VILLEINS 



VINCENNES 



Carranza. Crafty and without any sense of 

 loyalty, he soon turned against Carranza, and 

 throughout the year 1915 his forces were con- 

 tinually at war with those of the Provisional 

 nt. Representatives of the two leaders 

 met late in the 

 year to arrange a 

 truce, but Car- 

 ranza refused to 

 guarantee Villa's 

 and i n- 

 that he be 

 treated as an out- 

 law. 



In 1916 the 

 bandit chief be- 

 gan depredations 

 in United States 

 territory, and on 

 March 8 the 

 town of Colum- 

 bus, N. M., was 

 raided. This out- FRANCISCO VILLA 

 rage caused President Wilson to order out 

 United States troops. Though the expedition- 

 ary force penetrated 500 miles south of the Rio 

 Grande, the troops were recalled early in 1917 

 without having succeeded in capturing Villa. 

 He, meantime, had found safety in the moun- 

 tain fastnesses. Though he resumed his occu- 

 pation of banditry after the withdrawal of the 

 Americans, he was careful not to encroach on 

 United States soil. See MEXICO, subtitle Gov- 

 ernment and History. 



VILLEINS, I'il'iiiz, a class of serfs in feudal 

 times who were allowed by their overlords to 

 cultivate portions of land for their own use on 

 condition of performing menial service. The 

 villeins were bound to the soil, and their chil- 

 dren were born into bondage, but they were af- 

 forded protection by the state against extreme 

 cruelty on the part of their masters. Lands 

 held in villeinage frequently passed from father 

 to son until right by prescription, or long use, 

 was acquired, but tin- villeins themselves were 

 still under compulsory service. As their sole 

 title to these lands was merely a copy of the 

 entries on the court roll, in time they came to 

 be called tt-nants by copy oj court roll, and 

 15 known as a copyhold. Villnn- 

 age ceased to exist in the sixteenth century, 

 but was never formally abolished in England. 

 The word ri//rw has come down in the form 

 villain, and in current usage means a rogue, 

 'In muli this harsh significance did not originally 

 ii to it. See FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



VIL'LI (the plural of villus), are minute 

 projections which cover the mucous membrane 

 of the small intestine. This surface may be 

 compared to the "pile" on velvet. The pur- 

 pose of the villi is to absorb nutritious matt IT 

 from the food digested by the intestine. Each 

 villus consists of a framework of connective 

 tissue, covered with a layer of cells and having 

 in the center lymphatic vessels called lacteals. 

 These lacteals are filled with a milky-white 

 liquid during the process of digestion. Near 

 the surface of the villus is a layer of muscular 

 tissue, beneath which there is a network of 

 blood vessels. See LACTEALS; LYMPH, subhead 

 The Lymphatic System. 



VIL'NA, a city in the western part of Rus- 

 sia, capital of the government of Vilna, situ- 

 ated at the intersection of three railway 1 

 and on the navigable Vilia River* It is 436 

 miles southwest of Petrograd and 225 miles 

 northeast of Warsaw (see map, following page 

 2092). Vilna is a religious and educational 

 center for Orthodox Greeks, Roman Catholics 

 and Jews, and possesses many notable cathe- 

 drals, monasteries and schools. As a whole the 

 city lacks distinction, because of the irregularity 

 of its plan and its lack of modern improve- 

 ments. The industrial establishments include 

 manufactories of tobacco products, knit goods, 

 clothing and other commodities, and there is 

 an extensive trade in grain and timber. The 

 city was founded in the tenth century* and dur- 

 ing the fourteenth became the capital of Lithu- 

 ania. It was annexed to Russia in 1795. In 

 1915, during the War of the Nations, it was cap- 

 tured by the Germans. Population in 1913, 

 203,940. The inhabitants are chiefly Jews, Poles 

 and Lithuanians, and the city is an important 

 center of Jewish life. 



VINCENNES, vinsene', IXD., the county 

 seat of Knox County. It was old before most 

 American cities were first settled, a fortress and 

 town when the untouched forests grew over 

 Chicago. It is so old that only Saint Augus- 

 tine, down on the southeastern peninsula, and 

 Santa Fe, away out on the southwestern desert, 

 may compare with it. It is situated on the 

 Wabash River, the southwestern state bound- 

 ary, 117 miles southwest of Indianapolis and 

 151 miles east of Saint Louis. It is served by 

 the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern, the Chi- 

 cago & Eastern Illinois, the Cleveland, Cincin- 

 nati, Chicago A Saint Louis and the Vandaha 

 railroads. The population was 14,895 in 1910, 

 and 17.645 in 1916, the latter figure a Federal 



