Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/298

Rocky Mountains, in whose behalf he made several visits to Europe, collecting money and enlisting recruits as missionaries and teachers. He wrote Letters and Sketches and Residence in the Rocky Mountains (1843); Oregon Missions and Travels Over the Rocky Mountains in 1845-46 (1847); Western Missions and Missionaries (1863); Reisen zu den Felsengebirgen und ein Jahr unter den wilden Indianerstämmen des Oregon-Gebietes (1865).

SMETANA, smĕ-tä′nȧ, Friedrich (1824-84). A Bohemian composer and pianist, born in Leitomischl. He studied music under Proksch of Prague, and later with Liszt. He founded a music school in Prague, but in 1856 went to Sweden, where he became conductor of the Philharmonic concerts at Gothenburg. Returning to Prague in 1866, he became kapellmeister at the National Bohemian Theatre. Smetana's works are thoroughly Bohemian, and as a national composer he is of the greatest importance. His works include the following operas: The Bartered Bride (1806); Dalibor (1868); Two Widows (1874); The Kiss (1876); The Secret (1878); Libussa (1881), and The Devil's Wall (1882); the symphonic poems, Richard III. (1858); Wallensteins Lager (1859); Hakon Jarl (1861) ; My Country, comprising six independent works (1874-79); and other symphonies, string quartets, and smaller compositions. He died in the Prague lunatic asylum. For his biography, consult Wellek (Prague, 1899).

SMETHWICK, smĕᴛʜ′ik. A municipal borough in Staffordshire, England, three miles northwest of Birmingham (Map: England. E 4). It is an important manufacturing centre with iron, machine, glass, chemical, and other works. The municipality owns gas and electric lighting plants, and garden allotments, and maintains a free library and reading rooms, park, public baths, and an isolation hospital. Population, in 1891, 36.100; in 1901. 54.560.

SMEW (probably a variant of smee, smeath, perhaps from MDutch smeente, Dutch smient, widgeon). A small merganser {Merganser albellus), which abounds from Lapland to Kamtchatka, but not east of Bering Straits, and visits Europe in winter. It is a very handsome bird, the plumage of the male being chiefly white, marked with black and gray, and on the head with green.

SMICHOW, smē̇ᴋ′ō̇v. A town of Bohemia, Austria, on the river Moldau, opposite Prague, of which city it is an important suburb, and with which it is connected by the Palaky Bridge. The town contains a new municipal building and a botanical garden. There are a large wagon factory, rattan furniture factories, chocolate and confectionery establishments, and flour mills. Population, in 1900, 47.135, mostly Czechs.

SMIKE. A miserable, half-witted drudge at Squeers's school, in Dickens's Nicholas Nickleby, befriended by Nicholas, and at last found to be Ralph Nickleby's son.

SMILACEÆ. A group of monocotyledonous, generally climbing, herbs and sub-shrubs formerly considered a separate order, but now included in the order Liliaceæ. Most of the species belong to the genus smilax (q.v.).

SMILAX (Lat., from ςμῖλαξ, yew). A genus of about 200 species, mostly herbs and woody

climbing or trailing plants, of the natural order Liliacete, most numerous in the temperate and tropical parts of Asia and America. In some species (the greenbriers) the stems are often very prickly. The roots or rootstocks of a numberr of species, particularly Smilax medica and Smilax papyracea of Central and South America,

GREENBRIER (Smilax rotundifolia).

GREENBRIER (Smilax rotundifolia).

yield sarsaparilla. The fleshy, starchy rhizomes of others (Smilax China of Eastern Asia and Smilax pseudo-China of the Southern United States) have similar properties and are sometimes used, the former as food, the latter as medicine. There are at least a dozen American species, the best known of which are the Smilax herbacea, carrion flower, with herbaceous stems, and Smilax rotundifolia, the greenbrier or horsebrier. The smilax commonly cultivated in greenhouses for decorative purposes is Asparagus medeoloides, a native of South Africa.

SMILES, Samuel (1812-1904). An English writer, born at Haddington, Scotland. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. At twenty he began practice at Haddington and later at Leeds. He subsequently gave up his profession to assume the editorship of the Leeds Times. In 1845 he was appointed secretary of the Leeds and Thirsk Railway, and in 1854 of the Southeastern Railway, retiring in 1866. In recognition of his services to letters, the University of Edinburgh honored him with the degree LL.D. (1878). As early as 1838 Smiles published, at his own expense, Physical Education, and in 1857 a Life of George Stephenson His Lives of the Engineers appeared in 1861. He gained immense success with Self Help (1859), practical talks to young men. It has been translated into seventeen languages. Similar books are Character (1871), Thrift (1875), Duty (1880), and Life and Labor (1885).