ANNIVERSARIES 



207 



ANNUNZIO 



a high school, offer unusual educational advan- 



- for a city of its size. The Federal build- 

 ing, erected in 1905 at a cost of $150,000; the 

 courthouse, which cost $75,000, and a $100,000 

 hotel are buildings worthy of mention. These, 

 with the many industries of cast-iron pipe, cot- 

 ton mills, car works, ordnance works, machine 

 shops, steel products and pig-iron furnaces, 



:y to the progress and activity of the city. 

 The character of its industries is due to its 



ion ; it is in one of the most important coal 

 and iron mining regions of the United States. 

 The product of cast-iron pipe is 200,000 tons 

 annually and 25,000 bales of cotton are an- 

 nually consumed by eight cotton mills. Valu- 

 able timber tracts in the vicinity are the source 

 of an important lumber business and the cotton 

 and agricultural products are large. M.C.K. 



ANNIVERSARIES , an i vur' sar riz, FOR 

 CELEBRATION. There are certain days of 

 the y -:ir that have a special meaning because 

 they are the anniversaries of events that have 

 influenced the history of the world. Such dates 

 are the birthdays of the world's great men, and 

 Anniversaries of decisive battles or of deeds 

 that have made history. In the articles in 

 these volumes descriptive of the months of the 

 will be found hundreds of dates of anni- 

 versaries selected with a view to their fitness 

 for celebration. To these the reader is directed. 



ANNUALS, anyu' als, plants which spring 

 from the seed, blossom, produce fruit and die, 

 all in one year. They are distinguished from 

 biennials, which take two years to complete 

 tin ir life's course, and from perennials, which 

 li\<> indefinitely instead of dying when their 

 fruit has been produced. For the most part 

 annuals are natives of fairly dry places, but 

 they have been introduced into all climates, 

 and afford some of the most useful as well as 

 ornamental of plants. Thus tin- pea, the bean, 

 tomato, the nasturtium and the sweet pea 

 are all annuals, and must be raised from seed 

 year. In climates which have a cold 

 winter there is danger of confusing annuals 

 with biennials or perennial-, which die down 

 to the ground at the close of the growing 

 season. Thus the carrot is a biennial, though 

 it shows no more life during the winter than a 

 dead tomato plant. See BIENNIALS; PEREN- 

 NIALS. 



ANNU'ITY, front the Latin annu*, mean- 



/car, is a sum of money paid annually, but 



not to be confused with ,>,i,r,-*t. A person 



usually is said to buy an annuity; that is, he 



pays a certain sum as consideration, in return 



for which some other person or company agrees 

 to pay him or his heirs an annuity. The lump 

 sum necessary to secure a certain annual re- 

 turn is determined by rules and principles 

 which have been the subjects of careful 

 investigation. If the annuity is to be per- 

 petual, the present value will evidently depend 

 upon the rate of interest on money; if the 

 annuity is to be for life, the present value, 

 obviously, is dependent upon not only the rate 

 of interest, but the number of years the bene- 

 ficiary will live, which in turn depends upon 

 age, sex, climate and other influences. In some 

 European countries- the granting of annuities 

 is conducted by the government ; in the United 

 States the purchase of annuities is not nearly 

 so common a practice as in Europe. Its place 

 is taken largely by life insurance, which. 

 obviously, is exactly opposite in character, the 

 difference being that small annual payments 

 are made, with the agreement that at a cer- 

 tain time a lump sum will be paid to a desig- 

 nated beneficiary. 



Under the title MORTALITY, LAWS OF, a table 

 of probable length of life is given. 



ANNUNCIATION, anun' siashun, THK. the 

 title of several famous paintings which pic- 

 ture the angel Gabriel announcing to the Vir- 

 gin Mary that she has been chosen to be the 

 Mother of Christ. The story, a favorite with 

 religious painters, is told in Luke I, 26-38. The 

 Virgin is usually shown with a book or ncedle- 

 work ; the angel bears a lily or an olive branch, 

 for thus the early legends represented these 

 characters. Many master artists have been 

 attracted by the subject of the Annunciation, 

 and thrir treatment of the story is reverent 

 and exalted; the paintings have always the 

 :it of peace, harmony and mystery. W< 11- 

 known paintings bearing this title are those 

 by Andrea del Sarto (Pitti Gallery, Florence) ; 

 Fra Angelico (Church of San Marco. Flor- 

 ence) ; Titian (Venice); and Dante Gabriel 

 Rossetti (National Gallery, London). In the 

 l.itt. r the Virgin is a portrait of the artist's 

 sister, Christina Roesetti. Sec PAINTING. 



ANNUNZIO, GABRIELLB D', dahn noon' dne o, 

 (1864- ), an Italian port, novelist and dram- 

 atist, the foremost lit nary personage in Italy 

 at the beginning of the twentieth century. In 

 1015 his written and spoken appeals to his 

 countrymen were the chirf factors in rousing 

 th. ii feelings against Austria and (irrmany, 

 thus plunging Italy into the War of th< 

 tions. This intense nationalism was in fink- 

 ing contrast to d'Annunrio's early philosophy 



