MARIE ANTOINETTE 



3651 



MARIGOLD 



queen of France, and at the age of fifteen Marie 

 Antoinette was married to the dauphin, after- 

 wards Louis XVI. As dauphine, the stilted 

 atmosphere of the court had wearied her, and 

 as queen she determined to escape from it. She 

 preferred the lib- 

 erty of action to 

 courtly etiquette. 

 Her beauty ex- 

 cited jealousy, and 

 her impatience 

 with court con- 

 ventions and her 

 interference in 

 political matters 

 were looked upon 

 as a source of dan- 

 ger by her sub- 

 jects. She was 

 sentimental, rash 

 and determined to MARIE ANTOINETTE 



i This royal woman died by 



enjoy her young the ^notine, a victim of the 



lifp to thp full masses whom she had helped 



t r 1 ' excite to the frenzy and de- 



despite the deceit- lirium of the French Revolu- 



ful, wearisome and lon ' 



empty grandeur of the court life so odious to 



her. 



The Petit Trianon (the Little Chateau) at 

 Versailles, the gift of Louis XVI to his queen, 

 is sacred to the memory of Marie Antoinette. 

 In the surrounding gardens and the Swiss chalet 

 the young queen sought novelty and relaxation 

 when her ministers thwarted her on all sides 

 and her subjects scowled menacingly because 

 of her extravagant pleasures she was called 

 Madame Deficit and Madame Veto and as a 

 result, in 1789, an infuriated, hungry mob, com- 

 posed chiefly of women who had been worked 

 up to a frenzy by slanderous stories, attacked 

 Versailles. The queen alone maintained her 

 courage and calmed the crowd. That day the 

 royal family left Versailles. The French Revo- 

 lution was now at its height. When they were 

 practically prisoners in the Tuileries, the royal 

 palace in Paris, it was Marie Antoinette who 

 advised the flight of the royal family in June, 

 1781, which ended in their capture and return 

 to the capital. 



Ere long the palace of the Tuileries was 

 stormed. Louis XVI was tried and quickly exe- 

 cuted, the boy prince was torn from the arms 

 of his mother, and the queen was sent to prison 

 like a common criminal, where she suffered in- 

 sult and brutality at the hands of her guards. 

 She bore herself with calmness and dignity dur- 

 ing the terrible days of her trial, and on Octo- 



ber 16, 1793, was guillotined in Paris. The Obe- 

 lisk of Luxor, in the Place de la Concorde, now 

 marks the spot where Marie Antoinette and 

 Louis XVI, the last royal couple of France be- 

 fore the Revolution, paid the price for their 

 extravagances and those of Louis XIV and XV. 

 See FRENCH REVOLUTION ; Louis, subhead Louis 



XVI. R.D.M. 



Consult Bicknell's The Story of Marie An- 

 toinette; Be'loc's Marie Antoinette. 



MARIETTA, may net' a, OHIO, is the oldest 

 city of the state. It is the county seat of Wash- 

 ington County, picturesquely located on the 

 Ohio River, where it is joined by the Mus- 

 kingum. The city is 115 miles southeast of 

 Columbus and eighty-one miles southwest of 

 Wheeling, on the Baltimore & Ohio, the Mari- 

 etta, Columbus & Cleveland, and the Pennsyl- 

 vania railroads. There is interurban electric 

 service and river traffic with Pittsburgh, Cin- 

 cinnati and other Ohio River cities. The popu- 

 lation, which in 1910 was 12,923, was 14,785 in 

 1916, the increase being partly due to annexa- 

 tion of territory in 1912. 



Marietta College, a coeducational institution, 

 is situated here, and the city has a fine court- 

 house, Federal building, armory, large public 

 library noted for works on the history of the 

 Northwest, Carnegie Library (constructed in 

 1916), Y. M. C. A. building, two hospitals and 

 a Children's Home and Old Ladies' Home. 



Surrounding Marietta is a large oil territory; 

 the annual county product is 1,300,000 barrels. 

 Other natural resources are coal, gas, iron, clay 

 and stone. The city has more than fifty manu- 

 facturing plants, which employ 2,000 men ; chief 

 among the articles produced are iron and steel, 

 refined petroleum, harness, chairs, safes and 

 cabinets, paints, chemicals, stoves and glass. 



Marietta was founded in 1788 by a company 

 from New England under the leadership of 

 General R. Putnam, and was named in honor 

 of Marie Antoinette. In the same year the 

 Northwest Territory (which see) was organized 

 here. Marietta was first incorporated as a town 

 in 1800. Earthworks of the ancient mound 

 builders are among the numerous historical 

 features of the city. J.H.W. 



MARIGOLD, mair'igold, an old-fashioned, 

 sturdy flower of European and American gar- 

 dens truly old-fashioned, for Shakespeare 

 knew it as "The marigold, that goes to bed wi' 

 th' sun, and with him rises weeping." Shake- 

 speare had probably seen the big drop of dew 

 in the folded petals early in the morning. 

 There are many kinds of marigolds, all of some 



