SCHELDT 



SCHILLER 



the Keystone State Normal School. In 1893 

 he became superintendent of public instruction 

 in Pennsylvania, and during his long incum- 

 bency of that position brought his state into 

 the front rank in educational matters. Professor 

 Schaefier has served as president of the Na- 

 tional Education Association, as chancellor of 

 the Pennsylvania Chautauqua, and has held 

 other educational positions, and is widely 

 known as an editor and author. His most im- 

 portant publications are Thinking and Learning 

 to Think and History of Education in Pennsyl- 

 vania. 



SCHELDT, shclt, a river of Belgium which 

 forms one of the most important commercial 

 waterways of Europe. Its navigation has been 

 made the subject of international treaty, and 

 its waters were declared free to all nations in 

 1863, after Holland had maintained control of 

 navigation privileges for over two centuries. 

 During the War of the Nations, which began 

 in 1914, Germany made an unsuccessful attempt 

 to have the river declared free from Belgian 

 jurisdiction. This was refused by the allied 

 powers. 



The Scheldt rises in the northern part of 

 France in the department of Aisne, entering 

 Belgium near Bleharies. In Belgium it follows 

 a northeasterly course until it reaches Ant- 

 werp, fifteen miles below which it separates 

 into two channels, the East and West Scheldt. 

 These form a double estuary which flows into 

 the North Sea. The river is 250 miles in length 

 and has been made navigable for about 210 

 miles by means of locks. It is connected by 

 canals with the chief cities of France and Bel- 

 gium. Important among the cities on its banks 

 are Oudenarde and Ghent. 



SCHENECTADY, skeh nek' ta di, N. Y., the 

 county seat of Schenectady County, is a grow- 

 ing industrial city in the east-central part of 

 the state, sixteen miles northwest of Albany 

 and 165 miles north of New York City. It is 

 on the Mohawk River and the New York 

 State Barge Canal (which see), and on the New 

 York Central and the Delaware & Hudson rail- 

 roads. Electric interurban lines extend to a 

 number of neighboring cities. Between 1910 

 and 1916 the population increased from 72,826 

 to 99,519 (Federal estimate). 



Schenectady occupies an area of about eight 

 square miles and is favorably situated on slop- 

 ing land along the river, at an elevation of 230 

 feet above sea level. The site was once that of 

 the principal village of the Mohawk Indians. 

 The older portions of the town are along the 



river, and there remain some splendid examples 

 of the architecture of the early Dutch and 

 Colonial periods. Prominent buildings are 

 those of Union College, the Federal building, 

 completed in 1913 at a cost of $270,000; a 

 county courthouse and jail, Carnegie Library, 

 city hall, high school building costing $560,000, 

 Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. buildings, Van 

 Curler Opera House, and Ellis and Mercy hos- 

 pitals. Among the institutions are a day nurs- 

 ery, Old Ladies' Home, Children's Home and 

 the County Tuberculosis Hospital. The place 

 where a great Indian massacre occurred in 1690 

 is marked by an Indian monument. Central 

 Park (124 acres) and Crescent and River Front 

 parks are the principal areas of the city's park 

 system. 



The industries of Schenectady, largely de- 

 veloped since 1880, have, according to local es- 

 timate, an annual productive value of $60,000,- 

 000. Here are located two extensive plants: 

 the General Electrical Company, employing 

 over 20,000 men in the manufacture of elec- 

 trical apparatus of every kind; and the Ameri- 

 can Locomotive Works. Among other indus- 

 trial establishments are foundries and machine 

 shops, and manufactories of clothing, mica insu- 

 lators, display frames, patent medicines, knives, 

 brooms and brushes. 



In 1662 Schenectady was settled, on land pur- 

 chased from the Mohawks, by a party of well- 

 to-do settlers under the leadership of Arendt 

 van Curler. The settlement prospered, but in 

 1690 suffered a terrible French and Indian mas- 

 sacre, when sixty of its 250 inhabitants were 

 murdered and more than that number carried 

 into captivity. Another massacre occurred in 

 1748. The place was again rebuilt and became 

 an important depot of the Mohawk River boat 

 trade. Chartered as a borough in 1765, Sche- 

 nectady became a city in 1798. The city was 

 partially destroyed by fire in 1819. H.W.R. 



Consult Powell's Historic Towns in the Middle 

 States; Roberts' Old Schenectady. 



SCHILLER, shil'er, JOHANN CHRISTOPH 

 FRIEDRICH VON (1759-1805), a German poet, 

 born at Marbach, Wiirttemberg. He was edu- 

 cated at the Karls-Schule at Stuttgart, where 

 for a time he studied law and later took up 

 medicine. There, when only seventeen years 

 old, he began to write his romance, The Rob- 

 bers, a play that awakened great interest in 

 Germany when published in 1780. At twenty- 

 one years of age he had written a treatise On 

 the Connection of the Animal and Intellectual 

 Nature of Man, which was published in impor- 



