ROANOKE 



5033 



ROBBIA 



ROANOKE, ro'anohk, VA., an industrial city 

 in Roanoke County, in the southwestern part 

 of the state, and on the Roanoke River. Lynch- 

 burg is fifty-four miles east, Richmond, the 

 state capital, is 199 miles east, and Washington, 

 D. C., is 227 miles northeast, by rail. The 

 Norfolk & Western and the Virginian railways 

 enter the city, and an electric line is in opera- 

 tion to Salem, to the west. Big Lick was the 

 name of the place when it was founded in 1852. 

 In 1882 it received its present name and in 1884 

 it was chartered as a city. In recent years the 

 growth has been remarkable. In 1880 the 

 population was only 639; in 1910 it was 34,874, 

 and it was 43.284 in 1916 (Federal estimate). 

 The city ranks third in the state, following 

 Richmond and Norfolk. 



Owing to its picturesque and healthful loca- 

 tion in a valley between the Blue Ridge and 

 the Alleghany Mountains and to medicinal 

 springs in the vicinity, Roanoke has become 

 noted as a health resort. The city has four 

 recreation grounds, six hospitals, a sanitarium, 

 and a hotel built on the mountain at an eleva- 

 tion of 2,100 feet and reached by an incline 

 railway. Among the newer edifices of the city 

 are a $250,000 city hall, a $150,000 Y. M. C. A. 

 building and a $50,000 armory; it also has a 

 Federal building, a courthouse, an academy of 

 music and several fine business buildings. For 

 higher education there are Virginia College, for 

 women; Elizabeth and Roanoke colleges, both 

 Lutheran, and Hollins Institute, for young 

 ladies, under Baptist supervision. 



Formerly Roanoke was a prominent tobacco 

 center, but its chief interest now lies in iron 

 mining and farming, the leading manufactories 

 being dependent on the former industry. 

 Bridges, structural steel and iron, agricultural 

 implements, hydraulic engines and silos are 

 among the important products ; the large shops 

 of the Norfolk & Western Railway (about 3,000 

 employees) are located here, and there are in 

 addition tobacco and canning factories and bot- 

 tliriR works. j.w. 



ROANOKE RIVER, a rn , r in North Caro- 

 lina and Virginia. Some authorities apply the 

 name to the stream formed by the union of tin 

 Dan and the Staunton rivers, and others con- 

 sider the Staunton and the Roanoke to con- 

 stitute one river, having the Dan as a tributary. 

 If the latter view is taken the river may be said 

 Ridge Mountains in South- 

 western Virginia and to flow in a general south- 

 easterly direction for 450 miles, emptying into 

 Albemarle Sound. The Dan enters the stream 



at Clarksville, Va. For small boats the Roa- 

 noke is navigable for its entire length, for 

 larger steamers as far as Weldon, N. C. At 

 Halifax a dam has been built to supply the 

 city with water power, and a canal has been 

 cut around the dam to keep the. river open to 

 commerce. Plymouth, a town near the mouth, 

 is a trade center for cotton, peanuts, rice and 

 tobacco. 



ROBBERY, rob'cri. Three men armed with 

 revolvers entered a bank during business hours, 

 intimidated the employees by threatening to 

 shoot them if they offered any resistance, and 

 took away with them several thousand dollars. 

 Two men in an automobile met a farmer going 

 to the city, overpowered him and forcibly took 

 one hundred dollars from him. All these men 

 were arrested, tried and convicted. Those who 

 took the money from the bank were convicted 

 of robbery; and the others of highway robbery. 



In criminal law, robbery consists in taking 

 from a person by violence or intimidation 

 money or goods to any value whatever. Rob- 

 bery is a crime classed as a felony (which see), 

 and in all states and provinces it is punishable 

 by imprisonment. The value of the property 

 taken has but little influence in determining 

 the penalty, except that it must be of some 

 value to the person from whom it was taken. 

 Highway robbery consists in robbing a person 

 on the street or on a road. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Burglary Felony 



Crime Larceny 



Criminology Procedure 



ROBBIA, rohb'byah, DELLA, the name of a 

 family of Italian sculptors who flourished dur- 

 ing the days of the early Renaissance. 



Luca della Robbia (1399-1482) exercised his 

 greatest influence as the founder of a school of 

 sculpture in which the medium used was glazed 

 or enameled terra cotta. "Robbia ware" be- 

 came famous throughout all Europe. However, 

 the secret of its invention never went beyond 

 the Robbia family, and after the death of the 

 last member no more was made. Luca della 

 Robbia ranked with the best of his contem- 

 poraries in the production of beautiful forms, 

 and he was distinguished for his work in marble 

 and bronze, as well as for his reliefs in terra 

 cotta. His Madonnas and saints made him 

 nous sculptor of his day. 



Andrea della Robbia (1437-1528), the nephew 

 of Luca, made a much wider use of terra cotta 

 and carried the art into the smaller towns. He 



