BASALT 604 



Cross of Germany. Miss Barton has written 

 History of the Red Cross, Story of the Red 

 Cross and Story of My Childhood. See RED 

 CROSS SOCIETIES. 



BASALT ' , a well-known rock formed by the 

 action of heat and therefore one of the igneous 

 rocks. It is fine-grained, heavy and crystalline, 

 and is very common in regions that have been 

 disturbed by volcanic action. Its tendency to 

 crystallize in columns gives a peculiar character 

 to the scenery. The columns are four-sided, 

 six-sided, or eight-sided, and are usually jointed. 

 Fingall's Cave on the island of Staffa, the 

 Giant's Causeway, Ireland, and the cliffs along 

 the Columbia River in Washington are noted 

 illustrations of basaltic columns. See IGNEOUS 

 ROCKS. 



BASE, in chemistry, is a compound which 

 will unite with an acid to form a salt. 



BASEBALL 



are very soluble in water and are commonly 

 known as alkalies. Most bases are solids. The 

 metal of the base takes the place of the hydro- 

 gen of the acid. A base may be an oxide, as 

 calcium oxide or lime, or a hydroxide (hydrate), 

 as potassium hydroxide. The union of a base 

 and an acid usually destroys the proper! its of 

 both. In some cases, however, not all the 

 hydrogen of an acid is replaced by the metal 

 of a base, and the salt formed may have acid 

 properties. 



In mathematics, base refers to the third side 

 of a triangle and the part of a pyramid or cone 

 on which it rests; in percentage (which see), to 

 the number on which per cent is computed. See 

 TRIANGLE; PYRAMID. 



In architecture, the base refers to the lowest 

 division of a column or shaft (see COLUMN; 

 ARCHITECTURE) . 



THE STORY OF BASEBALI 



ASEBALL, the national game of 

 the United States, is rapidly ^conquering the 

 world. In Canada, though sharing in favor 

 with lacrosse and soccer football, it is more 

 popular every year. Cuba, too, has its pro- 

 fessional teams, and a few Cubans have been 

 members of teams in the "big leagues" of the 

 United States. While William H. Taft was 

 governor of the Philippine Islands, baseball 

 was successfully introduced among the Igor- 

 rotes as a substitute for head-hunting. The 

 Filipinos, Japanese and the Chinese in Hawaii 

 already play, and the two last named do it 

 nearly as well as the best American amateur 

 teams. Lima, in Peru, and Caracas, in Vene- 

 zuela, have clubs, and since the tour around the 

 world of the Chicago "White Sox" and the 

 New York "Giants" in 1913-1914 a baseball 

 league has been established in New South 

 Wales, Australia. 



Strangely enough, war has been largely re- 

 sponsible for the spread of baseball. Before the 

 American War of Secession the game was prac- 

 tically unknown, though growing, but thou- 

 sands of soldiers learned the game while under 

 arms, and afterwards played it in their com- 



munities. Again it was by soldiers that base- 

 ball was introduced to the Far East and to 

 the Panama Canal Zone. During the War 

 of the Nations many soldiers on temporary 

 leave from the front watched the games of a 

 three-club league on Saturdays in Paris. Hun- 

 dreds of Italians who returned from America 

 to fight for their country were baseball en- 

 thusiasts. Their interest and that of the sol- 

 diers of other nations is sure to revive the 

 plans for adopting baseball, which in several 

 of the European countries were halted by the 

 war. Many people seriously believe that an 

 international league on the Continent would 

 establish international friendships and do much 

 to prevent future wars. There is no doubt 

 that the football contests between France and 

 Great Britain in recent years were responsible 

 for much of the mutual friendship of those two 

 countries which the war intensified, and base- 

 ball, a game for all classes, should be a much 

 stronger influence. 



Baseball as a Science. Though the word 

 professional in many other sports carries with 

 it an inference of the undesirable, in baseball 

 it stands for scientific athletics. So keen is the 



