BENNETT 



687 



BENNINGTON 



by Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake. It 

 is just east of Loch Lomond and is the southern 

 extremity of the Grampian Mountains, the 

 Central Scottish Highlands. On the north side 

 of Ben Lomond is a precipice 2,000 feet high. 



BENNETT, the family name of two of the 

 most prominent and successful American jour- 

 nalists, father and son. 



James Gordon Bennett (1795-1872) was the 

 founder and editor of the New York Herald 

 and originator of many of the modern devices 

 of journalism. Foreign correspondents, finan- 

 cial articles, full reports of important speeches, 

 prompt and lively accounts of every-day 

 events these were unknown before his time, 

 but other editors immediately adopted them. 



Bennett was born at Newmills, in Scotland, 

 and studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood, 

 but the reading of Franklin's Autobiography 

 interested him in America, and he emigrated 

 in 1819. In Halifax and later in Boston he 

 earned a scanty living on various journals; in 

 1832 he went to New York and at intervals 

 attempted to found a paper of his own, always 

 without success until 1835, when on May 6 

 there appeared the first number of the New 

 York Herald. It was issued from a cellar, this 

 little four-page penny paper, but its editor was 

 a born journalist and knew how to interest and 

 hold the public, whether he always pleased or 

 not. At first he wrote the entire paper, and 

 sold it as well, but soon began to employ 

 reporters and newsboys, and to introduce the 

 features mentioned above. Financially the 

 paper was a great success, earning for its pro- 

 prietor, in his later years, almost $750,000 

 annually. If Bennett himself was not always 

 liked, if his opinions were not always respected, 

 it was because he deliberately chose to increase 

 the prominence and the circulation of his 

 paper at the expense of his personal influence. 



James Gordon Bennett, Jr. (1841-1918), his 

 son, succeeded to the proprietorship of the 

 Herald, but directed the affairs of the paper 

 largely by cable, as he preferred to live in Paris. 

 The chief innovation which he introduced was 

 the publication of London and Paris editions 

 of the Herald. Although he lives in Europe, 

 Mr. Bennett keeps in intimate touch with his 

 New York paper, sometimes cabling editorials 

 on vital American topics. From his youth he 

 has been' intensely interested in yachting, and 

 has won various races. Bennett, at his own 

 expense, sent Henry M. Stanley to Africa to 

 hunt for Livingstone, and equipped the Jean- 

 net t e for its Polar expedition. He was also one 



of the founders of the Commercial Cable 

 Company. 



BENNETT, [ENOCH] ARNOLD (1867- ), 

 an English writer whose realistic novels have 

 won him a popularity which few present-day 

 novelists have succeeded in gaining. Most fa- 

 mous are his stories of the "Five Towns," which 

 include Anna of the Five Towns, The Old 

 Wives' Tale, Clayhanger, Hilda Lessways and 

 The Matador of the Five Towns. These 

 depend for their interest not on exciting events 

 or romantic situations but on the realism with 

 which they set forth the every-day lives of 

 commonplace people and the insight into 

 human nature which they show. Longer than 

 most novels of the day, they yet succeed in 

 holding their reader's interest. 



Bennett was bom at Hanley, one of the Five 

 Towns, studied at the University of London, 

 and worked as a magazine editor until the 

 increasing popularity of his writings allowed 

 him to give up other work. Some of his essays, 

 as The Human Machine and How to Live on 

 Twenty-four Hours a Day were widely read. 

 The Pretty Lady (1918) is a revelation of the 

 social awakening under the stress of the great 

 war. 



BEN NEVIS, ben ne' vis, which in Gaelic 

 means mountain of snow, is the tallest peak in 

 Great Britain. It rises 4,406 feet above the sea, 

 at the south end of the Caledonian Canal in 

 Inverness, and at its summit on clear days ' 

 practiced observers can see nearly to the North 

 Sea, one hundred miles away. 



BENNINGTON, VT., a village in the south- 

 western part of the state, the name of which 

 has been made famous by an important battle 

 of the Revolutionary War, fought about five 

 miles distant, on August 16, 1777. On that 

 day nearly 2,000 "Green Mountain Boys" under 

 General John Stark defeated in succession two 

 divisions of the British army commanded by 

 Burgoyne, who had dispatched the troops to 

 Bennington to seize a store of supplies. The 

 English suffered a loss of over 200 killed and 

 700 captured; the Americans, only fourteen 

 killed and forty-two wounded. The battle had 

 results of first importance. It not only seri- 

 ously weakened Burgoyne but encouraged the 

 colonial troops to continue their campaign 

 against him, and his surrender two months later 

 at Saratoga is generally regarded as the turning 

 point in the war. 



Bennington township, consisting of the three 

 incorporated villages of Bennington, North 

 Bennington and Bennington Centre, is the 



