GLOWWORM 



2514 



GLUCOSE 



Stump City until 1823. It was incorporated as 

 a village in 1851 ; as a city in 1890. L.S.R. 



GLOWWORM, another name for the firefly 

 (which see). 



GLOXINIA, gloksin'ia, a popular green- 

 house plant, remarkable for its richly-colored, 

 velvety leaves and large, graceful, delicately- 

 tinted flowers. Although a native of tropical 

 America, the gloxinia is now cultivated in 



GLOXINIA 



houses and gardens throughout America. It 

 is a delicate plant requiring a light soil and 

 careful watering, but the beauty of its lovely 

 bell-shaped flowers and soft leaves will repay 

 any amount of thought and effort. 



GLUCK, glook, ALMA (1886- ), one of 

 the world's greatest prima donnas, whose voice 

 has been pronounced of the same exquisite so- 

 prano type as Melba's. Although born in Bu- 

 charest, Rumania, Mme. Gluck is essentially 

 American, for her parents brought her to the 

 United States when she was six years old. 

 Most of her musical education was obtained in 

 America, and she is noteworthy as being a 

 grand opera singer of first rank who was not 

 trained in Europe. In private life she is MRS. 

 EFREM ZIMBALIST, wife of a Russian violinist 

 who has achieved fame. She attained imme- 

 diate success upon her first appearance in New 

 York City, with the Metropolitan Opera Com- 

 pany, as Sophie in Werther. Later she re- 

 peated her American triumphs when she made 

 her debut in London. In addition to many 

 appearances in concert, she has sung leading 

 roles in Boheme, Orfeo, Bartered Bride, Faust 

 and other operas. In 1917 she was prevented 

 by war from filling American engagements. 



GLUCK, CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD (1714-1787), 

 a musical composer who stands with Wagner 

 as a reformer of opera. In the dedication of 

 one of his finest operas he wrote: "Music 

 should in opera occupy towards poetry the 

 same relation as is held by a color scheme and 

 chiaroscuro towards a fine drawing; that is to 

 say, to add life to its figures without injuring 

 their outline." This ideal he always strove to 

 attain. 



He had little musical education in his home 

 town in Bavaria. In 1740 he composed Arta- 

 serse, his first opera, for the court theater of 

 Milan, which was well received, despite the 

 innovations of style which he introduced. 

 However, the appearance later in Vienna of 

 his operas Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste and 

 Paride ed Elena marked the birth of the so- 

 called music-drama; they carried into practice 

 his theory of opera as a national and coherent 

 form of art. The crucial point of his career 

 was at the production of Iphigenie en Aulide, 

 in Paris in 1774, at the same time with one of 

 the same libretto by Piccinni, the Italian com- 

 poser and master of the "old" school of opera. 

 All Paris took sides, but the victory was with 

 Gluck. 



In his greatest opera, Iphigenie en Tauride, 

 he included all that was best in his five other 

 great works. He composed fifty-four dramatic 

 works in all. From Handel's music he drew 

 inspiration, which he gratefully acknowledged 

 to the end of his days. Gluck's temperament 

 .was a combination of vanity and impetuosity, 

 coupled with a sincere love for his art and a 

 generous appreciation of the good work of his 

 fellow composers. 



GLUCOSE, gloo'kose, a sugary syrup ob- 

 tained from corn, about half as sweet as cane 

 sugar. It is made by treating the starch with 

 sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, greatly di- 

 luted. The syrup is called glucose and the 

 more solid product, grape sugar. There are 

 eighteen processes required in the manufacture 

 of glucose, the whole taking about eighty 

 hours. The corn is first steeped, then ground 

 in water, and the starch, after settling, is 

 washed and cleaned with hydrochloric acid in 

 closed vessels called converters.. The action 

 of the acid is then neutralized by chalk or other 

 alkali, and a long process of filtration follows. 

 The liquid becomes thick and syrupy after 

 the final treatment, and grape sugar results 

 if the converting process is carried still further. 

 Glucose is now put to many uses. Because it 

 does not crystallize it is used in the preserving 



