OLONETS 



9841 



OLYMPIC GAMES 



bar in 1809, and became attorney- 

 general in 1893, and secretary of 

 state 1895-97. His action in ad- 

 vising and defending the use of 

 troops to stop the rlv. strike in 

 Chicago, 1894, caused much ad- 

 verse criticism. An upholder of the 

 Monroe Doctrine, he took an un- 

 i-<nii|ir.iiiiisiii^ uttitiide toward* 

 Britain in the British- Venezuelan 

 boundary dispute. He died April 

 S l!(17 ' 



Olonets. (Ji.vt. of N.W. Russia. 

 It is bounded by the govta. of 

 Archangel, Vologda, Novgorod, 

 Petrograd, and Finland, and its 

 area is 49,355 sq. m. The chief 

 river is the Onega, and the numerous 

 lakes, among them Ladoga and 

 Onega, occupy one-fifth of the 

 total area. The extensive forests 

 impede agriculture, and the in- 

 habitants are chiefly occupied in 

 fishing and hunting furred animals. 

 Mineral wealth exists in the form 

 of silver, iron, and copper, and 

 marble quarries. Pop. 476,000. 



Olsson, JULIUS (b. 1864). Brit- 

 ish artist. Born in London, he 

 specialised as a marine painter. 

 His pictures of 

 the Cornish 

 coast and the 

 open sea are 

 marked by 

 skilful blend- 

 ing of colours 

 in reproducing 

 the play of 

 light on water. 

 Elected 

 A.R.A., 1914, 

 he became 

 R.A. in 1920, and president of the 

 Royal Institute of Oil Painters and 

 medallist of the Paris Salon. An 

 example of his work is in the Tate 

 Gallery, London. 



Olstfold. Fylke or co. of Nor- 

 way. Completely a lowland, it lies 

 at the N.E. of Christiania Fiord, 

 with Sweden to the E. Crossed by 

 the lower Glommen, it contains 

 numerous lakes. Fredrikstad, 

 Fredrikshald, and Sarpsborg are 

 the chief towns, all on the rly. from 

 Christiania to Sweden. Its area is 

 1,600 sq. m. Pop. 160,000. 



Olten. Town of Switzerland, in 

 the canton of Solothurn. On the 

 river Aar. 25 m. by rly. S.E. of 

 Basel, it is an important rly. 

 junction with large rly. engineer- 

 ing workshops. It is a tourist re- 

 sort, and manufactures footwear. 

 The parish and Capuchin churches 

 contain some noteworthy pictures. 

 Pop. 9,300. 



Oltenitza. Town of Rumania. 

 It stands on the left bank of the 

 Danube, 35 m. S.E. of Bukarest, at 

 the mouth of the Argesul. It is a 

 river port and terminus of a branch 

 rly. from the capital. Pop. 6,000. 



Julius Olsson, 

 British artist 



Hut tell 



Oltu. Rumanian name of tin- 

 trilnitary of the Danube known 

 alto aa the Alula (q.v.). 



Olympia. Smalt plain in Eli* 

 in i ho Peloponnese, Greece, in 

 ancient times the scene of the 

 Olympic Games (q.v.). It was 

 situated on the right bank of the 

 river Alpheus where it joins the 

 Cladeus. 



Olympia. City of Wasln 



\ . the state capital un-l Un- 

 co, seat of Thuraton co. It stands 

 on a promontory at the 8. extre- 

 mity of Puget Sound, 70 m. by 

 rly. S.W. of Seattle, and is served 

 by the Northern Pacific Rly. and 

 by steamers. The capitol, the 

 supreme court building, and the 

 federal building are among ita 

 chief structures. The Descnutes 

 river supplies water power for its 

 industries. Olympia was settled in 

 1846, and received a city charter in 

 1859. It has been the state 

 capital since 1853. Pop. 7,800. 



Olympia. London place of en- 

 tertainment. Situated near Addi- 

 .-oii Road station, in the bor. of 

 Hammersmith (q.v. ), it was opened 

 in 1886 for agricultural shows, 

 but has been chiefly used for 

 spectacular shows, horse shows, 

 military tournaments, etc. It 

 covers six acres, and has a vaulted 

 glass and iron roof. Efficiency, 

 Ideal Home, and other exhibitions 

 have been organized at Olympia 

 by The Daily Mail, the 25th birth- 

 day of which paper was cele- 

 brated here on May 1, 1921, when 

 7,000 guests were entertained at 

 luncheon by Viscount Northcliffe. 



Olympiad. The period of four 

 years which elapsed between each 

 celebration of the Olympic games. 

 The olympiad was the basis of a 

 system of chronology used by the 

 Greek historians, events being 

 reckoned as so many olympiads 

 from the first celebration, of which 

 a record of victors was preserved. 



Olympic. White Star liner. 

 Launched at Belfast in 1911, 

 she displaced 46,359 tons, and 

 during the Great War was em- 

 ployed as a troopship. In 1914 she 

 rescued the crew of the Audacious 

 ( f/.c.). Attacked by submarines, 

 she escaped, and 

 herself rammed 

 at least one Ger- 

 man U-boat Her I 

 captain, Bertram 

 F. Hayes, R.N.R., 

 was knighted in 

 1919, and in 1920 

 the liner resumed 

 her normal cross- 

 Atlantic passenger 

 service, n a v i n g 

 meantime been 

 adapted to burn 

 oil in place of coal. 



Olympic Games. In ancient 

 Greece, a great athletic fentiral 

 li.-M nt Olympia: abto a modern 

 international athletic festival The 

 ancient festival, which was in 

 honour of Zeus, lasted five days, 

 and took place every four years at 

 the firat full moon after the sum- 

 mer solstice. There was a record 

 of victors from 776 B.C., but the 

 games were regularly held long 

 before Mm <>20 B.C. the 



festival had been thrown open 

 to all free-born Greeks. It was 

 abolished in A.D. 394. During the 

 celebration a truce was observed 

 by the various Greek peoples, and 

 visitors flocked from all parts to 



tin- LMllir,. 



The centre of the festival was the 

 precinct consecrated to Zeus and 

 known as the altls, an enclosure 

 750 ft. by 550 ft. Here stood a 

 temple of Zeus containing the 

 magnificent statue of the Olym- 

 pian Zeus by Pheidias, the Her- 

 aeum or temple of Hera, and other 

 temples, treasuries in which the 

 Greek states deposited their offer- 

 ings, and the bouleuterion, or 

 council chamber, for the accom- 

 modation of the presidents of the 

 games. The site has been ex- 

 cavated since 1875 by German 

 archaeologists, and among the re- 

 sults was the discovery of the ex- 

 quisite statue of Hermes by Prax- 

 iteles. Outside the altis stood the 

 palaestra or wrestling ground, the 

 stadium or racing track, with ac- 

 commodation for about 40,000 

 spectators, the hippodrome where 

 the chariot racing took place, and 

 the gymnasium where the com- 

 petitors did their final training. 



In historical times the chief 

 were: foot races, long and short, 

 chariot races, the pancration, a 

 combination of wrestling and 

 boxing, and the pentathlon, a 

 combination of long jumping, 

 throwing the discus and the jave- 

 lin, running, and wrestling. The 

 prizes were wreaths of olive, but a 

 successful competitor enjoyed free 

 maintenance for life by his native 

 city, or received some other tan- 

 gible reward for the honour he 

 had brought to it (See Ladas: 



R.M.S. Olympic, the White Star liner used as a troop- 

 ship during the Qreat War, and later restored to the 

 Trans-Atlantic passenger service 



'.rt 1 



