WICHITA FALLS 



62S1 



WIESBADEN 



Lewis Academy, Friends' University, Kansas 

 College of Osteopathy, and a public library 

 with about 8,000 volumes. 



WICHITA FALLS, TEX., the county seat of 

 Wichita County, is in the north-central part of 

 the state, twenty miles south of the Oklahoma 

 state line and 114 miles northwest of Fort 

 Worth. It is on the Wichita River, a tributary 

 of the Red River, and on the Fort Worth <fe 

 Denver City, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, 

 the Wichita Falls & Northwestern and the 

 Wichita Valley railroads. There is consider- 

 able manufacturing, and the principal products 

 are window glass, fruit jars, auto trucks, flour, 

 brooms and oil-well machinery. Wichita Falls 

 was settled in 1882 and became a city in 1884. 

 Its population was 8,200 in 1910, and 12,124 

 (Federal estimate) in 1916. F.B.J. 



WIDGEON, wij'un, a river duck recognized 

 by hunters by its note, "whew, whew, whew," 

 which it utters when swimming and feeding and 

 which also serves as a guide to its whereabouts. 

 Widgeons have a habit of robbing canvasback 



THE WIDGEON 



and other diving ducks of wild celery and other 

 food, snatching it from their bills as soon as 

 tli v appear above the water. The American 

 widgeon, or baldpatc, nests from Minnesota 

 north w;ml. wintering in Central America and 

 Northern South America. Its eggs are seven 

 to twelve in number and of a buffy-white color. 

 The European widgeon is found in the northern 

 part of the Old World, and is of occasional oc- 



nce in the Eastern United States. 

 WIELAND, ve'lahnt, CHRISTOPH M \KIIN 

 (1733-1813), a poet and miter <>f fiction, bora 

 at Oberholzhniu. in \Viirtt mlxT^. Germany. 

 He studied law at the University of Tubingen, 

 but showed far more interest in literature 

 While in the university he was much affi 

 by the puritanical piety prevailing in some cir- 



cles of the students, an influence shown very 

 clearly in his Twelve Moral Briefs, written 

 when he was but eighteen years old, and his 

 didactic poem, Anti Ovid. He determined to 

 devote his entire time to literary pursuits and 

 began this career by undertaking a great epic 

 on the deeds of Cyrus the Great. At the age 

 of twenty-six he had finished five cantos, but 

 finding the task too great for him, he aban- 

 doned it and wrote a successful poem, Araspes 

 and Panthea. 



By 1759 he was intensely interested in Greek 

 literature, especially its poetry, and this study 

 so affected his ethical and religious views that 

 when he went in 1760 to Biberach, Germany, 

 to reside, he was noted not only for his careless 

 lightheartedness, but for his skepticism. Under 

 this new influence he wrote Nadine, a poem 

 filled with the Greek joy of life, The Adven- 

 tures of Don Silvio, a tale modeled on Don 

 Quixote and ridiculing cold idealism, and the 

 Comic Tales, written in sheer fun. He had, 

 however, been doing some very serious work 

 meanwhile, had translated twenty-eight of 

 Shakespeare's plays and had written some 

 poems extolling intellectual power above mere 

 physical beauty. 



In recognition of his ability he was appointed 

 professor of philosophy at the University of 

 Erfurt, Germany, in 1769, but three years later 

 accepted the invitation of a duchess to teach 

 her sons. With abundant leisure he then pro- 

 duced such vigorous and dramatic poetry as 

 the Choice of Hercules and his famous roman- 

 tic epic, Oberon. His last days were note- 

 worthy for their serenity, optimism and tone of 

 culture, which qualities are evident in his works 

 of this period. During his eighty years he 

 wrote an enormous amount, and the authorised 

 edition of his works totals fifty-three large 

 volumes. 



WIESBADEN, vces ' bah den, a noted water- 

 ing place of Prussia, Germany, situated in a 

 >h< Itcred valley on the southern slope of Mount 

 Taunus, six milrs north of Mains. The sur- 

 rounding hills are densely wooded and protect 

 the city from the bleak winds of the north and 

 east. There are numerous mineral springs in 

 tin city and vicinity, and in normal times 

 thousands of visitors from all parts of the world 

 are attracted to the place each year by these 

 waters and by the pleasant climate. Wiesba- 

 den is purely si ronl'titii! town, without any 

 industries of importance. Its streets are scru- 

 pulously clean, and special efforts have been 

 made to make the stay of tourists comfortable 



