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WALLACK—WALL-COVERINGS
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(1861), Love's Triumph (1862) and The Desert Flower (1863). He also published a number of compositions for the piano, &c. Vincent Wallace was a cultivated man and an accomplished musician, whose Maritana still holds the stage, and whose work as an English operatic composer, at a period by no means encouraging to English music, has a distinct historical value. Like Balfe, he was born an Irishman, and his reputation as one of the few composers known beyond the British Isles at that time is naturally coupled with Balfe's. But he was a finer artist and a more original musician. In later years he became almost blind; and he died in poor circumstances on the 12th of October 1865, leaving a widow and two children.

WALLACK, JAMES WILLIAM (c. 1794–1864), Anglo-American actor and manager, was born in London, his parents being actors. He made his first stage appearance at Drury Lane in 1807. After three years in Dublin he was again at Drury Lane until he went to America in 1818. He settled in New York permanently in 1852, the first Wallack's theatre being an old one renamed at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway. The second, at 13th Street and Broadway, he built himself. Wallack was an actor of the old school. Thackeray praises his Shylock, Joseph Jefferson his Don Caesar de Bazan. He married the daughter (d. 1851) of John Henry Johnstone (1740–1828), a popular tenor and stage Irishman. Their son, John Lester Wallack (1820–1888), was born in New York on the 1st of January 1820. At one time in the English army, then on the Dublin and London stage, he made his first stage appearance in New York in 1847 under the name of John Lester as Sir Charles Coldstream, in Boucicault's adaptation of Used Up. He was manager, using the name Wallack, of the second Wallack's theatre from 1861, and in 1882 he opened the third at 30th Street and Broadway. His greatest successes were as Charles Surface, as Benedick, and especially as Elliot Grey in his own play Rosedale, and similar light comedy and romantic parts, for which his fascinating manners and handsome person well fitted him. He married a sister (d. 1909) of Sir John Millais. He wrote his own Memories of Fifty Years.

WALLAROO, a seaport of Daly county, South Australia, situated in Wallaroo Bay, on the Spencer Gulf, 123 m. by rail N.W. by N. of Adelaide. It is connected by rail with the celebrated Wallaroo copper mines (near Kadina, at a distance of 6 m. from the port). At Wallaroo Bay are the largest smelting works in the state, ranking among the largest in the world. Gold, silver and concentrated ores are received from other parts of the continent and from Tasmania for smelting at these works, which have ample facilities for shipment. Population of town (1901) 2920; of town and mines, 4866.

WALLASEY, an urban district in the Wirral parliamentary division of Cheshire, England, 2 m. N.W. of Birkenhead, of which it forms a suburb. Pop. (1901) 53,579. The former marshy estuary called Wallasey Pool is occupied by the Great Float, forming an immense dock (see Birkenhead). The church of St Hilary, to which is assigned a foundation in the 10th century, was rebuilt in the 18th century, with the exception of the tower bearing the date 1536. It was gutted by fire in 1857, and the whole was again rebuilt in the Early English style. On the shore of the Irish Sea is Leasowe Castle, once known as Mock-Beggar Hall, and supposed to have been erected by the earls of Derby in the reign of Elizabeth, in order to witness the horse-races held here. Under Wallasey Pool are remains of a submerged forest, in which various animal skeletons have been found.

At the Conquest Wallasey formed part of the possessions of Robert de Rhuddlan, and on his decease became part of the fee of Halton. In the reign of Elizabeth it had a small port, to which there belonged three barques and fourteen men. In 1668 the manor was possessed by the earl of Derby, but various parts afterwards became alienated. For a considerable time the horse-races held on what was then a common had considerable reputation, but they were discontinued in 1760. At these races the duke of Monmouth, son of Charles II., once rode his own horse and won the plate.

WALLA WALLA, a city and the county-seat of Walla Walla county, Washington, U.S.A., in the S.E. part of the state, on Mill Creek, about 200 m. S. by W. of Spokane. Pop. (1880) 3588; (1890) 4709; (1900) 10,049, of whom 1522 were foreign-born; (1910 census) 19,364. Walla Walla is served by the Northern Pacific and the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Co.'s (Union Pacific) railways, and by an inlet urban electric line. In the city are a state penitentiary, Fort Walla Walla (a U.S. cavalry post), a Federal Land Office, a Young Men's Christian Association building, a Carnegie library, the State Odd Fellows' Home, and the Stubblefield Home for Widows and Orphans. Sessions of Federal District and Circuit courts are held here. Walla Walla is the seat of Whitman College (chartered, 1859; opened, 1866; rechartered, 1883), originally Congregational, but now non-sectarian, which was founded by the Rev. Cushing Eells and was named in honour of Marcus Whitman, and includes a college, a conservatory of music and a preparatory academy, and occupies a campus of 30 acres; and of Walla Walla College (Adventist). Here are also St Paul's School (Protestant Episcopal) for girls, and St Vincent's Academy for girls and De La Salle Academy for boys (both Roman Catholic). The city is situated in a farming (especially wheat-growing), stock-raising and fruit-growing region, is a distributing centre for the adjacent territory in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, and has a large wholesale business. Among its manufactures are flour and grist-mill products, agricultural implements, lumber, foundry and machine-shop products, leather and malted liquors. The value of the factory product in 1905 was $1,485,791, 54.1% more than in 1900. The municipality owns its waterworks. In 1836 the famous missionary, Marcus Whitman, established at Waiilatpu, about 5 m. W. of the present Walla Walla, a mission of the American Board (Congregational), which in 1847 was broken up by an Indian attack, Whitman, his wife and twelve others being massacred, and the other residents being carried off as prisoners. In 1857 Fort Walla Walla was built by the United States government on the site of the present city, and about it a settlement grew up in 1857-1858. Walla Walla was laid out and organized as a town, and became the county seat in 1859; in 1862 it was chartered as a city. The name “Walla Walla” is said to be a Nez Percé Indian term meaning “a rapid stream.”

See W. D. Lyman, An Illustrated History of Walla Walla County, State of Washington (1901).

WALL-COVERINGS. The present article deals with this subject (see Mural Decoration for art and archaeology) from the practical point of view in connexion with house-furnishing. In selecting a wall-covering, the chief factors to be borne in mind are the conditions of the room, viz. the use to which it is to be put, and its lighting, aspect and outlook.

Marble is one of the most beautiful materials that can be chosen for covering a wall. The variety of its natural markings and colour gives a wide choice that enables it to be employed in practically any scheme of colouring and for rooms of any aspect and of any description. The working up of the marble is done Marble wall-lining. mostly by machinery; the saws used are flat strips of steel set in the frame of a machine and worked to and fro, sand and water being constantly supplied to assist in the work of cutting. Mouldings are worked to the desired profile by rapidly revolving carborundum wheels, and are afterwards polished by hand. Marble wall-slabbing needs very careful fixing, and should be well supported by a sufficient number of cramps at a little distance from the wall, leaving a space of about half an inch at the back of the slab. Non- rusting cramps should be used, such as those made of copper or bronze. A cement made of plaster of Paris and marble dust mixed in the proportion of two parts to one should be used for fixing, as pure plaster, especially if new, is liable to swell and cause the marble to crack. Marezso and Scagliola are imitation marbles and are described in Plasterwork.

Well-designed and properly executed mosaic is a very beautiful decorative medium, and ranks among the most permanent as well as most pleasing wall-coverings. With glass mosaic great ranges both of colour and of texture of surface can be obtained, different methods of preparing the glass giving a brilliant Mosaic. granular or quite dull surface as desired to suit the particular position of the work. Marble mosaic is used more for floors and pavings than for vertical surfaces. Most mosaic is now put together in the studio and pasted upon sheets of tough paper to which the design has previously been transferred. The whole section can thus be bedded on the prepared wall-surface with the least amount of