East 



river. 



LATERAN 



3339 



LATHROP 



ast Las Vegas, is on the east side of the 

 river, and is served by the Atchison, Topeka & 

 Santa Fe Railroad. It is the seat of the New 

 Mexico Normal University and of the New 

 Mexico Insane Asylum, and contains a Car- 

 negie Library and various sanatoriums. The 

 combined population of the town and city in 

 1910 was 6,934. 



Las Vegas is situated on a great plain about 

 6,400 feet above sea level and has an extremely 

 healthful climate. In the hills six miles north- 

 west of the city is Las Vegas Hot Springs, a 

 community and sanatorium in the vicinity of 

 about forty hot springs, whose waters vary 

 from 70 to 140 in temperature. Agriculture 

 and stock raising are the chief interests of this 

 section. It has railroad machine shops, a foun- 

 dry and machine shop, wool-cleaning mills, 

 carriage and wagon shpps, flour mills and plan- 

 ing mills. 



The old town of Las Vegas was settled under 

 the Mexican Republic in 1835, and was incor- 

 porated in 1903. East Las Vegas was incor- 

 porated in 1888 and chartered as a city in 1896. 



LAT'ERAN, the cathedral church of the 

 Pope of Rome, which ranks higher in dignity 

 than any other Roman Catholic church in the 

 world. It is erected on the site of the palace 

 of Plautius Lateranus, which was confiscated 

 by the Emperor Nero and later came into pos- 

 session of Constantine the Great. He pre- 

 sented it to the Catholic Church in 312, and 

 the first church structure was built on the 

 grounds twelve years later, by Pope Sylvester 

 I. This was destroyed by an earthquake in 

 894, and the second and third churches were 

 burned. Urban V made the fourth restoration 

 in 1362, and the edifice has since then under- 

 gone several modifications. 



In this church the entrance of the Pope into 

 office is celebrated with solemn effect. Five 

 general councils, known as the famous Lateran 

 councils, have been held here. The present 

 Lateran palace, which was built about 1580, 

 was the residence of the Popes until Avignon, 

 France, was made the temporary seat of the 

 Papal court, but since the return to Rome they 

 have lived in the Vatican. The palace contains 

 two important museums, which, together with 

 the church, were presented to the Papacy in 

 1871 by the Italian government. Pope Leo 

 XIII and many of his predecessors are buried 

 in the Lateran. 



LATHE, layth, a machine for working wood 

 or other substances by rotating them before a 

 tool held at rest. They are used for cutting, 



polishing, filing, engraving and other like opera- 

 tions. The essential parts are the frame, or 

 bed; the poppets, which support the object, 

 and the rest for the tool. The space between 

 the poppets can be adjusted to objects of vary- 

 ing lengths, and the left-hand poppet, con- 



THE COMMON LATHE 



nected with the source of power, forms the 

 rotating head-stock. The tool rest is clamped 

 to the bed between the two poppets. In the 

 case of hand-operated machines, the tool is 

 held in position by the turner; the larger ma- 

 chines are now driven by steam or electricity. 

 Lathes for turning wood are operated at greater 

 speed than those used for brass or iron. 



LA'THROP, JULIA CLIFFORD (1858- ), an 

 American social worker who became nationally 

 prominent in 1912, when President Taft ap- 

 pointed her chief of the Children's Bureau, a 

 division of the Department of Labor. This 

 was the first time 

 that a woman 

 had been placed 

 in charge of a 

 Federal bureau. 

 Miss Lathrop was 

 born in Rockford, 

 111. ; she studied 

 at Rockford Col- 

 lege, and in 1880 

 was graduated 

 from Vassar Col- 

 lege, of which she 

 is one of the 

 trustees. For 

 many years after 

 1889 she was associated with Miss Jane Addams 

 at Hull House, Chicago, where she gave much 

 of her time to encouraging cooperation be- 

 tween citizens and official agencies for the re- 



JULIA LATHROP 

 Head of the Children's Bu- 

 reau of the United States. 



