HAIG 



2658 



HAIL COLUMBIA 



world. In 1820 he was prohibited by the gov- 

 ernment from dispensing medicine, but Duke 

 Ferdinand offered him a place at Kolhen, 

 where he remained until 1833, then went to 

 Paris, where a royal decree authorized him to 

 practice homeopathy in 1835. His system has 

 gradually extended until there are now about 

 15,000 homeopathic physicians in Canada and 

 the United States. See HOMEOPATHY. 



HAIG, SIR DOUGLAS (1861- ), field marshal 

 of Great Britain and commander of the British 

 Expeditionary Forces in France from Decem- 

 ber, 1914. He rose to the highest military rank 

 from sergeant of the Seventh Hussars in 1885. 

 Haig has seen service in India and in South 

 Africa and for two years preceding the War of 

 the Nations was commander of the great mili- 

 tary school at Aldershot. At the Marne he 

 commanded the First Army. In March, 1918, 

 confronted by the enemy in overwhelming num- 

 bers at some points eight to one he con- 

 ducted one of the most remarkable retreats in 

 history, halting the Germans on the eighth day 

 with lines unbroken. 



HAIL. Hailstorms usually occur during the 

 hot summer months, and they frequently ac- 

 company severe thunderstorms. Hailstones are 

 small balls or pellets of ice and snow which 

 fall with the rain. They vary in size from tiny 



FORMS OF HAILSTONES 



particles, forming sleet, to balls two or three 

 inches in diameter. Of the latter size, how- 

 ever, few are formed. They are usually about 

 the size of peas or beans. In most instances 

 only a small quantity of hail falls, but in re- 

 gions subject to hailstorms, the crops of large 

 areas may be seriously damaged or entirely 

 destroyed. In 1880 a hailstorm In the central 

 part of Wisconsin damaged or destroyed crops 

 over an area of forty square miles, but it is 

 seldom that so large an area is affected. The 

 hail usually falls over a long and narrow area, 



leaving the region on each side untouched. 

 From this fact, the hail is supposed to be 

 formed on one side of the rain cloud. 



Farmers in regions subject to hailstorms 

 protect themselves by hail insurance, which 

 throws whatever loss may occur upon all the 

 farmers of the region instead of upon those 

 whose crops are destroyed. 



Formation of Hail. Many theories have 

 been advanced to account for the formation 

 of hail, but the best authorities on weather 

 conditions do not consider any of them satis- 

 factory. Nearly all hailstones consist of hard 

 ice formed around a center of white or soft 

 ice, or around some other object, as a grain 

 of sand or a small pebble that has been carried 

 up to the cloud by the wind. Large hail- 

 stones are formed of numerous layers of ice, 

 one over another, and their structure leads to 

 the inference that they are blown about alter- 

 nately into warm and cold currents of air, or 

 from regions where rain is formed to those 

 where snow is formed. 



Snow consists of collections of frost crystals, 

 and requires a lower temperature for its forma- 

 tion. See DEW; RAIN; SNOW. W.F.R. 



HAIL COLUMBIA, a patriotic American 

 song written in 1798 by Judge Joseph Hop- 

 kinson. Gilbert Fox, a young American actor, 

 was to be given a benefit at the Old Walnut 

 Street Theater, Philadelphia, and wishing to 

 make the occasion a memorable one he re- 

 quested his friend, Hopkinson, to write a song 

 whose spirit would be wholly American. The 

 result was Hail Columbia, which Mr. Fox sang 

 on the night of April 28, 1798, to the tune of 

 The President's March, accompanied by a full 

 band and assisted by a large chorus. The 

 tune known as The President's March was 

 composed in 1789 by Franklin Fyles, an or- 

 chestra leader of New York, and was dedi- 

 cated to President Washington. Owing to the 

 political unrest of the period, Hail Columbia 

 became very popular at the time of its in- 

 troduction, and has still a certain vogue, due 

 more to its spirit of patriotism than to any 

 poetic merit. The first stanza follows: 



Hail, Columbia ! happy land ! 



Hail, ye heroes ! heaven born band ! 



Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 



Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause, 

 And when the storm of war was gone, 

 Enjoyed the peace your valor won. 



Let independence be our boast, 



Ever mindful what it cost ; 



Ever grateful for the prize, 



Let its altar reach the skies. 



