OLIVER OPTIC 



4371 



OLNEY 



In 1910 Oliver was appointed to the Royal Con- 

 servation Commission. He continued to serve 

 as Minister of the Interior until the resignation 

 of the Laurier government in 1911 ; after that 

 date he continued to represent Edmonton in 

 the House of Commons as a private member. 



OLIVER OPTIC, the pen name of WILLIAM 

 TAYLOR ADAMS (1822-1897), an American editor 

 and writer of stories for boys, who is a prime 

 favorite with young people. He has been called 

 the pioneer writer of juvenile fiction. He was 

 born in Medway, Mass., July 30, 1822 ; he was 

 educated in the public schools, and became a 

 teacher in Boston. With a son of his own he 

 had a good opportunity to study the literary 

 taste of young people. His first book was 

 called Hatchie, the Guardian Slave, and was 

 written under the nom de plume of William T. 

 Ashton. 



Boys like his stories because he never preaches 

 and he avoids tedious description. The morals 

 of his stories are always good and are impressed 

 upon the reader by admiration of the hero. 

 His first successful book was The Boat Club, 

 followed by six volumes called the Boat Club 

 Series. These were followed by other series, 

 representing from six to ten volumes each: 

 Army and Navy Stories, Boat Builders Series, 

 Great Western Scries, Onward and Upward 

 Series, Young America Abroad, etc. 



Mr. Adams edited The Student and School- 

 mate magazines from 1858 to 1866; Oliver Op- 

 tic's Magazine from 1867 to 1875; Our Little 

 Ones and Our Girls and Boys in 1881. In 1869 

 h was elected to the Massachusetts legislature. 

 His published stories number over one thousand 

 and his books more than a hundred. His last 

 books, written in 1895, were Across India; or, 

 Live Boys in the Far East, A Lieutenant at 

 Eighteen and In the Saddle. He died March 

 27, 1897. 



OLIVES, MOUNT OF, or MOUNT OLIVET, a 



low and short mountain range east of Jerusa- 



1 in. separated from it by the Valley of Je- 



hoshaphat and the Brook Kedron, celebrated 



for its association with tin l.-i-i days of Jesus. 



:i Olivet He made His triumphal entry 



Jerusalem \I\. 'J'.K :m<l here He 



over the city and foretold its doom. To 



it Ho returned and rested, in the home at 



nitflit (f the last week < / 



: 87), till the night of the betrayal, whm 



II r d to Gethscmane, "on the hitln r 



slope." From Olivet, IJe ascended into heaven 



\IV. 50). A Mohammedan mosque 



to-day covers the traditional site of the Ascen- 



sion, but the spot is visited every year by many 

 tourists because of its sacred associations. 



OLMSTED, om'sted, FREDERICK LAW (1822- 

 1903), an American landscape architect, bora 

 in Hartford, Conn. In his early years he wan- 

 dered far and wide, went to sea, was a student 

 in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale Uni- 

 versity, and finally took up farming on Staten 

 Island. He made a walking tour through Eng- 

 land in 1850 for the purpose of studying farm- 

 ing methods and landscape gardening. 



His chief fame came when he was invited to 

 lay out the grounds for the World's Columbian 

 Exposition at Chicago, although in other land- 

 scape gardening he was signally successful. In 

 all, he planned over eighty public parks, in- 

 cluding Riverside, Morningside, Mount Morris 

 Park and Central Park of New York; Wash- 

 ington and Jackson parks of Chicago ; the Back 

 Bay Fens of Boston, as well as other parks in 

 the cities of Louisville, Buffalo, Milwaukee, 

 Baltimore and Detroit, and he planned the 

 Capitol grounds at Washington. His influence 

 was marked in the Niagara Falls Reservation 

 Committee. He founded the Metropolitan Mu- 

 seum of Art in New York City, the New York 

 State Charities Aid Association and the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History. 



One of the distinctive features of all his land- 

 scape gardening is the preservation of natural 

 resources and scenery as far as possible, and 

 the absence of restraint and conventionality. 



OLNEY, ol'ni, RICHARD (1835-1917), an 

 American lawyer, Attorney-General and later 

 Secretary of State under President Cleveland, 

 in which office he distinguished himself by his 

 wise adjustment of several important affairs. 

 He was bora in 

 Oxford, Massa- 

 chusetts, and rc- 

 eeived his educa- 

 tion at Brown 

 University and 

 Harvard Law 

 School, beginning 

 the practice of law 

 in Boston after 

 having been ad- 

 mitted to the 1> 



Although he waa one of n'.- m..st Octant of 



interested in poll- tin- i<>n Hm- f American Sec- 



, i.i i< t.irioK of State, 

 tics, he held no 



office except to serve a term in the Massachu- 

 setts legislature until he was appointed United 

 States Attorney-General, and later Secretary of 

 State. To his influence was due the settlement 



