TAR 



5701 



TARE 



the two colors standing out prominently. The 

 young, however, are marked like the young of 

 the American species. Tapirs are hunted by 

 the natives for their flesh and hides. 



TAR. When used without any qualifying 

 word this term refers to wood tar, the product 

 of the special distillation of several kinds of 

 wood, including pine, fir and larch. Coal tar, 

 a by-product obtained in the manufacture of 

 illuminating gas from bituminous coal, is al- 

 ways referred to by that name. (For a full dis- 

 cussion of this product, see page 1448.) 



Wood tar is a dark-colored, semifluid sub- 

 stance, having a strong, pungent odor. It is 

 used for coating and preserving timber exposed 

 to the weather, for calking seams in boats and 

 sidewalks, and in the construction of roofs. 

 Medicinally it is valued for its antiseptic quali- 

 ties, and is used in the preparation of oint- 

 ments and lotions for treating skin diseases. 

 Tar is also an ingredient of various cough mix- 

 tures, especially that yielded by pine wood. 

 There are two methods for producing tar 

 the method of stacking and slow firing, and 

 that of distilling it in retorts or ovens. The 

 latter is the more economical and up-to-date, 

 and it makes possible the isolation of valuable 

 by-products. Among these is wood pitch, which 

 is employed in the manufacture of varnish and 

 artificial asphalts. . 



The stacking method, though crude and 

 wasteful, is still practiced in the rural districts 

 of North and South Carolina, Georgia and 

 Alabama. Long-leaf pine is extensively used 

 in these localities. Sticks of green wood are 

 heaped to form a conical stack, the whole is 

 covered with damp earth and sand, and the 

 wood is permitted to burn slowly for several 

 days. As the tar is melted out of the wood it 

 is collected in a large pan at the bottom of the 

 stack, then conveyed through a pipe into a 

 barrel. 



TARANTO, tah'rahntoh, a fortified city and 

 seaport in Southern Italy, situated on a rocky 

 island lying between the Gulf of Taranto and 

 the Little Sea, an inlet of the gulf (see map of 

 Europe, following page 2092 ) . For centuries Ta- 

 ranto has been famous for its oyster and mus- 

 sel fisheries, which give employment to great 

 numbers of inhabitants. An esplanade extends 

 along the shore, but the town is poorly built, 

 with narrow streets and small houses. The 

 structures of note are a castle, a cathedral, the 

 palace of the archbishop, a museum of antiqui- 

 ties and a nautical school. Taranto is an im- 

 portant maritime arsenal and torpedo-boat sta- 



TARANTULA 

 About one-half actual size. 



tion, and repairs for the Italian Mediterranean 

 squadron are made here. The place occupies 

 the site of Tarentum, one of the leading cities 

 of the ancient Greek world. 



TARANTULA, ta ran' tula, a large spider 

 named for Taranto, a city of Southern Italy, 

 where it was first closely observed and where 

 it is still found in great numbers. Formerly its 

 sting was sup- 

 posed to cause 

 tarantism, a pe- 

 culiar dancing 

 disease. The 

 name, first ap- 

 plied in Europe, 

 is now commonly 

 given to any of 

 the large, hairy 

 spiders abundant 

 in the South- 

 western United States and in Central America, 

 from which they are occasionally transported 

 to temperate climes in barrels of fruit. Taran- 

 tulas catch their prey, not in a web, as do many 

 spiders, but by swiftly pursuing and attacking 

 it. Their homes are little wells in the ground, 

 lined and covered with silky webs. Although 

 their bite is painful, it is no more dangerous 

 than that of other spiders, and, so far as known, 

 is never fatal. 



TAR 'BELL, IDA MINERVA (1857- ), an 

 American writer famed for her sociological and 

 historical investigations, was born in Erie 

 County, Pa. She was graduated from Alle- 

 gheny College, and from 1883 to 1891 served 

 as associate editor of The Chautauquan. After 

 studying for three years at the Sorbonne and 

 the College de France, in Paris, she became, in 

 1894, associate editor of M cC lure's Magazine, 

 a position which she held until 1906. In that 

 year she accepted a similar position with the 

 American Magazine. Besides a Life of Abra- 

 ham Lincoln, Life of Madame Roland, Short 

 Life of Napoleon Bonaparte and The Tariff in 

 Our Times she wrote other biographical and 

 historical sketches, numerous articles for maga- 

 zines, and the book for which she is best known, 

 the History of the Standard Oil Company. This 

 last-named work, by opening the eyes of the 

 people to the power and the methods of great 

 corporations, had a very real effect on busi- 

 ness in the United States. Another volume 

 which marks her as a keen observer is The 

 Business of Being a Woman. 



TARE, tair, a low climbing plant which is 

 also known as vetch. It has compound leaves, 



