ORGAN IZ 

 KNOWLEDGE 



Jfl/STOKY 



AND' PICTURE 



Mm 



M is the thirteenth letter of the English 

 alphabet. It is an interesting letter, be- 

 cause it has come down from the Phoenician 

 with so little change in form or sound. The 

 name of the original letter was mem, which 

 meant water, and the character was a wavy 



line, which represented water in motion. The Greeks and Romans gave to the m the 

 same value as the Phoenicians, and all through the centuries the letter has been singu- 

 larly free from confusion with other letters, from which so many of the consonants have 

 suffered. M is a liquid, or semivowel, and has only one sound. In a few foreign 

 words, such as mnemonic, it is silent. 



M is very commonly used as a symbol to mean one thousand. As an abbreviation 

 it may stand for mile or meter, although the former is usually written mi. 



MAARTENS, mahr' tenz, MAARTEN (1858- 

 1915), the pen name of J. M. W. VAN DER 

 POORTEN-SCHWARTZ, a Dutch novelist whose 

 writings give an accurate picture of middle-class 

 life in his native country. He was born in 

 Amsterdam, but spent his early boyhood in 

 England. Later he was educated in the public 

 schools of Germany, and he also studied law 

 at the University of Utrecht. Strangely enough, 

 Maartens wrote his novels in English rather 

 than in his native tongue; and only because he 

 did not wish to trust his books to strange 

 translators did he at any time consent to hav- 

 ing them published in Dutch. All of his works 

 have been successful and popular. The Sin of 

 Joost Avelingh, his first novel, was published in 

 1889. Among the others are An Qld Maid's 

 Love, A Question of Taste, God's Fool, The 

 Greater Glory, Harmen Pols, Price of Lis Doris 

 and Eve. Maartens died August 4, 1915. 



MABIE, ma' be, HAMILTON WRIGHT (1846- 

 1917), an American editor, essayist and lecturer 

 who has been a potent force in behalf of culture 

 and character forming. His death marked the 

 close of thirty-seven years of editorial connec- 

 tion with The Outlook, thirty-two of which he 

 spent as assistant editor of that periodical. He 

 was born in Cold Spring, N. Y., and was edu- 

 cated at Williams College and the law school 



of Columbia University. In 1879 he joined the 

 staff of The Christian Union (later The Out- 

 look), and in the years that followed he con- 

 tributed to that journal hundreds of literary 

 reviews and talks on social and ethical subjects. 

 He also became widely known as a lecturer, 

 especially as a speaker before audiences of col- 

 lege men and women. As an American ex- 

 change professor in Japan he did much to 

 strengthen the friendship between the two coun- 

 tries. Mr. Mabie is perhaps most widely known 

 as an interpreter of literature and of the spir- 

 itual life, but he has published some excellent 

 books for young readers. These include Myths 

 Every Child Should Know, Fairy Tales Every 

 Child Should Know and Legends Every Child 

 Should Know. Among his other writings 

 My Study Fire; Essays in Literary Interpreta- 

 tion; Nature and Culture; American Ideals 

 Character and Life; and Japan, To-day and 

 morrow. , 



MACADAM, makad'am. See ROADS 

 STREETS. 



McALESTER, ma kal' ester, OKLA., 

 county seat of Pittsburg County, is situate< 

 in the southeastern part of the state, at 

 junction of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas 

 the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific railway* 

 Oklahoma City is 120 miles northwest, an< 



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