HAMPTON ROADS 



2679 



HANCOCK 



Armstrong. In 1870 it was granted a state char- 

 ter. The school is a private corporation, its 

 management being in the hands of a board of 

 seventeen trustees, representing various reli- 

 gious denominations. 



Over 1,000 acres of land are owned by the 

 institution, and its 140 buildings include dormi- 

 tories, recitation halls, the Collis P. Hunting- 

 ton Library (containing 45,000 volumes), a 

 church, a Y. M. C. A. building, hospital, mod- 

 ern brick barns and silos, a gymnasium, a trade 

 school, a community day school used as a prac- 

 tice school, and a hall for domestic science and 

 agriculture. Carpentry, painting, blacksmith- 

 ing, tailoring and eleven other trades are open 

 to boys who are seventeen years of age and 

 over, while the girls are instructed in house- 

 work, laundry work, cooking, sewing, methods 

 of teaching and the fundamentals of agriculture. 

 In connection with a four-year agricultural 

 course, the institution maintains two well- 

 equipped farms, on which the best modern farm 

 practice is observed. 



The expenses of the school, which are over 

 $300,000 per annum, are met in part by con- 

 tributions. Students, however, are required to 

 pay for their board, lodging, clothes, books and 

 to meet their other personal expenses. Stu- 

 dents receive wages ranging from six to nine 

 cents an hour. Hampton believes in the moral 

 value of regular work under careful supervi- 

 sion, so all students must do a fair amount of 

 manual labor regardless of their ability to pay 

 their bills. The industrial departments are con- 

 tinued throughout the year. Day classes for 

 those who desire academic, agriculture, business, 

 home economics and trade courses are open 

 from October to June. During the summer a 

 normal institute is carried on for over 400 col- 

 ored teachers from over twenty states. About 

 300 boys and girls also remain in summer to 

 carry on the work on the farm, in the kitchens 

 and dormitories, in the trade-school shops and 

 on the roads and grounds. The school has a 

 working staff of over 200, and a student enroll- 

 ment of 1,400, exclusive of those who attend 

 the summer school. H.B.F. 



HAMPTON ROADS, BATTLE OF. See MONI- 

 TOR AND MERRIMAC. 



HAMPTON ROADS CONFERENCE, a fa- 

 mous but fruitless conference in American his- 

 tory, in which an endeavor was made to arrange 

 peace between the North and South toward the 

 end of the War of Secession. It was held on 

 February 3, 1865, on board the River Queen, at 

 Hampton Roads (see CHESAPEAKE BAY), near 



Fort Monroe. The conference was the result of 

 the efforts of Francis P. Blair. President Lin- 

 coln and Secretary of State Seward represented 

 the United States government. The Confed- 

 eracy was represented by Vice-President Alex- 

 ander H. Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. 

 Hunter and Assistant Secretary of War John A. 

 Campbell. President Lincoln refused to make 

 any treaty with the Confederate government, 

 and declined to consider any peace proposal 

 other than immediate restoration of the Union, 

 the laying down of Confederate arms and abo- 

 lition of slavery. The conference adjourned 

 after four hours of discussion. 



HAMSTER, a species of rodent animals be- 

 longing to the same family as the mouse, and 

 having the habit of undermining the ground 

 like the gopher. The hamster is found in Cen- 

 tral Asia and in a large portion of Europe. It 

 is larger and 

 stouter than the 

 common rat, and 

 has large cheek 

 - pouches and a 

 short, hairy tail. 

 On the under- HAMSTER 



parts it is more About one-tenth actual size, 

 or less black, the back is reddish-gray, and 

 there are white spots on the sides and breast. 

 This rodent burrows about three feet deep in 

 dry soil, and constructs chambers with several 

 entrances. Some of these rooms are large 

 enough to hold considerable amounts of corn 

 and seeds, carried by the animal in its cheek 

 pouches. During the winter it sleeps most of 

 the time in its burrow, but wakens about Feb- 

 ruary to feed on its previously gathered store. 

 It is very prolific, and two or three broods, 

 each consisting of about twelve, are born in a 

 year.- The hamster is partly kept in check by 

 dogs and foxes, which kill and feed upon it, but 

 in Belgium it became such a pest that the gov- 

 ernment at one time offered a bounty for each 

 animal killed. 



HANCOCK, JOHN (1737-1793), one of the 

 most famous of American patriots of Revolu- 

 tionary fame, President of the Continental 

 Congress from 1775 to 1777, the first signer of 

 the Declaration of Independence and the first 

 governor of the state of Massachusetts. From 

 the circumstance of his having been the first 

 to sign the Declaration, the expression, "to 

 place one's John Hancock on a paper," mean- 

 ing, "to sign one's name," has become a part 

 of current speech. He was born in Braintree, 

 Mass., and educated at Harvard College. From 



