CARUSO 



1210 



CARVING 



Dominion at Washington in negotiations for 

 better commercial relations with the United 

 States, and in 1898 he served on the Joint 

 High Commission for settling all existing dis- 

 putes between the United States and Great 

 Britain relating to Canada. On several occa- 

 sions, during the absence of Laurier, Cartwright 

 was acting Premier. He was knighted by Queen 

 Victoria in 1879, and in 1902 was given the 

 honor of membership in the Imperial Privy 

 Council. From 1904 until his death he was 

 one of the Liberal leaders in the Senate. His 

 Reminiscences, completed in the year of his 

 death, is a valuable record of Canadian poli- 

 tics. W.F.Z. 



CARUSO, karoo' zo, ENRICO (1873- ), an 

 Italian operatic tenor, one of the most popu- 

 lar grand opera stars of modern times. He 

 was born in Naples, where he began singing 

 in churches at the age of eleven. Ten years 

 later he sang his 

 first part in opera, 

 and in 1896, as 

 Alfredo in La 

 Traviata, attract- 

 ed much favor- 

 able notice. 

 Through four sea- 

 sons he sang the 

 leading tenor 

 roles at the mu- 

 nicipal opera 

 house of Milan, 

 where he took 

 the part of Jean ENRICO CARUSO 



in the first Italian In costume, 



performance of Massenet's Sapho. His ap- 

 pearances in the leading cities of Russia and 

 Germany, in Buenos Aires, London, Rome and 

 Lisbon were highly successful, and his tri- 

 umphs were repeated in 1904 when he began 

 his first American season at the Metropolitan 

 Opera House in New York. 



Caruso's extraordinary success is due to the 

 very unusual power, sweetness and range of 

 his voice. He has always been able to attract 

 immense audiences, which accounts for the 

 enormous sums paid for his services. He made 

 a contract with the New York Metropolitan 

 Company by which his salary was nearly 

 $200,000 a year for four years. He is paid 

 about $40,000 a year for singing into phono- 

 graphs, and the "records" thus made bring 

 prices ranging as high as $7 each. In 1913 he 

 sang in Vienna in three performances, receiv- 

 ing for each of these about $5,000. Caruso's 



i y 





most successful roles are Rhadames in A'ida, 

 Manrico in II Trovatore, Turiddu in Cavalleria 

 Rusticana and Johnson in The Girl of the 

 Golden West. 



CARVER, JOHN (1575-1621), a leader of the 

 Pilgrim Fathers, chosen during the Mayflower 

 voyage to be first governor of Plymouth Colony. 

 He was born in England and because of the 

 severe religious persecutions went to Leyden, 

 in Holland, then a refuge for the Puritans. 

 He was an elder in the church and one of 

 those who secured the original patent for the 

 new colony in America. His election was 

 unanimous, and he justified the choice of the 

 colonists by his firmness, prudence and ever- 

 ready courage. Four months after the arrival 

 in Massachusetts, however, he died from the 

 effects of a sunstroke. 



CARVING, according to the most general 

 use of the term, is the art of fashioning orna- 

 mental or natural-appearing figures in ivory 

 and wood. Work in stone or marble usually 

 comes under the head of sculpture (which see), 

 but the term carving is properly applied to the 

 smaller figures cut in stone or marble, such as 

 leafage, scroll work, statuettes, etc. The oldest 

 known examples of wood carving are Egyptian. 

 This beautiful art came into extensive use early 

 in the Christian Era, and was long popular in 

 the decoration of the churches of Central 

 Europe, especially in Germany, where the 

 shrines and altars were sometimes adorned with 

 whote scenes from the lives of the saints. 

 Among the Swiss peasants, wood carving is a 

 regularly-organized occupation. 



Wood is admirably adapted to the represen- 

 tation of those forms which have life and 

 movement, and a good piece of wood carving 

 has a freshness and vigor that carved ivory and 

 stone or marble do not possess. The art is one 

 that boys and girls can learn without great 

 difficulty and it is being offered now quite gen- 

 erally as a course of study in art and manual 

 training schools. See WOOD CARVING. 



That ivory carving was practiced among the 

 ancients is known from the specimens found 

 in Egyptian tombs and in the ruins of Nine- 

 veh; ivory was also used by the Greeks and 

 Romans for various ornamental purposes. 

 Among the most interesting specimens of the 

 early period are the wax writing tablets used 

 by the Roman consuls, the outsides of which 

 were made of ivory ornamented with beauti- 

 fully-carved figures. Ivory was used exten- 

 sively in the Middle Ages in the ornamentation 

 of the churches and for other purposes. Cof- 





