MATTHEW 



3699 



MAUNDY THURSDAY 



which rises like a giant sentinel from the giant 

 masses about it, and whose upper slopes are 

 covered with eternal snows, is one of the most 

 superb mountains of the world. A great many 

 daring travelers- have attempted to reach its 

 summit, 14,782 feet above the sea, but it was 

 not until 1865 that the ascent was accomplished. 

 In that year a party led by Edward Whymper, 

 a British mountaineer, climbed to its top, but 

 in descending four of the party fell over a preci- 

 pice and were killed. Since then the Matter- 

 horn has been scaled repeatedly. 



MATTHEW, SAINT, one of the Twelve 

 Apostles, accepted as the author of the first 

 book of the New Testament, the Gospel Ac- 

 cording to Saint Matthew. According to his 

 own statement, he was a publican, or tax- 

 gatherer, and was called to be a follower of 

 Jesus, as he sat in his place of business. Mark 

 and Luke call him Levi, and speak of him as 

 the son of Alphaeus, thus making him possibly 

 the brother of another Apostle, James, the son 

 of Alphaeus. Nothing further is recorded of 

 him in the Gospels save that he gave a feast in 

 honor of Jesus, to which he invited other pub- 

 licans. The Acts of the Apostles mentions him 

 once, and later non-Scriptural accounts declare 

 that after preaching for some years in Jerusa- 

 lem he visited other countries as an evangelist. 

 Most of the early legends agree that he died a 

 natural death, but there are some which declare 

 that he suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, now 

 known as Abyssinia. 



MATTHEWS, [JAMES] BRANDER (1852- ), 

 an American educator and man of letters, was 

 born in New Orleans. After graduating from 

 Columbia College he studied law, but soon 

 turned from that profession to literature. ' His 

 works have been varied, including stories, come- 

 dies, essays on subjects connected with the 

 drama, and studies in literature. An Introduc- 

 tion to the Study of American Literature is one 

 of his best-known works. Among the others 

 are Americanisms and Briticisms, Vignettes of 

 Manhattan, French Dramatists of the Nine- 

 teenth Century ; the comedies, Margery's Lov- 

 ers and In the Vestibule Limited, and the novel, 

 His Father's Son. Matthews helped to found 

 the American Copyright League, and took an 

 active part in the simplified spelling movement. 



MATTOON, ma loon', ILL., a manufacturing 

 city in Coles County, with a population of 11,- 

 456 in 1910, which increased to 12,582 (Federal 

 estimate) in 1916. It is situated southwest of 

 the geographical center of the state, 128 miles 

 west of Indianapolis, 133 miles northeast of Saint 



Louis and 172 miles southwest of Chicago. The 

 city is served by the Cleveland, Cincinnati, 

 Chicago & Saint Louis and Illinois Central rail- 

 ways; an electric line extends east to Charles- 

 ton, 111. In 1855 the city was settled and in- 

 corporated. The area is four square miles. 



Mattoon is located in an agricultural district 

 which produces grain, live stock, fruit and 

 broom corn, the yield of the last-named being 

 extensive. Among the leading industrial plants 

 are broom factories, flour mills, grain elevators, 

 wagon and carriage factories, tile factories and 

 foundries. In addition to these there are the 

 repair shops of the two railroads operating 

 through the city. The prominent buildings are 

 a $90,000 Federal building, an Old Folks' Home 

 (I. O. O. F.) and a Carnegie Library. 



On May 26, 1917, a tornado visited the city, 

 destroying a section five blocks wide, killing 

 fifty-seven people, injuring several hundred, 

 and rendering over 2,000 homeless. 



MAUNA KEA, mau'nah kay'ah, a burnt-out 

 volcano of Hawaii, the Highest peak on the Pa- 

 cific islands. It is 13,823 feet above the sea, 

 and during most of the year the top is white 

 with snow. From this feature it receives its 

 name of Mauna Kea, the Hawaiian expression 

 for white mountain. From a distance Mauna 

 Kea looks like a huge mound, whose slopes, ex- 

 cept near the top, are green with coffee and 

 cane plantations. The upper portion is a deso- 

 late waste of reddish ashes and lava rock, with 

 snowdrifts in the crevices and sheltered places. 



MAUNA LOA, mau'nah lo' ah, "Great Moun- 

 tain," the world's largest volcano, situated on 

 the island of Hawaii. The volcano is 13,675 feet 

 high; its enormous crater, a mile and a half in 

 diameter, contains a lake of liquid fire, and its 

 smoke rises like a cloud both by day and night. 

 Ordinarily 400 feet below the top of the crater, 

 the liquid lake sometimes rises to within fifty 

 feet of the top. The natives formerly stood in 

 great fear of the volcano, believing that a rag- 

 ing goddess named Pele dwelt in the fire and 

 that, if offended, she would "shake with her 

 thunders and shatter her island." Mauna Loa 

 bursts into activity about once every ten years. 

 Since 1916 it has been a part of the Hawaii 

 National Park. See VOLCANO. 



MAUNDY, mawn'di, THURSDAY, com- 

 monly known as HOLY THURSDAY, the Thursday 

 preceding Easter Sunday. It is celebrated in 

 commemoration of the Last Supper and the 

 washing of the Disciples' feet by Jesus. In 

 England and other countries, it was formerly 

 the custom for the sovereign on this day to 



