FISHER 



2189 



FISH HAWK 



in 1827, and in 1830, after a course in law, was 

 admitted to the bar. The first of several polit- 

 ical honors came to him in 1842, when he was 

 elected to Congress as a Whig. Six years later 

 he won the governorship of New York, and 

 in 1851 was sent to the United States Senate. 



Fish became an active member of the Re- 

 publican party on its organization, and from 

 1869 to 1877 made a good record as Secretary 

 of State in the Cabinet of President Grant. 

 He was one of the commissioners who nego- 

 tiated and signed the Treaty of Washington 

 with Great Britain, in 1871 (see WASHINGTON, 

 TREATY OF), and he represented the interests 

 of the United States in the settlement of the 

 claims arising from the depredations of the 

 Confederate cruiser Alabama (see ALABAMA, 

 THE). Other diplomatic services included the 

 settlement of the Oregon boundary dispute 

 with Great Britain, and a satisfactory adjust- 

 ment of the difficulty with Spain growing out 

 of the Virginius affair (see VIRGINIUS MASSA- 

 CRE, THE). He also brought about important 

 reforms in the consular service, introducing 

 the requirement of civil service examinations 

 of candidates. 



Stuyvesant Fish (1851- ), son of Hamil- 

 ton Fish, is an American capitalist and rail- 

 road official. He was born in New York, and, 

 like his father, was educated at Columbia Col- 

 lege. At the age of twenty, soon after his 

 graduation, he entered the offices of the Illi- 

 nois Central Railroad Company as a clerk, and 

 rose to the presidency of the road in 1887, 

 which post he resigned in 1906. Fish was 

 chosen a member of the monetary commis- 

 sion created by the conference which met in 

 Indianapolis in 1897, and from 1904 to 1906 

 was president of the American Railway Asso- 

 ciation. 



FISHER, HAR- 

 BISON (1875- ), 

 an American il- 

 lustrator who has 

 drawn over a 

 thousand studies 

 of American girl 

 types. Simplicity 

 is the keynote of 

 his art. Although 

 he easily pleases 

 his patrons, he is 

 a severe serf- 

 critic, often de- 

 stroying the work of days because the result 

 proves unsatisfactory to himself. He pos- 



HARRISON FISHER 



sesses a fine sense of humor and a love for the 

 beautiful in life, which he brings out in his 

 art. Fisher was born in Brooklyn, N. Y. His 

 illustrations appear in the leading magazines 

 and popular works of fiction, and he is the 

 author of The Harrison Fisher Book, which 

 presents in picture the American girl who wins 

 by force of charm and personality. 



FISHER, SYDNEY ARTHUR (1850- ), a 

 Canadian statesman and agriculturist, from 

 1896 until 1911 Dominion Minister of Agricul- 

 ture, a position in which he exerted great in- 

 fluence for the improvement of agricultural 

 conditions in Canada. He was born in Mon- 

 treal, attended the Montreal high school and 

 McGill University, and in 1871 was graduated 

 at Trinity College, Cambridge University. 

 Returning to Canada, he devoted himself to 

 scientific farming, particularly fruit-growing 

 and the raising of live stock. He was closely 

 identified with the Quebec Fruit Growers' 

 Association and other organizations for im- 

 proving the farming conditions of Quebec and 

 the Dominion. 



Fisher was an unsuccessful candidate for the 

 House of Commons in 1880, but was elected in 

 1882 and sat until 1891, when he was defeated 

 by a single vote. He was again elected in 

 1896 and became Minister of Agriculture in 

 the Liberal Ministry formed by Sir Wilfrid 

 Laurier. While Minister of Agriculture he se- 

 cured the enactment of many laws in the in- 

 terests of the farmers and the people at large, 

 organized a health-of-animals branch and the 

 permanent census and statistics branch, and 

 established numerous experimental farms. To 

 his efforts were also due the foundation of the 

 National Art Gallery and the erection of a 

 suitable building for the Dominion archives at 

 Ottawa. He sat in the House of Commons 

 from 1896 to 1911 ; he was defeated in the 

 general elections of 1911 and was also unsuc- 

 cessful at another election in 1913. G.H.L. 



FISH HAWK, a large bird of prey of the 

 eagle family, found near both fresh and salt 

 water in almost every country. This bird, 

 which feeds only on fish, is also called fishing 

 hawk, fishing eagle, sea gull and osprey, the 

 latter name being derived from a Latin word 

 meaning bone-breaker. It is about two feet 

 long, with body dark brown above, touched 

 with black, gray and white. The under parts 

 are white, sometimes banded across the breast 

 with brown. The tail and wings are long. 

 To aid it in securing food, the short, strong 

 bill is sharply hooked, and the soles of its 



