Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/397

NEILGHERKY HILLS. 347 NEISSE. NEILGHERRY (iielgC'ii) HILLS. Moun- tain-, in iiulia. See NlLuiiu Hili.j.. NEILGHERRY (or NILGIRI) NETTLE {(UniKliiiiii ixdmatd). A plant nf tlic naliiiul ipiik'i- Urlieacea.', nearly allied to the true nettles, and possessing the stinging ])ovpr common in them. It is frequent on all the higher ranges of the Nilgiri hills. The natives obtain the lil)re by first boiling the |)lant, to destroy ils stinging properties, and then ])eeling the stalks. There are said to be two or three distinct forms or varieties of Neilgherry nettle fibre, and different specilie names have been given the ])lants producing them. Its bark yields a long, soft, and silky fibre, which is said to be one of the best fibres produced in India. NEILL, nel, Edwaud Duffield (1823-93), An .merican author and educator, born at Phila- delphia, He attended the L'nivereity of Penn- sylvania for a time, but was graduated at Am- herst in 1842, and afterwards studied theology at Andover, After ordination as a Presbyterian minister he removed to Saint Paul, llinn., in IS48. and became pastor of the first Protestant church. In 1851-53 he was superintendent of ]iublic instruction for the Territory, and from 1S.)8 to 1861 chancellor of the State University. 1h 18(;l-fi4 he was an army and hospital chaplain. From that time until ISCiit he was one of the secretaries of Presidents Lincoln and .Johnson. President Grant appointed him consul to Dublin in 1809, but he returned the next year. In 1873-84 he was president of Manchester College in Saint Paul, and from that time until his death professor of history and literature. He published many historical works, ehielly concerning the colonial jieriod. They are drawn entirely from iiriginal documents, and contain much valuable material, arranged, however, with little sense of ]>ro|iortion. The most important are: History of Minnesota (1858, 5th ed. 1883); Minnesota ICx/ilorers and Pioneers (1881) ; Terra Mariie, a history of early Mai-yland ( 1807) ; Uistorn of the Virr/inia Company of London (1809); English Colonization of America Dnriny the Sercntcenth Century (1871); Tirfiinia Vetusta (1885); Vir- giniri VaroJoriim (1880). NEILLS'VILLE. A city and the county-seat of Clark County, Wis., 66 miles northeast of La Crosse, at the junction of the O'Neil and Black rivers, and on the Chicago. Saint Paul, Jlinne- ai)olis and Omaha Railroail (Jlaj): Wisconsin, V A). The city has a public library of 2000 vol- umes. It is the centre of a pros]ierous farming and cattle-raising community; there are manu- factures of flour, furniture, and lumber in vari- ous products. Population, in 1890, 1930; in 1900. 2104. NEILSON, nel'son, .Tames Beavjioxt (1792- 1S05). A Scotch inventor, born at Shettleston, near (Glasgow. He had little education in scho(d. and at fourteen was set to work. Ho was employed by his brother, then as engineer of a colliery near Irvine, and in 1817 as foreman of the (tlasgow gas works, wlu're he niatle many improvements in the method of gas manufacture, and founded an institute for the education of employees. His great invention, that of the hot blast in manufacturing iron, was directly op- posed to the belief of contemporary foundrvmen that the colder the blast the better the quality and the greater the quantity; and his expcri- VOL. XIV.— 23. ments were long blocked by the impossibility of a fair test, XeiLson's jiatent, taken out in 1828, was very successful, ilh eijual fuel his method produced three times the iron of the cold blast. But the validity of the patent was attacked with some success, and nu>ny firms refused to i)ay the license for the blast. Neilsou won the great suit against the Bairds of (jartsherrie in 1843, and four years afterwards retired to the Isle of Bute, llis last years were spent at t^ueensliill, Kirkcudbright, where he established a working- man's institute. NEILSON, Lilian Adelaide (1848-80). The assumed mime of an English actress named Eliza- beth Ann Brown. She was born March 3, 1848, in Leeds, and her childhood at liuiseley was of the humblest. When fourteen years old she ran away from home, and going to London, was edu- cated for the stage through the kindness of a chance acquaintance, making her debut in 1865 in the part of Juliet. She played for a few years in various theatres of London and the jirovinces, till 1870-71, when she met great .success as Amy Robsart in an adaptation of Kenilworth, and as Rebecca in Ivunkoe. Ai once she became one of the favorites of the Knglish stage, and was equally popular in .merica, where she appeared ncary every year from 1872 to her death. Her great characters, besides those mentioned, were the Shakespearean Rosalind, Beatrice, and Imo- gen, and also Julia in The fJunchhaclc. Early in her career she was married to Philip Ix>e, from whom she was divorced in 1877. She died sud- denly in the prime of lier beauty, in Paris, Au- gust 15, 1880. Consult: Scott, The Drama of Yesterday and To-Day (London, 1899) ; Mars- ton, Our Recent Actors (ib,, 1890). NEILSON, Samuel (1761-1803), An Irish politician, founder of the L'nited Irish Society, He was born at Ballyroney, County Down, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, and established himself in Belfast as a woolen merchant, but his interest in politics soon forced him out of busi- ness. In 1792 he founded the yorthcrn Star, an organ of the United Irishmen, The formation of this society had been suggested by Neilson in the previous year and was carried out by Wolf Tone. The Star was suppressed in 1797 after the editor, who aimed at complete separation from England, had several times suffered arrest and imprisonment. Rearrested in 1798, Xeilson either bargained with the Government in behalf of all political prisoners that they were to be exiled to some country frieiuUy to Great Britain, and in return would disclose the secrets of the United Irish Society, or in some other way man- aged to escape trial. In 1802 he was set free at Cuxhaven, soon afterwards can>e to the United States, and died at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. NEIRA (na't-ra) BANDA. One of the Ban<la Islands (q.v.). NEISSE, nl'se. The capital of a circle, and a fortified town in the Province of Silesia, Prus- sia, on the Glatzer Xeisse, 46 miles .south-south- east of Breslau (Map: Prussia. G 3). The town proper on the left bank of the river is well built, and has a number of interesting features, of which the most prominent are the Gothic Church of Saint .Jacob, dating from the twelfth century, the .Jesuit Church, completed in 1088. the Kalhaus with its high tower, the bishop's residence, now used as municipal offices, and the Catholic Gym-