In the census year 1900 the various industries had an invested capital of $10,501,537, and a production value of $10,758,348. The Wilkes-Barre Lace Manufacturing Company, the Hazard Wire Rope Works, the Sheldon Axle Works, and the Vulcan Iron Works are among the largest concerns of their kind in the United States. Other important establishments include shops of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, foundries and machine shops, cutlery works, and manufactories of silk and silk goods, underwear, flour, malt liquors, clothing, shirts, etc. The government is vested in a mayor, chosen every three years, and a bicameral council. Of the subordinate officials, the majority are appointed by the mayor, subject to the confirmation of the council. In 1902 the net debt of the city was $593.014; and the assessed valuation of real and personal property was $36,346,818, this amount being reduced by the board of revision for taxable purposes to $18,173,409. For maintenance and operation there is spent annually about $372,000. the chief items being: schools, $144,000; municipal lighting, $38,000: street department, $38,000; fire department, $36,000: police department. $35,000: interest on net debt, $24,000. Population. in 1890, 37.718: in 1900, 51,721. The first settlers came to Wilkes-Barre in 1709 and laid out the village. In 1784, during the Pennamite-Yankee War. 23 of the 26 buildings were destroyed by the Pennaniites, but the village was slowly rebuilt and in 1806 was incorporated as a borough. In 1850 its population was only 2723, but after the Civil War it grew rapidly, and in 1871 was chartered as a city. It takes its names from Jolin Wilkes and Col. Isaac Barre, advocates of the colonists in the British Parliament, during and preceding the Revolution. Consult History of Luzerne, Lackawanna, and Wyoming Counties (New York, 1880).
WIL'KIE, Sir David (1785-1841). The principal genre painter of the Scottish school. He was born November 18, 1785, at Cults, a small village in Fifeshire, where his father was a clergyman. At fourteen he entered the Trustees' Edinburgh Academy, and studied under the historical painter John Graham until his return to Cults in 1804. "Pitlessie Fair." his first important work, gave him a local reputation, and "The Village Politicians" (1806), considered the best picture of the year in London, provided him the means to remove to the capital. By studying the work of the Dutch masters, lie acquired fine technique in color. He painted humorous subjects from family fireside scenes or comic episodes that took place in the village festivities, which called forth great applause; among them are "The Blind Fiddler" and "The Village Festival" (1812), both in the National Gallery; '"The Card Player" (1808): "Rent Dav;" "The Cut Finger;" "The Penny Wedding" (1818); and the "Reading of the Will" (Pinakothek. Munich). He was elected a Royal Academician in 1811. In 1825-28, to restore his enfeebled health. Wilkie was compelled to travel, chiefly in Italy anil Spain. There he was especially influenced by Velazquez and Titian, and changed his theme from genre to historical and portrait subjects, in which, however, he did not succeed as well. His best known works of this character are "Wellington Writing a Dispatch," "Napoleon and the Pope at Fontainebleau," and "Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of Tippu Sahib." In 1830 he was knighted and in 1840 he started upon a tour abroad, but died on the homeward journey, June 1, 1841, and was buried at sea. Consult Cunningham, Biography of Wilkie (London, 1843).
WILKIE, WILLIAM (1721-72). A Scottish divine and poet, born at Echlin, in the parish of Dalmeny, Midlothian. Scotland. He attended the University of Edinburgh, but owing to the death of his father, his academic career was interrupted. For several years he carried on a farm with success, studying in the meantime for the ministry in the Church of Scotland. In 1753 he became assistant to the parish minister at Ratho and in 1756 the sole incumbent. In 1759 he was appointed professor of natural philosophy in the University of Saint Andrews, a position which he held till his death. Wilkie was styled 'the Scottish Homer' for The Epigoniad (n57: 2d ed. 1709), an epic in heroic verse on the capture of Thebes. He also published a volume of lively verse Fahles (1768) in the manner of Gay. Consult Chalmers's English Poets, vol. xvi. (London, 1810).
WIL'KINS, John (1614-72). An English prelate and scientist. He was born at Fawsley, Northamptonshire. He graduated at Oxford in 1632; took orders in 1635; was chaplain to Lord Say and Charles, Prince Palatine of the Rhine; during the Civil War adhered to the Parliament; was made warden of Wadham College (1648); married the widowed sister of Oliver Cromwell; and was appointed by Richard Cromwell master of Trinity College in 1659. He was ejected at the Restoration (1660): but being greatly esteemed for his toleration and attainments, obtained favor with Charles II., was made prebendary of York in 1660; rector of Saint Lawrence, London, in 1662; and Bishop of Chester in 1668. At an early age he became known for his scientific writings, invented and described the perambulator or measuring wheel, and in 1645 was one of the promoters of a philosophical club which in 1662 developed into the Royal Society, of which he became first secretary. His principal writings are: The Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638), to which was added a Discourse Concerning the Possibility of a Passage Thither (1640): A Discourse Concerning a New Planet (1640), an argument that the earth is one of the planets; Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger (1641), an ingenious treatise on rapid means of correspondence; Mathematical Magick (1648); An Essay Towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668); and On the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion (1678).
WILKINS, Mary Eleanor (Mrs. C. M. Freeman) (1862—). An American novelist, born in Randolph, Mass., of New England and Puritan descent. She received her education at Mount Holyoke Seminary, South Hadley, Mass., and passed the greater part of her life in Massachusetts and in Vermont. Her stories dealt almost wholly with New England life, which she pictured as a dull, patient existence, but in such striking lines that her work became very widely read and was taken as representative of the New England character. She married in 1901. Her place in popular estimate was among the foremost of contemporary American novelists, with
