HAND ORGAN 



2683 HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON 



handicap is to place all contestants on an equal 

 basis. In races the best athletes start from a 

 line known as "scratch." In front of them, at 

 intervals varying according to "form" previ- 

 ously shown, are placed those other runners 

 who receive the benefit of handicaps. In all 

 events of importance an official handicapper is 

 appointed and his decision as to what form the 

 handicap shall take is final. Horses are handi- 

 capped in races by being made to carry extra 

 weight; golfers are handicapped by strokes 

 given to opponents. In the great national games 

 of baseball and cricket there are no handicaps, 

 for the nature of these sports makes it impos- 

 sible. 



HAND ORGAN, a musical instrument having 

 four or more strings and shaped somewhat like 

 a lute. The vibration of the strings is produced 

 by a wooden wheel which is treated with rosin 

 and is turned by a handle at the end. The 

 name is also applied to the hurdy-gurdy, which 

 is a primitive instrument having a harsh tone, 

 with an exceedingly limited artistic field, and 

 a cylinder whose surface contains pegs which 

 hit the strings and produce tone effects. The 

 hand organ is known to have existed in the 

 ninth century, and was in vogue for a time in 

 the tenth century ; but the present hurdy-gurdy 

 is now confined to street musicians, who fre- 

 quently mount it on wheels, for greater ease in 

 transportation. It is not a popular instrument, 

 and is called in derision barrel organ, because 

 of its cylinder. 



HANGBIRD. Because of the peculiar forma- 

 tion of its nest, this name is given to the Bal- 

 timore oriole (see ORIOLE). 



HANGCHOW, hahng'chow, an ancient walied 

 city of China, capital of the province of Cheki- 

 ang, and connected with Peking by the Grand 

 Canal. It is 100 miles . southwest of Shanghai, 

 on a gulf of the East China Sea. Hangchow 

 has been a center of Chinese learning for cen- 

 turies, and it is now one of the most important 

 commercial cities of the East. Walls twenty 

 to thirty feet thick and forty feet high sur- 

 round the ancient portion of the city and are 

 pierced by ten well-guarded gateways. The 

 modern portion consists of beautiful suburbs 

 outside the walls. Hangchow was opened to 

 foreign trade in 1896, 'having previously held 

 little or no communication with "foreign dev- 

 ils," as Europeans are there qalled. Now the 

 city exports goods to the value of more than $10,- 

 000,000 annually and the imports are valued at 

 about $3,000,000. The exports consist of tea, 

 silk, paper fans, gold and silver ornaments, tap- 



estries and furs; the imports are chiefly manu- 

 factured goods, copper, leather and tobacco. 

 Population, including suburbs, estimated at 

 about 600,000. The city is also known as Hang- 

 Chow-Fu. 



HANG 'ING, the legal method most gener- 

 ally adopted for the infliction of the death pen- 

 alty upon those convicted of murder. The 

 present system of hanging, by use of the drop, 

 was first used in 1760. For a long time it was 

 considered necessary to have both executions 

 and trials public in order to impress evildoers: 

 but the tendency is now to avoid publicity, and 

 the sentence is carried out within prison walls, 

 with but few witnesses. The place and time are 

 also fixed within statutory limits by the sen- 

 tence of the court, which orders that between 

 specified hours on a certain day the condemned 

 shall "be hanged by the neck until dead." In 

 some states of the Union, electrocution has 

 been substituted for hanging. Courts have very 

 generally adopted Friday (which see) as the 

 day of the week for executions. See CAPITAL 

 PUNISHMENT; ELECTROCUTION. 



HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON, THE, 

 regarded as one of the seven wonders of the 

 ancient world, were situated at Babylon. Ac- 

 cording to accepted belief they were constructed 

 by King Nebuchadnezzar as a pleasure resort 



A VIEW OF THE HANGING GARDENS 



Drawn from a painting 1 which was supposed 

 fairly to represent their magnificence. 



for his Median wife, Amytis, whom he had 

 brought from a mountainous region and who 

 had wearied of the level plains of her adopted 

 country. The enclosure contained several acres 

 of flower gardens, groves and avenues of trees, 

 with fountains and banquet-rooms distributed 

 at intervals. The entire area was raised in ter- 

 races by means of tiers of masonry to heights 

 of from seventy-five to 300 feet. Water for 

 irrigating purposes was pumped from the Eu- 

 phrates River by a device said to resemble the 

 screw of Archimedes (see ARCHIMEDEAN SCREW) . 



