WRIGHT 



6363 



WRIT 



Graeco-Roman. The name of this kind of 

 wrestling is misleading ; it was really developed 

 in France, and has less in common with the 

 sport practiced so skilfully by Greek and Ro- 

 man athletes than has catch-as-catch-can. In 

 Graeco-Roman wrestling, the contestants are 

 stripped to the waist. They are not permitted 

 to seize each other anywhere below the belt, 

 nor are they allowed to trip each other. Most 

 of the struggle takes place on the mat, and a 

 fall is scored when one of the contestants 

 forces the two shoulders of his opponent to the 

 ground. Bulk and endurance count greatly in 

 this style. 



In Antiquity. Wrestling is a sport so natural 

 to the competitive spirit of man that one might 

 suppose it to be very old. Such is the fact. 

 There is hardly a feint or artifice known to 

 the modern wrestler that was not practiced by 

 Greek and Roman athletes before the birth of 

 Christ. The Greeks insisted upon grace quite 

 as much as upon strength in their games; the 

 rules governing wrestling were so stringent that 

 Plutarch tells us that no other contests made 

 greater demands on the participants. G.B.D. 



Consult Cann's Manual of Wrestling. 



WRIGHT, rite, CARROLL DAVIDSON (1840- 

 1909), an American economist, educator and 

 statistician, born at Dunbarton, N. H. He was 

 educated in the public schools of his native 

 town and was preparing himself to be a lawyer 

 when the War of Secession began. Wright en- 

 listed as a private, and was promoted to the 

 rank of colonel in 1864. He was head of the 

 Massachusetts bureau of labor statistics from 

 1873 to 1885 and United States Commissioner 

 of Labor from 1885 to 1897. In 1900 he be- 

 came professor of statistics and social econom- 

 ics in George Washington University, and after 

 1902 was president of Clark College, Worcester, 

 Mass. He was a prolific writer on economic 

 and sociological subjects, especially those relat- 

 ing to labor troubles, and while seldom offering 

 solutions for these vexing problems, gathered 

 most valuable data for consideration. Among 

 his most important books are The Factory Sys- 

 tem of the United States, The Industrial Evo- 

 lution oj the United States, Battles oj Labor 

 ami Outlines of Practical Sociology. 



WRIGHT, HAROLD BELL (1872- ), an 

 American novelist, born at Rome, N. Y. He 

 was educated at Hiram College, Ohio, and for 

 several years worked as a decorator and land- 

 scape painter. Between 1897 and 1908 he 

 preached in various churches of the Christian 

 Disciples denomination. His novels are 



popular with those who enjoy sentimental sto- 

 ries written with an expressed moral purpose, 

 and though they have no special literary value 

 they have sold to the extent of millions of 

 copies. His works include That Printer oj 

 Udell's, The Shepherd oj the Hill*, The Call- 

 ing oj Dan Matthews, The Winning oj Barbara 

 Worth, Their Yesterdays an'd Hidden Things. 



WRIGHT, ORVILLE (1871- ), and WILBUR 

 (1867-1912), two brothers who, by their perfec- 

 tion of the aeroplane, have won a place in the 

 history of modern civilization. Every impor- 

 tant principle of modem aviation was intro- 

 duced in their biplane, and machines modeled 

 after its pattern are used in every great nation. 



Orville was born in Dayton, Ohio, and Wil- 

 bur in Millville, Ind., and their education was 

 obtained in the public schools. They were sons 

 of a bishop, himself an inventor, and grew up 

 in a mentally-stimulating atmosphere. In 1896 

 the young men began their study of aeronau- 

 tics, but did not allow these interests to inter- 

 fere with the work in their bicycle shop in 

 Dayton. Both men were reserved and modest 

 and seldom spoke of their ambitions and plans, 

 and consequently received little encouragement 

 (see page 2236). 



After 1903 they devoted themselves chiefly 

 to the perfection of their flying machine, which, 

 including motors, they had fashioned with thru- 

 own hands. They made their early tests at 

 Kitty Hawk, N. C., and in 1905 a successful 

 long-distance flight was made near Dayton. In 

 spite of this achievement they were misunder- 

 stood and unappreciated by their townspeople 

 until after their success abroad. In 1908 Wil- 

 bur made his first public flight in Fran . win- 

 ning a membership in the Legion of Honor and 

 homage from all Europe ; .Orville won similar 

 recognition by flights in America. Thr follow- 

 ing year the brothers were awarded gold medals 

 by the French Academy of Science, and thnr 

 machine was accepted by the United States 

 government for use in the army. See FLVIM; 

 MACHINE. 



WRIT, rit. While in the present people say 

 written, the early Kn^lish j.r<>i>l. and 



they also called anything in \\nnnc i \\ni. In 

 this same sense we still speak of tin- Bible as 

 Holy Writ, but as a rule the word writ is now 

 confined to the written orders of a court of law. 

 For instance, if the court commands the sheriff 

 to seise property which some one has wrong- 

 ful ly taken, the sheriff is given a writ oj r, - 

 plevin. Similarly, a writ oj habeas corpus com- 

 mands the sheriff to release a prisoner. 



