FOSTER 



2277 



FOUCAULT 



the University of New Brunswick, from which 

 he was graduated in 1868. After pursuing his 

 studies further at the universities of Edinburgh 

 and Heidelberg, he returned to New Brunswick 

 and for several years was a teacher, finally 

 becoming professor of the classics at his alma 

 mater. He resigned his professorship in 1879 

 and in 1882 entered political life as a Con- 

 servative member of the House of Commons. 



In Parliament his scholarship and ready wit 

 in debate won immediate recognition. In 1885 

 Sir John A. Macdonald appointed him Minister 

 of Marine and Fisheries, a position which he 

 exchanged in 1888 for that of Minister of 

 Finance. He remained as Minister of Finance 

 in the ministries of Macdonald's four Con- 

 servative successors, and after the defeat of 

 his party in 1896 remained in the House of 

 Commons as a member until 1900. In 1904 

 he was again elected to the House, and in 

 1911 was appointed Minister of Trade and 

 Commerce by Premier Borden. King George 

 in 1914 created him a Knight Commander of 

 the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George. 

 Sir George is known as an advocate of temper- 

 ance, and as early as 1895 supported a resolu- 

 tion in Parliament for the extension of suffrage 

 to women. He is also a strong Imperialist, 

 and favors preferential tariffs within the em- 

 pire. G.H.L. 



FOSTER, STEPHEN COLLINS (1826-1864), 

 composer of My Old Kentucky Home, prob- 



FOSTER'S HOME 



House in Bardstown, Kentucky, where Old Ken- 

 tucky Home was written. 



ably with the exception of Home, Sweet Home 

 the most extensively-translated song in the 

 world. Every part of Europe has a version of 

 it, and even in Asia and Africa the natives 



have sung it in their own tongues. Over 

 400,000 copies of this song were sold five years 

 after its publication; at the time it was a 

 record never before equaled. 



Without any formal training in music, he 

 composed about 125 songs, more than any 

 other man ever produced. Nearly a fourth of 

 these are negro melodies and the remainder 

 are sentimental ballads; both the music and 

 words of all of them were of his own composi- 

 tion. It was generally supposed that no one 

 not born in the South could produce negro 

 melodies such as were composed by Foster, 

 who was a native of Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Foster was of a retiring nature and cared 

 little for fame and money, but he could not 

 escape popularity. It is said that for The Old 

 Folks at Home (The Suwanee River) he re- 

 ceived only $500; his publisher netted over 

 $10,000 for his The Louisiana Belle and Old 

 Uncle Ned. Other songs which brought him 

 great fame are Nelly Ely, Old Dog Tray, 

 Way Down South Where de Cotton Grows, 

 Gentle Annie, Willie We Have Missed You 

 and Come Where My Love Lies Dreaming. 

 He preferred his sentimental songs to his plan- 

 tation ditties, but it is for the latter that he 

 will be most gratefully remembered. 



FOSTO'RIA, OHIO, a city in Seneca and 

 Hancock counties, near the boundary of Wood 

 County, in the northwestern part of the state, 

 thirty-five miles south of Toledo. It is on the 

 Baltimore & Ohio, the Hocking Valley, the 

 Lake Erie & Western and the New York, 

 Chicago & Saint Louis railroads. The city 

 has electric interurban service. In 1910 the 

 population was 9,597; in 1916 it was 10,770, by 

 Federal estimate. The area of the city exceeds 

 two and one-half square miles. 



Fostoria is in an agricultural country and 

 near large oil fields. It has glass factories and 

 lime kilns, and manufactures glass novelties, 

 automobile and incandescent lamps, barrels, 

 safes and machinery. The city has a Carnegie 

 Library and a Y. M. C. A. building. It was 

 founded in 1832 and became a city in 1854. 

 Its growth and development were promoted 

 by Charles Foster, later governor of Ohio and 

 Secretary of the United States Treasury, and 

 it was named in honor of his father, the first 

 settler. 



FOUCAULT, fooko', JEAN BERNARD LEON 

 (1819-1868), a French physicist, born in Paris, 

 whose name is associated with a pendulum ex- 

 periment employed as a method of showing the 

 rotation of the earth on its axis. 



