General Details
Title: The Student's Cyclopædia
Volumes: 2
Language: English
Publisher: H. M. Dixon & Co.
Year: 1900
Pages: 1,503
The Student's Cyclopædia: A Ready Reference Library for School and Home Embracing History, Biography, Geography, Discovery, Invention, Arts, Sciences, Literature was published in 1900 in St. Louis (the location of publication may have played a small role in my decision to purchase this work). The goal of this encyclopedia is to be compact and written in a language a twelve year old could understand: "many parents have bought some one of the large cyclopædias, only to find that it was written for mature and educated minds, and is entirely beyond the understanding of the young. [...] While childish language has been avoided, care has been taken to admit no words or forms of expression which will not be understood by intelligent boys and girls of twelve years of age. Only such features of scientific subjects are presented as can be expressed in popular terms" (iii). One bit of the preface that made me chuckle was the admission on the part of the editor to using other encyclopedias to write this one: "Free use has been made of many works, and especially of the larger cyclopædias, as: American Cyclopædia, Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia, The Encyclopædia Britannica and the new edition of Chambers Encyclopædia" (iv).
The entries are fairly short and some are written in a fairly entertaining manner. I imagine the style would anger straight-fact-loving Mr. Greeley from Johnson's Universal Cyclopædia, but I bet most twelve-year-olds (and adults) would prefer reading from this sometimes dramatic and opinionated work. An entry on the ancient city "Abydos," for example, contains this snippet about Xerxes: "When his bridge of boats nearly a mile in length, was swept away by a storm, he punished the sea by inflicting three hundred lashes and casting chains into his waves" (volume 1, page 3). The article on "Samuel Johnson" describes his dealings with Lord Chesterfield in this manner: "From 1747 to 1755 he was working away on his famous Dictionary. Just when the huge undertaking was nearly done, a nobleman whose help at an earlier time had been refused Johnson, wished to patronize the writer and his work. To this, Johnson replied in the famous letter of Feb. 7, 1755, which is perhaps the finest piece of indignant writing on record" (volume 1, page 601).
There are small illustrations scattered throughout, as well as a few full-page plates, all in black and white. There are no maps. This is a small encyclopedia and text occupies the vast majority of it. At the end of the second volume is a thorough index.
Sample Entries
I attempt to look up "umbrella" and "Saint Louis" in each of the reference works I feature on this site in order to provide an fair comparison between them. There is no entry on "umbrella" or "parasol" in this encyclopedia. The entry on "Saint Louis" is in volume 2 and occupies pages 1133 and 1134.
St. Louis (sent lou'is), the chief city of the Mississippi valley, and the fifth of the United States, is in Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi river, 21 miles south of the mouth of the Missouri. The city stands many feet above the river, built on three terraces, the third terrace being 200 feet high. It has a river frontage of 19 miles, and covers 62½ square miles. Water is taken from the Mississippi river, the water works having a capacity of 50,000,000 gallons daily, which will soon be doubled. Only electric lighting is used; and there are cable, electric and horse railroads. Eighteen railroads enter the new union depot, and an electric railroad is being built between St. Louis and Chicago. The Eads bridge over the Mississippi was opened in 1874, and is 1,524 feet long. The Merchants' steel bridge, opened in 1890, is 2,450 feet long, including approaches.
Among the fine public buildings are the new city hall, costing over $1,500,000, the exposition building, four courts, the merchants' exchange, court house, Union Trust building, Equitable building, Southern and Planters' hotel, the United States arsenal, Roman Catholic cathedral and St. George's church (Episcopalian). The public squares and parks occupy over 2,000 acres. Forest park is the largest, containing 1,372 acres; Tower Grove park, in which is a botanical garden, is one of the finest in the country. The exposition is open every fall, and is one of the best yearly fairs in the United States.
St. Louis spends over $1,000,000 a year on its public schools, which are attended by 162,878 pupils. St. Louis University has 34 professors and 435 students; its buildings are new, and it has a library of 25,000 volumes. Washington University includes a college, polytechnic school, law school, school of botany and school of fine arts; it has 104 professors, and 1,450 students. The museum of fine arts is housed in a handsome building. The chief libraries are the public school library (75,000 volumes), and the mercantile library (68,000 volumes).
St. Louis's growth is due to its river trade, though now it is equally important as a railroad center. It receives over 10,000,000 tons of freight yearly and ships over 6,000,000 tons. It manufactures more tobacco than any city in the world; its other chief manufactures are beer, and boots and shoes.
In 1764 a company of merchants headed by Pierre Ligueste Lacléde, who had been given by the director-general of Louisiana the right to trade with the Indians on the Missouri, made a settlement at St. Louis. It was taken possession of by Spanish troops in 1768 and with the rest of Louisiana became a part of the United States in 1803. In 1780 it was attacked by a large body of Indians, who were driven off. For many years it was only a trading post for the fur traders. The first newspaper was started in 1808; and a year later it became a town. The city suffered from cholera in 1832, and from cholera and fire in 1849. Population, 451,770. See Billon's Annals of St. Louis in Its Early Days.