WREN
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WRIGHT
Wren, a family (Troglodytides) of passerine birds. They are sprightly little birds, always in motion. About a half-dozen species are found in the eastern United States. The house-wren nests about yards in any suitable hole or cavity and shows a liking for a bird-box, if it can find one unoccupied. It is a pert, bobbing bird about five inches long, of a brown color above, marked with black and gray, and grayish and rusty below. The winter-wren is smaller, being only four inches long, but of similar appearance to the house-wren. In summer it nests north of New England, but is a common winter resident in the eastern states. It is a fine singer. The long-billed marsh-wren is abundant in reedy swamps, making a big, globular nest with a little hole on one side, all suspended from rushes. The Carolina wren is a remarkable singer. It is a larger bird, reaching a length of six inches; its color is reddish brown above and pale buff below. It ranges through the southern states north to Pennsylvania. The European bird is a small, lively bird, nesting in gardens and hedges, and is a great favorite.
Wren, Sir Christopher, an English architect, was born at East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Oct. 20, 1631. He studied at Oxford, where he invented mathematical instruments. He also, while residing at Oxford as a fellow, became a member of a society for studying and experimenting in natural philosophy. Evelyn in his Diary speaks of Wren at this time as "that miracle of a youth." He made improvements on the newly invented barometer and a globe of the moon, which he finished by order of King Charles II at the request of his scientific friends, who also asked the king to command Wren to continue "drawing the shapes of little animals as they appear in the microscope." He was professor of anatomy at Oxford and at London, and wi%h others formed the Royal Society. He had already made plans for the restoration of St. Paul's Cathedral in London, when it was destroyed by the fire of 1666, but in 1675 the new building was begun under his direction, arid in 1710 the last stone was laid by his son. Other buildings planned by Wren are the Royal Exchange, Temple Bar, the customhouse and fifty churches in London; Gateway Tower and Christ Church, Oxford; Pembroke College, Cambridge; the Royal Observatory at Greenwich; Buckingham House; and the towers of the western front of Westminster Abbey He died on Feb. 25, 1723, and was buried at St. Paul's. His tomb has the inscription: Si monu-mentum qu&ris, circumspice (If you seek his monument, look around). Steele has introduced him in The Taller in the character of Nestor.
Wres'tling, one of the favoJte forms of athletic exercise and feats of skill and
strength in Greece in early times and a special attraction in contests at the Olympian and Isthmian games. In these early encounters grace of movement on the part of the wrestlers was in some degree as essential to success as was the throwing of an opponent to the ground. Prom Greece wrestling-matches passed to Italy, and in later times they have become common in England and in this country; while they are a notable feature (known as jiu-jitsu} in athletic contests in Japan. The Greco-Roman manner of wrestling has long been the rule in France, as it is in England and here; though tripping, commonly engaged in by modern wrestlers, was not permitted in ancient wrestling encounters. A fall is constituted by both shoulders and one hip or by two hips and one shoulder touching the ground. In the rules observed at the English contests in 'the Cumberland and Westmoreland matches the man who breaks hold, that is, loses his grip on his opponent, is deemed the loser. The Lancashire style, considered the roughest of wrestling contests, permits catching by the legs as well as wrestling on the ground. In French matches tripping is tabooed; while in German ones the contest is chiefly a struggle on the ground.
Wright, Carroll Davidson, American statistician and writer on social science and economics, was born at Dunbarton, N. H., July 25, 1840, and had an academic education. In the Civil War he enlisted in the United States army, and rose to be colonel of the i4th New Hampshire volunteers. In 1872 he became a member of the Massachusetts senate and chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of the Statistics of Labor. During 1885-1902 he was United States Commissioner of Labor, and took part in the labors of the nth United States census, and in 1895 ne became lecturer on social economics in the Catholic University of America. In 1902 he became president of the collegiate department (now Clark College) of Clark University at Worcester, Mass. He has written largely on statistics and on labor, among his published works being The Factory System of the United States, The Relation of Political Economy to the Labor Question, Convict Labor, Strikes and Lockouts, Working Women in Large Cities, Railroad Labor, Industrial Evolution of the United States, Outline of Practical Sociology and Annual Reports (1873-88) of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics. Died Feb. 20, 1909.
Wright, R. Ramsay, was born in Scotland in 1852; educated at the High School and University of Edinburgh; assistant-professor of natural history, Edinburgh, in 1873; professor of natural history in University College, Toronto, 1874; and its vice-president, 1901. He published
