MASK 



3679 



MASON AND SLIDELL 



ers, fond of music and skilled in pottery and 

 gold work (see BANTU). Salisbury, the capital 

 of Southern Rhodesia, is an important town of 

 Mashonaland. In 1911 the native population 

 was 495,450. 



MASK, a disguise or covering for the face. 

 It was first used .among the ancient Greek peas- 

 ants at their harvest festivals, when they wished 

 to impersonate some one, and later at the cere- 

 monies attending the worship of Dionysus or 

 Bacchus. In modern times the only mask most 

 widely used is the domino, or half mask, worn 

 at costume balls and masquerades. 



In Greek tragedy, which was an outgrowth 

 of religious ceremonies, masks were used, and 

 soon after they were introduced into comedy. 

 Different characters wore them to represent 

 such emotions as fear, hate, joy, love and sor- 

 row. Often metallic mouthpieces were placed 

 inside of the mask to increase the power of the 

 voice, so that it could be heard in the large, 

 open theaters. 



Among certain groups of savages along the 

 North Pacific coast of North America and in 

 the islands of the south seas, masks made to 

 look like hideous animals or mythological char- 

 acters form a very important part in religious 

 rites and dances. Other savages wear them to 

 frighten away demons. 



False Faces are pasteboard or cloth masks 

 representing human faces, which are usually 

 made as hideous as possible. To make these 

 faces, a sculptor uses his moist modeling clay 

 to form the features, and a hollow plaster of 

 Paris cast is made of the model thus formed. 

 Then pasteboard is soaked in water until it is 

 soft and mushy, for in this condition it will fit 

 into every curve and crack in the plaster mold. 

 After the first layer has been carefully pressed 

 upon the mold, another layer is added and then 

 another, until it is thick enough to hold its 

 shape firmly. Flour paste is used to hold the 

 layers together. After the faces are dried, they 

 are grotesquely covered with paint, and some- 

 times hair, mustache and whiskers are glued in 

 their proper positions. 



MASON AND DIXON'S LINE, in geogra- 

 phy, the straight east-and-west line separating 

 the states of Maryland and Pennsylvania; in 

 history, an extension of that line roughly 

 marked the division between slaveholding and 

 free states before the War of Secession. 



The geographic line was surveyed and 

 marked by milestones between the years 1763 

 and 1767. This was done as a result of a con- 

 troversy between the families of William Penn 



and of the Lords Baltimore, possessors of Penn- 

 sylvania and Maryland, respectively. The 

 work was performed by two English surveyors, 

 Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, hence the 

 name. All the milestones were marked on one 

 side with an M for Maryland and on the other 

 with P for Pennsylvania. Every fifth stone 

 bore the arms of the two state owners. 

 Through the years many of these stones were 

 removed and used as doorsteps, curbstones, 

 foundations and for other purposes. Later, 

 controversies arose, but surveys made in 1849 

 and in 1900 showed no important error, and the 

 line has remained at the parallel of 39 43' 26.3" 

 north latitude. Nearly all of the 500-pound 

 milestones have been recovered and replaced. 



MASON AND SLIDELL'. The names of 

 James M. Mason and John Slidell are promi- 

 nent in American history because of an episode 

 that nearly involved the United States in hos- 

 tilities with Great Britain, during the War of 

 Secession. Late in the year 1861 they were 

 appointed commissioners to England and 

 France, respectively, by the Confederate gov- 

 ernment, and in October of that year sailed 

 from Havana on the British steamer Trent. 

 In November the vessel was stopped by the 

 Union sloop of war, San Jacinto, in command 

 of Captain Wilkes, who took Mason and Slidell 

 as prisoners to Fort Warren, in Boston Harbor. 

 The prompt disavowal of the act on the part 

 of the Federal government and the release of 

 the prisoners averted war between the United 

 States and England (see TRENT AFFAIR, THE). 



James Murray Mason (1798-1871) was born 

 on Mason's Island, Fairfax County, Va. After 

 his graduation from the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, in 1818, he began the practice of law in 

 Winchester, Va., soon becoming prominent in 

 the political life of his state. In 1837 he be- 

 came a member of the national House of Rep- 

 resentatives, and from 1847 to 1861 served in 

 the Senate. The Fugitive Slave Law, intro- 

 duced into the famous Compromise of 1850, was 

 drafted by him (see COMPROMISE OF 1850). 

 After the Trent affair he proceeded to England, 

 but was unsuccessful in winning recognition for 

 the Confederacy. Returning to America after 

 the war, he lived in Canada until 1868, and 

 from that date until his death, near Winches- 

 ter, Va. 



John Slidell (1793-1871) was born in New 

 York City and educated at Columbia College 

 (now Columbia University). Having removed 

 to New Orleans in 1818, he served as United 

 States district attorney for Louisiana from 



