ALDERSHOT 



173 



ALEPPO 



from France by the Race of Alderney, a chan- 

 nel seven miles wide. It is chiefly noted as 

 the original home of the distinctive breed of 

 cattle named after the island (see CATTLE). It 

 has an area of only three square miles, one- 

 third of which is occupied by grass lands. 

 Agriculture and cattle raising are the only in- 

 dustries. The chief town is Saint Anne, in the 

 center of the island. The climate is mild and 

 healthy. Many tourists visit the island in sum- 

 mer, for whom a line of steamers maintain a 

 daily service between Jersey, Guernsey and 

 Alderney and the mainland. Population in 

 1911. 2.561. See CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



ALDERSHOT, awl' dur shot, a military sta- 

 tion in northeast Hampshire, England, thirty- 

 five miles southwest of London. The great 

 military camp there was originated in 1854, 

 win TI the government purchased a tract of 

 moorland known as Aldershot Heath, within 

 the limits of Surrey, Hampshire and Berkshire. 

 A permanent garrison is maintained and Alder- 

 shot is the principal base for training and 

 summer manoeuvres of troops. At the begin- 

 ginning of the War of the Nations in -1914 the 

 accommodations of the camp were greatly in- 

 creased. Population, in peace time, about 35,- 

 000, including military forces. 



ALDRICH, NELSON WILMARTH (1841-1915), 

 an American political leader, for thirty years 

 Rhode Island's representative in the United 

 States Senate, and for the last decade or more 

 of that time its acknowledged leader. His 

 knowledge of tariff and financial problems was 

 probably not exceeded by that of any other 

 man in Congress, and he was a master of 

 parliamentary practice. He was wealthy and 

 intimately connected with large financial in- 

 terests, a combination which caused popular 

 distinct of his views on banking; but to him 

 belongs a large share of the credit for creating 

 a demand for banking reform and for pro- 

 viding a solution, the Federal Reserve system 

 (see BANKS AND BANKING). 



ALDRICH, THOMAS BAILEY (1836-1907), an 

 American editor, story-writer and poet, for 

 years a favorite of youthful readers as the 

 author of a charming juvenile narrative of his 

 own boyhood, called The Story oj a Bad Boy. 

 He was born in Portsmouth, N. II.. lived in 

 New England and Louisiana, and began a lit- 

 erary career in New York at the age of twenty- 

 one. He wrote for several newspapers and pe- 

 'alg, and in 1881, when William Dean 

 resigned from the editorship of the 

 Atlantic Monthly, he succeeded to that posi- 



tion. After 1890 he devoted his time to writing 

 and travel. 



The house in Portsmouth where Aldrich lived 

 as a boy, the scene of his Story of a Bad Boy, 

 is now a museum containing interesting relics 

 of the author. Aldrich's poetry is light, grace- 

 ful and musical, and shows careful workman- 

 ship, though it is not remarkable for depth 

 or power. In artistic merit it has been com- 

 pared to the poetry of Tennyson. His prose 

 style is likewise delicate and polished. Im- 

 portant among his poetic writings are The 

 Bells, The Ballad of Babie Bell, Cloth of Gold 

 and Unguarded Gates. His prose works in- 

 clude Marjorie Daw, Prudence Palfrey, The 

 Stillwater Tragedy and The Queen of Sheba. 

 He also published a tragedy in blank verse en- 

 titled Judith oj Bethulia. 



ALE, a liquor much like beer. Indeed, any 

 light-colored beer is commonly called ale, but 

 there is some difference in the process of manu- 

 facture. In making ale, the fermentation is 

 stopped before all the sugar is changed to other 

 compounds, and is allowed to continue longer 

 in the barrels. This makes ale stronger than 

 beer. The pale color is due to the fact that 

 the malt which is used is dried at a low heat, 

 and consequently remains light-colored. As ale 

 contains from two to three times as much al- 

 cohol as does lager beer, it is correspondingly 

 more harmful to the system if taken in large 

 quantities. Water is often called Adam's ale. 



ALENCON, alen' sone, or in French 

 a lahN ' soN, is one of the most beautiful towns 

 of France, capital of the Department of Orne, 

 and long famed for the manufacture of point 

 lace, called point d'AIencon (see LACE). It is 

 situated on the right bank of the Sarthe, 105 

 in ilcs west of Paris. Fine rock-crystal, yielding 

 so-called Alencon diamonds, is found in the 

 neighboring granite quarries. Population in 

 1911, 17,378. 



ALEP ' PO , t he capital of Aleppo province, a 

 division of Turkey in Asia, is an important and 

 historic trade center, eighty miles east of the 

 Mediterranean Sea, in Northern Syria. The 

 city is of ancient origin. It was repeatedly 

 taken from the Turks, once by the Crusaders in 

 1170, but was finally recaptured in 1516 by the 

 Turkish Sultan Selim. It has suffered severely 

 from earthquake and plague, but is now a pic- 

 turesque, prosperous and fairly healthful city. 

 Once on the principal caravan route between 

 Asia and Europe, Aleppo still has an important 

 trade in manufactured articles, which include 

 costly silks brocaded with gold and silver 



