Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 20.djvu/334

WANTAGE. 278 WAR. fred the Great, and of Bishop Butler. It has a fine statue of Iviug Alfred by Couut Gleicheu, erected in 1877. Population, in 1901, 376ti. WAPAKONETA, wa'pa-kon-et'a. The coun- ty-seat of Auglaize County, Ohio, So miles south by west of Toledo; on the Auglaize River, and on the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton and the Toledo and Ohio Central railroads (Map: Ohio, B 4 ) . It is surrounded by a fertile dis- trict engaged in farming and having an abun- dance of petroleum and natural gas. The most important manufactured product is furniture. The water-works and the electric light plant are owned by the municipality. Wapakoneta was once a well-known Indian village. Population, in 1890, 3616; in 1900, 3915. WAPENTAKE. In English law, an equiv- alent of the word 'hundred,' meaning a sub- division of a county. Originally it signified a gathering of the male citizens of a district to prepare for a military expedition or defense, the word itself being derived from two Saxon words meaning to take or touch weapons. By popular usage the term was later applied to a district from which a certain number of men capable of bearing arms were raised. The term was also applied to a Saxon court held at regular inter- vals by the chief men of a hundred. The wapen- take is obsolete as a subdivision of a county, although the word is sometimes used as a matter of description in speaking of a district. Consult Stubbs, Constitutional History of England. WAPITI (from Cree Indian, wupitik, white deer). A large North American deer (Ccrvus Canadensis) , closely allied to the European red deer (see Deer), but considerably exceeding it in size, being five feet in height at the shoulder and sometimes weighing 1000 pounds. It is a native of Nortli America, and formerly was found all over the continent from the Carolinas to Alaska. But it has been so persistently slaughtered that it is now confined mainly to the northern Rocky Mountain region in the United States, and north- ward to the middle of Alberta. It is yellowish brown on the upper parts; the sides gray; a pale yellowish or white patch on each buttock, bounded by a black line on the thigli : the neck, a mixture of red and black, with long, coarse, black hair, falling down from it in front like a dewlap; a black mark at each angle of the mouth. The liair is crisp and hard, Ijut there is a soft down beneath it. The antlers are large, much like those of the stag, but the first branch bends down almost over the face. The wapiti is usually called elk in America, although very different from the moose. (See Elk; Moose.) Tliis fine deer was an inhabitant of plains and prairies rather than of the forest regions. It feeds upon grass rather than upon leaves. Its general habits resemble those of the gregarious deer, and it was accustomed in the autumn in the West to gather in bands in the foothills of the mountains, where it spent the winter, paw- ing down through the snow when necessary to get at the dried grass. These liands would join others until herds numbering many thousands would move about in company itil spring. T)ie animal was of great importance to the Indians as food, and its hide was used as material for covering their lodges. See I'late of DEJiK of North America; and consult authorities cited under Deer. WAPPATJS, va-pa'us, Joiian.n Eduaru (1812-7'J). a German geographer and statisti- cian, born in Hamburg. He was educated at the universities of Giittingen and Berlin, interrupting his studies in 1833-34 for a trip to the Cape Verde Islands and South America, This jour- ney, which alTorded material for nuich of his fu- ture work, was the occasion of the first adequate presentation to the German people of the pos- sibilities of South America as a field for na- tional enterprise. In 1845 he was made professor extraordinary, and in 1854 professor at Got- tingen. His publications include: Ctitcrsu- chungen iiber die geograpkischcn Entdeckungen der Portugiesen nnter Heinrich dem Seefahrer (1842); Die Republiken von Siidamerika (part i., Venezuela, 1843) ; Deutsche Auswanderung und Kolonisation (1846 and 1848); Allgemeine BevHJlkerungsstatistik (1859-(!1, by order of the Ciovernment of Hanover) ; and Einleitiing in das Stndiuin der Statistik (published posthu- mously by Gandil, 1881). The great work of Wappiius's life was the editing of the seventh edition of the monumental Handhuch der Geo- graphic und Statistik by Stein and Horschelmann. The preparation of the ten volumes occupied him from 1847 to 1871. He himself contributed the introductory volume of universal geography (1849) and the three volumes devoted to the American continents (1855-67). WAPPERS. GusTAVE, Baron (1803-74). A Belgian historical and genre painter. He was born at Antwerp, studied in the Academy there, and then became a pupil of Van Bree and of Herreyns, after which he devoted himself to the old Flemish masters, Rubens. Van Dyck, and Jordaehs. He Avent to The Hague and to Amsterdam to study the Dutch masters and to Paris for the old Venetians. At Paris he fell under the classical influence, and in 1823 painted a "Regulus" in that manner. Upon his return to Antwerp in 1830 he exhibited "The Sacrifice of Burgomaster van der NA'erff at the .Siege of Leyden (Utrecht Museum), a picture which showed the influence of the old Flemish masters in its splendid color and sensuous fullness of life, and he was hailed as the deliverer of Bel- gian art from French Ijondagc. In 1832 he he- came professor and in 1840 director of the Ant- werp Academy, He was president of the National Museum (1846-53). In 1S59 he removed to Paris, where he died. His "Episode of the Belgian Revolution of 1830" (1834, Brussels Museum ) , confirmed his position as the leader of a new renaissance, which was in fact a re- action against classicism, like that of Del.acroix in France. His pictures are chiefly to be found in tlic various museums of Holland and Belgium. Aside from subjects illiistnil ing historical events of the Netherlands lie painted "C1i;ules I. Taking Leave of llis Children." "Execution of .Vnne Bolcyn," "l.ouis XI. at Plessis Ics Tours," etc. WAPPING OLD STAIRS. An English song, of a sailor and his sweetheart, by .John Percy, written in the latter part of the eighteenth century and sung to an old English air. The last st;inza was added by .Tames Powell. WAR. All definitions of war. in the sense of international law, may be said to agree in one