LYONb
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LYTTON
1841, and at the outbreak of the Civil War was in command of the arsenal at St. Louis, with the rank of captain. While here, he showed the mettle of which he was made by breaking up a camp of secessionists at St. Louis, established by Governor Jackson of Missouri. Some months after this he was placed in command of forces operating in southwestern Missouri against Price and Mc-Culloch. Finding that he would be forced to retreat unless he could strike a blow, Lyon resolved to risk a battle at Wilson's Creek near Springfield (Aug. 10, 1861). The fight was a very severe one. While leading a regiment into action whose colonel had fallen, Lyon himself was instantly killed. His military career, though brief, revealed a character that the American people will never cease to honor and revere.
Lyons (li'onz) or in French Lyon (le-6n'), the second city of France in industrial importance, though only the third in population, stands at the junction of the Rhdne and Sa6ne rivers, 250 miles from Paris and 218 from Marseilles. The commercial and fashionable quarters lie along the land between the rivers, and are connected with the suburbs beyond by numerous bridges. Lyons contains a Roman Catholic university with three faculties; a school of art with over 1,000 pupils; and a municipal library of nearly 120,000 volumes. The city is a fortress of the first rank, being defended by a double ring of forts. The staple industry is silk, it being computed that within the city and its environs as many as 85,000 hand-looms and 20,000 power-looms are employed in this manufacture. The list of notable persons born in Lyons includes the Roman general Germanicus and the Roman emperors Claudius, Caracalla and Marcus Aure-lius. Population 472,114.
Lyons, a gulf of the Mediterranean, washing the southern coast of France. The Rhone, Herault, Aude and some other rivers flow into this gulf. The principal towns on its coast are Marseilles, Toulon and Cette. The gulf is said to have been named from the lion, on account of the violent gales and storms to which it is subject.
Lyre (lir), one of the oldest forms of stringed instruments. The Greeks had a tradition that Mercury formed the lyre out of the shell of a tortoise; but we must seek its origin in Asia and infer its introduction into Greece through Thrace or Lydia. The Egyptians also had a tradition that the lyre was first invented in their country, but they seem to have adopted it from Assyria or Babylonia. The Egyptian lyre is unmistakably Semitic. The lyre, unlike the lute, cannot be stopped by the fingers and its sounds be thereby multiplied; and, as the number of its sounds can not be greater than the number of its strings, since the introduction of the modern musical scale it has fallen into disuse.
LYRE-BIRD
Lyre=Bird, an Australian bird, the male of which has the tail feathers arranged to look like a lyre. There are three species.
These birds belong to the order of perching birds (Passares), but are abnormal and do not perch. They are the largest of all song-birds, their body being about the size of the ruffed
f rouse. The 16 gathers of the tail of the male form a-beautiful ornament. It is the two external feathers, e s p e -cially, that are curved in the form of a lyre; the others represent the stringSo If the tail be removed, the bird is homely. The birds are of a sooty-brown color with reddish marks on the throat, wings and tail-coverts. They well imitate the song of other birds and, also, it is said, the bark of the wild dogs. They inhabit the brush or sparsely wooded portions of New South Wales, and are shy and difficult to approach.
Lysias (tis'i-as), one of the 10 Attic orators, son of a native of Syracuse, who flourished at Athens in the 4th century B. C., assisted in the expulsion of the Thirty Tyrants and in the restoration of the democracy in 403 B. C. He figured in Athenian politics as the public accuser of Eratosthenes, one of the Thirty Tyrants, and delivered a splendid oration which has come down to us with 30 or more of his speeches. His literary style is great, and had an important effect in Greek prose, while his oratory made him famous. He probably died in or soon after 380 B. C.
Lyt'ton, Edward Bulwer. See BUL-WER-LYTTON, EDWARD GEORGE.
Lyt'ton, Edward Robert, Earl of, poet, diplomatist and statesman, was born at London, Nov. 8, 1831, and was educated at Harrow and Bonn. All his active life (1849-91) was spent in the diplomatic service of Great Britain in Europe and America, except four years (1876-80) as viceroy of India. His literary works, of which perhaps the most popular is Lucile, have been published under the pseudonym of Owen Meredith. He also wrote Clytemnestra, The^ Wanderer, The Ring of Amasis and Fables in Song. He died at Paris, Nov. 24, 1891.
