BANGS 



573 



BANK OF ENGLAND 



sportsmen who yearly visit Northern and 

 Eastern Maine. 



In his search for the mythical city of Norum- 

 bega, whose site Bangor is supposed to occupy, 

 Champlain visited the place in 1604. The first 

 permanent settlement, made in 1769, was called 

 Conduskeag, and was locally known as Sun- 

 bury. The name was changed to Bangor, apd 

 the town was incorporated in 1791. It became 

 a city in 1834. The first railway in the state, 

 completed in 1836, extended from Bangor to 

 Old Town, and one of the first iron steamships 

 built in the United States ran between this 

 port and Boston. M.W. 



BANGS, JOHN KKNDRICK (1862- ), a pop- 

 ular American novelist whose stories are 

 widely read and greatly enjoyed because of 

 their original and delightful humor. He was 

 born at Yonkers, N. Y. After his graduation 

 from Columbia University in 1883, he studied 

 law in his father's office for a year and a half, 

 and then took an editorial position in connec- 

 tion with the comic periodical, Life. Later he 

 was associated with Harper's Magazine, Litera- 



. Harper's Weekly, Metropolitan Magazine, 

 and Puck. Stories have come very rapidly 

 from his pen since the first one was published 

 in 1886, all ( of which are characterized by breezy 

 humor and contain many laughable situations, 

 yet show the author's insight into human 

 nature. 

 Coffee and Repartee is a collection of 



:oa that have been described as "a mixture 

 of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Bill Nye." 

 Other will-known titles are The Idiot, Mr. 

 Bonaparte of Corsica, A House Boat on the 

 Styx, Mollie and the Unwise Man Abroad and 

 A Line O' Cheer for Each Day of the Year. 

 Tiddledywinks Tales was the first of a series 

 of stories for children. He has also written the 

 musical plays entitled The Worsted Man, Lady 



Jc and Tomorrowland. Since 1910 Mr. 

 - has been in demand as a lr< t 

 BAN 'JO, a .-t ringed musical instrument hav- 

 ing a long neck and a body which consists of 



BANJO 



a nrcular framr lik- tlir head of a drum, over 

 whirl) is stretched a covering of parchm* nt 

 The strings, made of catgut, are generally fi\ 

 in number, but sometimes nine. It is played 



by pressing the strings with the fingers of the 

 left hand and twitching or striking them with 

 the right hand fingers. For instrumental solos, 

 duets, and in other combinations the banjo is 

 in demand wherever quick and lively music 

 is desired. It is popular among all classes, 

 but has always been a special favorite among 

 the negroes. In Notes on Virginia, Thomas 

 Jefferson referred to the banjo as an instru- 

 ment "proper to the blacks, which they brought 

 hither from Africa, and which is the original 

 of the guitar, the chords being precisely the 

 four lower chords of the guitar." In Guinea 

 the African negro still uses the bania, a form 

 of banjo having grass strings. 



BANK OF ENGLAND, the most powerful 

 financial institution in the world. It was 

 founded in 1694, a charter constituting practi- 

 cally a monopoly of banking being granted to 



BANK OF ENGLAND 



certain persons who loaned 1,200,000 ($6,000,- 

 000) to the government for use in the war 

 then being waged against France. From that 

 date the Bank of England has been the bank 

 of the government and has entire management 

 of the national debt. For this service it re- 

 ceives payment at the rate of $1,500 per mil- 

 lion on the first $30,000,000 of the debt and 

 $450 per million on all above that sum. In 

 addition to this, the bank is allowed to profit 

 by all transactions in the field of legitimate 

 banking. 



I Milking corporations in the United 

 States ami m I .mnpean and English cities have 

 fir larger capital and deposits than the Bank 

 of England, but the latter derives its great 

 influence not from the money it actually 

 handles, but because it is the accredited finan- 

 cial representative of the British government 

 and people. This influence is far more power- 



