TOOMBS 



5836 



TOPEKA 



Gaeta, Italy, but joined the French army and 

 saw considerable service. In 1678 he accom- 

 panied La Salle to Canada, and two years later 

 went with him on his expedition into Illinois. 

 When Fort Crevecoeur, near Peoria, 111., was 

 built Tonty was placed in command, but after 

 LaSalle's departure his soldiers mutinied and 

 he retraced his route toward Canada, meeting 

 his leader at Michilimackinac (Mackinac Is- 

 land) in the spring of 1681. Tonty was also 

 with La Salle in his great trip down the Missis- 

 sippi River and afterward was in charge of Fort 

 Saint Louis, the stronghold erected at Starved 

 Rock (which see) on the Illinois River. 



He was the leader of the Illinois Indians in a 

 campaign against the Senecas, and identified his 

 life with that of the former tribe until 1702. 

 In 1686 he undertook an expedition down the 

 Mississippi to aid La Salle, but did not suc- 

 ceed in finding him. Every report of Tonty 

 which has been preserved speaks of him in 

 terms of highest praise, and his influence with 

 the Indians seems to have been- as beneficial as 

 it was strong. 



TOOMBS, toomz, ROBERT (1810-1885), an 

 American lawyer, orator and statesman, mem- 

 ber of the Confederate Congress and of the 

 Confederate Cabinet and a Southern brigadier- 

 general. He was born at Washington, Ga., and 

 was graduated at Union College, Schenectady, 

 N. Y., in 1828. After studying law at the Uni- 

 versity of Virginia he was admitted to the bar, 

 and soon became one of the leading lawyers of 

 Georgia. When the Creek Indian War broke 

 out in Alabama in 1836, he recruited a volun- 

 teer company and served as captain under Gen- 

 eral Winfield Scott. In 1853 he was elected 

 to the Senate and a year later ardently sup- 

 ported the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. As an advo- 

 cate of secession he withdrew from the Senate 

 after Lincoln's election, and became a member 

 of the Confederate Provincial Congress. Presi- 

 dent Davis also made him secretary of state, 

 but he resigned to accept the commission of 

 brigadier-general, and was assigned to the com- 

 mand of four regiments of Georgia militia. His 

 regiments fought with distinction in the Seven 

 Days' battles, and participated in the second 

 Battle of Bull Run and in the defense of At- 

 lanta. 



At the close of the war Toombs visited Cuba, 

 England and France, and after his return in 

 1867 amassed a considerable fortune in law 

 practice in his native town. 



TOP, a popular and interesting toy. The 

 wooden top is a pear-shaped piece of wood, 



with a metal peg inserted at the small end. A 

 cord is wound from the peg end upward, and 

 the end of the string held between the fingers. 

 The top is then tossed with a quick jerk to the 

 sidewalk, and as the cord rapidly unwinds the 

 top is set spinning. Often boys throw their 

 tops at the one which is spinning to try to strike 

 and split it. The commonest game is to start 

 the tops spinning together to see whose will 

 spin for the longest time. The humming or 

 singing top is made of bright painted tin, with 

 holes cut in the sides through which the air 

 passes while the top whirls. The old-fashioned 

 spool top was made by cutting one end of a 

 wooden spool into a point and inserting a 

 wooden peg through the hole. The top was 

 set spinning by a quick twist of the upper part 

 of the peg, held between the thumb and fore- 

 finger. Many fancy tops are shown in toy 

 stores. Some spin for an hour without stop- 

 ping, others show many changing colors, and 

 some play tunes as they whirl. 



TOPAZ, toh'paz, a lustrous mineral com- 

 posed principally of aluminum, silicon and 

 fluorine, and occurring chiefly in granite and 

 gneiss. In hardness it ranks between sapphire 

 and quartz. Crystallized, transparent varieties 

 are prized as gem stones, especially the color- 

 less and yellow topazes. Red, blue and green 

 stones also are found. The best specimens of 

 gem topaz are taken from the Ural Mountains, 

 Brazil, India (including Ceylon), Maine, Colo- 

 rado and Utah. The pure white topaz, when 

 cut and polished, resembles the diamond; the 

 great Braganza diamond, one of the Portuguese 

 crown jewels, is probably one of these stones. 

 The finest yellow topaz comes from Brazil; 

 when heated, these stones turn pink, and are 

 called Brazilian rubies. To the topaz the an- 

 cients attributed power to cure dimness of 

 vision and to dispel gloom, and it is regarded 

 as a peculiarly "lucky stone" for those born 

 in November. 



"Firm friendship is November's and she bears 

 True love beneath the topaz that she wears." 



TOPEKA, toh pe'kah, KANS., the state capital 

 and the county seat of Shawnee County, situ- 

 ated on the Kansas River in a rolling prairie 

 country, sixty-five miles west of Kansas City. 

 It is served by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 

 Fe, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the 

 Leavenworth & Topeka, the Missouri Pacific 

 and the Union Pacific railroads. In 1910 the 

 population was 43,684; in 1916 it was 48,726 

 (Federal estimate). The area of the city ex- 

 ceeds eight square miles. 



