very shallow, less than 100 fathoms deep over 400,000 square miles, etc. In the middle of the E,. outlet is planted the island of Cuba, dividing the strait into two — the Strait of Florida and that of Yucatan, the former connecting the gulf with the Atlantic Ocean, the latter with the Caribbean Sea. Of the numerous bays, the largest is the Bay of Cam- peachy (Campeche). The coasts are mostly low and sandy or marshy, and are lined with numerous lagoons; the best of the few good harbors are those of New Orleans, Pensacola, Mobile, Tampa, Vera Cruz, Tampico, and Ha- vana. The gulf is visited from Sep- tember to March by violent N. E. gales called nortes. There are very few is- lands. The principal rivers it receives are the Mississippi and the Rio Grande del Norte. The Gulf Stream (q.v.) en- ters the Gulf of Mexico by the Strait of Yucatan, passes around it, and emerges through the Strait of Florida. MEYER, BALTHASAR HENRY, American economist, bom in Mequon, Wis. Studied at Berlin, (Germany, and finished his education at University of Wisconsin. Taught sociology and polit- ical economy, then, ir 1905, became chairman of Railroad Commission of Wisconsin. He was a member of the U. S, Railroad Securities Commission in 1910, and in 1911 was appointed mem- ber ot Interstate Commerce Commission. He is the author of "Railway Legislation in the United States" (1903) and "A His- tory of the Northern Securities Case" (1906). MEYER, CONRAD FERDINAND (mi'er), a Swiss poet and historical novelist; bom in Zurich, Switzerland, Oct. 12, 1825. His style is graceful, and he excels in character-drawing and in genre pictures of descriptive work. His chief novels are "Jiirg Jenatsch" (1876), a story of Switzerland in the 17th cen- tury, and "The Saint" (1880); two of the best historical novels of modem Ger- man literature. His poetical works in- clude: "Hutten's Last Days" (1872), in "Poems" (1882), and in "Engelberg" (1873). His works were collected in 8 vols. (1912). He died in 1898. MEYER, GEORGE VON LENGERKE, American political leader. Born in Bos- ton in 1858, he graduated fr • i Harvard in 1879, and was then for twenty years in business as merchant and trustee. During part of this time he was on the Boston Com.mon Council and Board of Aldermen, and in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, serving as Speaker, 1894-7. He was Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotientary to Italy 1900-5, and Ambassador to Russia, 1905-7. President Roosevelt made him Postmaster-General in 1907. and he was Secretary of the Navy under President Taft, 1909-13. He died in 1918. MEYER, KUNO, a German scholar of Celtic literature. In 1894 he became professor of Teutonic languages at the University College, Liverpool, and in 1911 profesor of Celtic at Berlin. He founded a school in Dublin for the study of Celtic, and the Irish patriots, anxious to make it the language of Ireland, ac- cepted him with enthusiasium. His im- portant contributions to Celtic literature led to an, invitation from Harvard to lecture there, which he finally declined because of the strong pro-Ally leaning of that institution. MEYERBEER, GIACOMO (mi'er- bar), a German composer; bom in Ber- lin, Prussia. Sept. 5, 1791. His genius showed itself so early that at six years of age he played at a concert, and at nine was one of the best pianists in Ber- lin. He was taught afterward by dem- enti and the Abbe Vogler at Darmstadt. He subsequently visited Italy, and fell under the influence of Rossini, jn imita- tion of whose style he composed several operas. The first work which made him a man of mark was the "Cmsade in Egypt." It was produced at Venice in 1824, and at Paris two years later. Mey- erbeer became the favorite composer of the Parisian public, whose taste he satisfied by the popular works which fol- lowed, and which are now well known throughout the world. "Robert the Devil" was produced at the opera of Paris in 1831; "The Huguenots" (1833); "The Profihet" (1849); "Star of the