SICKLE 



5373 



SIDON 



Related Subjects. The following articles in 

 these volumes wfll furnish additional informa- 

 tion 



Catania Palermo 



E i na Sirocco 



>' ;ssina Sulphur 



SICKLE, sik"l, a reaping implement, having 

 4, short handle with a curved blade of steel, the 

 edge of the blade being in the hollow,, or inner, 

 side of the curve. The sickle is the oldest of 

 reaping instruments, and is still in use for gath- 

 ering crops in some countries. In America it 

 is now mainly used for trimming the edges of 

 lawns, where a scythe or mower cannot be 

 used. In using the sickle the workman grasps 

 the handle in the right hand and holds with 

 the left as much grass as the implement can 

 cut with one stroke. For general use in the 

 harvest the sickle gave way to the cradle, which 

 in turn was superseded by the mowing and 

 reaping machines. See SCYTHE. 



SIDDONS, sid'unz, SARAH KEMBLE (1755- 

 1831), the most famous English actress of her 

 time, was born in the "Shoulder-of-Mutton" 

 inn at Brecon, Wales. Her professional life 

 began so early that she herself declared it was 

 impossible to remember the time when she was 

 not on the stage. When eighteen years old she 

 married an actor, William Siddons, and the 

 couple played in various country towns. Her 

 first triumph occurred at Cheltenham, Eng- 

 land, in 1774. Some members of the nobility 

 there attended her performance of Belvidera 

 in Otway's Venice Preserved with the avowed 

 purpose of ridiculing her, but instead, they ap- 

 plauded. They praised her to David Garrick, 

 the actor and manager of Drury Lane theater, 

 London, and he engaged her to act for him at 

 twenty-four dollars a week. She was unsuc- 

 cessful, and in 1777, returned to the theaters 

 of the rural towns. 



After five years of earnest work, she was 

 invited to return to Drury Lane, where her 

 appearance in October, 1782, as Isabella in 

 Southerne's Fatal Marriage gave her one of the 

 greatest triumphs ever seen in a British theater. 

 Mrs. Siddons afterwards acted many famous 

 classic roles, such as Desdemona, Ophelia and 

 Queen Catherine in Shakespeare's Henry VIII, 

 but the nearest she ever approached to the 

 power of her Lady Macbeth was as Volumnia 

 in Kemble's Coriolanus. 



She died in London on June 8, 1813, and was 

 buried in Paddington Churchyard in that city. 



SIDEREAL, side' rial, TIME, time meas- 

 ured by the apparent motion of the stars. In 

 reality a sidereal day is the exact time taken 



by the earth in revolving once on its own 

 axis. This time is equal to that between the 

 passage of any particular star across the me- 

 ridian and the beginning of its next passage, 

 amounting to 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.8 seconds. 

 A sidereal year is the period in which the earth 

 revolves once around the sun, or in which a 

 star apparently completes its revolution, re- 

 turning to the same place in the heavens. The 

 length of the sidereal year is 365 days, 6 hours, 

 9 minutes, 9 seconds. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Chronology Earth 



Day Time 



SIDNEY, sid'ni, SIR PHILIP (1554-1586), an 

 accomplished British courtier, poet and soldier 

 who was a popular idol during part of the 

 reign of Queen Elizabeth. Being the nephew 

 of Dudley, Earl of Leicester, his career at court 

 was assured, and he was most favorably re- 

 ceived by the queen, who employed him in 

 important missions. Offending her, however, 

 by his outspoken objection to her proposed 

 marriage with Henry, Duke of Anjou, Sidney 

 was compelled to retire from the court for a 

 few months, during which he wrote his Ar- 

 cadia and various poems for the entertainment 

 of his sister, the Countess of Pembroke. Eliza- 

 beth's anger soon abated; he was restored to 

 favor and forbidden to sail with Sir Francis 

 Drake against the Spaniards, as the queen said 

 she could not spare the "jewel of her do- 

 minions." 



While serving as governor of Flushing, he 

 was mortally wounded at the battle of Zut- 

 phen. As he was being borne off the field he 

 complained of thirst and water was brought to 

 him. Seeing the wistful look on the face of a 

 mortally wounded soldier, Sidney handed over 

 the water, saying simply, "Thy need is greater 

 than mine." 



Sidney's death was greatly mourned. His 

 body was taken to England and buried with 

 great ceremony in Saint Paul's Cathedral. His 

 poetry, though full of the extravagant fancies 

 of the time, is of considerable beauty, but he 

 was beloved in life and is now chiefly remem- 

 bered for his purity of mind and conduct and 

 his near approach to the ideal gentleman. 



Consult Addleshaw's Sir Philip Sidney; Grev- 

 ille's Life of Sir Philip Sidney. 



SIDON, si' dun, in ancient times one of the 

 leading cities of Phoenicia, situated on the 

 Mediterranean shore twenty-five miles south 

 of Beirut (see colored map, opposite page 417). 



