DANUBE 



1700 



DANVILLE 



DANUBE, dan'ubc, the most important 

 water route in Europe and second only to the 

 Volga, among the rivers of that continent, in 

 length and drainage area. The Danube has 

 its origin in the junction of two small moun- 

 tain streams of the Black Forest, in Germany, 

 which unite at a point 2,187 feet above sea 

 li-vcl. It follows a general easterly course 

 and winds and curves for 1,750 miles before it 

 reaches its outlet, the Black Sea. Its drainage 

 basin, 315,000 square miles in extent, almost 

 one-tenth of the total area of the continent 

 of Europe, includes Southern Germany, Bos- 

 nia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania. The city 

 walls of Ulm, Ratisbon, Passau, Vienna, Buda- 



COURSE OF THE DANUBE 



pest and Belgrade are washed by the waters of 

 this great waterway. It was the center of 

 Roman colonization and the scene of inroads 

 of Huns, Magyars and Avars, and the high- 

 way which brought the Turk westward and 

 down which he was finally driven in his east- 

 erly flight. The source and course of the river 

 are shown on the accompanying map. See, 

 also, map of EUROPE, for elevations. 



Commercial Importance. The Danube is the 

 chief natural route for the commerce of Central 

 Europe, and its value as a commercial highway 

 has been greatly enhanced by extensive im- 

 provements made from time to time. At least 

 810,000,000 has been appropriated for making 

 the Iron Gate navigable; commerce through 

 this gap is regulated by an international com- 

 mission, with headquarters at Galatz. Com- 

 munication with the Rhine has been established 

 by the construction of the Ludwig Canal in 

 Bavaria, and the Sulina channel mouth, at 

 the delta, has been deepened so as to permit 

 the entrance of large ocean-going vessels. The 

 annual tonnage through this mouth in times 

 of peace is 2,000,000. 



The Iron Gate, mentioned above, is a moun- 

 tain pass between Orsova, Hungary, and Gla- 

 dova, in Serbia. J.B. 



DAN'VERS, MASS., a residential and manu- 

 facturing city of Essex County, four miles 

 northwest of Salem and nineteen miles north- 

 west of Boston. It includes the villages of 

 Danvers Center and Danvers Port, and has an 

 area of nearly twelve square miles. It is on a 

 small river of the same name, navigable to the 

 Atlantic Ocean, a short distance east, and is 

 served by the eastern and western divisions of 

 the Boston & Maine Railroad and by inter- 

 urban lines. The population in 1910 was 9,407; 

 as reported by the Federal census of 1916 it was 

 9,949. 



Danvers is an attractive New England town 

 with wide, well-paved streets, shaded by splen- 

 did old trees. It is the home of Saint John's 

 Preparatory College (Roman Catholic), the 

 Essex County Agricultural College, Peabody 

 Institute Library and the Danvers Historical 

 Society. The state insane asylum, situated 

 here, has a plant erected at a cost of nearly 

 $2,000,000. Danvers Park is nearly one square 

 mile in extent. The principal industries include 

 the manufacture of leather, shoes, electric 

 lamps and bricks. 



Danvers was once part of Salem. In 1752 

 it was incorporated as a separate town, and 

 in 1855 was divided into South Danvers (after- 

 wards Peabody) and Danvers. In that part of 

 the town keeping the original name, witchcraft 

 first occurred in 1692, and of the number of 

 citizens of the district who were arrested ten 

 were convicted and hanged (see WITCHCRAFT). 

 The many places of historical interest in Dan- 

 vers include the birthplace of Israel Putnam, 

 the Revolutionary soldier; Mount Burnett, a 

 place frequented by Hawthorne, and Oak 

 Knoll, the home of Whittier. The government 

 is administered by town meetings. A.E.F. 



DANVILLE, ILL., is the county seat of Ver- 

 milion County, in the east-central part of the 

 state, five and one-half miles from the Indiana 

 state line, 123 miles south of Chicago and 

 thirty miles east of Champaign. It is >n the 

 Vermilion River and on the Chicago & Eastern 

 Illinois (whose railway shops are here) ; the 

 Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & Saint Louis; 

 the Wabash, and the Chicago, Indiana & South- 

 ern railroads, and on the Illinois Traction elec- 

 tric line. The population in 1910 was 27,871; 

 in 1916 it was 32,261, by Federal estimate. 



The city has the Danville Branch National 

 Soldiers' Home, a Federal building erected in 

 1910 at a cost of $300,000, a courthouse cost- 

 ing $185,000, a Y. M. C. A. building, Masonic 

 Temple, Carnegie Library and two public hos- 



