MINNESOTA 



MINNOW 



219 



attained a high degree of skill. Their art was, 

 however, wider than the poet's at the present 

 day : they not only wrote the text but composed 

 the air to which the text was to l>e sung, for 

 all their lyrics were written with the express 

 purpose of being sung to the accompaniment of viol 

 or harp. One class alone was exempted from 

 musical accompaniment viz. short didactic or sen- 

 tentious poems called spruche = 'sayings,' which 

 were recited. As it was incumbent upon a ' singer ' 

 to invent his own combination of text and melody, 

 and was considered dishonourable for him to appro- 

 pi iatu those of his predecessors or contemporaries, 

 their poems are remarkable for a great variety of 

 forms, poetic and musical. This in course of 

 time, when the fresh inspiration of the movement 

 began to wane, was the fruitful cause of much 

 artificial writing, and eventually of the decay of 

 the art. But there were still deeper causes of decay 

 inherent in it. The less relined of the 'singers' 

 were unable to keep the levels of exalted sentiment 

 of their superiors, and degenerated into false 

 sentimentality, lifeless conventionality, and above 

 all a gross and vulgar sensualism. The minne- 

 singer wrote principally in the Swabian dialect of 

 Middle High German. Their use of this language 

 was due to the great encouragement they received 

 from the Hohenstaufen emperors. Next to these 

 rulers their chief patrons were the dukes 

 of Austria, and especially Hermann of Thuringia, 

 at whose court of Eisenach the semi-mythical 

 AVaitburgkrieg occurred (c. 1207). This was a 

 poetical contest l>etween the chief minnesinger as 

 to the merits of the patrons of the art : Heinrich 

 of Ofterdingen was niitsung by Walther von der 

 Voelweide, and Heinrich s ally, the magician 

 Klingsor of Hungary, by Wolfram von Eschenbach. 



When men of knightly birth liegan to neglect 

 tin 1 writing of lyric poetry, and the minnesinger 

 were no longer held in honour in the balls of the 

 great, the art took refuge-with the burghers and 

 craftsmen of the cities. -But with the exception of 

 Hans Sachs of Nuremlwrg, those meistersinger or 

 meixtersanrjer, as they called themselves, possessed 

 little real poetic feeling. They formed themselves 

 into guilds anil wrote poems as they plied their 

 trade, by purely mechanical rules, and bound them- 

 selves by a multitude of puerile restrictions and 

 pedantic regulations. Their subjects were pain- 

 fully commonplace, and their treatment destitute 

 of all artistic feeling. Yet these singers' guilds 

 flourished from the 13th to the 16th century ; the 

 lost was not dissolved until 1839, at Mm. 

 Wagner's opera, Die Meistersinger zu tiiirnberg, 

 perpetuates their memory. 



The lyrics of the 160 Minnesinger, of whom alone 

 specimen.* survive, were published by Von der Hagen in 

 1H38 ( 4 vols. ). Modern versions have been made by Tieck 

 (1803), Simrock (1857), and others. See A. Schultz, 

 Dai hofitrhe Lfbrn zur Zeit da Minnaaruji (2 vols. 

 2d ed. ]*>:>>; riiland in fichriften zur Gttchicliteder 

 Dirhtung urvl Sage (vol. v. 1870); and Lyon, Minne- 

 und Afeuler-any (1882). 



Minnesota (Indian, 'sky-tinted water'), the 

 nineteenth in pop. and tenth in area of the states 

 of the American Union, and cop rr , ghl , nl , 1997, ,d 

 the northernmost in the Mis- nod in the u. s. i,>- j. B. 

 sis-ippi vallev, extends from "PHaO"-.-*. 

 43' 30' to 49" X. lat., and from 91 to 97 W. long. 

 It is bounded on the X. by Manitoba and Ontario, 

 E. by Lake Superior and Wisconsin, S. by Iowa, 

 and W. by Xorth and South Dakota. Its area 

 is H.'t..',.'(0 sq. m., or nearly as large as Great Britain. 

 In Minnesota ore the remote sources of the great 

 rivers Mississippi, lied Kiver of the North, and 

 St Lawrence, whose waters, flowing in different 

 directions, reach respectively the Gulf of Mexico, 

 Hudson Bay, and the Atlantic Ocean. Within 



the state the Minnesota River is the largest tribu- 

 tary of the Mississippi. Between the St Croix 

 River and Red River of the North are hundreds of 

 clear lakes, the largest of which are Red Lake 

 (530 sq. m. ), Mille Lacs, and Leech Lake. About 

 two-thirds of the state is prairie, but in the northern 

 portion there are extensive pine-forests, and in the 

 north-east great marshes, bearing a scanty growth 

 of tamarack and fir. The minerals include iron 

 (which is profitably worked), slate, granite, and 

 other rocks, and the red pipestone. The climate is 

 bracing in winter, very dry and equable ; the mean 

 for the year 1889 was 45. The rainfall is sufficient 

 and well distributed throughout the year. 



Minnesota is an agricultural and especially a 

 wheat-producing state ; its manufactures as yet are 

 principally flour and lumber. The principal crops 

 are : wheat, averaging about 50,000,000 bushels ; 

 oats, 55,000,000 bushels ; corn, 25,000,000 bushels ; 

 potatoes, 7,000,000 bushels. The facilities for com- 

 merce are great. The Mississippi is navigable as 

 high as St Paul ; the lakes, with Duluth for a port, 

 open a waterway to the Atlantic ; and in 1897 there 

 were 6198 miles of railway in the state. 



The permanent school fund exceeded $11,000,000 

 in 1896, during which year over 354,000 pupils were 

 on the roll. A system of free-school libraries is 

 in operation. There are four state normal schools, 

 and a state univeif ity at Minneapolis, besides 

 Mocalester College (Presbyterian) and Hamline 

 University (Methodist) at St Paul, Carleton Col- 

 lege (Congregationalist) at Northlield, Episcopal 

 schools at Faribault, and a Presbyterian college 

 for women at Albert Lea. 



History. Minnesota was visited by French ex- 

 plorers in 1659-60, and the portion west of the 

 Mississippi was part of the province of Louisiana 

 purchased by the United States from France in 

 1803. Fort Snelling, at the mouth of the Minnesota 

 River, was built and occupied in 1821. In 1837 

 the Chippeway Indians surrendered all the land 

 east of the Mississippi; immigration then began, 

 and Minnesota became a territory in 1849, a state 

 in 1858. It claims the distinction of having, 

 through its governor, offered the first regiment for 

 the defence of the Union ; and during the civil 

 war, out of 40,000 citizens able to bear arms, it 

 sent 24,000 into the army. In August 1862 occurred 

 a terrible massacre, by the Indians, who attacked 

 the frontier settlements and in ten days killed some 

 800 men, women, and children. As a consequence, 

 the Sioux and Winnebagoes were removed from the 

 state, and their hunting-grounds are now occupied 

 by farms and prosperous towns. The principal 

 cities are St Paul, the capital (163,065), Minne- 

 apolis (202,718), and Duluth (52,969). Pop. (1860) 

 172,023 ; (1890) 1,301,826, including a large propor- 

 tion of Scandinaviansand Germans; (1900) 1,751, 394. 



Minnow (Leuciscut phoscinns), a small fish of 

 the same genus as the roach, dace, chub, &c. It is 

 widely distributed in Europe, from Norway to 

 Italy. It is usually 3 or 4 inches long, but it occa- 

 sionally in favourable localities may attain to as 

 much as 7 inches. The minnow varies its colour ; 

 it is more brilliant when taking food, and brighter 

 during the day than at night. The colours are 

 most brilliant at spawning time, particularly in the 

 males. The back is olive-brown in colour, becom- 

 ing lighter at the sides with a metallic lustre. The 

 fins are si I very gray, often rose tinted at the base. 

 The colours become paler after spawning. The 

 minnow is an active little fish found in large 

 swarms, generally in shallows in summer or near 

 the surface ; in winter it conceals itself under 

 stones and muddy banks. It is a voracious feeder, 

 living on aquatic plants, worms, insects, small 

 snails and fresh-water molluscs, and even its own 

 kind ; and in turn it is preyed upon by nearly 



