VIRGINIA CITY 



6100 



VIRGIN ISLANDS 



miles from Monticello, the home of Thomas 

 Jefferson. It is one of the most important 

 educational institutions of the South. The 

 school was founded by Jefferson, who planned 

 and personally supervised the erection of the 

 first buildings. It was chartered in 1819 and 

 began sessions in 1825. All the additions to the 

 original campus have been in close harmony 

 with the first classic plan. At the northern end 

 of the large quadrangle, 1,000 feet long and 300 

 feet wide, Jefferson built the Rotunda, follow- 

 ing closely the construction of the Pantheon 

 at Rome. This building now houses the uni- 

 vrrsity library, which contains about 90,000 

 volumes. 



The university is organized into academic, en- 

 gineering, law, medical and agricultural depart- 

 ments, comprising twenty-four schools. It is 

 given an annual appropriation of 898,000 by 

 the state, and has received many liberal gifts. 

 There are about 110 instructors and over 1,000 

 students. During the summer session the regis- 

 tration exceeds 1,300. 



VIRGINIA CITY, NEV., third city in size in 

 the state, but with only 2,244 inhabitants in 

 1910. As an early mining camp it bore the 

 names of Ophir and Washoe, and was given its 

 present name in memory of one James Finney, 

 known widely as "Old Virginia." 



The town is the county seat of Storey 

 County, and is fifty-one miles southeast of 

 Reno, the state's largest city. It is served by 

 the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. Here was 

 the location of the Comstock Lode, the world's 

 richest silver mine in the years following 1860. 

 The output since that date is close to $900,- 

 000,000. 



VIRGINIA CREEP 'ER, a rambling, creep- 

 ing vine of the grape family, found in almost 

 all parts of America and often wrongly termed 

 woodbine. The plant clings by strong but slen- 

 der tendrils and with the aid of tiny disks; 

 the latter form at the end of the stems, secret- 

 ing a cementlike substance and fastening them 

 securely. Experiments have shown that a sin- 

 gle tendril with five branches bearing these 

 disks would, even after ten years' exposure to 

 all sorts of weather, hold up a weight of ten 

 pounds. Virginia creeper resembles poison ivy, 

 but the two may always be distinguished by 

 a comparison of the leaves. Those of the poi- 

 son ivy (see page 3090) are in three leaflets, 

 and those of the Virginia creeper in five leaf- 

 lets. In the autumn the Virginia creeper is a 

 gorgeous sight, with its flaming foliage and 

 bunches of dark blue berries, festooning walls 



and arbors. Other names for it are jalse grape 

 and American, or five-leaved, ivy. 



VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS. See KEN- 

 TUCKY AND VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS. 



VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE UNITED 

 STATES, a group of islands in the West In- 

 dies which were purchased from Denmark by 

 the United States in 1917. They lie about forty 

 miles east of Porto Rico, the hills of which are 

 visible to the inhabitants of the islands on a 

 clear day. The group, formerly known as the 

 DANISH WEST INDIES, consists of three main 

 islands Saint Thomas, Saint Croix and Saint 

 John and a number of rocky islets. The 

 islands have a combined area of 139 square 

 miles and a population (chiefly negroes) of 30,- 

 000. Saint Croix, the largest, is sometimes called 

 the "Garden of the West Indies." Its soil is 

 well ad'apted to the cultivation of sugar, sea- 

 island cotton and various other warm-climate 

 plants; it is expected that American possession 

 of the island will vastly stimulate its develop- 

 ment. Saint Croix is about twenty-five miles 

 long and from four to five miles wide, and has 

 an area of eighty-four square miles. Its popu- 

 lation is 18,000. 



Saint Thomas (which see) is thirty-three 

 square miles in area and has a population of 

 over 10,000. This island, called by Admiral 

 Porter "the keystone to the arch of the West 

 Indies," is of importance as a commercial cen- 

 ter rather than as an agricultural land. Char- 

 lotte Amalie, the only town on the island, has 

 one of the finest harbors in the West Indies, 

 and is picturesquely situated on three hills. 

 The third island, Saint John, is but sparsely 

 inhabited, and is awaiting development from 

 America. 



The Virgin Islands were purchased by the 

 United States for $25,000,000, a large sum in 

 proportion to their industrial importance, but 

 not unreasonable in view of their strategic po- 

 sition. They will afford the United States an 

 additional coaling station and port of call for 

 ships bound for the Panama Canal, and they 

 would prove of immense value to the govern- 

 ment in case the Canal or Porto Rico are ever 

 attacked by a hostile power. The people of 

 the Virgin Islands, who are chiefly the descend- 

 ants of freed negro slaves, are intelligent and 

 agreeable, and very sympathetic toward Ameri- 

 can ideals. They enthusiastically favored the 

 purchase of the islands, and recorded their 

 wishes in the matter by a popular vote. Eng- 

 lish is spoken in the cities, but the natives use 

 a Spanish dialect. 



