DIXIE HIGHWAY 



DNIEPER 



struggles in the War of Secession, including the 

 "Battle above the Clouds" and Missionary 

 Ridge. For part of the distance between Chat- 

 tanooga and Atlanta the route followed is that 

 of Sherman's march to the sea. In Florida 

 there are landmarks of a far earlier date, espe- 

 cially at Saint Augustine, where stands Fort 

 Marion, begun over three hundred fifty years 

 ago and held at different times by the soldiers 

 of Spain, Great Britain, the United States and 

 the Confederate states. 



Scenery. As a scenic route the road is 

 charming. The wooded dunes of Michigan, 

 the corn lands of Illinois and the low hills of 

 Indiana contrast sharply with the country far- 

 ther south. In Kentucky the way of the west- 

 ern branch is through the cave region, and 

 Mammoth Cave is not far to one side; the 

 eastern branch traverses the blue-grass country. 

 Through Tennessee the hills rise higher and 

 higher, till at Lookout Mountain the traveler 

 is over two thousand feet above the sea and 

 fifteen hundred feet above the river beneath. 

 In Georgia the cotton country is reached, then 

 the land of lumber, turpentine and tar. Near 

 Florida the live oaks and palmettos give a hint 

 of the semi-tropical nature of the rest of the 

 road, and along the coral-built east coast, 

 Florida's Riviera, with its famous resorts, Saint 

 Augustine, Daytona, Palm Beach and Miami, 

 are seen groves of oranges, grape fruit, lemons 

 and guavas, fields of pineapples, and banana 

 trees and cocoanut palms. From Miami it is a 

 short trip, by train and boat or by boat alone, 

 to Havana, and when the roads of that island 

 are improved, many Dixie Highway travelers 

 will no doubt extend their journey into the 

 tropic island. 



History. The Dixie Highway was the idea 

 of Mr. Carl G. Fisher of Indianapolis, who was 

 also the founder of the Lincoln Highway move- 

 ment. Governor Ralston of Indiana called a 

 conference of the governors of all the states 

 interested Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, 

 Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida in 

 1915, and each governor appointed two com- 

 missioners, who made selections of roads and 

 secured the cooperation of local authorities. At 

 the outset much of the route was over roads 

 of the worst type, but over five million dollars 

 were spent in improvements the first year. 

 There were said to be over half a million auto- 

 mobile owners in the territory served by the 

 highway, including its branches, when active 

 construction began; this number is now much 

 greater. See LINCOLN HIGHWAY. C.H.H. 



DIXON, THOMAS, JR. (1864- ), an Amer- 

 ican novelist and playwright, who at one time 

 was a preacher and lecturer. His works, strong 

 and vital in parts, deal chiefly with the South 

 and its negroes; they show vivid pictorial de- 

 scription and are in bold defiance of criticism. 

 He was born in Shelby, N. C., was graduated 

 from the Greensboro law school and admitted 

 to the bar. In 1885 and 1886 he was a member 

 of the North Carolina legislature, but resigned 

 to enter the ministry, where he gained a repu- 

 tation for freedom and originality of thought 

 and powerful expression. He has also been a 

 popular lecturer. 



Among his writings are The Leopard's Spots, 

 frankly dealing with the negro question; The 

 One Woman, a story dealing with the divorce 

 problem; The Clansman, picturing conditions 

 in part of the South under the domination 

 of the negroes and carpetbaggers during the 

 Reconstruction period ; The Sins of the Fathers, 

 a gripping human-interest story which was 

 dramatized and in which Dixon played the 

 leading part; The Southerner, The Victim, A 

 Romance of the Real Jefferson Davis and The 

 Foolish Virgin. 



The Leopard's Spots and The Clansman 

 have also been dramatized, a very wonderful 

 and stirring moving picture production having 

 been adapted from the latter by D. W. Griffith, 

 under the title The Birth of a Nation. After 

 the latter task was accomplished Dixon wrote 

 The Fall of a Nation, a story which owed its 

 inspiration to the War of the Nations in Eu- 

 rope, then in progress (1915). 



DNIEPER, ne'pur, the second largest river 

 of Russia, rising in the government of Smolensk 

 and after a winding course of 1,300 miles emp- 

 tying its waters into the Black Sea through a 

 mouth ten miles in breadth. Because of the 

 benefits it brings to a large area it is held in 

 great veneration by the Russian peasants, who 

 call it Father Dnieper. It is navigable for 

 almost its entire length, the rapids which for- 

 merly impeded the passage of ships having 

 been remedied by blasting. As a commercial 

 route the Dnieper is of the greatest value to 

 Russia. Grain and lumber to the value of 

 over $50,000,000 are annually borne on its 

 waters to the Black Sea; the river flows 

 through the heart of Russia's great "Black 

 Belt," one of the world's most important wheat- 

 growing districts. It abounds in fish, which are 

 exported in great quantities. The Beresina, 

 Pripet, Psiol, and Desna rivers are its most 

 important tributaries. The Dnieper flows 



