HARPER'S FERRY 



3851 



HARPSICHORD 



John Harper, 

 American publisher 



business in New 

 York, produc- 

 ing books for 

 booksellers and 

 p u b 1 i s h e r s 

 Later they be- 

 gan publishing 

 on their own 

 account, and, 

 joined by two 

 younger bro- 

 thers, Joseph 

 Wesley (1801-70) and Fletcher 

 (1806-77), founded in 1833 the 

 publishing firm of Harper and 

 Brothers. They started Harper's 

 Family Library, a kind of serial 

 publication, which led, in 1850, to 

 the founding of 

 Harper's Mag- 

 azine. This was 

 followed in 

 1857 by Har- 

 per's Weekly, 

 in 1867 by Har- 

 per's Bazaar, 

 and in 1881 

 by H a r p e r' s 



James Harper, Young People, 

 American publisher later Harper's 

 Round Table. In 1899 the firm 

 was formed into a company, of 

 which George Harvey was presi- 

 dent. James Harper was mayor of 

 New York City, 1844-46. See The 

 House of Harper, J. Henry Harper. 

 1912. 



Harper's Ferry. Town of W. 

 Virginia, U.S.A., in Jefferson co. 

 It stands at the junction of the 

 Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, 

 55 m. N.W. of Washington, and is 

 served by the Baltimore and Ohio 

 rly. and the Chesapeake and Ohio 

 canal. It has pulp and paper in- 

 dustries, and a college for negroes. 

 Harper's Ferry was the scene on 

 Oct. 16, 1859, of a raid by John 

 Brown (q.v.). the abolitionist, and 

 a few followers, on the armoury, 

 which was held until the following 

 day, when it was recaptured by 

 General Lee. In 1862 the town, 

 together with 12,500 prisoners, 

 was surrendered by the Federals 

 to the Confederates under Stone- 

 wall Jackson. Pop. 706. 



Harper's Magazine. Popular 

 illustrated monthly, founded in 

 New York, June, 1850, under the 

 editorship of Henry J. Raymond, 

 and published by Harper and 

 Brothers. In 1880 it began to be 

 issued simultaneously in London 

 and New York. Devoted to travel, 

 science, art, and literature, in six 

 months it reached a circulation of 

 50,000, and in three years 1 1 8,000. 

 It has consistently made a feature 

 of the best English fiction in serial 

 form and afforded a great stimu- 

 lus to magazine illustration and 

 to domestic short-story writing, 

 Charles Reade, Justin McCarthy, 



Cable, Stockton, and Mrs. Hodgson 

 Burnett being among its early con- 

 tributors. H. M. Alden became 

 editor in 1869, and with him have 

 been associated George William 

 Curtis, whose Easy Chair caus- 

 er i e s have at- 



tained permanent 

 form, and W. D. 

 Howells, who con- 

 tributed the Edi- 

 tor's Study for 

 many years. 



Harpies (C r. 

 harpyiai, snatch - 

 ers). In Greek 

 mythology, mon- 

 strous birds with 

 a woman's head 

 and long claws. 

 They were sent 

 b y the gods t o 

 torment the blind 

 Phineus by 

 snatching his food 



Moonrise found its way to the same 

 gallery. He died, painting almost 

 to the last, on Aug. 25, 1916. 



Harpocrates. Name of an 

 Egyptian deity, identified with 

 Horus. Worshipped among the 



Harpoon. 



Gun with bomb-nosed harpoon, 

 harpoon with barbs extended 



Above, 



whenever he raised it to his lips. The 

 expedition of the Argonauts (q.v.) 

 passed the I onianlslands where they 

 dwelt, and Calais and Zetes, the 

 sons of Boreas, delivered Phineus 

 from his tormentors. The Harpies 

 are personifications of the storm- 

 winds, which swept away mortals 

 at the bidding of the gods and 

 conveyed them to the lower 

 world. 



Harpignies, 

 HENRI JOSEPH 

 (1819-1916). 

 French land- 

 scape painter. 

 Born at Valen- 

 c i e n n e s, he 

 studied in Paris 

 under Ac hard, 

 and in Italy. In 

 1866 his Even- 

 ing in the 

 Roman Campagna, a good example 



H. J. Harpignies. 

 French painter 



After Dubufe 



Greeks and Romans, and repre- 

 sented with a finger to his lip, he 

 was the god of silence. See Horus. 



Harpoon (Fr. harpon, grappling 

 iron). Weapon used for the cap- 

 ture of whales. In the early days of 

 the whale fishery the harpoon was 

 thrown from the hand by a har- 

 pooner, rowed in an open boat, but 

 the modern harpoon is fired by a 

 gun. See Anthropology; Bone 

 Implements ; Whaling. 



Harpsichord (Ital. clavicembalo, 

 abbrev. cembalo ; Fr. clavecin ; 

 Ger. clavizim,bel). The most im- 

 portant of the stringed instruments 

 with keyboards before the inven- 

 tion of the pianoforte. It answered 

 all purposes in solo and chamber 

 music which the pianoforte now 

 serves, and also occupied a unique 



rosition in the orchestras of the 

 7th and 18th centuries, being em- 



ployed to fill 



Harpsichord with douoie keyboard, 5-octave range. 

 English 17th century model 



Victoria & Albert Museum, S. Kensington 



of his personal and 

 poetic style, was 

 bought for the 

 Luxembourg, and 

 in 1884 his 



in chords according 

 -, to the figured bass, 

 ] and to accompany 

 entirely the recita- 

 tivo secco. The es- 

 sential difference 

 between the harpsi- 

 chord and the 

 pianoforte is that in 

 thelatterthestrings 

 are struck by ham- 

 4 mers, whereas in 

 ; | the former they are 

 I plucked by quills or 

 1 leather plectra in- 

 I serted in " jacks " 

 I or uprights, which 

 I are caused to pass 

 the strings when 

 the keys are de- 

 pressed. The 



String 



t 



Harpsichord. Diagram showing working of jack and string 



