DE SOTO 



1776 



DESTINN 



Moines, and nearly 4,000 men are engaged in 

 coal mining. The mines have an annual output 

 of 3,500,000 tons. The manufactures of the 

 city are important and include books and mag- 

 azines, foundry and machine shop products, 

 structural-iron, engines and boilers, furnaces, 

 agricultural implements, wagons and carriages, 

 harness, axle grease, washing machines, furni- 

 ture, pottery, brick and tile, sewer pipe, Port- 

 land cement, glue, incubators, cotton and 

 woolen goods, clothing, confectionery, crackers, 

 soap, twine, linseed oil, wall paper and patent 

 medicines. The city has extensive wholesale 

 interests and is an important center of the 

 insurance business. 



History. The first Fort Des Moines was 

 established here in 1843, and the place was 

 opened for settlement the same year. It was in- 

 corporated as a town in 1851 and in 1857 be- 

 came a city and also the state capital, the seat 

 of government being removed from Iowa City 

 for the sake of a more central location. In 

 1907 the city adopted a new charter embodying 

 what is known as the "Des Moines Plan." It 

 provides for a ruling council of five, chosen 

 biennially, nominated at a non-partisan pri- 

 mary and voted for on a non-partisan ticket by 

 the electors of the entire city. The city has 

 the power to recall any commissioner and can 

 compel the passage of any law or ordinance. 

 See COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 



The name of the city is taken from that of 

 the river, which the Indians named Moingona. 

 Trappist monks early visited this country, and 

 the stream came to be the Des Moines, mean- 

 ing of the monks. 



DESOTO, deso'to, FERNANDO (1500-1542), a 

 hardy and intrepid Spanish explorer who 

 earned a place for all time in the lists of 

 famous men by his discovery of the Mississippi 

 River. Because of the great hardships involved 

 and treachery of the Indians he lost his life 

 before he could announce to the world his 

 great achievement. After he had become 

 famous and wealthy in the conquest of Peru, 

 De Soto returned to Spain, but was sent to 

 be governor of Cuba and Florida in 1539. No 

 man had previously dared to enter the heart 

 of what is now the Southern United States, but 

 De Soto planned many brilliant adventures in 

 that section when he started out with his com- 

 pany of 600 men. Led astray by false Indian 

 guides through the dense jungles, he lost many 

 of his followers in hostile attacks from the red 

 men. After three years of wandering, De Soto 

 and the few who still lived started back home, 



but the leader died of fever and was buried in 

 the depths of the great river he had discovered. 

 The survivors built crude boats and floated 

 . down the Mississippi, to 

 find refuge in the Span- 

 ish settlements on the 

 coast of Mexico. Three 

 early accounts of this 

 great expedition were 

 written ; two of 

 them were by men 

 who had accom- 



FERNANDO DE SOTO 



Portrait of the explorer and map of his route 

 through the Southern United States. 



panied De Soto, the third and most .famous 

 by the Inca historian, Garcilazo de la Vega. 

 The latter, however, is little read. 



DESTINN, des'tin, EMMY (1878- ), a 

 Bohemian operatic soprano who has become a 

 general favorite with American audiences. She 

 began her musical education with lessons on the 

 violin, in her native city of Prague, but later 

 commenced train- 

 ing for the oper- 

 atic stage under 

 the direction of 

 Madame Loewe- 

 Destinn. Substi- 

 tuting her teach- 

 er's name for her 

 family name, 

 Kittl, she made 

 as Santuzza (in 

 her debut in 1897 

 Cavalleria Rusti- 

 c a n a ) , at t.h e 

 Royal Opera EMMY DESTINN 



House, Berlin. Though her success in this 

 role established her position as an operatic 

 soprano, she first became widely famous on 

 her appearance as Senta in the initial perform- 

 ance of Wagner's Flying Dutchman at Bay- 

 reuth (1901). 



Six years later she was invited by Strauss 

 to act the role of Salome at the first Paris 





