GOMME 



3597 



GONCOURT 



Guatemala, his father being a dis- 

 tinguished Spanish historian and 

 his mother of French origin. Early 

 in his career he settled in Paris, 

 and there most of his extraordinary 

 volume of work has been achieved. 

 The Spanish world accepts him as 

 a master of prose, and his work is 

 familiar to the readers of the lead- 

 ing Spanish and South American 

 periodicals. He is seen at his best in 

 his numerous works of travel, such 

 as From Marseilles to Tokyo, 1905 ; 

 The Soul of Japan, 1906 ; and 

 Greece, 1907 ; and in such critical 

 works as Modernism. In London, 

 in 1920, his wife, under her stage 

 name, Raquel Meller, made a 

 great success interpreting Spanish 

 dramatic song. 



Gomme, Sre GEORGE I AURENCE 

 (1853-1916). British antiquary. 

 Born in London, he was educated 

 at the City of 

 London School. 

 He entered the 

 service of the 

 Metropolitan 

 Board of 

 Works, and 

 was transferred 

 later to its suc- 

 cessor, the Lon- 

 don County 

 Council. In 



Sir G. L. Gomme, 

 British antiquary 



Elliott & Fry 



made statistical officer to the council , 

 and in 1900 he became its clerk. In 

 1911 he was knighted. He resigned 

 in 1914, and died Feb. 23, 1916. 

 Gomme was one of the founders of 

 the Folklore Society, and edited, 

 at one time or other, The Anti- 

 quary, The Archaeological Review, 

 and The Folklore Journal. His 

 published works include Primitive 

 Folk Moots, 1880; Ethnology in 

 Folklore, 1892 ; The Governance 

 of London, 1907, and other books 

 on London. Lady Gomme (Alice 

 Bertha Merck) wrote Traditional 

 Games of Great Britain, 1894. 



Gommecourt. Village of France, 

 in the dept. of Pas-de-Calais. It is 

 on the road from Albert to Arras, 

 13f m. N. of Albert. In the posses- 

 sion of the Germans, 1914-17, who 

 strongly fortified the park of its 

 chateau, it came into prominence in 

 the first battle of the Somme, when 

 on July 1, 1916, the British 46th and 

 56th divisions were repulsed. The 

 failure to capture it had marked 

 effect on the result of the battle, as 

 it was a point of great strategic im- 

 portance. It was yielded up by the 

 Germans on Feb. 27, 1917, in their 

 retreat to the Hindenburg line. 

 Several war cemeteries are in the 

 vicinity, and a British war me- 

 morial is to be erected. Gommie- 

 court, captured by the British, Aug. 

 23, 1918, lies about 6 m. due E. See 

 Somme, First Battle of the. 



Samuel Gompers, 



American labour 



leader 



Gomorrah. With Sodom one 

 of the two cities of the plain, 

 where Lot dwelt (Gen. 18, 19). 

 They were notorious for vice, and 

 were mysteriously destroyed by fire. 

 See Abraham ; Sodom. 



Gompers, SAMUEL (1850-1 924). 

 American labour leader Born in 

 London, of Jewish origin, Jan. 27, 

 1850, he went 

 to the U.S.A. in 

 1863. The fol- 

 lowing year he 

 founded the 

 union of cigar - 

 maker s, to 

 which trade he 

 had been ap- 

 prenticed in 

 England, and la- 

 boured inces- 

 santly to organ- 

 ize the working classes. Largely 

 responsible for the formation of the 

 American Federation of Labour in 

 1881, he became its president the 

 following year, holding this office 

 continuously, with one year's 

 break in 1894. This federation 

 drew into itself all the larger unions 

 and did much in carrying reforms 

 through the legislature. Gompers 

 was opposed to Socialism, and de- 

 nounced all attempts to introduce 

 Sovietism into the policy of the 

 American Labour party He died 

 Dec. 13, 1924. See Uncensored 

 Celebrities, E. T. Raymond, 1918. 

 Gomuti (Arenga saccharifera). 

 Tree of the natural order Palmae, 

 native of the Moluccas. The trunk 

 grows to about 40 ft., and the 

 large leaves are divided featherwise 

 into long, narrow leaflets. The 

 flower-spikes are male or female, 

 and down among the foliage. The 

 flesh of the large round fruit is 

 acrid. The horse-hair-like fibres 

 that cover the leafstalks are used 

 for thatching and cordage. The 

 juice of the flower-spikes contains 

 much sugar, and can be converted 

 into toddy or vinegar. 



Gomuti. A palm tree of the 

 Moluccas 



Gonaives. Seaport of Haiti, W. 

 Indies. A prosperous town and a 

 bishop's see on the Bay of GonaT ves, 

 62 m. N.W. of Port-au-Prince, it 

 has a good harbour and exports 

 coffee, cotton, and dye woods. 

 Here, on Jan. 1, 1804, Dessalines 

 (q. v. ) declared the independence of 

 Haiti. In 1914 it was the scene of 

 two conflicts between government 

 troops and insurgents. The town 

 was nearly destroyed -by an earth- 

 quake, May 7, 1842. Pop. 13,000. 

 Between Cape S. Nicolas-le- 

 Mole and Cape Dame Marie, the 

 Bay of Gonai'ves is about 100 m. 

 across and penetrates inland about 

 the same distance. Pron. Go- 

 nah-eev. 



Goncalves Dias, ANTONIO 

 (1823-64). Brazilian poet. Born in 

 Maranhao, Aug. 10, 1823, he was 

 for some time professor at the 

 college of Pedro II in Rio de 

 Janeiro. One of the chief poets 

 of Brazil, he also wrote on ethno- 

 graphical subjects and compiled a 

 dictionary of Tupi, one of the chief 

 S. American Indian languages. On 

 a voyage home from Europe, he 

 was drowned, Nov. 3, 1864. 



Goncourt, EDMOND DE (1822- 

 96), and JULES DE (1830-70). 

 French novelists. Known famil- 

 iarly as the 

 brothers D e 

 Goncourt, 

 they belonged 

 to a Lorraine 

 family. Ed- 

 mond was 

 born at Nancy, 

 May 26, 1822 ; 

 Jules in Paris, 

 Dec. 17, 1830. 

 Chiefly inter- 

 ested at first 

 in 18th cen- 

 tury art and 

 the collection 

 of bric-a-brac, 

 and drawings 

 and pastels of 

 that period 

 Edmond also 

 became an 

 e n t h u s i a s tic 

 admirer of 

 Japanese art they collaborated 

 at 'first in books of social history, 

 Histoire de la Societe Frangaise 

 pendant la Revolution, 1854 ; La 

 Societe Frangaise pendant le Di- 

 rectoire, 1855 ; Histoire de Marie- 

 Antoinette, 1858. 



As collaborators in fiction (1860- 

 70) each composed the same inci- 

 dent independently, and the two 

 versions were afterwards moulded 

 into one. Chief of their novels 

 were Sceur Philomene, 1861, a 

 hospital story ; Renee Mauperin, 

 1864 ; Germinie Lacerteux, a 

 study of the gradual degeneration 



Edmond de Goncourt 

 French novelist 



Jules de Goncourt 

 French novelist 



